Wikipedia:Utah Foster Care

Utah Foster Care (UFC), formerly Utah Foster Care Foundation, is a non-profit organization that provides foster families for the State of Utah. UFC plays a role in provisioning care for young children who have been subjected to abuse, neglect, and other hardships by their caretakers.

History
Utah Foster Care originated following a 1993 lawsuit by the National Center for Youth Law (NCYL) over the state's failure to protect children. At the time, Utah had only one-third the number of qualified foster parents they needed to provide care for the children who had been abused or neglected in the state. Despite the need for improvement and five years to make the necessary changes, DCFS was still not in compliance with the lawsuit requirements, due to a lack of effective training and recruiting methods.

In 1997, then-Governor Mike Leavitt called for a joint effort of government, schools, churches and civic organizations to solve the problem. Through generous donations by several philanthropists in the state, and under the watchful eye of retired private executive Richard Shipley, the Utah Foster Care was formed in 1999. This private, non-profit organization would serve as an intermediary between the private sector and the DCFS, and would assume the task of supplying a well-trained, thoroughly vetted pool of foster parents. The UFC, as a non-governmental agency, was especially effective at utilizing the efforts of Utah churches while maintaining the necessary separation of church and state.

By the time Governor Leavitt left office in 2003, the number of foster families had doubled to more than twelve hundred. Since then, the suit with NCYL ended when "all parties agreed that significant and steady improvements ... resulted in a child welfare system that protects the state’s abused and neglected children, and helps families get the support they need."