Florida's permanency roundtable (PRT) work group meets quarterly to discuss learning, share success stories and identify obstacles to expediting legal permanency for children in care. The group consists of representatives from ten community-based care agencies who conduct permanency roundtables and their Department of Children and Families Children's Legal Services partners.
The permanency roundtable work group has identified the issue of misunderstanding how legal permanency impacts a youth's access to independent living services as a systemic barrier to permanency for many older youth in Florida and across the country.
Its members have repeatedly seen decisions made against pursuing legal permanency for older youth due to misinformation on how permanency will negatively impact the youth's independent living benefits. Casey Family Programs has observed this same dynamic — we call it "policy mythology" — in permanency roundtables in nearly all of the thirty-five states that implement them.
To address this issue, Casey consultant Jane Soltis developed the Permanency at a Glance cheat sheet. It is a user-friendly reference that clarifies how the achievement of legal permanency impacts access to independent living services in Florida and contains important information for professionals, youth, their caregivers and potential permanency resources.
Please feel free to widely distribute the Permanency at a Glance cheat sheet and contact Jane Soltis at jmvsoltis.consult
gmail.com with any questions or comments.
I hope that you find this as useful as I did!
Comments are closed after ninety days.