Safe & Connected™ is KVC’s integrated child welfare practice model. Safe & Connected provides a structured way to make decisions with and for the children and families served by the child welfare, juvenile justice and related systems. The model emphasizes organizing information in order to promote critical thinking and collaboration with the family and other stakeholders. This ensures a comprehensive, balanced assessment of risk with the outcomes of improved child safety, wellbeing and permanency.

Lohrbach, creator of Safe & Connected

Sue Lohrbach, Executive Director of the KVC Institute, is the developer of Safe & Connected. She has many years of experience training both public and private agencies on how to use it, including spending the last two years helping KVC staff across the U.S. improve their thinking and decision-making using the tool. Lohrbach has also trained several of KVC’s community partners on Safe & Connected. The model has a wide range of benefits such as children being in foster care for shorter amounts of time and increased collaborative practice and decision-making.

Watch this video to learn more: