Quality Improvement Center on Adoption

The Quality Improvement Center on Adoption (QICA) was established in 2001 when UMFS was awarded a cooperative agreement by the Federal Children’s Bureau as part of a new approach to managing discretionary grant efforts.

The goals were to:

1. Promote development of evidence-based knowledge about effective child welfare practices in the areas of child protective services and adoption.
2. Ensure dissemination of this critical information at the direct service level.

Preliminary Evaluation findings include the following:

• Public-private agency relationships have become collaborative partnerships – replacing vendor/agency relationships.
• Public/private roles and responsibilities have been realigned to enhance the effectiveness planning and service delivery.
• Inter-jurisdictional barriers to adoption have been reduced.
• Projects have provided a vehicle for valuable collaborative case consultation and planning – increasing the quality of services and resulting in the adoption of foster children not likely to have been adopted.
• Projects have provided a vehicle for the critical examination of adoption practices in areas served.
• Projects have advanced adoption practices in areas served in ways consistent with VDSS policy and program reforms and Virginia’s PIP.

In addition to dissemination through presentations and papers, the QICA has established a website, BestAdoptVA.org to make the best information on adoption practices readily available to adoption professionals in both public and private agencies.