“MARFY’s activity in Annapolis advocating for issues that effect
our youth and staff is incredibly valuable, and allows for all of us to provide input into the process on matters that directly affect us...
Given the relationships that MARFY staff has with all of the State agencies with whom we contract, it is an invaluable asset to have information and support from MARFY to help in attaining our needs.”
~ Kevin Keegan, ED New Pathways
Public Policy Goals and Priorities
UPDATE: Click here to download the latest MARFY Synopsis on the 2008 Legislative Session
UPDATE: Click here to download MARFY's current recommendations on pending 2008 legislation
Click here to download MARFY's 2008 Public Policy Goals and Priorities
Click here to view the 2007 Legislative Session Report
Click here to view the FY 2008 Rate Report
Maryland Association of Resources for Families and Youth
2008 Public Policy Goals and Priorities
Our Mission in Public Policy
MARFY will collaborate with parents, other advocates, public agencies, legislators and others to promote polices and practices that improve services for vulnerable children, strengthen families and communities, and enrich the lives of disadvantaged children and youth.
Guiding Principles
- Children have a right to education, to physical and mental health care, and to be safe, nurtured and supported in homes and communities where they live.
- Services need to be provided where families live and where children go to school and must build on existing child, family and community strengths and resources.
- Programs and services, and the people who provide them, must respect ethnic and cultural diversity.
- Children and parents must be involved in making decisions about the services they receive.
- Communities are the source of opportunity for children and families and must be supported in their efforts to strengthen families, protect children and to prepare them for adulthood.
- Services provided to strengthen children families and communities must move people to self reliance.
- Fear, prejudice and discrimination that would prevent children in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems from living in the community must be eliminated.
2008 Goals and Priorities
- Promote interagency collaboration and service integration through involvement in and support for the development and implementation of a Child and Family Services Strategic Plan with the goal of implementing a coordinated interagency effort to develop a youth services system that can better meet the needs of youth and their families and target children who are at risk.
- Promote and support the development of a model child welfare system based on the principles and objectives of DHR’s Place Matters initiative and encompasses a full continuum of high quality services and places a high priority on family preservation and permanency.
- Promote and support enactment and broad implementation of regulations and practices to create policies and practices that prioritize the development and use of prevention and diversion services, reduce the use of detention and other forms of incarceration, and increase the use of family focused, home and community-based services.
- Promote expansion of the Maryland Children’s Health Insurance Program (MCHIP) with an emphasis on coverage for transition age youth up to age 25 and improved access to a broader continuum of mental health services. MARFY’s efforts include involvement in and support for Maryland’s Mental Health Systems Transformation Initiative.
- Ensure that children in state-supervised care have access to quality education that is responsive to their unique needs (Children in foster care and those under the supervision of the Department of Juvenile Justice will be allowed to go to school where they live and have their caregivers represent their interests in matters related to their education.) This includes: 1) broadening the scope of the Education Record Transfer legislation enacted in 2005; 2) publication of the Access to Education Handbook developed by the Departments of Human Resources and Education in collaboration with and other stakeholders; and 3) statewide training of a broad cross section of stakeholders on laws, regulations, and policies related to the education of children in state-supervised care.
- Promote and support increased accountability for results in private and public sector agencies serving children and families with an emphasis on: 1) implementation of outcomes-based case management; and 2) implementation of a uniform system of outcomes evaluation for children in out-of-home placements required by HB 1146 (2005) SB 177 (2007).
- Promote and support actions to raise standards for “child and youth care practitioners” including: 1) codification of a requirement for “direct care” staff certification consistent with recommendations to the legislature developed in accordance with un-codified provisions of SB 177 (2007); 2) rapid expansion of the Child and Youth Care Practitioner Certification Program initiated in 2007 by MARFY and the Community College of Baltimore County; 3) funding for improved compensation for direct care staff.; and 4) support the efforts of national advocacy organizations to expand access to Title IV-E federal training funds to support the training of all staff who are working with children and families who come to the attention of the child welfare system, including staff of private agencies.
- Promote the development of an expanded array of services for transition age youth through participation in the Ready By 21 Initiative - an Interagency plan for transition age youth adopted by the Children’s Cabinet in December 2007.
- Ensure the adequacy of funding for services for children in state custody by increasing funding for family preservation and other prevention services.
- Support the efforts of National child advocacy organizations to promote reforms to federal financing of Child Welfare Services, strengthening support for kinship care, extending eligibility for Title IV-E funding to age twenty-one, allowing states greater flexibility in their use of Title IV-E funding and extending Medicaid coverage to age twenty-five for youth who age out of foster care.
- Support the development of restraint and seclusion free environments for children through the enactment and broad implementation of regulations and by increasing the availability and accessibility of training.
