Resource Library

Discusses how the Illinois Adoption Advisory Council helped the state develop the comprehensive post-permanency model that is currently in place. The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services used the information gathered from the Council to identify needs of adoptive families and the gaps in service provision. This article provides lessons that other states can utilize as they consider how to create and/or leverage adoptive parent councils to improve their post-permanency continuum.     Introduction to the Resources Watch the video below for an overview of the resource or click on the button to access the article directly.  

This discussion guide accompanies the Engaging Kinship Caregivers video training series.  This guide helps program directors, supervisors, and trainers lead group sessions to deepen learning experiences.

Explores how kinship creates interruptions of the caregiver’s plans, priorities, space and privacy and how these can contribute to feelings of loss and ambivalence for the relative caregiver.

Explores a universal truth: Loyalty runs deep in families.  Shared blood, history, memories and interdependence hold families together.  This video shows child welfare professionals and clinicians how to navigate these issues.

Explores how one person’s hope can be another person’s denial. Understanding how important hope is for family members is critical to empathetically working with them to maintain these hopes and to make other plans-for the sake of the child in their care.

Explores how to manage the understanding feelings of guilt that relative caregivers may experience as a result of changing family dynamics.

Explores projection and transference, which are psychological terms about unconscious processes where we redirect our emotions from one person to another.  These processes can become a risk factor in kinship care.

Offers rationale for and tips related to engaging youth and parents with lived expertise in developing support service programs.

Discusses kinship care through an academic and personal experience lens. The presenter shares her family’s journey with kinship care.

Describes the value of program evaluation and how to plan for and approach it. Provides examples of evaluation approaches.