A BRIEF HISTORY
RICORP’s history began in 1978 when a handful of programs came together to form the “Group Home Association.” In 1980 the group incorporated, taking the name: “Rhode Island Council on Residential Programs for Children and Youth.”
During the 1980’s, as membership expanded, RICORP designed training programs for direct care workers, clinicians, and supervisors. These efforts continued to flourish with the advent of an Annual Conference in 1997, the RICORP Certification Training Program in 2000, and college curriculum (through CCRI) in Children’s Residential Programming in 2002.
In 1999, in order to ensure clinical services for all youth in care, RICORP created the Psychiatric Response Network (PRN) Program. Through June 2004, PRN served over 500 youth and allowed programs to accept clients they may not have accepted in the past (by being assured clinical services are available.) In July 2004 Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island (NHPRI) assumed management and fiscal oversight of the PRN Program.
While RICORP primarily focused advocacy efforts on rate increases for contracted children’s residential providers throughout the 1990s and beyond, the agency continues to support legislation and initiatives that impact youth in care. Council staff members participate on the Child Welfare Advisory Committee, the Medicaid Global Waiver Task Force, and various other state-wide groups.
In November 2001 the Council opened the John H. Chafee Life Skills Center for Adolescents. The program is a 16-week course that teaches various topics important to becoming self-sufficient. The curriculum includes budgeting, banking, credit, job skills, health, home management, housing, cooking, legal skills, car purchasing and insurance, fire safety, first aid, and consumer and shopping skills. By 2004 RICORP and the RI Foster Parent Association were working collaboratively in providing life skills programming.
To compliment Life Skills programming, in 2002 RICORP began working with the Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) to ensure eligible students could attend college through the state’s Higher Education Tuition Assistance Grant and the government’s Chafee Educational Training Vouchers. The Council now works with the Department, serving in a fiduciary role, and assists young adults who need help with the process.
In 2003 members ratified new bylaws and a new name: “Rhode Island Council of Resource Providers for Children, Youth and Families.” This name reflects the work of its members and the Council’s vision for a more proactive direction/future in the child welfare field.
In 2005 RICORP purchased a building in East Providence that allows the organization to house all its programs in one site. This includes administrative space, two life skills classrooms plus a kitchen, and a large training room. The move to East Providence also permits the Council to increase its collaboration with RIFPA (who shares the building) in efforts to streamline the services each agency provides to older youth in care.
In December 2007, after lengthy discussions between RICORP members and its Board of Directors, the Council expanded its [piloted] YESS model (Young adults Establishing Self Sufficiency), to provide housing, case management assistance, etc. to individuals closed to the State upon their 18th birthdays. This model had actually been conceived in early 2004 after months of discussions with the Department of Children, Youth, and Families, Life Skills Center staff, provider agencies, and young adults. Original concepts focused on existing Independent Living (IL) practices in Rhode Island and nationally; as the group searched for ways to improve services to young adults who did not require the traditional array of IL services.
The YESS model was instituted statewide in the fall of 2007 after the legislature decreased funding for 18-21 years in care. It gives providers the chance to continue working with young adults in their charge, maintaining relationships with them, all the while preparing them for eventual independence. Through the summer of 2009 some 150 participants were receiving YESS-model services, with nearly two-thirds of the individuals residing in foster care settings, or having secured their own living arrangements.
©2010 RICORP, All Rights Reserved
Revised:
15-Feb-10