“Any time someone asks me about foster care, like, ‘How do you do it? How are you able to manage this?’ (I say) it takes a village. The more supports we can put in place, the more of a village we can create for families.”
Enhanced Foster Care (EFC) is a community-based service designed to ensure the permanency and stability of youth with acute behavioral and emotional concerns.
EFC includes a range of services aimed at cost-effectively caring for children in family settings rather than 24-hour supervised group care, such as Child Caring Institutions (CCI).
Through EFC, specialized care is offered based on three distinct levels of need. EFC’s primary objective is to keep children safely within their homes and community while providing individualized support for both youth and caregivers. This approach aims to improve outcomes for youth while also expediting placement in permanent homes.
Positive connections rewire the brain and can bring healing to children who have experienced trauma. Families receiving EFC services can help change the trajectory for these children by supporting them to get through challenging times in their lives and helping them learn how to have healthy relationships.
As part of WMPC’s EFC program, each partner agency implements Together Facing the Challenge, an evidence-based training for licensed foster parents, relatives, and kinship families, that:
Develops skills in effective behavior management and communication strategies
Emphasizes building and maintaining supportive and involved relationships
Supports caregivers in meeting the unique needs of each youth
Employs an individualized approach to address specific child and family needs
WMPC is the first performance-based foster care service delivery model in Michigan with the goal of improving outcomes for children.