Building Skills–Building Futures: Providing Information Technology to Foster Families

Abstract

This article describes a program developed to increase information technology access and skills among foster children and families within the context of a long-term foster care environment. The model emphasizes continuity and integration of technology into ongoing service provision for life skills development in foster youth. The authors describe the program development process, then describe a framework for evaluation and identify preliminary implementation issues. Baseline data provide evidence for a “digital divide” within the foster care community and suggest that foster children lag behind biological children in foster families in development of technology skills. Finally, experienced and anticipated implementation challenges are discussed in the context of ongoing evaluation.