Facilitating permanency for youth in foster care can be very challenging work.  Many teens that have been in the child welfare system have experienced multiple placements and relationships and are at a challenging crossroad between childhood and adulthood. Adults who work with youth have an ethical and moral responsibility to help them identify caring, committed adults with whom they might want to establish a lifelong connection. The practice and professional literature speaks to the importance of permanence for youth and how continued instability increases the long-term risks for teens, which may continue well into adulthood.

One young woman from the foster care system said it best at a workshop presentation on the importance of permanency for youth, when a participant asked if she would still want to be adopted as a 17-year-old:
Who wouldn’t want a family?  Who wouldn’t want to have a family to spend holidays with, to call when things don’t go right?  Who wouldn’t want that?
So if long term foster care is not the answer (and it isn’t) --the larger question then becomes: How can practitioners best achieve permanence for teens? 

There is no easy answer. In fact, no “one size fits all” fix to this dilemma exists, because permanency and developmental needs of adolescents in foster care are complex and varied. 
As if the main question itself were not complicated enough, two additional questions exists as well.  The first is:

• How has independent living become viewed as the default plan for most adolescents in foster care?
• How do states jointly deliver independent-living skills development services while working to achieve permanence for youth?

Contemporary child welfare, despite systemic reform efforts, has held firmly to a crisis orientation that tends to focus especially on younger children, who it views as more vulnerable.  Independent Living as a separate program with a separate funding stream, combined with questions regarding adolescent adoptability and willingness to be adopted, have contributed to the system’s further estrangement from its adolescent population, who often experience long lengths of stay in care. 
All adolescents, even those who live with their birth families, require independent living skills, a set of self-sufficiency skills to assist them in transitioning toward adulthood.  But all youth also need stability and permanence in their lives as well. Even with solid life skills training and practice, youth in foster care need a familial support system when they exit care that allows for lifelong connections.  In addition to the challenge of defining what permanency means for adolescents, state agencies have struggled with how achieving permanency affects the independent living program.

Orelans OCS Office
Orleans District
1010 Common Street -10th Floor
New Orleans, Louisiana 70112
(Get Map/Directions)
Mailing Address:
P.O. Box 61210
New Orleans, LA 70161-1210
Phone: (504) 568-7413
Fax: (504) 568-7444
How do I become a Foster Parent?: 1-888-617-3298 Parish Served: Orleans Jefferson District

Jefferson OCS Office
800 West Commerce Road Suite 500
Harahan, LA 70123
Mailing Address:
P.O. Box Drawer 10009
Jefferson, Louisiana 70181
Phone: (504) 736-7151
Fax: (504) 736-7161
Home Development Intake #
1-888-733-7171
How do I become a Foster Parent?: 1-888-617-3298 Parishes Served: East Jefferson, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, West Jefferson

Baton Rouge OCS Office
Baton Rouge
8549 United Plaza Blvd.
Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70809
Mailing Address:
P.O. Box 66789
Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70896
Phone: (225) 922-3099
Fax: (225) 922-2922
How do I become a Foster Parent?: 1-866-866-1001 Parishes Served: East Baton Rouge, East Feliciana, Iberville, Pointe Coupee, West Baton Rouge, West Feliciana Covington

Covington OCS Office
351 Holiday Boulevard
Covington, LA 70433
Phone: (985) 893-6363
Fax: (985) 893-6366
How do I become a Foster Parent?: 1-800-256-1918 Parishes Served: Livingston, St. Helena, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, Washington Thibodaux

Thibodaux OCS Office
1416 Tiger Drive
Thibodaux, LA 70301-4337
Phone: (985) 449-5055
Fax: (985) 449-5139
How do I become a Foster Parent?: 1-800-748-7755 Parishes Served: Ascension, Assumption, Lafourche, St. Charles, St.
James, St. John, Terrebonne Lafayette

Lafayette OCS Office
825 Kaliste Saloom Road Brandywine 1
Room 218
Lafayette, LA 70508
Phone: (337) 262-5970
Fax: (337) 262-1092
Personnel FAX: (337) 262-1459
How do I become a Foster Parent?: 1-800-256-8611 Parishes Served: Acadia, Evangeline, Iberia, Lafayette, St. Landry, St.
Martin, St. Mary, Vermilion
Lake Charles

Lake Charles OCS Office
4250 Fifth Avenue
Lake Charles, LA 70607
Mailing Address:
P.O. Box 1867
Lake Charles, LA 70602
Phone: N/A
Fax: (337) 475-3030
How do I become a Foster Parent?: 1-800-814-1584 Parishes Served: Allen, Beauregard, Calcasieu, Cameron, Jefferson Davis

Alexandria OCS Office
900 Murray Street
1st Floor, Room A-100
Alexandria, LA 71309
Mailing Address:
P.O. Box 832
Alexandria, LA 71309-0832
Phone: (318) 487-5227
Fax: (318) 484-2178
How do I become a Foster Parent?: 1-800-814-1585 Parishes Served: Avoyelles, Catahoula, Concordia, Grant, LaSalle, Rapides, Vernon, Winn

Shreveport OCS Office
State Office Building
1525 Fairfield Avenue, Room 850
Shreveport, LA 71101-4388
Phone: (318) 676-7100
Fax: (318) 676-7084
How do I become a Foster Parent?: 1-800-676-5048 Parishes Served:Bienville, Bossier, Caddo, Claiborne, DeSoto, Jackson, Natchitoches, Red River, Sabine, Webster Monroe

Monroe OCS Office
State Office Building
122 St. John Street, Room 450
Monroe, LA 71201
Mailing Address:
P.O. Box 3047
Monroe, LA 71210
Phone: (318) 362-3362
Phone: (318) 362-3190
Fax: (318) 362-3013
How do I become a Foster Parent?: 1-800-256-8654 Parishes Served: Caldwell, East Carroll, Franklin, Lincoln, Madison, Morehouse, Ouachita, Richland, Tensas, Union, West Carroll