Path to Permanency

📣 Let’s talk PACAs!

Have any questions, concerns, or thoughts about Post-Adoption Contact Agreements (PACAs)? We want to hear from you!

We invite you to come ready to share and join the conversation during our live webinar. What would you like to better understand? What concerns have come up in your experience? What would you like our presenters to discuss?

Join us LIVE as we explore how North Carolina’s new legislation is shaping the path to permanency for children in foster care.

🎙️ Featuring:
Annick Lennoir Peek — Head Parent Defender, State of North Carolina
Stephanie Clare Smith — NC Child Custody and Visitation Mediation Program Manager

💭 And if something is already on your mind, free to drop it in the comments or send us a message ahead of time! We'd love to hear from you!

📅 Don't forget to register so you can join the conversation live.

🔗 Register here:

Webinar: PACA: Myths & Facts | Path to Permanency Free webinar reviewing the newest piece of legislation, Post-Adoption Contact Agreement (PACA). Speakers Stephanie Clare Smith and Annick Lenoir-Peek will talk through how to apply this accurately within child welfare. Continuing Education credit available.

⚖️ North Carolina raises pay for court-appointed defense attorneys next month.

Earlier this year, we worked on a campaign to inform judges, legislators, and NC DHS about opportunities to create more timely permanency for children in foster care. One of our recommendations? Establishing pay parity for defense attorneys handling Abuse/Neglect/Dependency and Termination of Parental Rights cases.

That advocacy is paying off. 👏

Effective October 1, 2026, thanks to new funding in the 2026 State Appropriations Act, A/N/D and TPR cases will go from $65 → $90 hourly rates

Fair pay for attorneys in these cases isn't just about compensation — it's about ensuring children and families get the timely, quality representation on the path to permanency. Thank you to everyone who advocated alongside us to make this happen. 🙏

Rate Increases for Private Assigned Counsel - Indigent Defense Services At its August 7 meeting, the IDS Commission voted for an across-the-board rate increase for private assigned counsel. The new rates are effective October 1, 2026. The rates are also posted online at https://www.ncids.org/counsel-rates/ under “Current Hourly Assigned Rates.” As noted above, the r...

✨ HOLIDAY MINI SESSION GIVEAWAY ✨

We're giving away 6 free mini photo sessions to foster youth and their families this holiday season! 📸

📅 November 7 | 3:15–5:15 PM
📍 Rocky River Roots
🎥 Loved and Free Photography

Each 20-minute session includes 7 professionally edited photos, delivered digitally 2 weeks later.

👉 Register below



https://www.pathtopermanency.org/events/holiday-mini-session-2026

📅 Save the Date: September 27

Path to Permanency hosts a People's Assembly every quarter, bringing our community together to turn ideas into action for youth in foster care working toward timely permanency.

This September, we'll:
☀️ Look back on the summer's progress
🚧 Work through barriers and turn them into actionable next steps
📌 Set our priorities for the year ahead

And yes — dinner and childcare are provided! 🍽️👶

🕓 4:00–6:30 PM
🎟️FREE — registration required

Save your spot today at the link below:

People's Assembly | Path to Permanency Join us for our next People's Assembly to get updates on our work over the summer, learn how to break down the barriers into actionable issue cuts, and set Path to Permanency's priorities for the next year.

💙 Join the Permanency Roundtable – Charlotte Area Foster Care Community!

Our community is growing! The Permanency Roundtable is expanding to welcome everyone connected to the foster care system — including social workers, GALs, foster and biological parents, former foster youth, attorneys, advocates, and others whose lives or work intersect with foster care.

This is a space to connect, share resources, exchange experiences, ask questions, and learn from one another. Whether you’re looking to share, learn, ask, or simply connect with others in the foster care community, we’d love to have you here.

Foster care involves so many different voices and perspectives, and we want this community to be a place where those voices can come together.

Ready to join the conversation? 💙
Join the Permanency Roundtable – Charlotte Area Foster Care Community here:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/permanencyroundtable

Know someone connected to foster care who could benefit from this community? Share this post with them or send them the group link!

🗣️Voices of Youth in Care: Why permanency matters

“There is nothing normal about foster care. It’s not normal to be four years old and woken up in the middle of the night by a woman you barely know telling you to grab your coat….It’s not normal to be dropped off at a stranger’s house to stay the night in an unfamiliar bed without your favorite pink blanket. And yet, that’s where I found myself....My foster parents made room for me in their home, and they made room for all of my confusion, sadness, and loss. And in doing so, I felt safe and seen and normal." -16 years old

"To let a child age out of foster care is the biggest promise broken. Because the day that child is removed from their family, our implicit promise to them is we will find you a family."
- Rita Soronen, President and CEO of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption

Creating a Family: had Rita Soronen on to talk about how the instability of foster care impacts a child in the system — including the role caregivers and child welfare professionals have to support a child’s path to permanency.

👂Listen to the full podcast here:

Too Many Goodbyes: How Foster Care Instability Impacts Children How do repeated moves affect children in foster care? Rita Soronen explains placement stability, trauma, permanency, and how adults can help.

📢 Join us LIVE! Learn how North Carolina's new legislation is reshaping the path to permanency for children in foster care — all about Post-Adoption Contact Agreements (PACAs).

Hear from two experts on the front lines:
🎙️ Annick Lennoir Peek — Head Parent Defender, State of North Carolina
🎙️ Stephanie Clare Smith — NC Child Custody and Visitation Mediation Program Manager

Together, they'll talk through the facts of PACA:
✅When to consider PACA
✅How the statutory process interacts with relinquishment & adoption
✅Respective roles of the child’s team
✅Practical sequence involving AOC-J-213, AOC-J-214, and AOC-J-215
✅Examines preparation for virtual mediation
✅Development of terms, court approval & future amendments

Walk away with the real facts — so you can confidently recognize and correct these misconceptions when they come up.

🗓️ Don't miss it — register below.
https://www.pathtopermanency.org/events-1/webinar-paca-myths-facts

Webinar: PACA: Myths & Facts | Path to Permanency Free webinar reviewing the newest piece of legislation, Post-Adoption Contact Agreement (PACA). Speakers Stephanie Clare Smith and Annick Lenoir-Peek will talk through how to apply this accurately within child welfare. Continuing Education credit available.