The Quality Parenting Initiative (QPI) aims to strengthen foster care by helping the system support, retain and encourage excellent resource parents, including both traditional foster parents and kinship caregivers.
When parents can't care for their children, a resource parent must be able to provide the loving, committed, and skilled care that children need. They must also work effectively with the system to achieve the best possible permanency option for those children. Becoming a resource parent is both rewarding and challenging.
QPI supports resource families, including kin, by clearly articulating the high expectations the system has for them. QPI works with system and other key stakeholders to provide relevant tools, resources, practices, and policies that help resource parents be successful. QPI enables caregivers, agency staff, and birth parents to work as a team to support children and youth.
Philadelphia is part of a national network of QPI communities who share information and ideas about how to improve parenting and to better recruit and retain excellent resource families. They develop policies and practices that are based on current child research to support skilled, loving parenting.
The Philadelphia QPI committee consists of a diverse group of members including resource and birth parents, youth, child welfare practitioners, and child advocates.
Philadelphia QPI’s workgroups were developed to undertake several projects aimed at improving Philadelphia’s child welfare system and processes. Each Workgroup works on multiple projects in the area of Building Relationships, Training, and Communications & Information Sharing and advocates for the implementation of new processes and practices that empower Philadelphia’s Resource Parents, Birth Parents, Child-Welfare professionals, and other Stakeholders to be valuable and integral partners in the system.
Current Workgroup Lead – Brenda Hamlin – Bhamlin@Bethanna.org;
Justin Williams - JuWilliams@turningpoints.phmc.org
Current Workgroup Lead – Beth Vogel – Beth.Vogel@Phila.gov
Current Workgroup Lead – Lydia Cooper –Lydiac@asecondchance-kinship.com
“Philadelphia’s resource parents are integral, respected, and progressive partners in the child welfare system. They make an enduring commitment to each child in their care, while honoring and strengthening the child’s family ties. They believe in every child’s right to thrive.”
Just in Time Training is a web based service program designed to connect foster parents, kinship or other caregivers with training, peer experts and other resources. Questions are answered and practical solutions to care for children are discussed - all from the comfort of your home or office.
If you have difficulty accessing any material on this site, please contact us in writing and we will work with you to make the information available. You can direct your request to JITSupport@USF.edu.