All youth need families and supportive networks to thrive and make a successful transition to adulthood. Philadelphia must act now to guarantee that all youth in the foster care and juvenile justice systems have connections to family and community—including when they exit care. Adolescence is a critical developmental period, and funneling in and out of residential treatment facilities, secure detention centers or other institutional placements can stymie the creation of relationships and other experiences youth need to grow into healthy adults. Far too often youth in these settings fall victim to maltreatment and abuse, as well as harmful practices such as strip searches or solitary confinement.

In February 2018, Congress passed the Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA). Among other things, FFPSA limits federal funding for child welfare placements housing more than than six residents to no more than two weeks, subject to some specific exceptions. The two-week funding limit is designed to force state and county agencies, such as our state and local Departments of Human Services, to limit use of congregate care in favor of family placements. Reform is desperately needed in our commonwealth: According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation Report, Fostering Youth Transitions, 47 percent of Pennsylvania's children ages 14 to 21 in foster care are placed in group homes and institutional settings. The fact that just over half of these foster youth are placed with families is shocking and a call to action.

Youth advocates at Juvenile Law Center are taking up this call. Juvenile Law Center has two youth advocacy programs that amplify the voices of youth with experience with the justice and child welfare systems to advocate for themselves and for system reform. Juveniles for Justice advocates are youth who have experienced the justice system; Youth Fostering Change involves youth who have lived in foster care. Each year, the groups conduct research and then develop a reform project that will focus the group's advocacy efforts.

Last year, Juveniles for Justice addressed conditions of confinement and published Broken Bridges: How Juvenile Placements Cut Off Youth from Communities and Successful Futures, a report featuring youth stories of incarceration and their recommendations for reform. Removal from family and community ranked high among their concerns.

Youth advocate Anahi (only first names were used) wrote: “When I was first going to placement, I didn't actually know when I was being placed. I did not know where or how long I would be there, either. I wasn't allowed home passes when I was there for about three months. I lost contact with my adoptive parents while I was in placement and couldn't return home with them. I also stopped talking to my friends and other people in my life because I couldn't keep in touch when I was there.”

Broken Bridges' first recommendation aims to overcome this feeling of isolation: Keep Youth in their communities. The youth advocates specifically call upon stakeholders to provide community-based resources to youth and families to help keep kids out of the system. Regarding placement that encourages family and community ties, they recommend:

In the rare instances when placement is deemed necessary, place youth in facilities within their communities or close to their homes. This includes:

• Ensuring that all placements are safe and supportive, and
• Training staff on up-to-date trauma-informed practices.

Broken Bridges also details the youths' educational challenges while in placement, including inadequate—if any—educational programming and the inability to transfer the credits they received while in placement to their schools when they exited placement. This year, both Juveniles for Justice and Youth Fostering Change are focusing their reform projects on educational credit transfer and other school re-entry issues that youth confront upon exiting foster care or the juvenile justice system. Too often, lack of credit transfer means these youth must repeat a class or even a full grade, putting them at an educational disadvantage instead of enhancing their chances of success.

To address the need of foster youth for permanency plans that emphasize the need for family and supportive adults, Youth Fostering Change will release its permanency toolkit in the next month. This toolkit will provide resources to both youth and supportive adults working to ensure successful transitions to adulthood, including tips for actively participating in permanency planning meetings and hearings and for ensuring a permanency plan that identifies family, mentors and other adults to ensure a safe and successful transition from care. Check our website, jlc.org, for the upcoming release of this useful resource.

The placement of child welfare and justice-involved youth in institutions and other remote settings are also under increasing scrutiny. On Feb. 6, District Attorney Larry Krasner announced a package of juvenile justice reforms, which plainly favor diversion of youth entirely from the juvenile justice system and, where placement is necessary within the purposes of the Juvenile Act, urge the use of placement as a last-resort option. At the press conference announcing the new policies, Juveniles for Justice youth advocates Lilly and Bree detailed physical abuse, strip searches, lack of education and other harmful conditions of confinement that they experienced in juvenile justice placements, and which are all documented in Broken Bridges. The system meant to help them instead caused further harm. They called for an end to institutional placements as well as reliance on placements far from home. Marsha Levick, Juvenile Law Center chief legal officer, also spoke and echoed their call to keep kids in their communities.

A few months ago, as part of their reform project that culminated in Broken Bridges, youth advocates from Juvenile Law Center's Juveniles for Justice program also testified before Philadelphia City Council about the abusive conditions of confinement they experienced in the juvenile justice system. Their testimony, as well as that of other witnesses, prompted Councilmember Helen Gym to form the Youth Residential Placement Task Force to address abusive conditions at facilities and move children out of congregate care. Task Force membership includes representatives from Juvenile Law Center along with colleagues from Education Law Center, Community Legal Services, Support Center for Child Advocates and the Defender Association. Philadelphia Department of Human Services, the District Attorney's Office, Community Behavioral Health and the School District of Philadelphia are also members. DHS commissioner Cynthia Figueroa has similarly called for change, publicly supporting our youth advocates at the city council hearing and committing to lead a citywide effort to keep youth in their communities and families.

The task force will finalize its report in June of this year, and it is critical to keep the pressure on our local agencies and courts to reform the system so that children are only placed outside their families when there is no other safe alternative; are supported—not harmed—in placement; and transition out of care or placement with connections to supportive families and other adults. A broader coalition of youth, families and advocates outside the task force are also working to ensure that the task force hears from affected communities. If you or a child you know would like your concerns and voices to be heard, plan to attend the upcoming public meeting at Community Behavioral Health, 801 Market St., on Feb. 26 at 5:30 p.m. A second public comment session will be held on May 7 at 5:30 p.m. We must create continuous paths to success for our youth, not broken bridges. Together, we can ensure that all of Philadelphia's children receive the family and community support they need to grow into successful neighbors and citizens.

Susan Vivian Mangold is chief executive officer at Juvenile Law Center. Juvenile Law Center advocates for rights, dignity, equity and opportunity for youth in the child welfare and justice systems. Founded in 1975 in Philadelphia, Juvenile Law Center is the first nonprofit, public interest law firm for children in the country. Through litigation, appellate advocacy and submission of amicus briefs, policy reform, public education, training, consulting and strategic communications, Juvenile Law Center fights for children who come into contact with the child welfare and justice systems in Philadelphia and across the country.