Foster care services provider in Conn. closing

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — Casey Family Services, which provides therapeutic foster care services to about 400 children, is closing and laying off 280 employees.

The Annie E. Casey Foundation announced Tuesday it will discontinue its direct services through New Haven-based Casey Family Services so the foundation can shift to making grants to child welfare agencies. The foundation said the new strategy will have the potential to affect thousands of children and families and to advance stronger practices across the field.

The Baltimore-based foundation said it will move the majority of children and their foster families to other providers by the end of the year and will be open next year with a small staff to support any remaining cases.

Employees affected by the closing will receive a generous severance, foundation spokesman Norris West said.

Casey Family Services was created in 1976, and provides foster care services to children under state contracts in Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont. It helps find permanent homes for foster children as well as provide support to foster families, West said.

The agency has been a leader in the field's movement toward finding permanent families for youth in foster care, the foundation said.

"The decision to change our strategy to focus on helping nonprofit human services agencies improve their service to families instead of operating our own foster care agency is a significant milestone in our organization's history," said Patrick T. McCarthy, president and CEO of the Casey Foundation. "As the human services environment changes, we see an opportunity to help strengthen the work of front-line staff who often make life and death decisions on behalf of vulnerable children and families."