November 2017Vol. 18, No. 8Print issueSpotlight on National Adoption Month

A recent brief from the Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP) recommends changes in child welfare practice to improve outcomes for young fathers and their children and families. The report from CSSP's Expectant & Parenting Youth in Foster Care Learning Collective highlights the important role fathers play in a child's life and notes that fathers under the age of 26 who are involved in the child welfare system face significant barriers to assuming fatherhood responsibilities and privileges.

The brief points to the following challenges faced by young fathers:

• Difficulty in simultaneously navigating the transition to adulthood and learning how to parent
• Inadequate child welfare resources to support them, their children, and families
• Lack of information and understanding regarding their needs
• Insufficient cross-system collaboration to support them and their families

The brief notes that in the 2007-2010 Child and Family Services Reviews, no state agency met the required standards for father assessment, engagement, visitation, or service provision. The brief attributes this to casework overload, limited resources, the difficulty of working with two parents who may not be cohabitating, and the perception that young fathers are not interested in being involved. To address these shortcomings, the brief recommends the following steps:

• Promote a father-inclusive organizational culture by creating a father-friendly atmosphere through changes to agency forms, materials, and physical spaces (e.g., provide diaper changing tables in men's bathrooms, display positive images of young fathers from diverse backgrounds, recruit male staff).
• Require the identification of young fathers as early as possible during pregnancy to establish paternity and promote involvement.
• Create a father-focused practice by issuing guidance that removes barriers to fatherhood engagement and promotes positive father involvement in children's lives.
• Ensure young fathers have the ability to visit with their children frequently by prioritizing family time.
• Require the exploration of coparenting for young fathers.
• Offer father-focused services that are both developmentally and trauma-informed.
• Require the involvement of incarcerated young fathers in case planning, including facilitating contact and visits with their children.
• Support young fathers who are domestic violence offenders to reengage with their children, unless it is unsafe for the child or mother.

The brief, Changing Systems & Practice to Improve Outcomes for Young Fathers, Their Children & Their Families, is available at https://www.cssp.org/pages/body/Changing-Systems-Practice-Young-Fathers.pdf (6,760 KB).

A new report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative finds that child welfare systems have a significant opportunity to improve outcomes for young people by letting adolescent brain research inform their work with youth.

The report includes an overview of the latest research on adolescent brain development and its implications and provides overall strategies for professionals, caregivers, and systems on how to navigate this impressionable time in a youth's life, including the following:

• Be consistent in relationships with young people, emphasizing compassion and a positive outlook regarding their future and abilities
• Be clear and honest about expectations and consequences if those expectations are not met
• Help youth deal with the loss of relationships, whether it be caseworkers lost to turnover or peers lost as a result of a move
• Celebrate big and small achievements
• Talk with young people about what is going on in the brain and help them understand the changes they are going through
• Have empathetic conversations about any real or perceived racism or discrimination they might have faced
• Encourage the novelty experiences young people crave, such as going to new places and learning to drive 

The report also includes several examples of successful state and local programs that support youth as they transition into adulthood, such as the Youth Circle Program in Hawaii, which supports transition planning, and Florida's Keys to Independence Program, which helps provide youth in foster care access to driver's education and the opportunity to earn a driver's license.

The report, The Road to Adulthood: Aligning Child Welfare Practice With Adolescent Brain Development, is available at http://www.aecf.org/m/resourcedoc/aecf-theroadtoadulthood-2017.pdf (3,200 KB).

Positive youth development (PYD) is an approach based on understanding adolescent brain development in order to implement juvenile justice strategies that reduce recidivism and promote positive outcomes for youth involved in the justice system as they move on to become successful members of the community. PYD focuses less on a youth's past actions and more on his or her future potential and comprises six concepts that can be linked to positive outcomes: competence, confidence, connection, character, caring, and contribution. 

This toolkit, produced by the Council of Juvenile Correctional Administrators, is designed to support juvenile justice organizations in creating an organizational- and program-delivery framework based on PYD. The toolkit includes a description of PYD, examples of successfully implemented PYD approaches, and a discussion on positive youth outcomes. It also includes strategies for putting PYD into practice, building and maintaining momentum, and assessing and monitoring the progress of PYD programs as well as an appendix with additional resources.

Council of Juvenile Correctional Administrators Toolkit: Positive Youth Development is available at http://cjca.net/index.php/blog/1002-cjca-positive-youth-development-toolkit.

A recent Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) webisode discusses evidence-based strategies and collaborative efforts among law enforcement officers, mental health professionals, and youth advocates to help youth with antisocial behaviors access mental health therapy and avoid entry into the juvenile justice system.

The webisode explores the changing role of law enforcement as it relates to negative and potentially dangerous behaviors in children, youth, and young adults. Rather than treating outbursts as crimes that warrant immediate arrest, law enforcement agencies are looking at how police officers can support troubled youth by understanding and recognizing mental health disorders and helping them access treatment.

The webisode points out that approximately 50 to 75 percent of the 2 million children and youth in the U.S. juvenile justice system meet the diagnostic criteria for a mental disorder. It also notes that more than 600,000 youth are placed in juvenile detention centers each year and that youth with mental health disorders need supports to keep them out of that system.

The President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing recommended crisis intervention training (CIT) for law enforcement professionals to help them prevent violence, avoid unnecessary arrests, and improve access to mental health services. The webisode looks at developments related to CIT and the shift in law enforcement and community perceptions.

The webisode features Dr. Gary Blau, SAMHSA's chief of the Child, Adolescent and Family Branch; Christopher McKee, police captain, CIT coordinator, and school resource officer supervisor, Suffield, CT; Nyamuon Nguany, regional coordinator, Youth MOVE Maine; and Joyce Burrell, Prince George's County (MD) System of Care (former deputy commissioner of the New York State Office of Children and Family Services).

"Diverting to Treatment: Community Policing and Supporting Youth With Mental Health Needs" is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xy4_M-faun8.

Illinois has issued a guide for primary caregivers of youth with serious behavioral problems to help prevent custody relinquishment and their entry into the child welfare system. The guide explains Illinois' Specialized Family Support Program (SFSP), a collaborative interagency effort to help caregivers address challenging behaviors and retain custody of their youth.

SFSP provides an intensive 90-day program of crisis services for youth who are ready to leave treatment from a psychiatric hospital but whose parents or guardians are reluctant to take them back home for fear they will harm themselves or another family member. SFPS provides parents and guardians with support services-including case management, assessment and support, and mental health services—to prevent their teens from entering child welfare custody.

The guide outlines program eligibility, the referral process, requirements for parental (or guardian) participation, what caregivers can expect from SFSP, a list of available services, how to access therapeutic support services or what to do in the event of a mental health crisis, the role of the interagency clinical team, and how to file grievances and make appeals.

To participate in SFSP, parents or guardians must sign an agreement allowing the youth to return home with them and complete all available applications for public assistance (e.g., medical assistance, social security benefits, supplemental security income, other state behavioral programs).

The guide, Specialized Family Support Program (SFSP): Guide for Parents or Guardians, is available at https://www.illinois.gov/hfs/SiteCollectionDocuments/SFSP_ParentGuide.pdf  (379 KB).

The Office of Public and Indian Housing (PIH) within the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued a hands-on guidebook for family self-sufficiency (FSS) coordinators and staff that work with public housing residents and their families involved with the Housing Choice Voucher program as well as HUD-assisted multifamily developments. The purpose of the guidebook is to support these professionals in helping residents of public housing to overcome barriers to employment and financial security.

The FSS program is part of a broader HUD effort to help residents of public housing make progress toward economic stability. The new guidebook provides nonbinding guidance on how to run an effective FSS program. It draws from program evaluation evidence and other research on how to help clients increase their earnings and build assets, as well as lessons learned from workforce and financial empowerment programs.

Administering an Effective Family Self-Sufficiency Program: A Guidebook Based on Evidence and Promising Practices is available at https://www.hudexchange.info/resources/documents/FSS-Program-Guidebook.pdf (2,571 KB).

Upcoming national conferences and events on child welfare and adoption include the following:

November

• 2017 CQI Conference: In Pursuit of Quality: Data Literacy
  University of Illinois School of Social Work
  November 7-8, Champaign, IL
  http://cqi.cfrc.illinois.edu

• Together We Can Conference
  Pelican Center for Children & Families
  November 7–9, Lafayette, LA
  http://www.latwc.com

• ZERO TO THREE Annual Conference 2017
  ZERO TO THREE
  November 29–December 1, San Diego, CA
  http://annualconference.zerotothree.org/

December

• Mandated Reporter Training
  Family Futures
  December 14, Grand Rapids, MI
  https://familyfutures.net/community-education

January

• Society for Social Work and Research 22nd Annual Conference
  Society for Social Work and Research
  January 10–14, Washington, DC
  http://secure.sswr.org/2018-conference-home/

• 32nd Annual San Diego International Conference on Child and Family Maltreatment
  Chadwick Center for Children and Families at Rady Children's Hospital-San Diego
  January 28–February 2, San Diego, CA
  http://www.cvent.com/events/the-32nd-annual-san-diego-international-conference-on-child-and-family-maltreatment/event-summary-2694b17fed5e496e8773a7e98ff00175.aspx

The California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare (CEBC) has produced a webinar to provide child welfare agencies with an understanding of how the CEBC can help address and implement California's Continuum of Care Reform (CCR) core services.

CCR is a series of reforms to child welfare and provides the statutory and policy framework to ensure that the services and support provided to a child and his or her family are tailored toward meeting the ultimate goal of maintaining a stable and permanent family. The main principles of CCR include providing all children with a committed, nurturing, and permanent family that will prepare them for a successful transition into adulthood; valuing the experience and voice of children and their families in assessment, placement, and service planning; and making sure children do not have to change placements to get the services they need.

The webinar focuses on three main learning objectives:

• How to effectively use the CEBC website to identify and access information on relevant programs for addressing California's CCR core services, including trauma-informed care, home-based mental health care, residential therapeutic programs, and child and family training approaches
• How to access additional tools and resources for implementing evidence-based practices that address CCR's core services
• How to identify best practices and strategies for cross-system collaboration between child welfare and behavioral health systems

The webinar "Implementation of California's Continuum of Care Reform" is available at http://www.cebc4cw.org/cebc-webinars/cebc-sponsored-webinars/implementation-of-california-s-continuum-of-care-reform.