Program Goals

The goals of Kinship Supports Intervention are:

• Prevent placement into foster care
• Increase use of kinship care, if formal placement is necessary
• Increase kinship caregiver's knowledge of federal, state, and local resources
• Increase placement stability
• Decrease time to permanency
• Maintain child safety
• Decrease re-entry into foster care

Logic Model

View the Logic Model for Kinship Supports Intervention.

Essential Components

The essential components of Kinship Supports Intervention include:

• A Kinship Coordinator, with knowledge regarding best practices in supporting kinship families, serves as an expert resource on kinship support practice within the child welfare agency.
• All Kinship Coordinators, or other designated kinship staff, should be trained through the self-directed Ohio Child Welfare Training Program, Kinship Support Intervention for foundational understanding and knowledge of providing assessment and support to kin caregivers.
• All Kinship Coordinators/staff should attend regular ongoing training to enhance their knowledge and understanding of kinship caregiver issues, concerns, and needs.
• Kinship-specific assessment tools and processes are used to ensure that kinship caregivers can support the child in their care, and that the services and supports they receive are aligned with their needs:
• A Kinship Home Assessment Tool is completed by the Kinship Coordinator/staff as part of the home study, or no later than 30 days after a child is placed. The goal of the kinship home assessment is to document safety needs/concerns, the ability and willingness of the kinship caregiver to provide permanence for the child, and identification of the needs to be met in order for the kinship caregiver to provide for the child. The questions in the assessment are designed to spark discussion with the kinship caregiver and ensure that vital topics are covered (e.g., history of kinship caregiver interaction with and current knowledge of child/family situation).
• A Needs Assessment, which identifies services and supports the caregiver needs as well as the strengths and resources of the kinship family, is completed by Kinship Caregiver with Kinship Coordinator/staff assistance as necessary, no later than 30 days after a child is placed and is updated, at a minimum, every 90 days thereafter to continue to assess and review kinship caregivers' needs for services and/or assistance to maintain safe and adequate care of the child(ren).
• A Support Plan is developed in accordance with the Kinship Home Assessment Tool and Needs Assessment results. This plan should be individualized and reviewed and updated regularly (every 90 days, in conjunction with the review of the Needs Assessment). The Support Plan can be incorporated into the case plan or completed as a separate document according to legal protocol and policy within the jurisdiction. It will be subject to ongoing assessment and review to ensure it is addressing the kinship caregiver(s)' needs to maintain the child(ren) safely in the kinship home. Support Plan content is to address financial assistance, information and referral for services, and training needed by the kinship caregiver(s). A Support Plan template is included in the manual.
• Home visits with kinship families occur at least monthly and include attention to the kinship caregiver as well as the child and other family members. The manual provides detailed information on kinship caregiver home visits.
• A Kinship Handbook is provided to the kinship caregiver when the child is moved to the kinship home, or at the time of the home study. The handbook should include information that outlines the services and supports available in a given community. Additional state and federal guides detailing state and federal supports, as well as general information on what kinship care entails should also be provided prior to or at the time a child is placed.
• Services are available to support kinship families in accordance with their needs. Services and supports may be provided directly by the child welfare agency, through contracted service providers, or via referral to a community provider. Core services that kinship families may need during a kinship placement include:
• Kinship caregiver/foster care training
• Financial support
• Transportation
• Housing assistance
• Home management
• Basic hard good purchases
• Legal services
• Child care
• Formal or informal respite
• In-home family services/family preservation
• Information & referral
• Mental health assessment
• Substance abuse assessment
• Mental health and/or substance abuse therapy/counseling

Program Delivery

Parent/Caregiver Services

Kinship Supports Intervention directly provides services to parents/caregivers and addresses the following:

• Relatives and fictive kin who become kinship caregivers due to the children's parents being unable to do so; may experience lack of readiness to take on the care of children and lack of knowledge of the community resources available to them.

Recommended Intensity:

Home Assessment - 30 minutes average time to complete: completed at the time the home study is completed or no later than 30 days after the child is placed. Needs Assessment 30 minutes average time to complete initially: completed at the time the home study is completed or no later than 30 days after the child is placed and, completed every 90 days/quarterly - 15 minutes average time to complete quarterly update. Support Plan, 1-hour average time to complete. Home visit: 45 minutes to 1-hour average time to complete: completed monthly. Information & Referral, informal support, time to complete depends on caregiver needs, completed on an as needed basis.

Recommended Duration:

Kinship Supports services should continue to be provided throughout the duration of a child's kinship placement but will end if the child is adopted by the kinship caregiver.

Delivery Settings

This program is typically conducted in a(n):

• Foster / Kinship Care
• Public Child Welfare Agency (Dept. of Social Services, etc.)

Homework

This program does not include a homework component.

Resources Needed to Run Program

The typical resources for implementing the program are:

• Personnel
• Office space
• Access to phones
• Computer
• Printer
• Internet access
• Access to vehicle
• List of community resources for financial assistance and service delivery

Manuals and Training

Prerequisite/Minimum Provider Qualifications

There is no minimum educational level completion required in order to be trained as a kinship coordinator or staff member. All kinship coordinators/staff should be trained through the self-directed Ohio Child Welfare Training Program, Kinship Support Intervention for foundational understanding and knowledge of providing assessment and support to kinship caregivers. Furthermore, this training must be required to provide knowledge about the assessment tools, their use, and the importance of not only the monthly home visit, but what should be discussed during the monthly home visit to provide the best support possible to the kinship caregivers. Additionally, kinship coordinators/staff should attend regular training to enhance their knowledge and understanding of kinship caregiver issues, concerns, and needs. Lastly, all coordinators/staff should have a good working knowledge of child welfare practices and be competent in the following components:

• Ability to engage families to elicit, gather, evaluate, analyze, and integrate pertinent information to determine a kinship family's capacity to meet safety and quality of care needs for the child; determine strengths, concerns, and support needs
• Ability to serve as a liaison between the child welfare agency and community when organizing and accessing services and information for kinship families
• Ability to interact and collaborate with various and diverse families, internal staff, and community partners
• Ability to respect culture and diversity of families; to engage and to support kinship caregivers and children; to promote placement stability and positive permanency outcomes
• Ability to provide education and advocacy on behalf of kinship families
• Strong empathy and understanding of the unique role, needs, and challenges of kinship caregivers
• Have knowledge of service providers in their geographic area and maintain knowledge of available resources, ability to find ways to streamline services and reduce lag time in service provisions
• Have knowledge of relevant kinship caregiving resources and referral contacts in agencies outside their counties, since kinship caregivers may live outside the county

Manual Information

There is a manual that describes how to deliver this program.

Program Manual(s)

ProtectOHIO. (2011). Practice Manual for ProtectOHIO Kinship Intervention. Available here.

Training Information

There is training available for this program.

Training Contact:

• Patricia Wilson
  Patricia.Wilson01@jfs.ohio.gov
  phone: (614) 752-1142

Training Type/Location:

Training for Ohio child welfare agencies is provided through the Ohio Child Welfare Training Program and is a self-directed course that consists of three components: a workbook for caseworkers/staff, a supervisor companion guide and seven online modules/presentations. Online presentations are:

• Module #1: Overview of ProtectOHIO
• Module #2: Kinship Intervention Overview
• Module #3: Enhancing the Kinship Support Intervention
• Module #4: Kinship Caregiver Home Assessment
• Module #5: Needs Assessment
• Module #6: Home Visits and Support Services
• Module #7: SACWIS

For agencies in other states, Ohio will provide training materials:

• Kinship Supports Intervention manual
• Caseworker/staff/coordinator manual
• Supervisor companion guide
• Online training modules available to other interested states/agencies and/or other states/agencies could contract for a trainer to complete the training

States/agencies would need to access the training materials and then modify them to ensure information on resources specific to their state/agency/community are included.

Number of days/hours:

The average time to complete the Ohio Child Welfare Training Program coordinator/staff training is 5.5 hours but it is a self-directed course so the time it takes to complete may vary. This does not include discussion time between Kinship Coordinator/staff and their supervisor to review information learned and intervention application.

The time it would take another state’s child welfare agency to modify and set up a training program of their own would be dependent on the resources available to that agency.

Implementation Information

Pre-Implementation Materials

There are no pre-implementation materials to measure organizational or provider readiness for Kinship Supports Intervention.

Formal Support for Implementation

There is formal support available for implementation of Kinship Supports Intervention as listed below:

The Human Services Research Institute is available to provide formal support, including implementation supports/technical assistance; fidelity monitoring; Kinship Supports Intervention database development; and evaluation services (i.e., process, outcome, and/or cost studies). Supports are available via site visits, teleconferencing/Zoom, or email depending on the programmatic needs. Contact: Cailin B. Wheeler, MPA, cwheeler@hsri.org

Fidelity Measures

There are fidelity measures for Kinship Supports Intervention as listed below:

• The Kinship Home Assessment Part 1 and Part 2 must be completed at the time of the home study, but no later than 30 days after the child is placed in the kinship home. (This is the initial phase of model implementation.)
• Family Resource Scale Needs Assessment (FRS) must be completed by the kinship caregiver(s) at the time of the home study, but no later than 30 days after the child is placed in the kinship home.
• The FRS must be updated every 90 days throughout the duration of the child's kinship placement. (It is critical the Coordinator initially has the kinship caregiver(s) complete the FRS to assist in the development of a Support Plan) Then the FRS is to be reviewed/revisited every 90 days to continue assessment of kinship caregiver needs ongoingly.
• Support Plan development to be reviewed monthly with kinship caregiver(s).
• Monthly contact is a fidelity measure to ensure responsiveness to identified kinship caregiver/child needs as best practice.

The Family Resource Scale is available for purchase: https://www.wbpress.com/product-category/assessment-scales-and-instruments/

The Home Assessment Part 1 and Part 2, Support Plan Template, and Kinship Home Visit Checklist can be found in the Kinship Supports Practice Manual: Appendix B, D, and E.

For more information on calculating case- or site-level fidelity contact Cailin B. Wheeler, MPA Research Associate, Human Services Research Institute: cwheeler@hsri.org

Established Psychometrics:

The Family Resource Scale has been tested for reliability and validity:

Dunst, C. J., & Leet, H. E. (1987). Measuring the adequacy of resources in households with young children. Child: Care, Health and Development, 13(2), 111–125. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2214.1987.tb00528.x

Implementation Guides or Manuals

There are implementation guides or manuals for Kinship Supports Intervention as listed below:

The Practice Manual for ProtectOHIO Kinship Intervention provides an overview of all aspects associated with the implementation of the Kinship Supports Intervention, including:

• Mission & purpose
• Core components
• Kinship coordinator duties, skills, and training needs
• Case management activities/instructions
• Core and optional services & supports
• Necessary administrative supports and organizational structure
• Court and community support
• Data collection

Link to the manual: http://jfs.ohio.gov/PFOF/PDF/ProtectOHIO-Kinship-Intervention-Manual.stm

Implementation Cost

There have been studies of the costs of implementing Kinship Supports Intervention which are listed below:

Wheeler, C. B. (2020). ProtectOHIO final evaluation report, pp. 70–92. Human Services Research Institute. Here.

Research on How to Implement the Program

Research has been conducted on how to implement Kinship Supports Intervention as listed below:

Wheeler, C. B. (2016). ProtectOHIO final evaluation report, pp. 151–154, 211–215. Human Services Research Institute. https://www.hsri.org/publication/final-evaluation-report-protectohio-third-waiver-period

Wheeler, C. B. (2020). ProtectOHIO final evaluation report, pp. 51–69. Human Services Research Institute. Here.

Relevant Published, Peer-Reviewed Research

Child Welfare Outcomes: Safety, Permanency and Child/Family Well-Being

Additional References