YLC Transforms Foster Care Nationally through the Quality Parenting Initiative

YLC launched the Quality Parenting Initiative (QPI) over a decade ago as a national movement committed to ensuring that all children in care have excellent parenting and lasting relationships so they can thrive and grow. YLC’s impact in Minnesota, one of 80 jurisdictions across the country working to transform foster care through QPI, was recently featured in the Imprint, a national news outlet focused on the nation’s child welfare and youth justice systems.

“When longtime foster parents Darlene and Curtis Bell welcomed four kids into their home in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, they took a crash-course in preparing pepper soup and fufu. And within 24 hours of arriving at the Bells’ place, the siblings were served their favorite dishes.Learning about the foods they loved from the children’s Nigerian mother provided critical information to help the siblings feel welcomed and comforted. To prepare the dishes, the husband and wife team reached out to Nigerian friends and neighbors. And they, too, became part of smoothing the children’s transition to foster care. “The kids were just overjoyed that they had this network of aunties that knew their language, knew their culture, were a part of their culture and that me and my husband were connected,” Darlene Bell said. “It was huge for the kids.” The Bells are pioneers of the “comfort call,” an initial phone call foster parents make to the children’s parents to exchange vital information. Do they have a nickname? Do they need the light on to sleep? What triggers or soothes them? The Quality Parenting Initiative (QPI) is making that phone call a norm in sites across the country, with the aim of strengthening relationships between caregivers. Launched in 2008, the initiative is based on a simple premise: kids in foster care deserve excellent parenting. The program began in Florida and is now being practiced in 80 locations in 10 states, including Minnesota and large states like California.” 

Read the entire article highlighting YLC’s impact through QPI at https://imprintnews.org/foster-care/minnesota-works-for-quality-parenting-in-foster-families/63833 and donate to support this transformational work to put children’s needs first today!