One way we advanced our vision where all children are thriving within their families and communities is through Intensive Permanence Services (IPS). At its root, IPS establishes healing, belonging, and community for child welfare’s most disconnected youth and their families who have been separated, while in its implementation, becomes an onramp to mindset and practice shift across an entire agency or system.
Following the trauma of family and caregiver separations, children’s brains diminish the capacity to feel safe and connected, a phenomenon that intensifies with repeated disruptions in the child welfare system. Inside an organization or agency, specialized staff with low caseloads guide youth and their families through a 4-phase program of discovery, acceptance, and forward thinking that helps the youth answer key questions about who they are, why connections are important, and how to trust others. Participating youth exit child welfare agencies with a system of natural supports and increased capacity to meet their physical and emotional needs. Instead of heading to hospitals, jails, or without housing, Alia has witnessed youth reconnect with family members they thought had forgotten about them, restore relationships they believed they were unworthy of mending, and begin college, parenthood, or work with the necessary emotional regulation and support system for success. The IPS model has been implemented coast-to-coast, with youth stepping down from high-cost Residential Treatment Centers, group homes, hospital settings, and frequent moves, back into the care of their families or other caregivers. The primary goal is legal permanency, but relational or physical permanency is just as important for many youth and their families. IPS specialists work not only with the youth, but also with the caregivers, and collaborate with the youth’s whole team to build a safe and viable solution for the youth’s future.
The impacts of IPS also ripple through to communities, as we know we have a collective responsibility to care for all youth (not just those we personally know and love). IPS is a unique model that provides weekly training and support for IPS managers, supervisors, and specialists, and prepares agencies to sustain the model with fidelity long after the training program is completed. Additionally, Alia IPS staff has helped train caregivers, worked alongside agencies to create change in RTC visitation protocols, and created mindset shifts with hundreds of individuals connected to our youth. One of our partner supervisors, who completed the program and is running IPS independently said, “It has been amazing to see the mindset shift throughout our agency where connections are just as important as finding a placement.” At another agency which is just one year into the IPS trainings, the director recently shared that she was in a child protection staffing and was pleasantly surprised to hear IPS language being used while no IPS staff was in the room. IPS language brings a less biased, less judgmental approach to interacting with families and youth and changes mindset. Mindset guides action, and the IPS mindset can change the trajectory of not just one child at a time, but of all the youth and families who are touched by agencies who understand it.
If you are interested in learning more about Intensive Permanency Services or would like to be connected to one of our partners who has participated, please contact info@aliainnovations.org.