Youth Directed Placement Services

About the Program

Category: Children and Youth (Best in Category)

Year: 2016

The Youth Empowerment Support Program (YES) of Whole Person Learning provides peer designed and implemented opportunities for community and system transformation as well as direct support for young people at risk of, in, or emancipating out of child welfare system services. Their “Youth Directed Placement Services Program” engages young people in identifying their child welfare placement needs by creating a Placement Planning Worksheet (PPW) which highlights the youths’ needs in order to feel comfortable, safe and healthy in their placement. This worksheet, designed in conjunction with program youth, is used by both placement workers as well as other support individuals connected to the youth to be placed so that they better understand the youths’ specific placement needs and preferences. This tool has led to a number of remarkable outcomes including: 1) 84% of youth who have completed the PPW remain in their school of origin, 2) 66% of youth who have completed the PPW experience a decrease in subsequent group home placements following their emergency shelter care intake, and 3) 28% more youth who have completed the PPW have been placed in relative/non-relative extended family members upon discharge from our emergency shelter, as opposed to other less desirable placements