Rhode Island Foster Parents Association Awarded $2 Million Federal Grant to Support Foster Youth and Their Families
Providence, RI - The Rhode Island Foster Parents Association (RIFPA) and federal and state leaders announced today the awarding of a $2 million Children’s Bureau federal grant to support RIFPA and nine partner agencies in efforts to establish permanent homes for the area’s foster youth.
The dollars will be spread out over three years to help children in foster care, or at risk of entering foster care, reconnect and reestablish relationships with family members, and to support those transitioning families.
Congressmen Patrick J. Kennedy and Jim Langevin, along with Rhode Island Department of Children Youth and Families Director Patricia Martinez and Casey Family Services Rhode Island Division Director Jim Gannaway joined RIFPA Executive Director Lisa Guillette at Casey Family Services to celebrate the award.
The grant represents the largest financial award to East Providence-based RIFPA in its 14-year history.
“This is unprecedented for Rhode Island Foster Parents Association,” said Executive Director Lisa Guillette. “We’re really thrilled first and foremost for the children and the youth in the state that we serve, and for the Rhode Island child welfare system as a whole. It’s also a huge win for us and our partner agencies.”
The grant will fund:
- Intensive, high-tech search efforts to connect foster youth with biological family members through methods such as electronic mapping and in-depth reviews of case records
- Inclusive decision-making support for families
- Kinship navigation systems, including online and in-person peer support, to help family ties flourish
“Each year, as many as 26,000 youth age out of foster care without the support and resources they need to meet the challenges of early adulthood,” Congressmen Kennedy said. “I am pleased that Rhode Island Foster Parents Association was awarded over $2 million to improve this reality and help more youth obtain the family and personal connections they deserve.”
Congressmen Langevin said, “While I know first-hand the positive influence foster parents can have on a child, through my parents opening our home to many wonderful children, I am keenly aware that more can be done to keep children with their biological families. This grant aims to do just that by keeping children connected with their own families. I look forward to following this program and to seeing more children have access to safe and loving homes.”
While RIFPA was the lead agency and the grant applicant, the grant also provides manpower and resources to the following partner agencies:
- Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth and Families
- Rhode Island College School of Social Work
- Casey Family Services
- Adoption Rhode Island
- Blackstone Valley Advocacy Center
- Children’s Friend
- Family Resources Community Action
- Family Service
- Providence Children’s Museum
The competitive grant was authorized by the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008.
“This grant provides the opportunity for DCYF to enhance and strengthen our system of care transformation, where all the activities and principles of a wraparound process are at the core of family-group decision making,” said Patricia Martinez, director of DCYF. “These funds will allow us to expand the partnership with the coalition of communities agencies working with DCYF to help children, youth and families achieve better outcomes for safety, well-being and permanency.”
About Rhode Island Foster Parents Association
The mission of the Rhode Island Foster Parents Association is to provide education and other forms of support to families that provide substitute care, and to the community at large, in order to further the cause of children who cannot live with their parents. As a resource for foster families, the RIFPA emphasizes the importance of learning from experience and using newfound knowledge to improve current practice.
