Youth-Friendly Permanency Resources
The following resources were created with youth involvement or by professionals using a youth-focused approach to help achieve permanency for youth. These resources are particularly useful for providing SWAN Units of Service such as Child Preparation and Child Specific Recruitment. The resources can assist caseworkers in explaining, processing and delivering permanency services, while recognizing the resources do not replace the caseworker’s role in supporting the youth.
For additional youth-friendly resources visit: https://www.payab.pitt.edu/Resources-Permanency.htm
SWAN Brochure
This brochure was created by the Youth Advisory Board and explains the Statewide Adoption Network and how SWAN services support permanency for youth using youth-friendly language. The brochure also provides information to help youth consider how the Child Profile, Child Specified Recruitment and Child Preparation Units of Service can benefit them.
Click to access the SWAN Brochure
Adoption or PLC, Which is Right for Me?
This one-page document provides legal clarity to frequently asked questions youth have when considering the permanency goals of adoption and permanent legal custodianship. The document is written in a straightforward, concise manner and a great tool to facilitate conversation with a youth about the goals’ differences, implications for birth parents, decision-making authority, and inheritance rights.
Click to access Adoption or PLC, Which is Right for Me?
Permanency Pact
The “Permanency Pact,” developed by Foster Club is a free document designed to encourage life-long, kin-like connections between a young person and a supportive adult. This list of potential roles for caring adults can help youth consider why they might need a permanent parent and/or lifelong connections.
Click to access the Permanency Pact
Top 10 Tips for Foster Parents of Teenagers
Top Ten Tips brochure was created by the Youth Advisory Board to engage parents and youth in conversation about realistic roles, responsibilities, and expectations to increase positive connections within the household. These tips can also be used for facilitating attachment between youth and permanency providers, including adoptive parents and other caring committed adults.
Click to access Top 10 Tips for Foster Parents of Teenagers
Important Tips for Sharing the Child Profile with Older Youth
This document provides important tips for sharing Child Profile information with older youth, particularly those aging out of care. It emphasizes the best person to share information is a child welfare professional or another supportive adult. It also highlights the need to consider the youth’s emotional vulnerability, being prepared for various reactions and checking in to support the youth after sharing.
Click to access Tips for Sharing the Child Profile with Older Youth
Reasons to Refer SWAN Units of Service
This document provides brief descriptions of the SWAN Units of Service, eligibility requirements and the ways youth can benefit from receiving the Unit of Service.
Click to access Reasons to Refer SWAN Units of Service
Voluntary Post-Adoption Contact Agreements: An Explanation for Youth
This brochure provides a concise overview about the benefits of a Post-Adoption Contact Agreement, types of contact and parties involved in an agreement. It can be used with youth to initiate discussion about the possibility of on-going contact with birth relatives after adoption.
Click to access Voluntary Post-Adoption Contact Agreements: An Explanation for Youth