Redefining Residential: Strategic Interventions to Advance Youth Permanency

ABSTRACT

This is the 13th in a series of papers by the Association of Children’s Residential Centers (ACRC) addressing critical issues facing the field of residential treatment. ACRC is the longest standing association focused exclusively on the needs of children and youth who need residential intervention and their families. The purpose of the papers is to stimulate dialogue and self-examination among organizations, stakeholders, and the field.

This paper focuses on the overarching goal for all children in out-of-home care to achieve safety, permanence, and well-being, and the role of those providing quality residential interventions in accomplishing this mission. While it particularly focuses on children and youth in the child welfare system, it is applicable to all young people and families. With residential interventions a necessary therapeutic option in community systems of care (Blau, Caldwell, & Lieberman, 2014), it is important that residential providers embrace their critical role in helping children and families move toward permanency and achieve successful outcomes.

KEYWORDS:

• permanency
• out-of-home care
• child welfare