Session: Working with Service Providers and Caregivers of Youth to Improve System Engagement (Society for Social Work and Research 25th Annual Conference - Social Work Science for Social Change)

This symposium highlights findings from three studies that examine factors in systems that serve youth who are considered to be at risk. Each presentation will emphasize the importance of working with service providers and caregivers of youth to improve system engagement. Study (1), Analyzing Network Collaboration Growth among Community Partners Targeting Service Improvement for Urban Youth who are Substance Using, Homeless/Housing Unstable, and may be Pregnant or Parenting, reports on the use of network analyses to evaluate the growth in systems collaboration over time among providers of varying services (homelessness, substance use, parenting, healthcare) when a project is designed to cross-fertilize knowledge, increase interactions, and share systems building responsibility to establish a youth and trauma informed service array. Study (2), Creating Natural Supports and Engaging Youth and Workers in an Innovative Practice Change for Transition-Age Youth, presents the evaluation of the Enhanced Youth Transitional Planning (E-YTP), an individualized, youth-driven, comprehensive, team-based transition planning process designed to increase the effectiveness of youth transition plans and life skills of transition-aged youth, and to increase natural supports by increasing youth involvement in their transition planning as well as providing specific training for the child welfare workforce around transition age youth planning and engagement. Study (3), Engaging Foster Parents and Kinship Care Providers with the Courts, shares results based on two focus group studies funded by the state of Maryland with foster parents and kinship care providers to better understand facilitators and barriers to court engagement related to children in their care. Results shed light on the need to be more inclusive of foster and kinship care relative providers who are invested in the well-being of the children they care for. Drawing on the conference theme of Social Work Science for Social Change, the symposium is grounded in the principles of social work such as inclusion, agency, and well-being of populations who are marginalized. The overall themes of systems building, provider (caregiver and service provider) inclusion in program planning and decision making, and having programs be youth-informed and youth driven will be discussed through the lens of social work values.