Advancing Kinship Care Through Leadership

Erica Burgess has spent more than six years helping families stay together.

She served as the project leader for the Kinship Therapeutic Foster Care (KTFC) program, a project run by FFTA in North Carolina.

Under Erica's leadership with the KTFC project:

• More than 100 families learned how to become licensed kinship caregivers and received training and support to care for children who are relatives.

• Over 50 families finished the training program.

• More than 40 families became fully licensed to care for their young relatives.

• 50 families received about $2,700 each to help pay for things they needed, like food, clothes, and school supplies.

This project also helped change the system in North Carolina. Before KTFC, only 22% of children in foster care were placed with family members. By the end of the project, that number grew to about 31%. More kids were then given the opportunity to grow up with individuals they knew and loved.

The children in KTFC homes did not have to move to a new home while in the program. There were no trips to the emergency room, no arrests, and children remained stable in school, which ultimately built stronger bonds with their families.

Erica did not just help in North Carolina. She also supported FFTA's work across the country. She helped lead the Kinship Committee, facilitated webinars, presented at conferences, and brought people together for shared learning experiences. And nearly 80 leaders attended six training groups she helped organize.

Because of Erica's work, FFTA is now taking KTFC from a small pilot project to something bigger. The goal is to help even more families across the country, and Erica showed that when we help children stay with family members who love them, it positively affects their overall well-being. That’s kinship care!

Thank you Erica for your heart and hard work, for the good of families.