The Children, Youth and Families Department has received consistent backlash concerning issues of transparency. The department hosted a meeting Tuesday to announce the launch of a new dashboard that officials say promotes more opennes. The site has several data points to show progress with things like staffing and efforts to recruit foster parents.
Finding appropriate housing placements for foster youth has been a challenge for CYFD. In the last few years the department has been placing children in office buildings and shelters that don’t offer necessary resources, like mental health services.
Interim Secretary Teresa Casados said that CYFD is hoping to recruit 190 non-relative foster families by the end of the year by building a community that relies not only on giving financial payments on time to families, but providing training and collaboration.
"We really believe that with recruiting the right foster families and providing the supports, we’ll have families that can support all of the kids that we bring into those offices and find a place where they can be placed immediately and be successful out there" said Casados.
The state currently has 17 licensed non-relative foster homes and the process of receiving licensing usually takes 120 days but ultimately depends on staffing.
By recruiting non-relative foster families, CYFD officials said case workers will be able to better find placements in a timely manner and get foster youth in a family setting quickly.
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