PROTECTING CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS BY SUPPORTING FAMILIES

All children, young adults, and families should have caring, safe homes. We’re committed to reforming the child welfare system by ensuring children, young adults, and families receive support and intervention that strengthens families. Our goal is to build a child welfare system that produces the best possible results—providing safety, stability, and a strong future for all of Nebraska’s youth. To do this, we:

• Maximize public support programs and services to prevent children and families from unnecessarily entering foster care.
• Protect the rights of children and families involved with the system, including fighting systemic racism that disproportionality harms children and families of color.
• Promote the successful transition of older youth “aging out” of foster care by removing barriers to supportive services
• Operate the Foster Care Reform Legal Resource Center (LRC), which assists child welfare attorneys across the state in developing cases that result in positive legal precedents and systemic change; and

We collaborate with impacted youth and families, elected officials, and communities to identify and address the root causes of systemic issues. We amplify the voices of youth and families, protect the legal rights of children through litigation, and advocate in the Nebraska Legislature.

Children, young adults, and families in the child welfare system are entitled to caring, safe homes; education; medical and mental health care; substance abuse treatment, thoughtful case management, and family rehabilitation and reunification.