History
"There Must Be A Better Way"
PATH is a private non-profit organization that has provided treatment foster care and child and family services since 1972. PATH began in Minnesota in response to a need for stronger support and training for foster parents and social workers who work with special needs youth.
As the quality of PATH's services increased, so did the demand to expand into new geographic areas and new services. Over the years, PATH grew into a multi-state agency, providing adoption, counseling and family-based treatment, in addition to foster care. During 2008, the PATH offices combined provided services to over 3,000 children and families.
One thing that makes PATH unique is that it was founded by foster parents. Today, the PATH boards continue to include foster parents as well as representatives of the communities served. This assures that PATH maintains a grass roots orientation in its philosophy and support.
During 2008, PATH decided to change from a subsidiary structure to an affiliate structure. This means that each of the state programs became independent agencies. As independent agencies, they joined together to form an affiliation. The affiliation is known as PATH Alliance.
The change to an affiliation structure is intended to allow each state to grow independently while still maintaining the economies of scale allowed in a multi-state, multi-program operation. In addition, the change is intended to create a structure under which PATH can expand its model of treatment foster care into other states. This model involves providing strong and consistent support to foster parents and using the family as the center of treatment. The PATH affiliation hopes to expand the model by starting new programs, as well as partnering with a few existing foster care programs.
PATH has traditionally been a leader in the child welfare field. This has included initiating several policies which are now an accepted part of foster care practice in North America. It has also included being one of the founders of the Foster Family-based Treatment Association, being the first stand-alone foster care agency to be accredited by the Council of Accreditation, and taking an active role in promoting foster parent education and outcome measurements for foster care. It is believed that PATH will also be a leader in developing the affiliation model. Although the model is used successfully in other areas of human services, we believe we are the first to use it in treatment foster care.
