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FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE: HHS Awards Funds to Develop Child Welfare Systems of Care The Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families (ACF) today announced the award of $4.04 million to 9 organizations to build home and community-based “systems of care” to improve outcomes for children and families in the child welfare system. These awards will be funded as cooperative agreements between the awardee and the federal government. This effort is an outgrowth of the state Child and Family Services Reviews that have shown that serious deficiencies exist in most state child welfare agencies in terms of assuring children‘s safety, finding them permanent homes and protecting their well-being. “Using these funds, state and tribes should be able to accomplish important systemic changes in the way they handle children and families at risk,” said Secretary Tommy G. Thompson. “This represents a significant step forward in our efforts to support new approaches to correct the weaknesses that we’re finding in state child protection systems.” The Systems of Care model is based on strong collaboration among related agencies; services tailored to each family‘s needs; involvement of the family in designing its own service plan; an emphasis on family strengths, and development of accountability measures so that outcomes can be evaluated. This model has been used to address children’s mental health needs and has been shown to be effective. “States are eager to improve the effectiveness of their child welfare systems, and this project will move them closer to that important goal,” said Wade F. Horn, Ph.D., assistant secretary for children and families. “Unfortunately, the states' ability to improve their systems is often constrained by highly categorical funding streams. That's why the President has proposed a new flexible child welfare funding option for states. Both these grants and the President's proposal will go a long way to ensuring a better functioning child welfare system.”The list of successful applicants and the amount of their awards follows:
### Note: All HHS press releases, fact sheets and other press materials
are available at www.hhs.gov/news
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