No young person should step into adulthood alone. Yet every year, thousands of foster youth are forced to do just that. Studies show that roughly 38% of youth in foster care age out without a single reliable supportive adult in their lives, a reality strongly linked to housing instability, disrupted education, and criminal justice involvement. That is exactly what Seneca’s Family Finding and Engagement Services (FFES) seek to change. Every youth in the child welfare system deserves a permanent, loving network of people who show up for them, not just during their time in care, but for life.

Seneca’s FFES is a youth-driven process of identifying, locating, and engaging relatives and caring adults who can form meaningful, lasting connections with our youth in foster care. The goal isn’t simply to find a name in a file. It’s to build an entire lifetime network of support that follows a young person well beyond the child welfare system. Our model was developed in partnership with Kevin Campbell, an internationally recognized family finding expert, and refined through the National Institute for Permanency and Family Connectedness (NIPFC), an initiative co-launched by Seneca, to strengthen child permanency practices both nationally and internationally.

How It Works

Every FFES case begins with relationships. Our Family Finders spend time with each youth, building trust, hearing their story, and exploring who has mattered to them: a teacher, a neighbor, or a relative they haven’t seen in years.

Then comes connection. Through letters, photos, phone calls, video chats, and in-person meetings, (sometimes involving travel with court approval) Family Finders support the slow and thoughtful work of building real connections. And when youth and connection are ready, the conversation turns to permanency, both physical and relational: What does a lasting commitment look like for this youth and their connection? Who wants to remain in their corner for the long haul?

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But before any of that can happen, significant groundwork needs to be laid out. Our Family Finders assess current supports, identify basic needs, and make sure the youth feels safe before anything else moves forward. From there, they comb through case files, search online databases and social media, conduct interviews with current and former team members, and use tools like eco-mapping or background checks to locate connections the youth may not even know exist.

Once these connections are identified, Family Finders assess for safety, gauge how much contact both the youth want and the connection can commit to, and work with the youth’s team to create or revisit safety plans. They also provide psychoeducation for newly located family members, many of whom need support to understand the youth’s experiences and needs. Only then does a Family Finder share a letter, support phone calls, schedule a visit, or even book a flight because every step before it exists to make that moment safe and well supported enough for it to happen.

Family Finding in Action

Our Family Finders meet each youth where they are — and some of the most powerful examples of this work show just how far that commitment can go.

When one youth’s grandmother was deported to Mexico and border visits remained closed because of the pandemic, her Family Finder accompanied her across the border to meet in person, because some connections are too important to put on hold.
For an autistic youth who struggled to connect through conversation, a Family Finder built meetings around art-based activities, letting creativity do what words couldn’t.

For another youth, the path home led to a biological father who feared engaging with systems due to his immigration status. The Family Finder worked patiently, centered the family’s needs, and the reunion happened. In the father’s own words: “If it weren’t for Seneca’s services, we would have never been reunited. I don’t know how things would have worked out without you guys.”

These stories reflect what Seneca’s Family Finding and Engagement Services make possible: fewer young people aging out of foster care alone, more families given the chance to heal, and a generation of youth who know they are loved, valued, and claimed. When youth have stable connections to caring adults and community, they are better equipped to thrive, academically, relationally, and in life.

Lifetime Networks

Our Seneca’s Family Finders go to extraordinary lengths to make that happen, searching across borders, navigating systems, and building bridges one relationship at a time. What foster youth need, what all of us need, is people who stay.

If you’re interested in being part of that support system, consider learning more about becoming a foster care or resource parent with Seneca. The young people in our community need people like you in their corner.