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Published by the National Child Welfare Resource Center for Youth Development at the University of Oklahoma OUTREACH College of Continuing Education Editor: |
IN THIS ISSUE 1 | Save the Date: Pathways to Adulthood 2006 Conference 3 | New Resources for ACLSA Users 4 | New Web Site for Shared Youth Vision 5 | Three Great Web Sites for High School Students 6 | First National Study on Medicaid Spending for Foster Children 7 | Program Spotlight: Lifeworks, Austin, TX
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Save the Date: Pathways to Adulthood 2006 ConferenceDon’t miss the opportunity to network with your colleagues and find out what is new in the field of Independent and Transitional Living. The Pathways to Adulthood conference, sponsored by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Administration on Children, Youth and Families, Administration for Children and Families, Children’s Bureau, and Family and Youth Services Bureau, is scheduled for May 17-19, 2006 in Portland, OR. TLP Grantee and IL Coordinator meetings will occur prior to the conference. Participants at the conference will hear stimulating keynote speakers, select from 55 workshops, hear the latest information from federal officials on IL/TL initiatives, and participate in local site visits of exemplary programs. This annual training conference is coordinated by The University of Oklahoma National Child Welfare Resource Center for Youth Development, a service of the USDHHS Children’s Bureau. Stay tuned to ../../conferences.shtml for updates. Training Grants AwardedAnnouncements were just made regarding the FY2005 Children’s Bureau discretionary grant awards. The following organizations will receive up to $250,000 per year for 3 years to develop training for child welfare agency supervisors in the effective delivery and management of federal independent living services for youth in foster care:
These training awards build on earlier work funded by the Children’s Bureau that created twelve training curricula for social workers on effective delivery of services for youth transitioning out of care. These curricula can be located on our web site. To view the complete announcement of discretionary grant awards and cooperative agreements, visit the Children’s Bureau web site. New Resources for ACLSA UsersStates that use the Ansell-Casey Life Skills Assessment now have the opportunity to take advantage of several new supplements when evaluating the independent living skills of youth. Education, Youth Values, and Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender & Questioning supplements are now being offered at www.caseylifeskills.org. The Casey life skills web site also provides the ability to create learning plans online for the earlier supplements - Pregnancy, Parenting Infants, Parenting Young Children, and American Indian. Look for continued additions to this web site as more resources and learning plans are added. This summer Casey Family Programs launched at new web to capture Chafee data outcomes. Just recently they have completed a second set of upgrades to www.chafee.org which will allow users to download the data in much the same way as the ACLSA raw data download. For those states that prefer or require the ACLSA, Casey Family Programs will post additional items to the Chafee assessment allowing states to ask questions unique to their youth. Currently forty states require or prefer the Ansell-Casey Life Skills Assessment to guide life skills instruction. The assessment may be completed by children and youth age eight to eighteen. Once completed the assessment generates a Score Report which can be used to plan for life skills instruction. New Web Site for Shared Youth VisionA new web site is launched to support the Shared Youth Vision, a collaboration between the U.S. Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, Justice, and Labor in response to the 2003 White House Task Force Report on Disadvantaged Youth. This site provides reports from the three regional forums held last winter in Philadelphia, Chicago, and Phoenix and provides resource materials that are valuable for on-going collaborations at the state and local levels. The Federal State Support Teams Master Matrix, updated as recently as 7/12/2005, provides a listing of partners from education, health and human services, labor, and justice for each state. This listing provides not only the individuals to contact but also email addresses and telephone numbers. The Crosswalk of Key Federal Program Definitions and Program Policies identifies the legislation addressing special youth populations and the agency that is responsible for legislative implementation. The following youth populations are identified on this chart:
The Youth Resources Funding Matrix represents information about funding streams that are currently available to assist the neediest youth in each state. This “mapping” of available funding can facilitate discussions, assist state teams in their efforts to form strategic partnerships, and align youth-serving resources. Three Great Web Sites for High School StudentsIf you live in Florida, you should be aware of facts.org. This web site, sponsored by the Florida Department of Education, is a one-stop student advising system. FACTS is an acronym for Florida Academic Counseling and Tracking for Students and was designed to provide easy access to school records and to help high school and college students make informed choices about their education. From this site, students can learn about post secondary educational opportunities within Florida, apply for college and financial aid online, develop an electronic portfolio for job searching, and keep track of your academic progress. The Urban Institute Releases the First National Study on Medicaid Spending for Foster ChildrenIn August, The Urban Institute released the first national analysis of Medicaid health care spending on children in foster care and children adopted from foster care. Using data from the Medicaid Statistical Information System (MSIS) from federal fiscal year (FFY) 2001 the study presents key statistics on the variation of Medicaid spending by state, age, gender, and race. The authors identified 869,087 children as being enrolled in Medicaid on the basis of being a foster child. They estimate that 83% of eligible foster children were enrolled in Medicaid; however 10% of those enrolled reported no expenditure in FFY 2001. Thus, only around 75% of foster children eligible for Medicaid had any expenditure. In FFY 2001 states spent approximately $3.8 billion on foster children for an average per child of $4,336. Although foster children represent only 3.7% of children on Medicaid they account for 12.3% of expenditures for children. This difference is due to significant health problems foster children tend to experience. The majority of Medicaid spending on foster children was for seven service types. These service types include other (16.7%), rehabilitative services (13.1%), impatient psychiatric services (11%), inpatient hospital services (2.4%), clinic services (8.7%), prescribed drugs (7.7%), and targeted case management, or TCM (7.1%). Variation of Medicaid spending is prevalent among different groups of children in foster care. More money is spent on infants ($5,149 per child), youth between the ages of 11 and 15 ($5,309), and youth between the ages of 16 and 18 ($5,712) than foster children at other ages. Variations occur by gender and race as well. States spent $865 more on boys than on girls and more on Caucasian children ($4,715) than on African-American ($3,872) or Hispanic ($3,921) children. Although this study provides a good summary of statistics regarding Medicaid spending on foster children it raises more questions than it answers, such as why are only 75% of foster children using Medicaid services and why does variation occur between different racial/ethnic groups. For a full text of this report visit http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/311221_medicaid_spending.pdf. Program Spotlight: Lifeworks, Austin, TXLifeworks was created in 1998 from a merger of four agencies in Austin, TX. Leaders from Child and Family Service, Pathways Community Counseling, Teenage Parent Council and Youth Options collaborated to increase effectiveness and explore opportunities of social service delivery. The goal was to provide valuable social services to the community through a permanent partnership focusing on reducing barriers for clients, responding to a changing economy and maximizing administrative efficiencies. Lifeworks has provided Transitional Living Services since 1989 with secure housing and case management services for up to 18 months to homeless youth, 16-23 years of age, transitioning into adulthood. Since 1993 Lifeworks has provided a Street Outreach Program that is now recognized as a model program around the country. It provides outreach and support services to homeless, runaway, and street dependent youth. Lifeworks now owns and operates a Ben & Jerry’s PartnerShop™ providing career training and job skills to youth of Lifeworks. Youth can receive pre-employment and on-the-job training, a positive first time employment experience and graduate at-risk youth to career-oriented jobs, career training and higher education. You can find out more about this model agency at www.lifeworksweb.org. To find out more about their Ben & Jerry’s PartnerShop™ initiative, location, menu and hours of operation go to: www.benjerry.com/lifeworks/home.cfm |