Kinnect Team Members Published in Children and Youth Services Review
Members of our own Kinnect team, Stephanie Beleal, Alyse Almadani, and Cait Proctor-Frazier, along with our partners at Kaye Implementation & Evaluation, Emily Smith Goering, Sarah Kaye, Lucia Reyes, and Elisa Rosman, recently collaborated to write an article titled, “Increasing the likelihood of kinship placements: Testing the effectiveness of an intensive family search and engagement intervention”, that was recently published in the Children and Youth Services Review. This article puts the spotlight on the work of the Kinnect to Family Specialists (formerly 30 Days to Family as you will see referenced in the article) along with the positive effectiveness of the program’s evaluation. This was completed when we were still 30 Days to Family and it highlights that youth involved in our intervention are 2.4 times more likely than their peers to live with kinship caregivers. This publication in a scholarly journal is something we are proud of and continues to demonstrate our commitment to ensuring effective services and programs that build and strengthen kinship connections. The article goes on to explain the family search and engagement process, the importance of matching children and young people in care with their kin, and the positive outcomes that are the result of kinship placements. These outcomes are extremely important as they continue to validate and demonstrate the need for the work that all Kinnect programs are providing to families, young people, and children. These types of collaborative research efforts open doors for Kinnect to leverage the expertise within its team to branch out with initiatives like KinnectU to share best practices broadly and work to develop a KinFirst culture statewide and beyond!
Congratulations to our team members for their work and please be sure to take a look at the article in the Children and Youth Services Review!
For reference, the Children and Youth Services Review is an international, multidisciplinary journal that focuses on disadvantaged or otherwise vulnerable children, young people, families and the systems designed to support them. The journal provides a forum for rigorous scholarship relevant to policies, interventions, programs and services intended to improve well-being.