Cross-Border Families
Family Separation Happens at Our Borders Too
Protecting children requires partnering with their parents. Material support and services can safely stabilize many families in crisis while children remain at home, and the risk of leaving children at home must be balanced by the potential trauma of removal.
Events
Rise Magazine Newsletter highlighting 2019 national reunification month events.
New Jersey Family Unification Day Celebration
An Imprint article highlighting New Jersey's 2020 Family Unification Day virtual celebration to honor families who have successfully prevented removal, or been reunified with their children after involvement with the New Jersey Division of Child Protection and Permanency.
General
Children's Bureau Celebrates Reunification Month
This 2021 edition of CBX highlights reunification. When out-of-home care becomes necessary, family reunification is often the ultimate goal. This issue features a message from Associate Commissioner Aysha Schomburg about our country's history of separating families and how this year's National Reunification Month is a good time to recognize how far the child welfare system has come in keeping families together and the work that has yet to be done to ensure families stay together. Other reunification month resources are also highlighted.
Children's Bureau Highlights Reunification Month
A special edition of the Children's Bureau Express highlighting National Reunification Month. Articles explore how the child welfare system can strengthen and support families and promote safe reunification; the importance of recognizing family in trying times; lessons from 10 years of National Reunification Month; understanding what keeps families together; how multidisciplinary representation promotes reunification; and more.
Older Youth
Permanence Can Mean Going Home
An article from the National American Council on Adoptable Children focusing on reunification with parents after termination of parental rights as a permanency option for older youth in foster care.
Reunification for Older Youth
A call by the Juvenile Law Center to support and expand safe and sustainable reunification for older youth who are in or at risk of entering the child welfare system.
Practice Models
How Holistic Legal Representation Supports Reunification
How the Missouri Practice Model Transformed the State’s Child Welfare System
An overview of the Missouri Practice Model, a child and family-centered model that keeps families together through a collaborative approach.
Georgia's New Reunification Manager Position
Georgia is making family reunification a statewide priority with a new reunification manager position.
Roles in Reunification
Birth Parents
Partnering With Birth Parents to Promote Reunification
A publication by the Child Welfare Information Gateway focusing on strengthening partnerships between birth parents, foster parents and relative caregivers.
Foster Parents
Foster Care as Support to Families
The Children's Bureau released a new Information Memorandum in April 2020 highlighting the importance of foster care as a support to families working towards safe and successful reunification. The IM calls for communities to build and support relationships between resource families and parents as a way to engage parents and build their protective capacity, promote timely reunification, and strengthen child and family well-being.
Equipping Foster Parents to Actively Support Reunification
An article about preparing and supporting foster parents to help work toward reunification—whenever reunification is the goal—and to feel supported after children return home.
Resource Family Tip Sheet for Supporting Reunification
Tips and themes drawn from interviews with foster families who are outstanding supporters of reunification.
Resource Families Supporting Reunification
A summary of interviews with resource families and a discussion of two models that support creating a stronger culture among resource families to support reunification.
Parent Partners
Parent Partners: Resources for Families, Teams, and Systems
An article highlighting how parent partners support reunification and strategies for practitioners seeking to design and implement parent partner programs in their communities.
Sibling Connections
On the Road to Reunification: Experiencing Foster Care with My Sister by My Side
D'Artagnan Caliman shares his journey through foster care to getting his MSW and being a national resource for other families. His enduring connections to his sister, mother, and others resonated with the team.
Visitation
Supporting Remote Family Time during the Pandemic and Beyond: The Judge's Role
This alert highlights how the legal community is using remote family time during the pandemic, its benefits and drawbacks, how judge's can support its use, and how it can be used to help maintain family connections in the future.
Coping with Visits During COVID-19
Guidance for parents on visiting children during the pandemic, with a focus on parents' right to visits, self-advocacy tips, and how to help children cope and make the most of virtual visits.
Family Time/Visitation: Road to Safe Reunification
Research shows there is a strong connection between family time and safe reunification. We know that quality family time is a key indicator of earlier, and safer, reunifications. This article highlights practices that can improve the experience and outcomes for the child and family.
Visitation with Infants & Toddlers in Foster Care
A practice & policy brief highlighting what attorneys and judges need to know to promote high-quality visitation between parents and very young children.
TIPS for Parents with Supervised Visits
Resources for parents on making the most of supervised visits.
Visit Coaching: When Reunification Is Unknown
Learn how enCircle’s Visit Coaching Program differs from supervised visits and how it is used to foster strong relationships with everyone involved in family visits.