State of Ohio

1
State of Ohio

• Ohio Department of Job and Family Services
• Vanessa K. Tower, MSW, LISW
• Program Administrator
• October 20, 2006

2
Minority Adoption Leadership Development
Institute (MALDI) Project

• Recruitment of African-American Foster and
  Adoptive Families

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Abstract

• In order to remain eligible for federal
  assistance for child welfare programs, states are
  required by federal law to diligently recruit
  foster and adoptive parents who reflect the
  ethnic and racial diversity of children in the
  state who need foster and adoptive homes.
• At the end of federal fiscal year 2005, over
  3400 children were waiting for adoption in Ohio.
  Of the 3400 children waiting, 1,626 (48) were
  African-American. However, there were only 644
  (23) African-American families waiting to adopt.
  The purpose of this project is to identify how
  Ohio can improve its recruitment and retention of
  African American foster and adoptive families.

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Problem Statement

• Ohio is currently not meeting the requirement
  to recruit foster and adoptive parents who are
  racially and ethnically reflective of children
  within Ohios child welfare system. (Note This
  project focuses on the recruitment of
  African-American families)
• How can Ohio improve its recruitment and
  retention of African-American foster and adoptive
  families?

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MALDI Project Goal

• Short-term Goal To work closely with a local
  public children services agency (PCSA) that has
  ten (10) or more African-American children in
  permanent custody (PC), but the agency does not
  have at least ten (10) or more African-American
  families approved to foster and/or adopt.
• Long-term Goal Ohio will meet the federal
  requirement to diligently recruit foster and
  adoptive parents who reflect the racial and
  ethnic diversity of children in the child welfare
  system who are waiting for foster and adoptive
  homes.

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MALDI Project Actions

• Movement towards meeting the goal will
  involve identifying strategies for achieving the
  recommendations as a result of the following
• 
  
• Public Children Services Agency (PCSA) Focus
  groups
• Family Satisfaction Telephone Surveys

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PCSA FOCUS GROUP Selection

• Agencies were selected for inclusion based
  upon the Family and Children Services Information
  System (FACSIS) data which compared the
  proportion of waiting African-American children
  with the pool of waiting African-American
  families.

8
Selection Process

• Specifically, agencies were chosen in the
  following manner
• The Major Metro, Metro and Large sized agencies
  with ten or more African-American children
  waiting or placed for adoption at the end of FFY
  2005 were identified.
• A ratio for each agency was then calculated the
  proportion of African-American waiting families
  at the end of FFY 2005 to the proportion of
  African-American children available for adoption
  at that same point in time.

9
Selection Process

• Eight agencies had ratios above the statewide
  ratio of 0.49.
• Focus groups were held with the selected agencies
  to explore specifically what strategies are
  employed to recruit and retain African-American
  resource families.1
• __________________________________________________
  ________________________________________
• 1 Focus groups were held with seven of the eight
  PCSAs selected one PCSA chose not to participate

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PCSA Focus Groups Narrative

• Initial contact proved challenging because PCSA
  Directors had to be contacted first.
• Persistence (e.g., calling a few times) and
  flexibility (i.e., working around agencies'
  schedules) are key.
• Each agency contact received a lot of detail
  important to let them know specific information
  ahead of time.
• Conducting Focus Groups
• Challenge to gain total picture of agency
  practice some agencies over reported positives
  as a result of state-contracted nature of focus
  groups.
• Challenge was overcome by casual environment and
  framing focus groups as opportunities to
  highlight good practices and lessons learned.

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Focus Groups Selected Agencies

• The participating agencies included
• Cuyahoga County Department of Children and Family
  Services
• Franklin County Children Services
• Hamilton County Department of Job and Family
  Services
• Lucas County Children Services
• Montgomery County Children Services
• Stark County Children Services
• Summit County Children Services

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Context Description

• In Ohio
• African-American families are approved as
  adoptive families in smaller percentages than
  African-American children entering permanent
  custody.
• African-American families adopt children more
  quickly than whites, making it less likely that
  they will remain available for adoption and in
  the pool of prospective parents when the federal
  measurement is made.
• African-American families, whether they adopt or
  not, are quicker to drop out of the pool of
  prospective parents than are white families.
• African-American children wait for adoption
  longer than do white children.
• Report on African American Families,
  February 2006, ODJFS

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Findings PCSA Focus Groups

• Relationship building overcoming historical
  mistrust of public institutions
• Customer service orientation respect,
  responsiveness, appreciation
• Foster parents are the most effective recruitment
  strategy
• Support of family throughout process navigation
  of public system difficult and process of
  becoming resource family often intrusive
• Agency outreach recruitment events,
  orientations, conveniently located and timed
  trainings

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Findings PCSA Focus Groups

• Multiple strategies varied repetition of same
  message in multiple settings
• Engagement in faith-based organizations key
  institutions in African-American community and
  recruitment partners
• 8. All staff engaged in recruitment job
  descriptions and mandatory staff participation
• Use of data to target recruitment concentration
  of resources on identified geographic sources of
  inquiries and applications

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FAMILY SATISFACTION TELEPHONE SURVEY Respondent
Selection

• Public agency families were selected from
  Ohios FACSIS data. All the families chosen were
  waiting to adopt as of December 31, 2005

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Family Satisfaction Telephone Survey Sample

• The sample of families was divided equally into
  six categories
• African-American parents under the age of 40
• White parents under age 40
• African-American parents ages 40 - 49
• White parents ages 40 49
• African-American parents over age 49
• White parents over age 49

17
Family Satisfaction Telephone Survey Narrative

• During family satisfaction surveys, considerable
  difficulty reaching some people by telephone.
• Adjustment of schedule to reach respondents in
  late evening.
• Significant quantity of African-American
  families phone numbers were not uploaded in
  FACSIS database and therefore had to contact
  PCSAs that originally recruited the families for
  phone numbers.

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Diversity concern

• The intent was to explore differences in
  experiences among different racial and age
  groups. Due to difficulty locating contact
  information only 15 of respondents were
  African-American.
• Difficult to draw conclusions regarding the
  relationship of race to satisfaction with the
  adoption process.

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Findings Ohio Family Satisfaction Survey

• Families are more likely to have an age
  preference than race or gender the exception is
  parents over 49 years of age.
• None felt that race, color or national origin
  would impact a home study.
• All families with a child in adoptive placement
  feel that the child is a good match for their
  family.
• 80 of respondents thought pre-service training
  prepared them adequately for bringing a child
  into their home.

20
Pilot Selection Process

• FACSIS data was used to obtain the following
  information
• Agencies with ten (10) or more African-American
  children waiting or placed for adoption at the
  end of FFY 2005.
• A ratio for each agency was then calculated the
  proportion of African-American waiting families
  at the end of FFY 2005 to the proportion of
  African-American children available for adoption
  at that same point in time.
• Selected an agency whose ratio was below the
  statewide ratio of .49.

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Pilot Identification

• Identification of an agency which had the
  following as of July 31, 2006
• A large African-American community.
• At least ten (10) African-American children in
  the permanent custody of the agency who need
  adoptive homes.
• A Small pool of available African-American
  families waiting to adopt.

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Pilot Agency Selected Greene County Children
Services

• FACSIS data on Greene County for end of FFY 2005
• 11 (27) African-American Children in PC
• 1 (2) African-American families waiting

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Pilot Narrative

• Contacted agency director who agreed to the
  participate and provided contact name.
• Arranged to visit agency to discuss recruitment
  efforts and retention of African-American
  families. Identify strategies to assist in the
  recruitment of African-American families.
• Challenge finding time to conduct a pilot due
  to other competing and mandated job tasks (e.g.
  Administrative rule revisions, MEPA-related
  assignments)

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Pilot Questions

• What strategies are used to recruit
  African-American families? Are these
  strategies different from those used to recruit
  families of other races? Why? How are the
  strategies different?
• How does the agency retain African-American
  families? Are different approaches used with
  these families as compared with families of other
  races? Why? How are the approaches different?

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Pilot Findings

• Types of Recruitment Geared toward
  African-American families
• Local predominantly African-American Churches
• Local predominantly African-American College
  Campuses (over three years ago)
• Hair Salons geared toward African-American
  Clientele (past recruitment)
• Passport Program (child-specific recruitment)

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Pilot Findings

• Retaining of African-American families
• Bi-monthly Visits
• Maintaining Good rapport with Families

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Pilot Findings

• Discussion of other possible recruitment efforts
  to recruit and retain African-American families
• Media outlet geared toward African-American
  audience
• Use of current African-American families as
  recruitment (networking with other AA families
  and churches) Engaging families as champions
• Developing good rapport with predominantly
  African-American Churches (focus on meeting with
  the Pastor of the congregation)

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Pilot Findings

• Discussion of other possible recruitment efforts
  to recruit and retain African-American families
• Developing rapport with local African-American
  sororities and fraternities
• Greater Contact with agencies to assist with
  child-specific/targeted recruitment

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Overall Recommendations

• ODJFS and PCSAs should identify and address
  barriers to becoming adoptive parents which are
  specific to African-American families.
• More intensive efforts to use the current pool of
  prospective adoptive parents need to be made.
• Current efforts at child specific recruitment for
  African-American children waiting long periods of
  time should continue and, where possible, be
  intensified.

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References

• Adopt Ohio Kids Reports
• Report on African American Families (February
  2006)
• Recruitment and Retention of African American
  Families Ohios Promising Practices (February
  2006)
• Satisfaction with Adoption Services among Ohios
  Waiting Families (June 2006)
• (Reports can be found on http//jfs.ohio.gov/)

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References

• Internet Resources
• Casey Family Programs Mitigating the Effects of
  Racial/Ethnic Disproportionality
• http//www.casey.org/NR/rdonlyres/F2CF350A-1A
  46-4E02-80EA- 3746F2A70F20/132/casey_mitigatin
  g_disproportionality.pdf online Viewed
  September 1, 2006
• Ohio County PopulationEstimates by Race Alone
  and Hispanic or Latino Origin July 1, 2002
• http//www.census.gov/popest/archives/2000s/vinta
  ge_2002/CO-EST2002-ASRO/CO-EST2002-ASRO-02-39.pdf
  online
• Viewed September 1, 2006

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References

• Internet Resources
• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
  Administration for Children and Families
  Addressing Racial Disproportionality in Child
  Welfare, Childrens Bureau Express online
  http//cbexpress.acf.hhs.gov/articles.cfm?article_
  id734refhtmlEml
• Viewed September 1, 2006