Welcome to The Foster Care Project co-produced online by KCTS/Seattle and
the Benton Foundation, in association with the documentary Take This Heart, produced
by KCTS /Seattle. Its purpose is to build awareness about foster care and mobilize communities
to take action to improve the lives
of children in foster care. This Foster Care Project companion site is located at Connect for Kids, a comprehensive
information/action center on children's issues published by the Benton Foundation. Major funding for Take This
Heart is provided by The Casey Family
Program and The Annie E. Casey
Foundation.
The national community and educational outreach campaign is made possible by generous grants
from The David and Lucile Packard
Foundation,
The Casey Family Program and The Annie E. Casey Foundation.
Background
During 1997, KCTS Television, the public television station in Seattle, completed the
development of a major public education and mobilization initiative concerning foster care in
America, with an emphasis on family foster care. At the center of this national project is a
90-minute documentary film, Take This Heart, produced by KCTS and directed by
Kathryn Hunt. KCTS will also produce a 30-minute follow-up panel discussion, featuring alumni
of foster care as well as foster care experts, to address the critical issues posed by the 90-minute
documentary.
Take This Heart uses the style of direct cinematography combined with an interactive
approach to record the daily lives of three children in a caring foster family. Recording those
moments which mark modest and crucial turnings in the children's lives during an eight month
period, the film provokes questions about society's commitment and responsibility. It provides a
first step toward countering the silence surrounding children who are not in the care of their birth
parents. Viewers will be moved to involve themselves in improving the lives of children in foster
care in their communities.
In coordination with the television documentaries, a national outreach campaign will address the
public at large, with the hope that attitudes toward children in foster care and adults connected
with foster care in America may change as a result of the project. The following questions may
be helpful to frame discussions: What are the root causes for
children coming into foster care? What is the
community's responsibility and role? How do we value and support foster parents? What do
youth need to transition from foster care into productive adulthood? What are you, as an
individual or organization, willing to do to help children and adolescents in foster care to
succeed? Specific target audiences include business and community leaders, policy makers and
direct participants in all aspects of foster care. The project will act as a catalyst in convening
diverse organizations and in providing a means to interchange and access ideas and resources, as
well as stimulate interest and discussion capable of creating change.
National Outreach Partner
The Foster Care Project is pleased to have the Child Welfare League of America
(CWLA) as its national community outreach partner. Founded in 1920, CWLA is the oldest and
largest organization which unites the nation's best public and private nonprofit child welfare
agencies under one umbrella. It has a membership base of over 900 agencies and is the most
well-known national association guarding children's rights and serving the needs of children in
foster care. CWLA sets standards for the field, and provides vital services such as national
conferences, training, expert consultations and publications.
An expert in foster care and child welfare issues and programs, CWLA has been actively
involved in developing concepts and resource materials for the national outreach campaign.
National Foundation Support
The Foster Care Project brings together three national foundations whose support makes
possible the broad national scope of the campaign, as well as the targeted effort to create high
impact projects in five local communities.
The David and Lucile Packard
Foundation was
created in 1964 by David Packard, co-founder of the Hewlett-Packard Company, and his wife,
Lucile Salter Packard. They believed America to be the home of a unique type of organization
dependent upon private funding and volunteer leadership. Together, universities, national
institutions, community groups, youth agencies, family planning centers and hospitals constitute
a great American tradition that complements government efforts to focus on society's needs. By
using private funds for public purposes, programs of this type channel the personal commitment
of millions of individuals who participate as volunteers or donors. Now in its thirty-second year,
the Foundation will continue to support these organizations with the hope and expectation that it
can strengthen them and, thereby, help people through the improvement of scientific knowledge,
education, health, culture, employment, the environment and quality of life. Since its founding,
the Foundation has had a major interest in the health and well-being of children. In 1989, the
Center for the Future of Children was established as a multidisciplinary research, policy and
grantmaking program to expand the Foundation's activities on behalf of children and their
families.
The Casey Family Program is a private
operating foundation, headquartered in Seattle, that provides planned, long-term family foster
care for children and adolescents who are not able to live with their birth parents. Established in
1966 by UPS co-founder Jim Casey and his siblings, The Casey Family Program now serves
1,500 young people through 23 offices in 13 states. Its 350 full-time staff members provide
long-term services that help youth grow up to be healthy, self-sufficient adults; conduct research
that contributes to the development and refinement of Casey's foster care practices and resulting
outcomes for young people; and promote ways to improve the lives of children in the nation's
out-of-home care system.
The Annie E. Casey Foundation is a
private charitable organization dedicated to helping build better futures for disadvantaged
children in the United States. It was established by
Jim Casey, one of the founders of UPS, and his siblings, who named the Foundation in honor
of their mother. The primary mission of the Foundation is to foster public policies, human
service reforms and community supports that more effectively meet the needs of today's
vulnerable children and families. Established in 1976 as the direct operating unit of The Annie E.
Casey Foundation, Casey Family Services (CFS) operates seven offices in six New England
states. CFS provides programs
that demonstrate values, principles and strategies that lead to permanency through family- based
care for children who are separated or
at risk of separation from their families.
Purpose
The purpose of the national outreach campaign
is to extend the impact of The Foster Care Project into local communities, bringing
attention and coordinated action to foster care issues and outcomes, with an emphasis on building
community resources to improve the lives of children in foster care. In coordination with the
television documentaries, the campaign will expand public awareness and dialogue, develop and
present solutions, and motivate action and change on important issues for children, families and
communities. National and local campaigns will work together to achieve the following
outcomes:
public support for
resources which children need to achieve positive outcomes;
community
mobilization and individual actions
on behalf of children;
public understanding
and concern for the needs of children and families in the foster care system;
recruitment and
retention of foster parents,
especially in minority communities and urban areas;
legislative debate on
policies and procedures
regarding foster care; and
public education for
policy makers regarding
the complexities of foster care.
The national campaign provides information, strategies and resources to support station
initiatives nationwide. Stations are encouraged to tailor their outreach plans to the specialized
needs of their own communities.
Components of the National Outreach Campaign
The Foster Care Project is designed to make a
measurable impact through action-based involvement in communities. At the forefront of this
effort are five intensive community organizing projects, funded through Community Service
Action Grants. The five participating stations and their community partners include:
KLRU/Austin and The Casey Family Program-Austin Division; KCET/Los Angeles and the
Child Welfare League of America, Western Office; MPT/Maryland Public Television and the
Maryland Association of Resources for Families and Youth; WTVS/Detroit and Evergreen
Children's Services; and KCTS/ Seattle and The Casey Family Program-Seattle Division.
Stations were selected based on a number of factors: outreach capacity of the
station, including its prior outreach projects;
the presence of a strong foster care lead organization; ongoing system reform efforts related
to child welfare; geographic diversity; and committed and capable local leadership. The
five stations have been paired with a "lead community agency" which will work in partnership
with them. The role of the agency is crucial: providing the content expertise on youth in foster
care as well as offering access to key constituencies that can benefit from the activities. The
project includes a priority-setting phase which will result in an action plan; implementation
phase; and evaluation. Projects are expected to define outcome measures and to report on what
they accomplish.
Other campaign components/resources (see section on Highlights of the National Outreach
Campaign) in this broad-based effort include thirty additional incentive minigrants for
action-based projects; an edited version of the documentary along with a Discussion
Guide to be used for information and educational purposes; Viewer Response
Guide; Foster Care World Wide Web Site; presentations at child welfare, foster
parent and other national conferences; and a special event in Washington, D.C.
Outreach Extensions serves as the national director for the outreach campaign, and will assist
station efforts by providing technical assistance. It will work closely with funded public
television projects to deliver the national campaign. CWLA, the national outreach community
partner, will also provide technical assistance to the community partners.
So, we are off and running! On behalf of the youth and families that we assist, thank you for
signing on to do great work.
