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Adoption |
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Families
For Kids Partnership
General
Foster Care Information |
Partners
| Reports
& Data |
How Businesses Can
Help | How
Individuals Can Help| 2003
Permanency Priorities
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Vision: A permanent family in a timely manner, for each child in foster care. The children you see above are all veterans of the foster care system. Children in foster care have been abused and/or neglected, then removed from their families. Many children spend years in the foster care system. Washington's Families for Kids Partnership (FFKP) is a statewide initiative bringing together public and private agencies, the courts, attorneys, special advocates, tribes, corporations and others to reform the foster/adoption system. Begun in 1994, the Partnership has two goals:
Among the results so far is a dramatic increase in the number of children being adopted. Adoptions have doubled and remained high; and for the past three years, over 1,000 children each year have been adopted out of foster care. In 1998, a statewide coalition of more than 300 individuals from 90 public and private agencies, tribes and organizations developed the Washington Permanency Framework: A Five-year Plan for Ensuring Permanent Families for Children in Foster Care. The Framework focuses on closing the gap between current outcomes and the - yet unachieved - vision of providing every child with a family to call his own. Government can't do it alone. As partners, the stakeholders are assuming responsibility for carrying on the reform efforts. The governor and legislature are resoundingly supportive of permanency issues. Individuals, businesses and communities are stepping forward to help. But much more needs to be done. Funding FFKP is funded through the Stuart Foundation, by the Children's Administration, Casey Family Programs, Children's Home Society of Washington, the Office of the Administrator of the Courts, and the Northwest Children's Fund. Contact
Families for Kids Partnership at mmjamieson@aol.com
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