Public Systems

This discussion highlighted public systems' innovations to invest in communities so they meet family's needs and prevent family separation. We explored how the Indiana Department of Children Services (DCS) has changed its financing mechanisms to provide more flexibility to community organizations, including meeting concrete needs that create challenges to family stability. Our discussants included David Reed from Indiana DCS and Nicholas Neal with Geminus in Gary, Indiana. They shared how the changes have made a difference to families, led to greater trust between community-based organizations and the Department, and reduced racial disparities in foster care for Black families.

DCS' contracting mechanisms are not only changing the landscape for how community-based organizations work with families in Indiana, but are also being evaluated to understand the difference that the provision of concrete assistance can make in preventing future systems involvement. An initial evaluation published in the Journal of Child Abuse and Neglect indicated that families that receive Indiana’s Family Preservation Services have children who are safer than those who received traditional home-based services. These evaluation results have been submitted to the Family First Prevention Services Clearinghouse for rating, in hopes of being able to claim federal dollars for these expenses in the future.

Key Takeaways:

1. Expecting families to be at certain places or attend appointments is asking them for a lot. Provider were not being paid unless they met with the family.  David said, “we are technically firing families” because we say “they never meet with us”.

   • It’s important for providers to establish trust with families and keep trying to engage them even if they are initially distrustful.  Children should not be removed from their homes because parents are overwhelmed

2. Five years into this transformation effort, what does the data tell you about the impact especially for BIPOC communities?

   • Indiana has seen a significant reduction in the number of children in care, and this is particularly true for Black children. There’s been a 50% decrease over 3 years, and they are finally meeting their federal safety measures.

   • Building concrete support into the per diem rate is essential.  This allows providers to meet needs that are poverty related, not abuse or neglect.

3. Family Preservation Services in Indiana. How do we keep more families together?

   • David states, we are not going to remove children for something we could write a check for

   • Per diem, there is no cap on how much they can spend for a family

4. Nicholas Neal: Concrete services

   • You will answer the call, get it situated, and build trust and rapport with the family to move forward

   • Families are very motivated to keep their families together and it’s important to provide them with the help and resources that match their needs. The switch from fee for service to per diem allows them to do this. 

5. It’s important to evaluate the program so that eventually it can be funded through the federal Title IV-E program

Proving promise and support: Preliminary evaluation of the Indiana Family Preservation Services

• The payment structure for services and the ability for families to receive concrete support were important changes with the implementation of INFPS "Indiana Family Preservation services" and they will submit the intervention to the federal clearinghouse

• Rather than prioritizing billable hours, INFPS implemented a per-diem payment structure to incentivize service providers to engage families, and the preliminary evaluation shows promising results.

PASSCODE: PCESB=8w

This virtual learning series for all YTFG members took place in September and October of 2023 as a lead-in to the Fall YTFG meeting in Albuquerque. The series was designed to build off learnings related to "preventing systems involvement" from YTFG's Spring 2023 meeting and deepen our learnings around equity and well-being.

Learning Series Desired Outcomes:

• To learn from innovative community leaders what it means to build true community-driven systems of care that support youth and family well-being

• To understand more concretely what communities want and need to be in partnership with systems & to examine elements of successful partnerships

• To explore how systems can approach community relationships to gain trust, build capacity, and promote greater investment in upstream approaches

• To identify additional learning opportunities for YTFG members