OAKLAND, Calif., April 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Child welfare leaders and policymakers from throughout California gathered with foster youth, former foster youth and families today to express their gratitude to Pat Reynolds Harris, a dedicated child welfare professional for over four decades whose vision to change the lives of thousands of foster youth led to the founding of the California Permanency for Youth Project (CPYP) in 2002. CPYP is dedicated to changing the longstanding perception that older foster youth were not easily adoptable which in turn led to thousands emancipating from the child welfare system at age 18 without any permanent connection to an adult, family or community.
CPYP works directly with fourteen California counties -- Alameda, Contra Costa, Fresno, Los Angeles (Metro-North), Sacramento, San Francisco, San Mateo, Humboldt, Monterey, Orange, Sonoma, San Luis Obispo, Kern, Stanislaus -- assisting them in the implementation of promising new practices and programs that help foster youth between the ages of 11-18 attain a permanent connection with a caring adult or family (permanency). Innovative practices spearheaded by CPYP in California counties include direct involvement of foster youth in identifying and reaching out to family members and other supportive adults including: the use of "Family Finding" technology to locate relatives within minutes and training of social workers to prepare youth and relatives to sustain long term commitments, a social worker training curriculum developed and presented by former foster youth, and the development of foster youth "digital stories" which are used as an educational and training tool.
According to Jennifer Rodriguez, Policy Director for the California Youth Connection, and a former foster youth who created a Digital Story used to train and educate social workers, "the impact of Pat Reynolds Harris' work on the lives of our California foster youth is immeasurable. By elevating the most basic of human needs -- to be loved by someone -- to its proper place as a the first priority and buttressing it with the necessary practices and supports for youth, families and the social workers on the front lines of their lives, she has not only changed the lives of thousands of foster youth, but she has also changed foster care practice and discourse forever."
Harris' efforts also have been credited with positively affecting the child welfare landscape nationally. According to Pat O'Brien, Executive Director of "You Gotta Believe," a leading permanency oriented organization in New York City, "Pat pioneered what has now become a national movement to support older foster youth permanence by connecting those of us who were working on this issue around the country to share successful practices and agree upon model programs." Harris organized the first national meeting of child welfare leaders, advocates and foster youth and families in San Francisco in 2002 to share best practices and principles for achieving youth permanency. In four short years, the meetings grew from a small group of forty people to several hundred from over fifteen states and fourteen California counties. New studies, shared practices and model programs have all emerged from these meetings and are taking root throughout the country.
According to Teri Kook, Senior Program Officer at the Stuart Foundation which provides support for CPYP and which funded the first four national convenings, "This very important work has spread like wildfire, thanks to the incredible passion, energy and devotion of Pat Reynolds Harris. It has been an honor and a privilege to partner with CPYP and to witness the transformative changes in front line social workers' perceptions, beliefs and daily practices to find and support caring and committed adults for teenagers in California's foster care system."
According to child welfare leaders, foster youth consistently fare better when they have at least one permanent adult relationship prior to "aging out" of the foster care system at age 18. Without this support, many foster youth face otherwise daunting odds, including high rates of homelessness, school drop-out and unemployment. More than 4,000 youth emancipate from the foster care system each year in California, which has the largest number of foster youth in the nation.
"Thanks to Pat Reynolds Harris and the work of CPYP, older youth permanency is now understood as a top priority that is achievable and California counties are leading the way in addressing this urgent need for every foster youth to be supported and loved by an adult or family," said Debby Jeter, Deputy Director of City and County of San Francisco Family and Children's Services.
As a result of her leadership, Harris recently received the 2007 T. George Silcott Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2007 Annual Conference of the Black Administrators in Child Welfare (BACW) and the National Adoption Excellence Award in 2004. In 2005, she was honored by a coalition of 25 foster care organizations with the "2005 Foster Care Month Change A Lifetime Award," presented at the California State Capitol in honor of her important contribution in bringing permanency needs and practice to the attention of policymakers and child welfare practitioners.
Harris earned her B.A. degree from the University of California, Berkeley, her Masters in Social Work from the University of Chicago and her Masters in Public Health from Harvard University. In her four decades of service to children, Harris has worked consecutively as Director of the Public Child Welfare Agency and Director of Community Health Services in San Francisco County and as director of several non-profit child welfare agencies in the Bay Area including the Black Adoption Placement and Research Center, Parent-Infant Neighborhood Center and Children's Home Society of California, Bay Area Region. She also served as Program Officer at the Stuart Foundation for nine years where she initiated work on the integration of child welfare and TANF and permanency for foster youth.
California Permanency for Youth Project
