Decreasing Child Welfare Involvement by 60 Percent

New York City Pilot Program Shows Promise for Decreasing Child Welfare Involvement by 60 Percent for At-Risk Families

Corporation for Supportive Housing releases study results on their 'Keeping Families Together' pilot project designed to protect children and reunite families involved in the city's child welfare system

NEW YORK, Feb. 2, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH) announced evaluation results of their cutting-edge Keeping Families Together pilot program. The results show the program's comprehensive, supportive housing intervention makes major strides in stopping entrenched, generational cycles of abuse and neglect for the city's most at-risk families. The study tracked 29 participating New York City families from October 2007 to July 2009.

The program resulted in the closure of more than half (61.1%) of the participating families' child welfare cases and six children who had been removed from their families by children's services were reunited by the conclusion of the evaluation. No children were removed from their home during the pilot period.

The Keeping Families Together program is founded on the notion that supportive housing involving coordinated public support systems, can help stabilize vulnerable families and enhance children's safety. The model combined permanent, affordable housing with a range of on and off site services—like substance abuse treatment, medication management, parenting skills training, and career counseling—designed to address the needs of the most at-risk families. FULL STORY