Abstract
Efforts to improve foster care have focused on improving outcomes for youth aging out of foster care and enhancing opportunities for permanency for foster youth. It has been widely understood that family is the primary formative influence and source of support for individuals. Foster youth are typically lacking in family resources. Family finding has been employed in a scattered, unstudied capacity to date.
Using data from surveys completed by county social workers along with data from program case files, this study examines a family finding program designed to expand the family systems of foster youth. This formative and summative evaluation reveals that social workers perceive the program to be a valuable intervention tool yet understanding of the program is uneven. The study findings indicate that this family finding intervention effectively identifies, locates, and facilitates contact with relatives of foster youth. These findings provide evidence that with further study and training on family finding practice in child welfare foster there is potential for positive shifts in foster care outcomes and permanency options for foster youth.