Vision for Child Welfare in Georgia

Kids Deserve to Grow up in Families

Our work is to make sure children are safe and connected, and that families have the resources they need to stay together.

Georgia's Blueprint for Family First One-Sheet 

The Family First Act Overview

A Vision for Child Welfare in Georgia

Because kids deserve (and do better) growing up in families, in Georgia and in many states across the country, professionals in child welfare are working to transform the child welfare system so that prevention and supporting families are its primary, foundational goals.

By helping  families access resources when they need support, this new vision for child welfare will, over time, build stronger families and brighter futures for Georgia’s children and youth. Realizing this vision will involve many partners in caring for our kids: agencies across the state, children’s own extended families, community organizations and communities as a whole.

The way we use funding may look different—for example, finding ways of supporting communities who support families. Our focus is family preservation and maintaining connections is our goal, even if a child enters foster care. There is an appropriate continuum of placement to support the needs of children, and parents have access to services with the goal of family reunification and timely permanency in proximity to communities.

How The Family First Act Supports Georgia’s Vision

Georgia’s Blueprint for Family First is our state’s plan for implementing the federal Family First Prevention Services Act to build stronger families and brighter futures for Georgia’s children and youth.

We’ll use the Family First Act to support our goal of keeping children with their families by offering evidence-based services that help address some of the root causes responsible for many children entering foster care. More funding will be available for services to address substance abuse and mental health concerns and parental skill building programs that have been proven to work. We’ll be able to provide these services to children, parents, kinship caregivers, and pregnant and parenting youth in foster care. 

And for children who do enter foster care, we’ll place them in the least restrictive, most family-like setting.

The Family First Act is a new funding tool for states that presents a broader opportunity for the child welfare system as a whole to transform how it supports children and families.

We issue this Blueprint for Family First as an invitation for engagement and ongoing collaboration with all child welfare system partners with the intention that our joint work will result in strengthened families for a stronger Georgia. 

Stronger Families Mean Better Outcomes

Kids of all ages need close family relationships to develop and grow. Research has shown that the trauma that accompanies family separation often results in a lifetime of emotional and psychological problems. When we can provide support that allows children and youth to grow up safely in their own homes, we build a path towards stronger families and brighter futures for our young people.