A nonprofit foster care program in Vermont is folding at the end of the year.
The Annie E. Casey Foundation is closing all seven Casey Family Services programs in New England and Maryland in December. The Vermont affiliate, based in Winooski and White River Junction, served between 80 and 100 children a year.
Casey Family Services has specialized in support programs for children who have been abused or neglected and traumatized by chaotic family environments, institutionalized residential care environments and multiple foster care placements. The nonprofit has provided intensive trauma therapy programs for children, funding for educational opportunities and intensive training for foster families for 36 years. The group has also given children and families post-adoption support.
Mark Redmond, executive director of Spectrum Youth and Family Services in Burlington, a nonprofit that serves teenagers and young adults, said he was impressed with the quality of care Casey offered children in the foster care system.
“They were using their own money to help their kids past age 18,” Redmond said. “They were always going beyond the call of duty to help kids they were working with so to me it’s definite a loss.”
The foundation has decided to stop providing direct services for families and children in New England in order to “achieve greater scale” and reach more people across the country, West said. The Annie E. Casey Foundation will provide $18 million to $20 million in grants to nonprofit programs across the country next year. In addition, the foundation wants to give child welfare agencies technical assistance for the implementation of evidence-based best practices for foster care.
“It was a really difficult decision to make because we know Casey Family Services has done outstanding work for 36 years,” West said. “The foundation has for the last few years moved toward how to achieve greater scale in our work and reach more people.”
The nonprofit, which has operated programs in Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maryland and Vermont, placed 400 children a year in highly trained foster care families. Casey employs 280 social workers, case managers and other support staff in the region. This year’s budget for Casey Family Services and associated programs is $33 million, according to Norris West, spokesman for the foundation.
West says over the next six months, Casey staff will be helping children transition out of the programs “with the least disruption possible.” Social workers will be looking to place children in permanent family situations through adoptions or reunification with their birth families. Some children will likely be transitioned into another foster care agency.
Nita Lescher, division director of Casey Family Services in Vermont, said she has been moved by the outpouring of “what potential feels like condolences.”
“People are honestly saddened … about the loss of this program, which has meant so much to people,” Lescher said. “Professionals in field are already feeling the loss. We’ve been a vital component of the child welfare services repertoire.”
Casey has been committed to taking care of the more difficult to place older children, some of whom have been in 15-30 foster care homes and have spent time in residential facilities.
“There is a whole history of people giving up on these kids, which definitely has a permanent impact on how they move through the world,” Lescher said.
The foster families, she said, open their hearts and homes to children and stick by them no matter what.
Casey’s privately funded programs have lower caseloads than state agencies and this enables the staff to work more intensively with individual children. Social workers at Casey are trained in trauma focused cognitive behavior therapy.
The approach to foster care has shifted over time, Lescher said. When Jim Casey, founder of UPS, decided to use the fortune he amassed to improve foster care, the prevailing paradigm was to find families that were willing to provide longterm stable homes for children until they aged out of the system.
In the 2000s, new research led to an emphasis on legal and permanent adoptions. Studies showed that children who were adopted fared better as adults, were more likely to stay out of jail, find jobs and avoid teenage pregnancies and homelessness. The new watchword was permanence. Instead of longterm foster care, Lescher said, Casey worked to get children legally adopted.
In Vermont, social workers at Casey have worked closely with the Vermont Department of Children and Families. All of the children Casey serves have been referrals from the state.
State officials say Casey’s programs have been a crucial part of Vermont’s foster care system.
Cindy Walcott, deputy commissioner for the Family Services Division, says the announcement last week that Casey is closing its doors came as “a huge shock to us.” She described the state’s relationship with Casey social workers as a “team approach.”
“This is a big loss for Vermont,” Walcott said.
Casey has served children who because of early traumas have a difficult time socializing in family and school situations. Many have experienced neglect or emotional and physical abuse.
“They have come from chaotic home situations and that has had a significant effect on their ability to be in successful relations, to be successful in school and … just do the normal things kids do — participate in school activities, visit with friends,” Walcott said.
In Vermont, Casey placed 29 children with significant psychological challenges in foster care homes and provided services to 81 children this year.
David Yacovone, commissioner of the Department of Children and Families, said the state will seek another nonprofit provider to replace Casey’s services. Northeast Family Institute and another group have contacted his office already, he said.
“Children deserve the right to grow up loved and safe and whenever that (situation) is altered it’s concern to all of us,” Yacovone said.
Lescher said over the next six months Casey will be “doing everything we can to stay with children who are already placed in families and get them the services they need.”
Vermont has 1,200 licensed foster care families. About 500 are providing homes for 700 children in the state. The foster care system serves children from infancy to age 18.
Casey has 27 full-time employees in Vermont. The foundation is offering what it describes as generous severance packages.
