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This blog post was originally posted on The Child Welfare Advocate Blog by WKU Center for Child Welfare Education and Research on April 14, 2021. Kentucky was recognized for the third year in a row as having the highest rate of child maltreatment in the nation.[1] That is an overwhelming statistic and a lot to unpack for those of us who work with families and children. So, what does that mean for advocates? As an advocate, [...]
Throughout the month of November 2020 there will be a round of nine virtual forums related to the federal Family First Prevention Services Act with the Administrative Office of the Courts, the Department for Community Based Services, and Kentucky Youth Advocates, in partnership with Casey Family Programs. In the summer of 2019, the same groups hosted nine in-person regional forums to introduce Kentuckians to the Family First Prevention Services Act and get a better [...]
The Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services recently publicly announced the federal government’s acceptance of the Kentucky Family First Prevention Plan. The Department for Community Based Services and others who have been awaiting patiently for approval quickly cheered and then went back to work. We at Kentucky Youth Advocates wanted to take a moment to pause and properly celebrate the major piece of the Child Welfare Transformation pie that will lend to keeping more [...]
Children and teens involved in the child welfare system do best in families, where there is a safe and stable environment that supports their growth and well-being. Passage of the bipartisan federal Family First Prevention Services Act of 2018 (Family First) took important steps to realign federal funding to ensure children in foster care are placed with families and to prioritize critical supports, such as mental health and substance abuse treatment, in-home parent skill-based programs, and [...]
The Department for Community Based Services’ annual report on child fatalities and near fatalities due to abuse and neglect was released last month. This report is mandated by law and provides information on the fatalities and near fatalities due to the maltreatment of children under the age of 18 in Kentucky. The report details data on fatalities and near fatalities and discusses demographic information as well as perpetrator information and risk factors present in the [...]
There are nearly 100,000 Kentucky kids living in kinship care. While beneficial for children, kinship care can pose considerable financial, legal, and emotional challenges for caregivers. Research has shown that kinship caregivers go to great lengths to meet the needs of the relative children, however, their efforts often come at the expense of their own personal care. Social support contributes to caregivers’ ability to provide a nurturing environment for the children in their care [...]
When children cannot remain safely with their parents, grandparents, other relatives, and close family friends often step up to help raise them. There have been a lot of changes over the last few months in Kentucky around services and supports related to relatives and close family friends raising children, also known as kinship care and fictive kin care. To learn more, check out the Cabinet for Health and Family Services’ new KY FACES website. If [...]
*Many venues for the regional convenings are at capacity. Please review the list below for those not yet sold out as well as links to view the presentations live via Facebook. Find resources from past convenings here. The Federal Family First Prevention Services Act can be implemented as early as October of 2019, and Kentucky is committed to being one of the first states to implement it. Kentucky Youth Advocates, in partnership with the Department [...]
As Kentucky has seen an increase in the number of children in foster care, many agencies, organizations, and individuals are working in innovative and collaborative ways to respond to the needs of children who’ve experienced abuse or neglect. Below are a few examples of work that is underway in Frankfort and around the state. We’re also sharing five ways you can get involved in the new year to help ensure every kid is safe and [...]
There are a lot of changes happening within the child welfare system in Kentucky due to recent state policy changes, agency commitments from the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, and both state and federal funding that will have a profound impact on how our child welfare system functions and supports Kentucky children and families. The Cabinet has begun work on implementing House Bill 1, along with other needed reforms to transform the way our [...]
