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Our Mission

Mobilize local communities, in partnership with the Oregon Department of Human Services (ODHS), to safely reduce the number of children and youth in foster care in Oregon.

Letter from the Board

Fall 2021

Dear Friends,

In 2020, we began partnering with ODHS with the shared goal of helping Oregon's children and youth safely exit foster care through family reunification, guardianship or adoption. We are developing ODHS-community partnerships to stabilize Child Welfare-involved families and bring children home, sooner. The need for community involvement is even more pronounced in the wake of the COVID pandemic which has hit vulnerable families hardest.

ODHS prioritized 3 primary barriers to child-family reunification in Marion County: housing stability, child safety and transportation. Robust collaboration between ODHS and community partners is essential to address these issues, CP3 serves as the bridge to help identify and develop solutions and to cultivate collaboration with community partners.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted our work, we have forged ahead, including expanding the CP3-ODHS partnership into Douglas County. In this update, we share our progress towards addressing each of these barriers.

In appreciation,

Program Updates
Directly Addressing Barriers to Child-Family Reunification

Housing Stability

New Supportive Housing Opened in Salem

CP3 secured funding to help a non-profit (Iron Tribe Network - ITN) launch 2 affordable peer-supported group houses in Marion and Polk Counties. Parents with Child Welfare experience identified this supportive housing model as a helpful resource for families. ITN opened the first house in March 2021, and within weeks, it was fully occupied by 4 families with Child Welfare experience. ITN is actively searching for a location for a second group house.

One Family at a Time

In June, an ITN tenant regained custody of her 5- and 11- year old daughters. Her ability to maintain stable housing and sobriety helped reunify her family. In September, she is starting college and hopes to become a social worker.

Child Safety

Safe at Home
Program Launched

Concerns about child safety are often a barrier to child-family reunification. Safe at Home mobilizes community members to volunteer as Family Partners to support child safety during trial reunification with birth families.

We have hired a Program Manager and will actively recruit Family Partners once the pandemic subsides.

Transportation

Volunteer Child Welfare Driver Recruitment Underway

Child-family visits are the most important factor in maintaining a child’s attachment to his/her parents and siblings and are predictive of successful family reunification. Regular visits support parental engagement and motivation for change, and reduce the anxiety of family separation. Volunteer drivers make more child-family visits possible, while freeing up ODHS case workers to focus directly on families and their goals.

CP3 is partnering with ODHS to help recruit volunteer drivers to increase the number of child-family visits. Please help us find volunteer drivers - for more information, visit cp3oregon.org/marion-drivers or download the English flyer or Spanish flyer

These programs directly promote family reunification by addressing barriers in Marion County to Child-Family reunification. To learn more about these programs and other CP3 efforts, visit cp3oregon.org/program-updates.

Children's Public Private Partnership

9832 SW Taylor Street, Portland, OR 97225

Portland, Or 97206

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