Training Institute for Foster Families in Caring for At-risk Youth

The OJJDP FY 09 Earmarks Programs further the Department's mission by providing grants, cooperative agreements, and other assistance authorized by the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974, as amended, to organizations identified in the Explanatory Statement Regarding H.R. 1105 (Omnibus Appropriations Act, 2009), 155 Cong. Rec. H1653 (daily ed. Feb. 23, 2009) (statement by Rep. Obey, Chairman of the Committee on Appropriations of the House).

Children in foster care experience emotional and psychological disorders related to physical and emotional trauma. Foster, adoptive, and kinship parents deal daily with these vulnerable children. When the parents are unable to cope with the children's resulting behaviors, this often leads to the child's disruption in the home or dissolution of the adoption. Youthville wants to increase the placement stability of Kansas foster children by educating foster, kin and adoptive parents in the Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics (NMT), a promising practice in which the agency is becoming certified. Parents will attend an intensive one-day training and up to six shorter subsequent trainings throughout the state. Parents who attend trainings will demonstrate appropriate knowledge and competency in the NMT through post testing. Youthville will measure the impact on children via improvement in its state placement stability outcome. NCA/NCF