Plummer Youth Promise

Group home: Plummer Youth Promise applies an intervention and outcome model we call "permanency, preparedness, community." The model posits that all children need families, skills, and connections with their communities to succeed as adults. Our work focuses heavily on making sure Youth who have been removed from their families make it back to their family, or a new, permanent family, as soon as possible. This element of our work has drawn a great deal of attention from others, and we consult to and/or train other organizations in best practices. Our 12-person group home serves young people assigned male at birth from ages 13-18 referred by the department of children and families. We serve approximately 20 young people per year as Youth move in and out. Most young people were removed from their homes due to issues of abuse or neglect and have been bouncing around the state's child welfare system. It is not uncommon for Youth to have been moved a dozen or more times between placements such as group homes, foster homes, and hospitals. As a result of this disruption, many youths struggle with issues such as post traumatic stress, depression, anxiety and attention challenges. All need a family who will commit to them forever. We recently implemented a system to measure each young person's progress in the areas of permanency,preparedness, and community. The system documents progress along scale of 1-4; observable benchmarks must be reached to progress along the scale. Assessing progress includes the use of both evidence-based tools and subjective observations.

The community apartments program: our community apartments program uses the same intervention model described in the section above on our group home. The community apartment program serves nearly 30 young people ages 18- 22, who turned 18 while in the foster care system and now have no place to live. The community apartment program provides one-bedroom apartments in a variety of communities, close to where the young people have relationships when possible. The measurement system that has been implemented in the group home and supported apartment is also used in the community apartment program.

Supported apartment program (pre independent living): like in our group home, we apply our permanency, preparedness, community intervention model (see description above) in our supported apartment program. This program serves approximately 10-12 young people assigned male at birth between the ages of 16 and 22 each year. The apartment is in the same building as our group home, but it is in a physically separate part of the building. Young people living in the apartment must be in school or working, and are responsible for things like cooking, grocery shopping, laundry, and cleaning. In the supported apartment we have implemented the same measurement system described above in the group home description.

Foster care: the permanency, preparedness community intervention and outcome model described in the section above on our group home is also used in our foster care program. The foster care program is licensed to serve children and young adults from to birth to age 22. As in our other programs, we place paramount importance on stopping Youth from bouncing around the foster care system and connecting them with a family that is committed to them forever. We recruit and train foster families who believe in our goal, and they become part of the team to find the child a permanent family. In some cases, they become the permanent family. The measurement system described in the group home section above is also used in our foster care program. The foster care program currently serves more than 40 children a year. Demand for the program is extraordinary, and we turn away hundreds of referrals each year due to lack of available foster families. For that reason, we are aggressively recruiting foster parents. Intensive permanency services program: Plummer Youth Promise offers an intensive permanency services program to the department of children and families (dcf) northern region of Massachusetts. Through this program, Plummer permanency experts work with Youth in dcf care who live in non-plummer settings, such as other group care facilities. Through this program, we provide intensive, permanency- specific work on each Youth's case, with the goal to help them connect or reconnect with permanent families. Our intensive permanency services includes applies the same best practices used in our residential and foster care programs: 1) family search and engagement; 2) Youth guided teaming; and 3) permanency readiness. These practices are described in the section of this response describing our practice leadership services (description part iii, 4h). In fy23 we served 30 young people through our ips program. Permanency mediation: Plummer Youth Promise offers permanency mediation services, an alternative to a contested court proceeding for children in the Massachusetts foster care system. Permanency mediation addresses the unique issues involved in care and protection, guardianship, and termination of parental rights proceedings. The model uses an independent third party to facilitate a child-centered approach to permanency planning. By giving parents an opportunity to help develop cooperative plans for their child's future, permanency mediation both empowers and preserves families. Plummer's permanency mediation services include identifying a child's specific needs and the strengths and characteristics needed for any adult to successfully parent a particular child; uniting parents, extended family, kin, caregivers and professionals in a cooperative planning process; empowering family members through participatory planning and decision-making on behalf of their child; providing an important opportunity for all adults who are significant in a child's life to plan together and develop positive relationships that can be sustained over time; utilizing a third-party neutral with no decision-making authority or stake in a specific outcome; and, are scheduled at the convenience of families within their homes and communities. In fy23 we served 180 young people through permanency mediation. Permanency practice leadership: each year in ma, approximately 1,000 Youth leave foster care without a permanent family- nationally, the number is about 23,000. This is called aging out of care. Research shows staggering negative outcomes for these young people, through no fault of their own. It is critical that the child welfare system use effective practices to provide services that keep young people safe while maximizing their health and well-being within lifelong family relationships. Plummer Youth Promise is working to change those outcomes by helping Youth achieve permanency - safe, stable, and lifelong family relationships. Though Plummer's direct service footprint is limited to Massachusetts, our impact is nationwide. Through our permanency practice leadership division, we provide fee-based consulting and training in permanency best practices to service providers and government agencies across the country.