$35-Million Effort Aims to Keep Children Out of Foster Care

Four foundations and two government agencies are committing $35-million to expand a program that has shown promise in keeping New York City children out of foster care.

The program, Keeping Families Together, provides housing and social services to vulnerable families. An evaluation found that after three years the vast majority of families in the program still had housing and all children who were in foster care at the program’s start were reunited with their families, according to a press release announcing the new effort.

The expansion is receiving support from the Annie E. Casey, Edna McConnell Clark, and Robert Wood Johnson foundations, along with Casey Family Programs, the Administration for Children and Families, and the Department of Health and Human Services. The new money will introduce the program to five other cities, which will be announced in September.

In other foundation news, three philanthropies and an anonymous donor last week joined together on a new $5-million program to improve secondary education, especially for girls, in developing countries.

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur, MasterCard, and Douglas B. Marshall Jr. Family foundations, as well as a fourth donor, will identify and support grantees in East Africa, Nigeria, and India.