Emergency Foster Youth Placement Partnership

About the Program

Category: Children and Youth (Best in Category)

Year: 2018

In response to California Department of Social Services (CDSS) Continuum of Care Reform (CCR), Placer County closed the Children's Emergency Shelter on December 13, 2016 ahead of legislative mandates. CCR prioritizes family homes over congregate care to facilitate outcomes that are more successful for foster youth. Through a competitive process, Koinonia Family Services, a foster family agency, received the award to partner with Placer County to develop a community-based emergency foster care model providing resource family (foster family) homes for children when they are temporarily removed from their parents, and/or those with a variety of behavioral health needs while they are awaiting out-of-home placement. Koinonia successfully recruited a number of foster families, now called resource families, for the emergency shelter model, but through this developmental process, it was determined that there were not currently enough resource family homes willing to take youth with behavioral challenges. Thus, Placer County Children's System of Care (CSOC), in conjunction with Koinonia, created a small six-bed emergency group home for these short-term situations. This hybrid model of emergency foster care is an innovative approach to addressing the needs of foster youth while honoring the spirit of Continuum of Care Reform.