Major Accomplishments (continued)
Community Based Care
The 85th Texas Legislature directed DFPS to expand Community-Based Care (CBC), which is a community-based approach to meeting the individual and unique needs of children, youth, and families. A single contractor within each designated geographic service area is responsible for providing foster care and kinship care (care provided by family members or close friends). This contractor is responsible for expanding foster care capacity, building a network of providers, engaging the community, finding homes or other placements for children, and coordinating and delivering services to children and their families, and case management. CBC was active in Bexar County, seven North Texas counties, and all counties in Region 2 by the end of FY 2018.
In FY 2019, DFPS expand CBC by releasing a Request for Applications for the 27 remaining counties in Region 8 and awarding a contract to Saint Francis Ministries in Region 1 to expand CBC into 41 counties in the Texas Panhandle.
DFPS also released an implementation plan for future expansion of CBC. This blueprint includes goals and expectations, roles and responsibilities, and monitoring to assure the highest quality care for the children. See the Child Protective Services section of this report for more information as well as the CBC webpage.
APS Mentor Program
Adult Protective Services (APS) started a mentor program for new caseworkers in FY 2019. The goal of this program is to support and retain new caseworkers by leveraging experienced APS staff to help prepare incoming caseworkers and directly contribute to their success. Trained mentors meet at least biweekly with new caseworkers to provide a supportive learning environment that gives each caseworker the best chance of success. This program is available statewide. By the end of the fiscal year, 138 new APS caseworkers had participated in the mentor program. The turnover rate for this group improved by declining 6.5 percentage points compared to the FY 2018.
Learn more about this program in the APS section of this report.