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Administration for Children and Families US Department of Health and Human Services

 HHS News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Friday, September 26, 2003
Contact: Chris Downing
ACF Press Office (202) 401-9215

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:



Improving Child Welfare Outcomes Through Systems of Care
FY 2003 Grant Awards

Grantee
City & State
Amount
Contra Costa County Employment and Health
Martinez, CA
$498,893
Jefferson County
Golden, CO
$497,898
Kansas Dept. of Social and Rehab. Services
Topeka, KA
$444,446
Clark Co. Family Services
Las Vega, NV
$500,000
New York City Administration for Children and Familiy Services
New York, NY
$498,834
North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services
Raleigh, NC
$500,000
Native American Traning Institute
Bismark, ND
$500,000
State of Oregon
Salem, OR
$500,000
Pennsylvania Departmen of Public Welfare
Harrisburg, PA
$100,000


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Note: All HHS press releases, fact sheets and other press materials are available at www.hhs.gov/news

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The page was last updated: September 26, 2003