When we published our story on Johnny Madrid in the March 15 issue (Aging Out Programs Come of Age), featuring a major initiative of the Casey Foundation to address critical issues on how to support older children and youth in foster care in finding families, we had not yet received the Winter/Spring issue of VOICE from Casey Family Services, devoted entirely to last year's Casey Conference on Youth Permanency. As we read the attractively packaged 25-page report, we wondered how many people would have the opportunity to experience this important review, with its multidimensional coverage, insightful expressions from major voices in the quest for permanency, and its simple, easy-to-digest presentation of critical issues. We decided to give voice in our own way to key points of view and data in the Report in this and future issues of our 360 SmartBrief, and at www.childadvocacy360.com. We begin with summary excerpts from the Report s introduction by Raymond L. Torres, Executive Director of Casey Family Services. -Hershel Sarbin

• It is clear that a new way of thinking has begun to take root on issues of how to support older children and youth in foster care in finding families. As a result, there is a promise for brighter futures for foster children and youth.
• From the stories told at the conference (among them, Johnny Madrid), we learned that no one outgrows the need to be truly connected to a family. As we shift the focus of our work to fully supporting the spectrum of possible permanency outcomes from family preservation and reunification to adoption and legal guardianship we are continually reminded by our youth in care, by those transitioning out of care, and by the families that love them, that this work is critical.
• Assuring that every child, and especially every youth, has a family he or she can turn to in good times and bad, should become a national rallying cry. It is what we know our own children need and deserve. Our foster children should have no less.