April 2000Vol. 1, No. 2New and Noteworthy Publications
Foundations for Success: Strengthening Your Agency Attorney Office. Edited by Mimi Laver and Claire Sandt. American Bar Association's Center for Children and the Law. 1999. 90 pages. $14.95
A new book from the American Bar Association's (ABA's) Center on Children and the Law offers how-to's for child welfare agency lawyers who want to provide more efficient and more effective representation.
Foundations for Success: Strengthening Your Agency Attorney Office provides practical advice on such topics as:
- Improving working relationships with caseworkers
- Implementing the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 (ASFA)
- Establishing caseload standards
- Developing practice standards
- Getting the most from performance evaluations
- Selecting and retaining high-quality staff.
Appendices address such issues as how to avoid professional burnout, useful websites, and commonly used forms.
To order a copy, contact:
ABA Center for Children and the Law
740 15th St., NW, 9th Floor
Washington, DC 20005-1009
Tel.: 202-662-1746
Fax: 202-662-1755
Website: http://www.abanet.org/child/books.shtml
Order number 549-0111
For more information on the Center for Children and the Law, operated by the American Bar Association, call Mimi Laver, Assistant Director for Child Welfare, 202-662-1736 or visit the Center's website at http://www.abanet.org/child.
ADVOCASEY. Fall 1999/Winter 2000. Vol. 1, Number 3. The Annie E. Casey Foundation.
The Fall 1999/Winter 2000 issue of AdvoCasey, features three articles on child-welfare policy and practice --"More Foster Families, Fewer Children Entering Care: Rebuilding Family Foster Care in Cuyahoga and Anne Arundel Counties," "The Graduates: The Casey Family Services Alumni Study," and "Reforming Child Welfare," a commentary by Casey Foundation President Douglas Nelson. The issue also includes reports on effective approaches to youth violence and juvenile justice. The issue is available online at http://www.aecf.org/publcations/advocasey/winter2000/index.htm
To obtain a free print copy, contact:
The Annie E. Casey Foundation
701 St. Paul St.
Baltimore, MD 21202
Tel.: 410-547-6600
Fax: 410-547-6624
Email: webmail@aecf.org
Website: http://www.aecf.org
Protecting Children. 1999, Vol 15, Number 3/4. American Humane Association. Quarterly.
This issue of Protecting Children is devoted to evaluation and assessment strategies to improve outcomes in child welfare services. The American Humane Association's (AHA's) partners prepared the articles. According to Paul DiLorenzo, Director of AHA's Children's Division, AHA's partner agencies "have taken the initiative to explore creative ways to blend best practice and outcome measurement." An article by Charles Usher, a social work professor at UNC-Chapel Hill, reviews how the design and execution of evaluations have progressed from social experiments in the 1960s to reform initiatives today. Kutzler, Kuna, and Nowak from the Philadelphia Department of Human Services recount the history of outcomes development in their city. Alsop and Winterfeld provide a chart of core children's services outcome indicators to measure performance based on the Casey Outcomes and Decision Making Project, a consortium of national organizations. Pamela Day discusses her work with the Child Welfare League of America in developing a practice guide for assessment in child protection and child welfare. An article by Brittain and Klein-Rothschild, examines the lessons learned from a 17-State survey of new child welfare staff trained on statewide, automated child welfare information systems (SACWIS).
To order a copy ($11, including shipping and handling), contact:
American Humane Association, Children's Division
63 Inverness Drive East
Englewood, CO 80112-5117
Tel: 800-227-4645
Fax: 303-792-5333
Website: http://www.americanhumane.org
