Nonprofit taking over Casey Family program

ALL IN THE FAMILY: Child & Family made plans to take over Casey Family Services in the state after the Annie B. Casey Foundation announced it would shutter its program. Pictured above are Alan Feinstein, left, director of foster care for Child & Family, Arleen DiCicco, an administrator at the nonprofit, and Peter DiBari, president and CEO of Child & Family. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY
ALL IN THE FAMILY: Child & Family made plans to take over Casey Family Services in the state after the Annie B. Casey Foundation announced it would shutter its program. Pictured above are Alan Feinstein, left, director of foster care for Child & Family, Arleen DiCicco, an administrator at the nonprofit, and Peter DiBari, president and CEO of Child & Family. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY

Child & Family, a Middletown-based, social-services nonprofit, has in its 146-year history embraced change and revitalization several times in order to meld to community needs and foster growth.
Since first opening its doors in Newport in 1866, it has expanded from a shelter for orphans and children of destitute parents to incorporate elder services, child care, services for at-risk families, and substance-abuse programs, among other initiatives, while establishing a presence in Providence and East Providence to carry out its ideal of providing a community-driven, safe place for those in need.
So when the Annie B. Casey Foundation, a Baltimore-based charitable organization focused on improving the lives of disadvantaged children, announced earlier this year that it would close Casey Family Services, its foster-care services program that Child & Family long had utilized, the Rhode Island organization saw it as one more opportunity to continue its mission.
Child & Family announced in mid-November that it has assumed program responsibility for the Rhode Island operations of Casey Family Services, which is based in New Haven, Conn., and also runs programs in that state, Maine, New Hampshire, Maryland, Massachusetts, and Vermont, serving about 400 children throughout all its branches.
“Our commitment to children and families that we serve is really what has driven [our] organization,” said Peter DiBari, president and CEO of Child & Family. “It’s somewhat of a risk, but we are committed. We are investing, and I think we’ll ultimately be successful.”
DiBari said Child & Family had been talking with the Annie B. Casey Foundation about acquiring the Rhode Island operation since June, when the foundation, which was founded in 1948, announced it would discontinue its direct-service arm by June 2013.
In a press release, the foundation said the move was part of its shift to a “grant-making strategy that will help hundreds of foster care and other nonprofit human-services agencies” with innovative and proven child-welfare practices.
Child & Family had about 30 children in foster care with Casey Family Services at the time. Casey Family Services, established in 1976, has 50 slots for children in its program, which emphasizes securing lifelong family connections for children and youth within, or at risk of entering, the foster care system. The organization also works on advocating policy change, system reform and meeting the emotional needs of foster-care children.
“Casey has been part of our partner [base] and when the notice [came], my initial concern was around the children and figuring out the best way of maintaining those services for the kids without disrupting [them],” DiBari said. “Casey has developed a very unique and special foster-care program. I wanted to maintain that.”
The foundation said in a statement it will transition the majority of children and foster families to other providers with capacity by Dec. 31 and keep a small staff on board to help transition cases that need additional time until June 30, 2013.
All children placed under Casey Family Services will continue with their current foster families.
It also said it was providing the 280 Casey Family Services employees with resources and support to pursue new employment or other plans.
Of the 31 employees at the Rhode Island operation, nearly a dozen interviewed to work at Child & Family. Eight former Casey employees will comprise the program staff at what now will be called Child & Family’s Foster Care Program.
Jim Gannaway, who has been division director at Casey Family since 1992, will stay on through July 2013 to provide continuity. Alan Feinstein, who previously was the supervising clinical psychologist with the R.I. Department of Corrections, is the program’s new director.
“If it weren’t for Child & Family stepping up and being able to work with us and being able to transition our kids all in one piece, it would have been kind of tragic because families would have had to go to different agencies and we would have lost the focus of the work we are doing,” Gannaway said. “It’s good for the network to … not lose that specialized care. Our families are very committed no matter what agency [they use but] the idea of getting them to stay together was important.”
Part of the agreement will allow program children and families to be served at the former Casey Family Services location on Eddy Street. Child & Family has agreed to operate the building and to consider purchasing it down the road. Child & Family has relocated its Providence office there from Atwells Avenue and the hope is that the Eddy Street building will eventually become a community center, much like its Middletown Community Center that opened in 2009.
Casey Family Services had for years operated a family-resource center at the building but had to stop programming for that as funding shifted through the years.
“Peter has made a commitment to at some point bring those programs back. We always felt they were really critical to the community,” Gannaway said.
Child & Family is investing some resources to make the acquisition financially possible, including about $52,000 to turn over the hardware and infrastructure, but DiBari said his budget ensures they are “going to grow and we’ll have a balanced budget by the end of the year.”
Though the Casey foundation has not yet announced any new initiatives in the Providence area following the direct-services closure, it already is making good on its word to expand partnerships in other areas, including committing up to $150,000 annually over the next two years to partners in Buffalo, N.Y., Columbus, Ohio, and San Antonio, Texas to support community development in low-income neighborhoods.
The foundation still has a strong Rhode Island presence. It announced last July, alongside the R.I. Department of Children, Youth, and Families, that it had chosen Providence as the first city in which to run its new Evidence2Success program that will combine children and youth-development research and resources to improve child well-being through shared accountability and partnerships among public systems, schools, communities and families and other initiatives.
The foundation also continues as a funder for Rhode Island Kids Count, which was founded as an outgrowth of the foundation’s Kids Count Project.
“Casey foundation is committed to doing lots of things in Rhode Island,” DiBari said. “This [move] is a huge leap for Child & Family but in other ways it’s really at the core of what we do.” •

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