The Quality Parenting Initiative (QPI) aims to strengthen foster care by helping the system support, retain and encourage excellent resource parents, including both traditional foster parents and kinship caregivers.

When parents can't care for their children, a resource parent must be able to provide the loving, committed, and skilled care that children need. They must also work effectively with the system to achieve the best possible permanency option for those children. Becoming a resource parent is both rewarding and challenging.

QPI supports resource families, including kin, by clearly articulating the high expectations the system has for them. QPI works with system and other key stakeholders to provide relevant tools, resources, practices, and policies that help resource parents be successful.  QPI enables caregivers, agency staff, and birth parents to work as a team to support children and youth.

Philadelphia is part of a national network of QPI communities who share information and ideas about how to improve parenting and to better recruit and retain excellent resource families. They develop policies and practices that are based on current child research to support skilled, loving parenting.

The Philadelphia QPI committee consists of a diverse group of members including resource and birth parents, youth, child welfare practitioners, and child advocates.

For additional QPI resources and information, visit our publications page.