Use a Heart Map to identify a youth’s important relationships

About this recommendation

Many foster youth enter care with more connections than they leave with. If a supportive adult is not an immediate placement option, they are usually not tracked meaningfully by the system. But even if a contact does not serve as a placement option, they can still be an important part of a youth’s supportive network.

The Heart Map exercise provides a meaningful way for staff to surface contacts with youth, in order to strengthen and maintain those relationships.

How to do this

• Download a printable Heart Map. As soon as a youth enters care, walk them through the Heart Map to quickly surface people who are important to them.
• Encourage youth to list “someone in their heart” on each line, and draw more lines as needed. The two existing lines on the heart are strategic: More than one line prompts thinking about multiple relationships, but too many lines can be disheartening if youth cannot fill them all in.
• Make an action plan to set up visits, phone calls, social media, and/or other continuing connections with each identified contact. Share the action plan with a youth’s entire team, including their foster parents, so everyone can help achieve it.

Anticipated costs and benefits

Who's doing this

1 of 54 states and territories have implemented this recommendation.

• Uplift Family Services, California