The fifth core component of youth permanency practice, strategic use of best practice tools, is essential to implementing all of the four prior components. Critical to active youth and family engagement and youth and family preparation for permanency is a trained workforce that values, supports, and provides opportunities for discovery and growth as young people and their family members are listened to and included in permanency planning. Equally critical are best practice casework tools – including training and supervision in the use of the tools – to deepen permanency work toward safe, secure parenting and family belonging for a lifetime.

A resource focused upon workforce development by providing casework tools and a framework for strategic supervision of youth permanency practice can be found at: www.thetoolkit.org/

The use of casework tools is often very effective in “unpacking the no” with youth – assisting them in moving from ambivalence to embracing permanency work and increasing the engagement of youth in their own permanency planning.

There is a wide variety of casework tools that can be strategically used to enhance all aspects of permanency work outlined in the prior core components, including: engaging and preparing youth; finding, engaging, preparing and supporting parents; facilitating youth-driven and family-centered teaming; and exploring the full range of permanency options.

The following list comprises a select group of best practice casework tools for youth permanency and includes, in alphabetical order:

• Belonging and Emotional Security Tool (BEST)
• Connectedness Diagram
• Digital Stories of Youth Permanency
• Ecomap
• Genogram
• I Want to Say Something
• Mobility Mapping
• My Social World
• Recipes for Success: Sands of Time and Place
• Three Houses
• Three Aspects of Parenting
• Timeline
• Youth Connections Scale (YCS)

The following sections include a description each tool, the purposes and potential ways to use each tool related to the components in this Toolkit, a weblink to the tool and/or a sample of how the tool is being used.

BELONGING AND EMOTIONAL SECURITY TOOL (BEST)
The Belonging and Emotional Security Tool (BEST) helps caseworkers to explore a youth’s sense of emotional security with their foster parents and a foster parent’s sense of claiming and attachment with a youth in their care. Using both versions of the tool — one for the parent and one for the youth – the youth’s and parents’ responses can be used to guide meaningful “permanency conversations” in order to deepen the parent-child relationship, guide decision-making or in some cases,  indicate the need for concurrent planning to identify a permanent parent.

When used with youth (Component #1.) the BEST can:

• Demonstrate a caregiver’s claiming and commitment to him or her
• Increase his or her sense of belonging with a particular caregiver

When used with parents and family members (Component #2.) the BEST can:

• Demonstrate claiming of the youth as part of their family
• Help birth parents who are not able to raise their child to better understand the emotional bond between their child and his or her permanent parent

When used in teaming (Component #3.) the BEST can:

• Provide concrete reasons for either supporting permanency with a particular caregiver or indicating the need to achieve permanency with an alternate caregiver
• Illuminate reasons for a youth’s or parent’s ambivalence about making a lifelong, legal commitment

When used in exploring permanency options (Component #4.) the BEST can:            

• Clarify the potential for a caregiver to provide an unconditional and legal commitment
• Signify the need for further concurrent planning in order to achieve legal permanence

Weblink: Tool

Weblink: Publications
Achieving permanency for youth in foster care
Belonging and Emotional Security Tool (best)

CONNECTEDNESS DIAGRAM
The EMQ Connectedness Diagram starts with a genogram at the core and then expands the circle of important people in a youth’s life beyond blood and legal ties to connections of heart, mind, body, soul and culture. Color-coding is used to define the characteristics or each relationship with Blue for genealogical ties, Red for love and deep heart connections, Green for relationships built on learning and teaching, Yellow for those with a theme of spirituality and healing and Purple for richness of cultural heritage.

When used with youth (Component #1.), the Connectedness Diagram can:

• Expand perception of the supportive adults in his or her life - what they get from and give to each relationship
• Help them widen the pool of adults whom they consider to be a parent figure

When used with parents and family members (Component #2.), the Connectedness Diagram can:

• Increase understanding of the complexity of a youth’s relationships
• Demonstrate the significance and meaning of important adults in the youth’s life

When used in teaming (Component #3.), the Connectedness Diagram can:

• Build awareness of other caring adults that should be considered for a youth’s permanency planning team or as a permanent parent
• Illustrate characteristics and dimensions of a supportive adult relationship to assist in permanency planning decisions

When used in exploring permanency options (Component #4.), the Connectedness Diagram can:

• Discover and help maintain important cultural connections for youth
• Expand and enrich the network of supportive adults to support the youth and his or her permanent family

Weblinks: Tool, Sample, Publication
A description and sample of the EMQ Connectedness Diagram can be found at these weblinks, in Appendix D (pages 35-37) of the Emancipated Youth Connections Project Final Report.
www.emqff.org/press/docs/emq_cmt.ppt
Emancipated Youth Connections Project Final Report/Toolkit
THE CONNECTEDNESS MAP

ECOMAP
Ecomaps are graphical representations that show all of the systems at play in an individual's life. With the youth or parent represented by a circle at the center of the diagram and the important systems around them illustrated by another series of circles, the Ecomap depicts the strength and quality of the interactions with each system (family, child welfare system, education, work, health care, friends, etc.)

Ecomaps are often used to prepare parents for making a permanent commitment to a youth, help them to visualize the changes and adjustments in adding another family member or the supports that can be rallied to make it successful.

When used with youth (Component #1.), the Ecomap can:

• Help youth visualize the many systems they relate to while in foster care and how each interaction impacts their life
• Demonstrate areas of a youth’s life where they feel stressed or unsuccessful and motivate intentional change

When used with parents and family members (Component #2.), the Ecomap can:

• Highlight resources within the natural network that will support a permanent commitment to a youth
• Illustrate the systems in a youth’s life that need to remain consistent after permanency

When used in teaming (Component #3.), the Ecomap can:

• Assist the team in recognizing positive forces to build upon in a youth’s life
• Indicate areas that need strengthening and should be addressed in team planning

When used in exploring permanency options (Component #4.), the Ecomap can:

• Point to adults with a strong relationship to the youth who should be contacted as a team member, potential parent or lifelong supportive connection
• Identify resources in the youth’s or permanent parent’s networks that can offer post-permanency support

Weblinks: Sample, Tool, Publication
The Child’s Eco-Map
Ecomap Activity
http://www.cpart.chhs.colostate.edu/pdf/aboutecomaps.pdf

 GENOGRAM
The Genogram, previously introduced on page 22 of this Toolkit, is the primary tool traditionally used to gather information about parents, family members and relatives with blood or legal ties to the youth. It is an intergenerational map of the family, often the first tool used by a caseworker in sessions with youth, parents or family members. Used as a way to discover names, birthdates, gender, defining characteristics and how family members are related to one another, the genogram also helps to expand family history and facts, cultural heritage and significant family patterns, themes, losses and stories.

When used with youth (Component #1.), the Genogram can:

• Help gather family information from or share family information with the youth
• Assess family history, quality and characteristics of relationships to different family members

When used with parents and family members (Component #2.), the Genogram can:

• Record important family history
• Clarify understanding about family disconnections or loyalty conflicts

When used in teaming (Component #3.), the Genogram can:

• Increase the number of potential team members to participate in planning
• Identify siblings or others who may have been cared for or parented by relatives

When used in exploring permanency options (Component #4.), the Genogram can:

• Assist in assessing safety and risk within caregiving relationships
• Identify protective factors within the family as well as additional permanency options

Weblink: Samples

Weblink: Publication, Tool
Groza, V. and J. C. McMillen. Using Placement Genograms in Child Welfare Practice. Child Welfare Volume LXXIII #4, July-August 1994. Retrieved July 30, 2013.

I WANT TO SAY SOMETHING (Child Inclusion Assessment for Family-Centered Meetings)
This tool specifies that the term “child” includes youth of all ages and assists in understanding their perspectives and wishes about permanency planning and bringing their voices into the teaming process.  It can be used to prepare a youth to join a team meeting – helping them to clarify their thoughts and practice expressing their feelings about permanency before they get into the team meeting. It is also a useful vehicle for bringing a youth’s voice to the table when he or she is unable to attend a team meeting in person.

When used with youth (Component #1.), the I Want to Say Something tool can:

• Assure the youth that his or her feelings and perspectives are essential to successful planning
• Identify the youth’s questions and his or her needs for more information

When used with parents and family members (Component #2.) the I Want to Say Something tool can:

• Help them understand the youth’s feelings and perspectives and increase empathy for the youth
• Communicate things that are on a youth’s mind haven’t been part of the discussion

When used in teaming (Component #3.) the I Want to Say Something tool can:

• Bring the youth’s voice to the table even when the youth cannot be present
• Insure that the planning process is safe, predictable and therapeutic for the youth

When used in exploring permanency options (Component #4.) the I Want to Say Something tool can:

• Provide insight into permanency options the youth feels are optimal and why or why not
• Add new options not previously identified or considered viable by the adults

Sample: Tool

Weblinks: Publications
Guidelines for Family Group Decision Making in Child Welfare
PRACTICE GUIDELINES FOR FAMILY-CENTERED MEETINGS

MOBILITY MAPPING
Mobility Mapping is described as a child’s mental picture of his or her life before separation from family, translated onto paper (De Lay, Brigette. 2002. Mobility Mapping and Flow Diagrams: Tools for Family Tracing and Social Reintegration Work with Separated Children). The main goals are to help the child uncover clues about missing family and encourage discussion about the child’s past. Mobility Mapping, compared to tradi­tional structured interviews, helps uncover more information and is described as a more relaxed and informal technique to explore the child’s history.

When used with youth (Component #1.), Mobility Mapping can:

• Facilitate the exploration of important memories or places, people and events through drawing and storytelling
• Increase competence and mastery as the youth becomes the expert of his or her own “mapping”

When used with parents and family members (Component #2.), Mobility Mapping can:

• Outline a network of family members with whom the youth can safely reconnect
• Provide opportunities for adults to connect with youth by doing a “mapping” process together

When used in teaming (Component #3.), Mobility Mapping can:

• Increase identification of important adults to include in team planning
• Offer non-verbal insights about a youth’s perspectives, hopes and fears

When used in exploring permanency options (Component #4.), Mobility Mapping can:

• Identify important adults from the past with potential to provide parenting
• Uncover options that were not previously known or adequately considered

Weblinks: Tool, Samples and Publications
Mobility Mapping Questions: How to Guide
MOBILITY MAPPING AND FLOW DIAGRAMS
Other Family Finding Tools

MY SOCIAL WORLD
A simple circular, three-ring diagram, My Social World is a tool for youth to identify caring adults in their support system. The youth places their name in the center ring, and defines how supportive adults will be illustrated in the three outer rings: adults who are there for them anytime, anywhere, no matter what and always will be; those who are sometimes there for them, like for a special event or occasional visit; and adults in a paid professional role.

To begin the diagram, the youth is asked “who do I go to when I: have a problem, need sound advice, want friendship, want acceptance and approval, want to explore new ideas, want to play, want to learn new things?” – choosing where to place the name or initials of the supportive adult that meets the corresponding need.

Once the diagram is complete, the youth is then asked to cross out names or initials of the adults who will no longer be there once the he or she leaves care. How many are left?  What will it be like without those relationships? What permanency planning is needed now, before the youth is discharged from the system?

When used with youth (Component #1.), My Social World can:

• Identify all adults in their support system and their potential for support the future
• Help youth recognize gaps in support and increase motivation for permanency planning

When used with parents and family members (Component #2.), My Social World can:

• Show the difference between paid vs. personal relationships for youth in care
• Illustrate the importance of a parent and lifelong family for the youth

When used in teaming (Component #3.), My Social World can:

• Support the need for timely permanency planning
• Increase investment in a permanent parent and family connection for the youth

When used in exploring permanency options (Component #4.), My Social World can:

• Infuse urgency into the permanency planning process
• Promote the need to consider more than one permanency option concurrently

Weblink: Tool

Sample: Tool

RECIPES FOR SUCCESS: Sands of Time and Place
Recipes for Success is a resource developed to complement the 3-5-7 model, providing multiple exercises to use when engaging the youth in clarification, integration and actualization work. The “Sands of Time and Place” is an activity that youth readily participate in and help the youth’s caseworker and team understand the psychological importance of different attachment figures in the youth’s life.

The Sands of Time exercise involves the social worker helping the youth to identify important people in his/her life and to choose a color of sand for each of these important people. Using a teaspoon, the youth places sand in a jar for each person, placing as much sand for each person as the youth desires. See Damiano, J. (2002). Preparing children for permanency. Unpublished manuscript. Harrisburg, PA: Pennsylvania Statewide Adoption Network.

When used with youth (Component #1.), the Sands of Time and Place tool can:

• Communicate the importance of connections to family members that hold meaning
• Identify the significant losses in the youth’s life and assist them in the grieving process

When used with parents and family members (Component #2.), the Sands of Time and Place tool can:

• Assist in understanding who the youth misses and the meaning of losses in his or her life
• Demonstrate the importance of the parent’s or family member’s role in the youth’s life and the need to strengthen or continue it permanently

When used in teaming (Component #3.) the Sands of Time and Place tool can:

• Give leads about adults to explore as a permanent parent for the youth
• Illustrate the importance of a youth’s connections to siblings, relatives, past foster families, etc.

When used in exploring permanency options (Component #4.), the Sands of Time and Place tool can:

• Indicate the youth’s psychological parent(s) and significant attachment figures
• Assess between different caring adults as options for the youth’s permanent parent

Weblink: Publication
Retrieved July 31, 2013.

Weblink: Tool
Blog entry on Wednesday, July 31, 2013.

Sample

The sample provided here shows the results of the “Sands of Time and Place” exercise being used with adolescent boys in group care.

THREE ASPECTS OF PARENTING
For youth who grow up with the parents to whom they were born, their birth parent, legal parent and parenting parent are the same person - but not so for youth with a foster care system experience. This tool helps to distinguish between three different aspects of parenting and which parent – birth parent, legal parent, parenting parent – provides each type of parenting. It is frequently used to help youth integrate the roles of multiple parents in their life and resolve ambivalence toward adoption or legal guardianship. It is also a concrete way for each parent figure to understand that their contribution in the life of their child is unique and equally important to that of other parent-figures.

The diagram (accessed at the weblink below) serves as a visual illustration of such things as the:

• unique contributions of a birth parent – the gift of life, plus temperament, talents, physical characteristics, etc. – regardless of whether or not the birth parent is the legal or parenting parent
• benefits to having a permanent legal parent – with responsibility for safety, protection, housing, financial support and giving legal consent – other than the state as the legal parent, which ends when a youth leaves the system
• need for a parenting parent – meeting daily needs and giving love, nurturing and discipline –  to be consistent, continuous, predictable and permanent

When used with youth (Component #1.), Three Aspects of Parenting can:

• Help youth understand and integrate the ongoing roles of multiple parents in their life
• Decrease feelings of conflicted loyalties and resolve ambivalence to permanency

When used with parents and family members (Component #2.), Three Aspects of Parenting tool can:

• Sustain an understanding of their enduring role in their child’s life even when they are unable to raise them
• Build empathy for and acceptance of multiple parents in a youth’s life

When used in teaming (Component #3.), Three Aspects of Parenting can:

• Increase team members understanding of the youth’s multiple parenting relationships
• Promote urgency in achieving a permanent legal parent for the youth

When used in exploring permanency options (Component #4.), Three Aspects of Parenting can:

• Promote concurrent planning that is respectful of each parent’s role with the youth
• Increase understanding and support for legal permanency for the youth

Weblink: Sample, Tool

Weblink: Publication
A more complete description of this tool “Three Types of Parenting” can be found on page 159 of A Child’s Journey through Placement by Vera Fahlberg first published in 1991 by Perspectives Press and reprinted in 2012. This book can be purchased online at the following link:

TIMELINE
The Timeline is one of the most basic and foundational casework practice tools in achieving permanency for young people in the child welfare system. It offers a systematic way of gathering information about and organizing life events including a chronology of moves, placements, separations, losses and significant milestones.  Information for the Timeline is gathered from the youth, the youth’s case record, parents, family members, prior and current caregivers and other significant adults in a youth’s life.

When used with youth (Component #1.), a Timeline can:

• Establish chronology to important events, moves and placements and empower the youth with information
• Identify gaps in information and correct misinformation and distortions

When used with parents and family members (Component #2.), a Timeline can:

• Provide an opportunity for them to contribute information, share memories and assist in preparing youth for permanency
• Predict potentially emotionally upsetting times for a youth around anniversary dates of losses, separations, moves or other trauma “triggers”

When used in teaming (Component #3.), a Timeline can:

• Assist team members in understanding a youth’s history the its impact on the youth
• Identify people who have had a role in the youth’s life and the importance and qualities of their relationships

When used in exploring permanency options (Component #4.), a Timeline can:

• Promote a sense of urgency for exiting the youth from foster care to a permanent family
• Give a historical context for the prior permanency goals that were explored or implemented and the outcomes

Weblink: Tool

Sample

THREE HOUSES: HOUSE OF WISHES, HOUSE OF WORRIES, HOUSE OF GOOD THINGS
The “Three Houses” tool was designed for use within the Signs of Safety framework (www.signsofsafety.net) to elicit a youth’s views about what’s working well, what he or she is worried about and what needs to happen. Asking the youth to draw pictures, symbols or write words within a diagram containing three houses – house of good things, house of dreams/wishes, house of worries – the caseworker explores factors from the youth’s point of view that offer strength and hope or present harm or danger in the permanency process.

When used with youth (Component #1.), the Three Houses tool can:

• Clarify his or her own thinking about what they want in the future regarding family
• Engage the youth through pictures, symbols and simple words, especially when talking increases anxiety or when the youth’s developmental needs require accommodations

When used with parents and family members (Component #2.), the Three Houses tool can:

• Share a youth’s feelings with parents or family members when conversation is difficult
• Explore a parent’s or family member’s own worries, wishes and dreams about family for the youth

When used in teaming (Component #3.), the Three Houses tool can:

• Inform the planning so team members understand which adults a youth may be hoping to live with or worrying about living with
• Put safety and support plans in place to increase success of a permanency outcome

When used in exploring permanency options (Component #4.), the Three Houses tool can:

• Assess the protective factors as well as the harm and danger associated with a particular permanency option
• Give a balanced perspective for each permanency option which is rarely all positive or all negative 

Weblink: Tool, Sample

Weblinks: Publication
The Signs of Safety
Three_Houses_Article

YOUTH CONNECTIONS SCALE (YCS)
The Youth Connections Scale was designed to measure and evaluate increased efforts to identify and strengthen supportive connections with adults for youth in the child welfare system. This instrument can be used as a tool by practitioners to solidify on-going support by nurturing adults for youth after they leave foster care.

When used with youth (Component #1.), the YCS can:

• Explore the quality of relationships with supportive adults
• Normalize feelings of grief, loss and unmet family and parenting expectations

When used with parents and family members (Component #2.), the YCS can:

• Help adults understand the youth’s perceptions of his or her relationships with adults
• Engage in non-judgmental discussions of permanency with the youth

When used in teaming (Component #3.), the YCS can:

• Guide the permanency process by highlighting strengths and challenges of the youth’s relationships with adult connections
• Provide youth perspective on the meaning of an adult relationship in his or her life

When used in exploring permanency options (Component #4.), the YCS can:

• Identify the number of relationships a youth has with supportive adults and increase the number of individuals to be explored as a permanent parent
• Promote the development of parent-like relationships that are as secure and lasting as possible for the youth if unable to achieve legal permanency

Weblink: Tool and Publication

YOUTH PERMANENCY DIGITAL MEDIA
The use of digital media – including video, audio and digital storytelling – are powerful and versatile casework tools to be used in permanency planning. There is no substitute for hearing the voices of the youth or adults who have personally lived a foster care system experience – about their perspectives on permanency or their personal stories. When youth are first being introduced to permanency work, or when they may feel too vulnerable sharing feelings about family or are expressing strong ambivalence about one permanency option or another – using digital media can “break the ice” in engaging them. Once exposed to the stories, feelings and perspectives of other youth they may be encouraged to explore their own permanency needs and learn how to both protect themselves and take emotional risks in family relationships. Equally, when birth parents, family members or potential adoptive parents or guardians hear (through the use of digital media) from other adults who have “walked in their shoes”, they will hear helpful information, universal themes and important truth about the rewards and challenges of making an unconditional and permanent commitment to a youth.

When used with youth (Component #1.), Youth Permanency Digital Media can:

• Universalize their feelings, perceptions, fears and questions about permanency
• Assist youth in communicating about and engaging in permanency planning

When used with parents and family members (Component #2.) Youth Permanency Digital Media can:

• Provide a wide variety of youth and parent perspectives on permanency
• Reinforce and educate about the impact of separation, loss and disconnection

When used in teaming (Component #3.), Youth Permanency Digital Media can:

• Promote understanding of the importance of legal permanency
• Build awareness of team members by hearing general youth perspectives or an individual youth’s voice regarding permanency planning

When used in exploring permanency options (Component #4.), Youth Permanency Digital Media can:

• Illustrate the range of permanency options and perspectives on each
• Compare experiences of youth who did and did not achieve legal permanency

Weblinks: Samples of Youth Permanency Digital Media

Joan – Relative Adoption

Josh – Youth Engagement in Permanency Planning

Kendra W. – Adoption with Birth Family Connections

Leah and Donna – Permanency through Reunification

Sandra – Birth Parent Engagement in Permanency Planning

Sasha – Permanent Connections to Siblings

Shareefah – Relative Adoption

Terrence – Permanency through Adoption

Three Young Adults – Permanency after Emancipation
Request copy of DVD at: http://www.senecacenter.org/familyconnectedness