Social Media

About this topic

Social media has many roles in child welfare, from the targeted recruitment of new foster parents to finding teens who have run away from care. Having the right policies in place can help your department unlock its many benefits while protecting privacy.

Why this matters

Few child welfare systems are fully utilizing the power of social media, which can be a top driver of recruiting new successful foster parents, finding kin for children in care, locating runaway children, and more.

What we can do

• Publish social media guidance for your agency. The best social media policies require using social media for crucial tasks like recruitment and kin finding, but set the right parameters for protecting the privacy of children, families, and staff. Providing exact examples and steps can help staff gain comfort with using new social media tools. We have multiple policy examples to copy and build on.
• Use social media to find kin. Social media is proving far more effective at identifying and contacting kin than any other method.
• Use social media to recruit new homes. While you can use social media for general recruitment information, it really shines when you use it to target the specific types of families your children need most, such as by school district or language spoken.
• Encourage social media for supporting current foster parents. Online support groups for foster parents can help increase retention, solve problems, and build community.

Recommendations

• Use social media to find family members
• Social Media Policy and Practice Guidance
• Use social media for general foster family recruitment efforts
• Use social media for targeted foster family recruitment
• Use social media to find missing children
• Protect youth privacy on social media
• Encourage foster family support groups on social media