The mission of the Center for Family Finding is to support systemic changes that block children in out-of-home care from maintaining or reestablishing contact and relationships with those that love them. Family Finding, recently featured on "CBS 60 Minutes," implements extraordinary frameworks that help us rethink what is possible to improve safety, well-being, and permanency outcomes for our most vulnerable youth.

The Family Finding model, developed by Kevin Campbell, offers methods and strategies to locate and engage relatives of children living in out of home care. The goal of family finding is to provide each child with the life long connections that only a family can offer. Core beliefs inherent in this approach are:

• every child has a family;
• loneliness can be devastating and particularly felt by foster children;
• meaningful connections to family help a child develop a sense of belonging;
• and the single most identified factor contributing to positive outcomes for children involves meaningful connections and lifelong relationships with family.

Seneca Center provides administrative support for Kevin Campbell and the Center for Family Finding, as well as family finding services for young people enrolled in Seneca programs. The process of connecting and reconnecting youth with their families includes an extensive search and discovery process to identify and then engage family members. Therapists and children fly throughout the country to connect with family members or find relatives who live as close as next door. The family leads the planning process to ensure they remain engaged and can potentially provide life long support for the young person. The support offered by newly found family members may include inviting the child to spend the holidays with them or, in some cases, providing a permanent home in which the child can grow and flourish.

Information on Family Finding Training and TA Support for public and non-profit agencies (Requires a PDF viewer such as Adobe Reader)