Center for Excellence in Resource Family Development (CfE)

The federal government- HHS Children’s Bureau – has awarded Maryland DHS with a four-year grant to create a Center of Excellence for Foster Family Development – the only one of this grant awarded in the country. The Center for Excellence will develop and implement a model to guide local and state partners to recruit, prepare and support new and existing resource families resulting in:

  • Improved engagement, development, and support of resource families;
  • Improved retention rates and relationships with resource families;
  • Increased number of resource families prepared to provide enhanced supports to children and their families towards reunification;
  • Development of resource families in the neighborhoods and communities children in foster care most come from;
  • Reduced inappropriate use of congregate care placements
  • Comprehensive biological family support services and timely, stable reunification; and
  • Improved permanence stability, family and community connections, and well-being outcomes for children placed with resource families in the target group.


1https://www.keepfostering.org/outcomes-2/
2https://www.keepfostering.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/KEEP-Overview.pdf
3https://www.keepfostering.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/KEEP-Outcomes.pdf
4Manley, E., Schober, M., Simons, D., & Zabel, M. (2018). Making the case for a comprehensive children’s crisis
continuum of care. Available from the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors website:
https://www.nasmhpd.org/sites/default/files/TACPaper8_ChildrensCrisisContinuumofCare_508C.pdf
5Jedwab, M., Chatterjee, A., & Shaw, T. V. (2020). A review of foster home policies and regulations in the United States designed to support foster homes families. Journal of Public Child Welfare, 14(2), 209.
6https://michiganpmto.com/training-for-providers/what-is-ptcr/