Neighbor To Family Sibling Foster Care Model
About This Program
Target Population: Sibling groups of 2 or more children from infancy through seventeen years of age who are in the custody of the state; youth older than 14 must be part of a sibling group; ideally children and families newly involved in the foster care system or possibly have re-entered the foster care system due to disrupted adoptions or have transferred from another agency
For children/adolescents ages: 0 – 17
For parents/caregivers of children ages: 0 – 17
Program Overview
The Neighbor To Family Sibling Foster Care Model was developed by Gordon Johnson as the Neighbor To Neighbor model while he was President & CEO of The Jane Addams Hull House Association. The unique child-centered, family-focused foster care model is designed to keep sibling groups, including large sibling groups, together in stable foster care placements while working intensively on reunification or permanency plans that keep the siblings together. Neighbor To Neighbor began in 1994 serving targeted communities in Chicago where the majority of children came into foster care. The program uses a community-based, team-oriented approach, including foster caregivers and birth parents as part of the treatment team. Trained and supported foster caregivers are key to the model's success. Neighbor to Neighbor professionalized this key role by placing these trained foster caregivers on the payroll with salaries and benefits. Foster families, birth families, and children receive comprehensive and intensive services including individualized case management, advocacy, and clinical services on a weekly basis. Mr. Johnson incorporated the Neighbor to Neighbor model in 2000 as the Neighbor To Family Sibling Foster Care Model, retaining Neighbor to Neighbor's essential components and expanding its operating model and geographic presence beyond Illinois.
Program Goals
The goals of the Neighbor To Family Sibling Foster Care Model are:
- Siblings referred to Neighbor To Family will be placed together in one foster home.
- Neighbor To Family caregivers will receive 90 hours initial training and then 50+ hours annually.
- Siblings will stay in their original placement until discharged from care.
- Siblings will be returned home, be in an alternate permanent placement, or be in the process of being adopted in less than 12 months after placement.
Logic Model
The program representative did not provide information about a Logic Model for Neighbor To Family Sibling Foster Care Model.
Essential Components
The essential components of Neighbor To Family Sibling Foster Care Model include:
- Using licensing representatives who are responsible for recruiting and developing potential professional foster caregivers
- Using highly trained (minimum 50 hours training annually) foster caregivers who receive a monetary enhancement to their state's standard room and board rate
- Being community-based
- Using a strength-based team (foster caregiver, birth parent, and agency employee) approach
- Assigning one case manager and advocate per family
- Placing one sibling group per foster family
- Providing foster family & birth family case management services
- Providing comprehensive in-house clinical services, including evaluations and medication management by a contracted pediatric psychiatrist and services by a substance abuse treatment provider who understands and supports Neighbor To Family's philosophy and goals
- Utilizing a Phases of Sibling Foster Care approach that provides a clear description of interventions utilized from intake through aftercare
- Obtaining family engagement with 24 hours of intake
- Employing Family Team Meetings to engage birth parents, staff and other stakeholders and when appropriate, children to develop a team approach to setting goals and holding participants accountable for the success of the permanency plan
- Providing 24-hour staff availability and support
- Offering respite care for foster caregivers
- Emphasizing reunification and alternate permanency planning for sibling groups
- Providing aftercare for up to one year following reunification
- Using outside clinical consultants for parenting capacity assessments, consultation for treatment planning or critical decision-making
- Providing an education liaison to be the resident expert on special education laws and advocacy within the school system since many of the children treated require special education services; the education liaison supports staff and foster caregivers
- The Neighbor To Family Program Manual:
- Formatted by job position in the sibling model, and includes:
- Formal job descriptions
- Role-related policies and procedures
- Individual development (training) plan
- Reporting forms
- Performance review tools
- Satisfaction surveys
- Selected readings include relevant research and agency background materials
Program Delivery
Child/Adolescent Services
Neighbor To Family Sibling Foster Care Model directly provides services to children/adolescents and addresses the following:
- Complex trauma, mental health challenges, developmental delays, cognitive deficits, attachment issues, grief and loss issues, behavioral problems, educational challenges, and pre-natal exposure to substances
Parent/Caregiver Services
Neighbor To Family Sibling Foster Care Model directly provides services to parents/caregivers and addresses the following:
- Substance or alcohol abuse, mental health challenges, domestic violence, unemployment, parent-child relational and interaction issues, anger management, deficits in parenting skills or child management, and adult survivors of childhood abuse and neglect
Recommended Intensity:
Weekly foster home visits for at least one hour.
Recommended Duration:
As long as it takes for reunification to occur with an emphasis on achieving permanency with 12 months and two placement moves or less. If reunification is not an option and the foster caregiver(s) become potential adoptive parents or guardians, the number or visits usually decrease per month. The amount of times visits occur is then determined on a family-by-family basis. However, at minimum foster home visits must occur once every 30 days until the family case is closed with the state agency and the juvenile court.
Delivery Settings
This program is typically conducted in a(n):
- Birth Family Home
- Foster / Kinship Care
- Community-based Agency / Organization / Provider
Homework
This program does not include a homework component.
Languages
Neighbor To Family Sibling Foster Care Model has materials available in languages other than English:
Creole, Spanish
For information on which materials are available in these languages, please check on the program's website or contact the program representative (contact information is listed at the bottom of this page).
Resources Needed to Run Program
The typical resources for implementing the program are:
Staff:
- Foster caregivers
- Case managers
- Therapists
- Family advocates
- Licensing representatives
- Educational liaison
- Supervisors
- Director(s)
Contractors and/or Community Partners:
- Psychiatrist
- Substance abuse treatment provider
- Clinical consultants
Equipment:
- Computers
- Assessment tools
- Therapeutic games
- Educational toys
- Books
- Video tapes, DVDs, CDs, VCR
- DVD player
- Video camera
- Digital camera
- Art supplies
- Writing material
- Motion detectors for sexual safety
Facilities:
- Staff offices
- Family visiting rooms
- Therapy rooms
- Conference rooms
Manuals and Training
Prerequisite/Minimum Provider Qualifications
Case Managers:
At least a Bachelor's degree in social work or human service related field, Master's degree in human service related field preferred
Case Manager Supervisors:
Master's degree in human service related field
Therapists:
Master's level degree with licensure or license-eligible
Clinical Supervisor:
Master's level degree with licensure or license-eligible
Manual Information
There is a manual that describes how to deliver this program.
Program Manual(s)
The Neighbor To Family Program Manual is a comprehensive guide to the start-up of the sibling model. Please contact the program representative, see bottom of the page.
Training Information
There is training available for this program.
Training Contact:
- Jamie Akins
jakins@ntf.org
Training Type/Location:
Consultation is available on-site and by phone.
Number of days/hours:
Consultation provided. Timeframe determined on an individual basis.
Implementation Information
Pre-Implementation Materials
There are pre-implementation materials to measure organizational or provider readiness for Neighbor To Family Sibling Foster Care Model as listed below:
A peer Program Review process is coordinated through the Director of Continuous Quality Improvement at the Corporate Headquarters. It is not publicly available.
Formal Support for Implementation
There is formal support available for implementation of Neighbor To Family Sibling Foster Care Model as listed below:
Support is provided through the program's centralized administrative headquarters and includes programmatic, human relations, finance, communications, and continuous quality improvement components. This support is recommended to implement the model.
Fidelity Measures
There are fidelity measures for Neighbor To Family Sibling Foster Care Model as listed below:
The Program Review scoring document evaluates the implementation on contract compliance, human resources, intensive staff training, information technology, continuous quality improvement and risk management, financial management, sibling foster care, assessments and planning, family team meetings, birth parent involvement, stable placements, sexual safety, family preservation services, and Medicaid/therapeutic services. Training for both Peer Reviewers and site representatives is conducted in a joint orientation session with the program's Director of Continuous Quality Improvement and Training, and Chief of Staff.
Fidelity Measure Requirements:
Fidelity measures are required to be used as part of program implementation.
Implementation Guides or Manuals
There are implementation guides or manuals for Neighbor To Family Sibling Foster Care Model as listed below:
The Neighbor To Family Program Manual is a comprehensive guide to the start-up of the sibling model. It is formatted by job position in the sibling model, and includes for each a formal job description, role-related policies and procedures, individual development (training) plan, reporting forms, performance review tools, satisfaction surveys, and selected readings (includes relevant research and agency background materials). Please contact the program representative, see bottom of the page.
Implementation Cost
There are no studies of the costs of Neighbor To Family Sibling Foster Care Model.
Research on How to Implement the Program
Research has not been conducted on how to implement Neighbor To Family Sibling Foster Care Model.
Relevant Published, Peer-Reviewed Research
Child Welfare Outcome: Permanency
Testa, M., & Rolock, N. (1999). Professional foster care: A future worth pursuing?. Child Welfare, 78(1), 108. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ578109
Type of Study:
Other quasi-experimental
Number of Participants:
159
Population:
- Age — Not specified
- Race/Ethnicity — Not specified
- Gender — Not specified
- Status — Participants were children in family foster care.
Location/Institution: Chicago, IL
Summary:
(To include basic study design, measures, results, and notable limitations)
The purpose of the study was to compare administrative data and performance of the Neighbor To Neighbor professional foster care program [now called Neighbor To Family Sibling Foster Care Model] with data from random samples of two similar kinship and non-relative family foster care programs. Distance of placement from biological parents’ neighborhood, percentage of siblings placed or living in the same home, continuity of care, moves to more restrictive care, and permanency were compared. Participants received either Neighbor To Neighbor professional foster care or one of the comparison foster programs. Measures utilized include administrative data from each foster care program. Results indicate that the professional and kinship care groups consistently outperformed other groups on stability, sibling placement, restrictiveness of care, and proximity to the child’s community of origin. The Neighbor To Neighbor program also had the highest level of children returned home, but fewer children were placed in adoptions or permanent subsidized guardianships. Limitations include the lack of randomization and small sample size.
Length of controlled postintervention follow-up: 1 year (placement and permanency data only).
Rast, J., & Rast, J. E. (2014). Neighbor to Family: Supporting sibling groups in foster care. Families in Society, 95(2), 83–91. https://doi.org/10.1606/1044-3894.2014.95.11
Type of Study:
Other quasi-experimental
Number of Participants:
834
Population:
- Age — Not specified
- Race/Ethnicity — Not specified
- Gender — Not specified
- Status — Participants were families who were currently or had previously been referred to child welfare services.
Location/Institution: Four counties in Georgia; Clayton, Gwinnett, DeKalb, and Fulton
Summary:
(To include basic study design, measures, results, and notable limitations)
The purpose of the study was to report on the first controlled study, using a propensity analysis that compared outcomes for children receiving the Neighbor To Family (NTF) [now called Neighbor To Family Sibling Foster Care Model (NTF)] service with a matched group of children receiving traditional foster care services. Participants were assigned to either NTF or to traditional foster care services. Measures utilized include data gathered from the Georgia Department of Family and Child Services and study developed methods that reflected safety, stability, permanency, and cost. Data was obtained to assess the outcomes for each child for 3 years or for 6 months following permanent placement (whichever came first). Results indicate that matching demonstrated significant improvement in placement within the county, placement with siblings, stability of placement, time to permanent placement, and cost of care for the children receiving NTF services compared to the children who received other forms of foster care. Limitations include concerns about the generalizability to other communities that have higher proportions of foster homes and are able to successfully find permanent placements for children sooner and the small sample size of Clayton County.
Length of controlled postintervention follow-up: None.
Additional References
Hunter College National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice and Permanency Planning at www.hunter.cuny.edu/socwork/nrcfcpp/info_services/siblings.html
Rolack, N. & Testa, M. (2003). The conservation of sibling ties in foster care: An evaluation of the Jane Addams Hull House Association's Neighbor to Neighbor program, Urbana, IL: School of Social Work, University of Illinois at Urbana.
Rolack, N. & Testa, M. (1997). Jane Addams Hull House Association Neighbor to Neighbor program evaluation, Chicago, IL: School of Social Service Administration, The University of Chicago.
Contact Information
- Jamie Akins
- Title: Chief of Staff
- Agency/Affiliation: Neighbor To Family, Inc.
- Website: www.neighbortofamily.org
- Email: jakins@ntf.org
- Phone: (386) 523-1440
- Fax: (386) 523-1458
Date Research Evidence Last Reviewed by CEBC: November 2023
Date Program Content Last Reviewed by Program Staff: April 2023
Date Program Originally Loaded onto CEBC: May 2007
