Case Study Circuit 12

Case study:

Florida Circuit 12

Within 12 months of supplementing its Family Support service array with CarePortal, the Safe Children Coalition reported at 60% reduction in children entering out-of-home care.

Introduction

The Department of Children and Families in the State of Florida contracts with several Community-Based Care (CBC) agencies throughout the state who are responsible for providing child welfare services that are region-specific and child-focused. For the past 25 years, the Safe Children Coalition (SCC) has been the CBC agency for Judicial Circuit 12 composed of Manatee, Sarasota, and Desoto counties, offering services including but not limited to education, prevention, diversion, foster care, adoption, and more. Despite having the least amount of state funding allocated per child served amongst all CBCs in fiscal year 2021, SCC served 9,285 at-risk children and families this past fiscal year.

Core Funding Comparison FY 21-22

Community Information

SCC does a remarkable job of serving a community with a longstanding history of crisis. Manatee County, in particular, was once the epicenter of the national opioid crisis which had a dramatic impact on the amount of children being removed from their homes and placed into out-of-home care. Despite many measures to address the substance abuse issue across the community, this remains the most common reason children enter out-of-home care, and kids continue to be removed at a disproportionately higher rate than surrounding areas.

Partnership and Support

Circuit 12 was already a collaborative community, with many nonprofits working together alongside SCC to help serve vulnerable families. However, those collaborative efforts were often labor intensive, included frequent back and forth communication across various channels, and lacked a clear, succinct way to involve the local faith community. Local nonprofit, Bridge a Life, learned about CarePortal and implemented the platform in July 2021 with an emphasis on partnering with and supporting SCC to help meet the needs of the vulnerable children and families they served. SCC decided to implement CarePortal within their Prevention and Diversion team which focuses on stabilizing and strengthening biological families. These agency workers began vetting and submitting needs for local churches to assist with that could ultimately help keep children safely in the home and prevent the need for removal.

Launching within this one team enabled SCC to monitor the effectiveness of adding CarePortal as a support tool wthin the child welfare system in Circuit 12 in many ways. Through support training and ongoing encouragement, local churches began to engage with frequency and longevity, providing a sustainable source of care for local vulnerable families. By using CarePortal to build bridges and connect child-serving professionals with the faith community, agency workers (who were under-resourced and experiencing extreme burnout) experienced encouragement, appreciation, and joy from the local church while gaining vital reinforcements to serve children and families with excellence.

Most significantly, due to the nature of prevention and diversion services, the number of children being directed to out-of-home care services began to drop and stayed consistently lower each month CarePortal has been in effect.

SCC has implemented CarePortal on these additional teams to support each area of service:
(in order of implementation)

Prevention and Diversion

Emergency Response and Assessment Team
Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act Team (CAPTA)
Family Support Services Team
Safety Management Team
In-Home Non-Judicial Services Team

Judicial Services

Post Reunification Team

Out of Home Care

Relative/Non Relative Placement Team (Caregiver Assistance Program)

KEY FINDINGS

Within 12 months of using CarePortal, SCC reported the following:

60%

decrease in children entering out-of-home care

The rate of children experiencing a verified report resulting in removal decreased from 10.4% to 4.3% within 12 months.

20+

local churches engaged in serving children

Across these churches are 400+ trained responders, each educated on the platform, the child welfare system in Circuit 12 (including SCC and its role), trauma-informed care, and poverty culture where they live.

$119,683

economic
impact

With local churches providing tangible items needed for families, SCC’s budget (specifically for the Prevention and Diversion team) has opened up, enabling the agency to hire more team members and provide vital services to their clients.

532

children jointly
served through FSS and CarePortal

270 request were met with the purpose to safely prevent children from entering out-of-home care. Beds were the most requested item needed.

100%

of families served

were offered ongoing, meaningful connection to a local church.

When SCC supplemented its Family Support service array with a request to CarePortal, they realized a 60% reduction of children removed within 12 months. This impact is due to a decrease of children experiencing a verified report resulting in a removal within 12 months from 10.4% to 4.3%.

Last Fiscal Year Comparison (Per CARS):

7/1/2020 – 6/30/2021

511

Family support cases

458

no subsequent removals with 12 months

89.62%

non-removal Rate Family Support Cases

(10.38% recurrence rate)

Data Analysis by MindShare Technology

CarePortal Data

When SCC supplemented its Family Support service array with a request to CarePortal, they realized a 60% reduction of children removed within 12 months.

This impact is due to a decrease of children experiencing a verified report resulting in a removal within 12 months from 10.4% to 4.4%

Impact from 7/1/2020 – 6/30/2021

511

Total Families Served thru Family Support (Prevention)

458

Total Families with No Subsequent Removal within 12 Months

10.4%

% Families with Subsequent Removal within 12 Months with No Care Portal Intervention Supplementing Service Array

4.4%

% Families with Subsequent Removal within 12 Months with Care Portal Intervention Supplements the Family Support (Prevention) Service Array

60%

% Reduction in Removals within 12 Months once Care Portal Intervention Supplements the Family Support (Prevention) Service Array