April 2002Vol. 3, No. 3Print issueSpotlight on National Child Abuse Prevention

The fifth annual report America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2001 finds significant gains in key indicators of the well-being of America's children such as a declining child poverty rate and record-low number of adolescent births. The Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics, which includes 20 Federal agencies, compiled the report that updates information from last year. In order to provide more comprehensive and consistent information on the condition and progress of America's children, Forum agencies are working to close data gaps, particularly gaps related to children with disabilities, the role of fathers in children's lives, and the measurement of positive behaviors associated with improved child development.

Other highlights of the report include the following:

• The percentage of children living in households with at least one parent employed full time rose
• More children had health insurance
• Adolescent death rate reached an all-time low
• The percentage of 10th and 12th grade students who smoke decreased.

The report also includes two special features regarding asthma and employment while in school, and a new indicator on advanced academic courses that provide further insight into the well-being of the nation's children:

• Asthma—the percentage of children diagnosed with asthma is increasing; possible causes could be the result of better diagnosis, changes in environment, air quality, and access to preventive health care among other factors
• Employment while in school—the report finds that having a job while in school is more prevalent among older high school students, and it is common among younger students as well
• Advanced courses—the report finds many students are taking advanced courses in areas including math (40 percent), science (60 percent), English (20 percent), and foreign languages (13 percent).

The ChildStats.gov website has the report in HTML and PDF formats at http://www.childstats.gov/americaschildren.

The U.S. Supreme Court's January 22nd ruling in Kansas v. Crane will make it harder for States to keep sex offenders in civil confinement after they've served their sentence. The Court's decision will have an unknown impact on the child welfare field according to Howard Davidson, director of the American Bar Association's Center on Children and the Law. Davidson did point out, however, that the ruling "is not opening doors to loose sexual offenders on the streets."

In order to impose civil confinement, States will have to show that the offenders have a mental illness that causes a lack of control over their own behavior. The January 22nd ruling builds upon a prior decision by the high court in Kansas v. Hendricks. Both rulings upheld the constitutionality of the "Kansas Sexually Violent Predator Act."

A general dearth of research clouds the potential impact of the law. Examination of how often prosecutors seek civil confinement, the percentage of cases affecting children, and the extent of collaboration between prosecutors and mental health professionals will help guide implementation of these laws.

States with laws similar to Kansas include Alabama, Arizona, California, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Washington, and Wisconsin.

The ruling can be found as a PDF file on the Supreme Court's website at Kansas v. Crane (http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/01pdf/00-957.pdf). (This link is no longer available. To obtain opinions, use the resource provided by the U.S. Supreme Court at www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/obtainopinions.pdf.)

Related Item

See the following related article in the May/June 2001 issue of the Children's Bureau Express:

• "High Court Upholds Civil Commitment of Sexual Predators in Washington State"

A new report provides insights into independent living services provided to youth in American Indian communities.

Transition Programs in Indian Country, by Casey Family Programs and the National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA), looks at how child welfare agencies in Indian Country assist American Indian youth to leave foster care and transition to their adult lives. Directors, or designated representatives, of 86 Indian Child Welfare agencies were interviewed over the phone between December 2000 and May 2001. They represented 67 tribal child welfare agencies, eight Alaskan Native village child welfare agencies, and 11 off-reservation urban Indian programs. The report presents the following key findings and recommendations:

• Basic transition services are likely missing from most programs; directors would like to add services such as life skills, social skills, mentoring, and subsidized transitional housing.
• There is interest in potential funding through the Foster Care Independence Act of 1999 and the Chafee Independence Program. To accomplish this, agencies must first be contacted by State officials, which is required by the Act.
• Tribal programs, off-reservation urban programs, and Alaskan Native programs consistently offer cultural awareness services, a service often found lacking in mainstream programs.

Highlights of policy, research, and practice recommendations include:

Policy

• Shift mainstream child welfare practice from policies and legislation based on "independent living" concepts toward policies congruent with American Indian standards to connect, or reconnect, foster care youth with supportive families and communities
• Enforce compliance by State and Federal agencies with the Foster Care Independence Act of 1999 requirements by facilitating consultations with each tribe in a given State
• Continue services to young adults based on need and developmental level instead of age, which could mean extending foster care beyond age 21.

Research

• Investigate model transition service programs in Indian Country identifying how cultural activities support transitions, and what service systems work best for American Indian youth

Practice

• Note the importance of cultural awareness services and rites of passage programs in transition policy and practices
• Respect and support cultural services provided by tribes and urban Indian programs
• Recognize and engage tribes as sovereign and independent nations, and be culturally sensitive to the methods tribal representatives use to conduct business.

In addition, the National Resource Center on Youth Development is conducting a tribal youth project. For more information, contact Gay Munsell at 918-660-3700.

View or download the complete report in PDF format at http://www.nicwa.org/policy/research/NICWA_Transitions_9_24.pdf

Related Item

Read "Five Reports on Indian Child Welfare Released" in the July/August 2001 issue of the Children's Bureau Express.

A Portland, Oregon-based organization takes the long view when it comes to prevention and asks its employees to do likewise. Friends of the Children aims to provide an antidote to instability in children's lives by pairing them with a mentor who commits to staying on the job for 12 years—long enough to see their charge through school.

The philosophy of Friends of the Children is that what many troubled children need is a stable, enduring, caring relationship with an adult. Friends of the Children has a staff of paid, professional mentors ("Friends") who are assigned to spend around 4 hours per week with each child to which they are assigned. First grade teachers identify children most at risk for participation in the program. Mentors are expected to establish relationships with these children, and maintain them for at least 12 years. Parents and guardians must agree to the long-term commitment.

Friends of the Children was founded in 1993 in Portland, Oregon by a businessman named Duncan Campbell. It began with 3 Friends serving 24 children in northeast Portland. As of January 2002, the program has employed 88 Friends, serving more than 700 children in 11 cities. Additional locations include Washington DC, San Francisco, New York City, Cincinnati, and Seattle. The organization broadens its impact by expanding to two new cities every year.

By focusing on prevention rather than rehabilitation, Friends of the Children achieves positive outcomes at much lower costs. The National Center for Juvenile Justice estimates that the total cost of rehabilitating one youth can average between $1.7 and $2.3 million, while the total cost for one child in Friends for 12 years is $84,000 ($7,000 per year). An independent evaluation of behavioral and emotional indicators indicates steady improvements in self-esteem, communication skills, and impulsive behaviors. Teacher evaluations have also shown stability in classroom behavior and academic progress.

"Given the vulnerability of the population, and the focus on prevention, we can conclude that, while it's too early to say that kids are improving, we can definitely state that we are keeping them from getting worse," writes Steve Berman, MSW, MBA, LCSW, and program manager for Portland Friends of the Children, in the Fall 2001 issue of Focal Point.

For an in-depth view of why Friends of the Children works, read Berman's article online at: http://www.rtc.pdx.edu/FPinHTML/ FocalPointFA01/pgFPfa01Friends.shtml

Contact information:

Friends of the Children
44 NE Morris St.
Portland, OR 97212
Toll Free: 877-493-2707
Local: 503-281-6633
Fax: 503-281-6819
Email: info@friendstochildren.org
Website: http://www.friendsofthechildren.com

Related Items

Download a new research brief from Child Trends, which finds that mentoring programs can significantly improve outcomes for kids, but only if relationships between mentor and mentee are long-term and intensive and if programs are well-structured (http://www.childtrends.org/files/MentoringBrief2002.pdf).

See the following related articles in these past issues of the Children's Bureau Express:

• "Mentors Share Homes, Teach Life Skills to At-Risk Families" (September/October 2001)
• "Mentoring Program Targets Foster Care Children" (September/October 2001)
• "Study Examines a Successful Independent Living Program for High Risk Youth" (May/June 2001)

An ongoing study at the University at Buffalo's Research Institute on Addictions is shedding light on the impact of paternal alcoholism on parent-infant interactions. Previous studies with older children of alcoholics found chaotic home environments, often characterized by negative parenting behaviors. This study examines negative interactions as early as infancy with a goal of targeting affected families for early parenting interventions.

In the study, 204 families with 12-month-old infants were recruited. The families were classified in one of two groups: a control group with no or few current alcohol problems, and a father alcoholic/alcohol-abusing group. Within the father alcoholic group, the majority of mothers (82 percent) were light drinkers or abstainers, and 18 percent were heavy drinkers or had current alcohol problems.

The families were asked to participate in observed interactions with their infants at four different ages (12, 18, 24, and 36 months) with three visits at each age. The 12- and 18-month visits focused on parent-infant interactions and attachment, while the 24- and 36-month visits focused on parenting and toddler self-regulation. Interactions during these visits were videotaped and rated. The investigators focused on three areas of parental behavior during interactions: negative affect, positive affect, and sensitivity.

Results of this study have indicated that alcoholic fathers displayed lower sensitivity, lower positive affect, and higher negative affect in their interactions with their infants than did nonalcoholic fathers. Not surprisingly, risk factors associated with paternal alcoholism, such as fathers' aggression, antisocial behavior, and depression, were linked with decreased paternal sensitivity.

The parenting behavior of women married to alcoholic men did not differ from the parenting behavior of women married to non-alcoholic men. As in previous studies, there was a correlation between maternal depression and alcoholism and lower levels of sensitivity when interacting with her child.

Overall, the infants of alcoholic fathers were less responsive to their fathers than were children of nonalcoholic fathers. Results of the study suggest that maladjustment among children of alcoholic fathers can manifest itself as early as 12 months of age. Depression and alcohol problems were associated with decreased sensitivity among both mothers and fathers.

Contact information:

Rina Das Eiden, Ph.D.
1021 Main Street
Buffalo, NY 14203
Phone: 716-887-3350
Email: eiden@ria.buffalo.edu

The Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect (LONGSCAN) (http://www.sph.unc.edu/iprc/longscan) is a consortium of research studies made up of five satellite sites and a coordinating center at the University of North Carolina. The studies operate under common by-laws and procedures, but each site is conducting its own unique research on the causes and impacts of child maltreatment. The goal of LONGSCAN is to follow the children and their families until the children are young adults, conducting assessments regularly and collecting maltreatment data from multiple sources.

Three LONGSCAN studies, released in November 2001, examined various impacts of fathers or father figures in the family environment.

The first, "The Effect of Fathers on Child Behavioral Problems in Families Referred to Child Protective Services," was conducted by the State of Washington Office of Children's Administration Research. It examined some possible effects of the presence and quality of interaction between children and fathers/father figures—defined by the mother as either a primary father in the child's life regardless of biological or nonbiological relationship, or an adult male identified by the mother as residing in the home—on children's behavior in families reported to child protective services. The findings indicated lower levels of aggression and depression in children at age 6 if an adult male in a father-like relationship was present in the child's life.

The second, "Are Father Surrogates a Risk Factor for Child Maltreatment?" found that children who had a father surrogate living at home were twice as likely to be reported for maltreatment than children with no father or a biological father in the home. Conducted by the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill, the study also found that when a surrogate father maltreats a child, the mother is the one substantiated for neglect because she failed to protect her child.

The third study, "Father Involvement and Children's Functioning at Age 6 Years: A Multisite Study," examined:

• Whether the presence of a father figure, defined as a supportive male adult, was associated with better child functioning
• Whether children's perceptions of father figures' support were associated with better functioning
• Whether the association was affected by the father figures' relationship to the child, the child's race, and the child's gender.

The multisite study, conducted by researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, UNC at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, San Diego State University, UNC at Chapel Hill's School of Public Health, the Office of Children's Administration Research, Seattle, and the Juvenile Protection Association, Chicago, found that a father's presence was associated with better cognitive development and increased perceived competence by the children. In addition, children who described greater father support had a greater sense of social competence and fewer depressive signs. There were no significant influences on the father figures' level of support and children's functioning based on the relationship to the child, child's race, and the child's gender.

Contact information:

Lynn Martin, MS (Coordinator)
LONGSCAN Coordinating Center
Center for Child and Family Health
3518 Westgate Dr., Suite 100
Durham, NC 27707
Phone: 919-419-3474
Fax: 919-419-9353
Email: Lynn_Martin@med.unc.edu

What is expected of teachers in regard to reporting suspected child abuse and neglect? It's a common question with complex answers. A recent article on the Child Welfare League of America website offers some insight.

The article, When Should Teachers Report Abuse? (http://www.cwla.org/articles/cv0111teachers.htm), provides educators with definitions of child abuse and neglect, along with examples and guidelines for reporting.

Written by Nancy Duncan, MSW, a California child abuse investigator, the article outlines what key information a reporter should have when reporting suspected abuse or neglect. This includes the child's full name, date of birth, home address and telephone number, details of the suspected abuse, and information about the alleged perpetrator.

Duncan also warns against asking leading questions or inserting information, as this may taint the investigation. Finally, she outlines what reporters can expect from the resulting investigation—for themselves, the child, and the family.

It's estimated that U.S. families adopt four of every five children placed through intercountry adoption and in 2001, U.S. families adopted 18,537 foreign-born children. The high cost of these adoptions, averaging between $15,000 and $25,000, and the one to three years it takes to complete the process have led to abuses in some countries.

In response to growing concern about the adoption process in some countries, the Intercountry Adoption Act of 2000 (IAA) was enacted by the U.S. on October 6, 2000 to approve the provisions of the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption.

The Hague Convention sets minimum standards and procedures for adoptions between implementing countries in order to prevent the abduction, sale, or trafficking of children, to ensure proper consent to the adoption, and to establish the child's status in the receiving country.

The Department of State, the lead agency in the United States, is expected to publish Hague Convention regulations in the Federal Register in 2002. The State Department will collaborate with the Immigration and Naturalization Service to ensure that Hague adoptions comply with applicable U.S. immigration laws.

Because not all countries have ratified the Hague convention, other steps are being taken to discourage questionable adoption practices in all intercountry adoptions. Recently, INS announced the immediate suspension of the processing of adoption petitions in Cambodia and a review of the adoption process in Vietnam. In Guatemala, an international report finding widespread abuses prompted the U.S. and Canadian embassies to require DNA testing of birth mothers and children to confirm their biological relationship.

Visit the State Department's International Adoption website for more information on international adoption issues and information about adoption in specific countries (http://www.travel.state.gov/family/adoption/adoption_485.html).

Related Items

Visit the International Adoption Web page on the National Adoption Information Clearinghouse website (http://naic.acf.hhs.gov/parents/prospective/adopttype/intercountry.cfm) for additional information.

See the following related articles in these past issues of the Children's Bureau Express:

• "U.S. Studies Adoptions in Romania" (November/December 2001)
• "Website Publishes Feedback on Draft Intercountry Adoption Standards" (November/December 2001)
• "Federal Legislation Enacted on International Adoption" (November 2000)

Researchers at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts have found a biological explanation as to why abused children are more likely to become substance abusers later in life.

The study focused on a region of the brain called the cerebellar vermis. Repeated sexual abuse was found to affect the blood flow to this region, thereby causing damage. The cerebellar vermis has an important role in people's emotional state, and it is also strongly affected by alcohol, cocaine, and other drugs. "Damage to this area of the brain may cause an individual to be particularly irritable, and to seek external means, such as drugs or alcohol, to quell this irritability," according to Carl Anderson, Ph.D., who was involved in the study.

Anderson and his colleagues measured resting brain blood flow in the cerebellar vermis of 32 participants, ages 18 to 22. In the 15 subjects that had a history of childhood abuse, the researchers measured lower blood flows. As reported in the January 2002 edition of Psychoneuroendrocrinology, researchers used information from this and another study of 537 drug-abusing college students to conclude that childhood abuse impairs the development of the cerebellar vermis; a function of which is to control the level of an individual's irritability. Such an individual is then more likely to use drugs to compensate for this lack of control.

Related Items

See the following related articles in these past issues of the Children's Bureau Express (http://cbexpress.acf.hhs.gov):

• "Abused Children Susceptible to Psychiatric and Substance Abuse Problems as Adults" (January/February 2001)
• "Guidance for Treating Substance Abusers Affected by Child Abuse and Neglect Issues" (April 2000)

Santa Cruz County and San Mateo County in California are using a relatively new approach to measure and direct their efforts in keeping children safe, and posting their processes and results online. Their efforts are based on the "results-based accountability" model of Mark Friedman, director of the Fiscal Policy Studies Institute (http://www.resultsaccountability.com).

Friedman's Results-Based Accountability Model

The progression of thought in Friedman's model starts by asking "What do we want?" followed by "How will we recognize it?" and ending with "What will it take to get there?"

The model states that what we want—the results—are desired conditions of well-being for the population (children, adults, families or communities), stated in plain language.

Next, experience and data (indicators) are used to recognize the results. Data quantifies the results, indicating to what extent the results exist, and provides baselines, which are used to measure progress and provide a simple management tool that incorporates data-based decision making throughout the process. Finally, the story becomes clear and the question "What will it take to get there?" can be answered.

Santa Cruz

In Santa Cruz County one over-arching community goal, or desired result, was identified: Keeping children safe in their families and communities. The resulting program, Investing in Children and Families—What Works! (http://www.whatworks-scruz.org/index.html -- Editor's note: this link is no longer available) is a multi-year effort that builds on existing public/private partnerships.

There are 12 key indicators for children's safety identified in Santa Cruz County:

• Rate of substantiated child abuse and neglect
• Rate of out-of-home placement due to child abuse or neglect
• Rate of supervised in-home placement due to child abuse or neglect
• Rate of hospitalization due to unintentional injury
• Rate of hospitalization due to intentional injury
• Rate of child deaths by cause (injury/homicide/suicide)
• Rate of child victims of crime
• Rate of domestic violence with child witnesses
• Percentage of children in supervised after school activities
• Suspensions/expulsions for violent behavior in school
• Rate of juvenile felony arrests
• Percent of teens using drug or alcohol at least once a week.

Publications and projects available on the website provide the story behind the trends for several indicators, risk and protective factors, partners, as well as strategies, services, and activities that are effective. The project action plan links programs with community goals.

San Mateo

San Mateo County took a slightly different approach, identifying six goals in their Children in Our Community: A Report on Their Health and Well-Being(http://www.plsinfo.org/healthysmc/html/children_youth.html#301). The six goals are intended to ensure that children are:

• Safe
• Healthy
• Nurtured in a stable, caring environment
• Succeeding in school
• Out of trouble
• Supported by systems.

For each of these goals, San Mateo County identified a set of indicators to quantify their progress and they identified areas where better/additional data was needed to understand how the community was supporting the children.

The indicators compared the most recent data with historical county data, State data, and, in some cases, national data. Data will be updated regularly as a means of measuring improvement.

The experience of Santa Cruz and San Mateo illustrate how the results-based accountability approach simplifies performance measurement and ensures that the measure of success includes results, not just the amount of effort.

What post-adoption services should be in place for families? A new white paper from Casey Family Services, "Strengthening Families and Communities: An Approach to Post-Adoption Services," has some recommendations: adoption subsidies for children with special needs; easy access to government-funded mental health services; and technology-enabled support systems for adoptive families.

The Casey document makes these and other recommendations on policies and practices that can help adoptive families maintain stability and permanency. The paper reflects proceedings at a Casey-hosted conference on post-adoption services that took place in December 2000. Participants included State child welfare officials, adoption program managers, judges, State legislators and representatives from court improvement projects, child advocacy organizations, private agency associations, and adoptive parent organizations.

The paper offers the following perspectives on shaping policies to ensure successful adoptions:

• Services and supports should be available to all adoptive families regardless of type of adoption
• A network of services and supports ranging from prevention and early intervention services to in-home or residential treatment services should be available in communities
• Services and supports should be available as needed by adoptive families at various times throughout a child's development.
• States should track the entry and re-entry to foster care of children adopted via the public child welfare system and other non-public agencies.
• Adoptive parents and adopted youth and young adults should be engaged in the design and delivery of post-adoption services.

Casey Family Services also suggests that public and private welfare agencies collaborate to educate the public about adoption-related issues and the benefits of post-adoption services.

For a copy of the white paper, contact:

Sarah Greenblatt
Executive Director of the Casey Center for Effective Child Welfare Practice
Casey Family Services
One Corporate Drive, Suite 515
Shelton, CT 06484
Phone: 203-929-3837 or 888-799-KIDS
Website: http://www.caseyfamilyservices.org

Related Item

See the following related article from the November/December 2001 issue of the Children's Bureau Express:

• "New Study Looks at Success Rates of Adoptions of Children from Foster Care"

In trying to safely reunite children with their families, child welfare agency administrators often ask the following:

• What are the significant factors involved in planning for reunification?
• Is there a research-based tool that can predict successful or failed reunifications?
• Is training available for reunification workers?

These issues are addressed in the National Family Preservation Network's (NFPN's) reunification assessment tool and training. For the past 2 years NFPN, in collaboration with Dr. Ray Kirk from the University of North Carolina, has been developing and field-testing a reunification assessment tool, the NCFAS-R. The tool is based on Dr. Kirk's earlier development of a tool to assess family functioning in Intensive Family Preservation Services (IFPS) settings. He found that tool to be effective in measuring family functioning, and improvement in family functioning, in turn, is statistically associated with placement prevention.

To tailor the assessment process for reunification cases, Dr. Kirk added two new domains, caregiver/child ambivalence to reunification and readiness for reunification. Dr. Kirk's research report on the tool contains these findings:

• Field-testing demonstrated reliability and validity of the tool
• Child welfare workers responded positively to using the tool
• The tool identifies both problem areas and family strengths and aids in developing a service plan
• IFPS-based interventions are effective for reunification cases—70 percent of the families were successfully reunited
• Successful or failed reunifications strongly relate to differences between intake and closure scores
• The most dramatic shifts are improvements in family safety and child well-being

The field-test results are supportive of the efficacy of the NCFAS-R and the use of IFPS-based interventions for reunification cases. Additional field-testing will be conducted through May, 2002. The research report on the tool may be viewed at NFPN's website (http://www.nfpn.org).

NFPN is offering a training package consisting of the tool, database software and guide, and training video and practitioner's guide. Consultation on use of the tool is also available. For more information, please contact Priscilla Martens, NFPN's Executive Director, via email at director@nfpn.org or by phone at 888-498-9047.

A creative approach to a standard process has resulted in national exposure, motivation, and inspiration. The Heart Gallery exhibit presents professional photographs that capture the character and essence of many children who are available for adoption in the State of New Mexico.

Photographs of the children available for adoption were needed for a magazine produced by the State, and Ellie Ortiz, advertising and promotions director for the State of New Mexico's Children, Youth and Families department, thought the pictures should be in a gallery. A few phone calls and connections later produced the Heart Gallery exhibit, an exhibit that debuted last March in Santa Fe and has traveled throughout the State.

The children were given the option to have their pictures used; approximately 45 percent of the children available for adoption were in the exhibit. Local and national photographers donated their time and talent to the project; film, processing, frames, and gallery space were also donated. Promotion and coverage of the exhibit ranged from a local television morning show and local newspapers to an Associated Press reporter picking up the story as well as being featured in Camera Arts magazine.

The exhibit appeared in Albuquerque, Raton, Socorro, and Taos. The exhibit not only promoted adoptive and foster parenting, but it also led to inquiries regarding the next steps to be taken in the adoption process. More than 1,000 people attended the exhibit, resulting in 11 adoptions and 56 adoption inquiries; one of the photographed children is in the process of being adopted by her photographer. The exhibit has sparked the interest of organizations in Oklahoma and Rhode Island to have similar events, and the Santa Fe gallery owner wants to host exhibits at his galleries in Dallas and New York City.

The children will be formally presented with their portraits prior to the unveiling of a new collection, titled Heart Gallery 2, which opens in Santa Fe this September.

To view some of the children from the Heart Gallery exhibit, visit the New Mexico Children, Youth & Families Department website (http://www.cyfd.org/) and click on the "special events" link.

For more information about the Heart Gallery exhibit, contact:

Ellie Ortiz, Advertising and Promotions Manager
State of New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department
1031 Lamberton Place NE
Albuquerque NM 87107
Phone: 505-841-7919
Email: elortiz@cyfd.state.nm.us

The Edna McConnell Clark Foundation has created the Center for Community Partnerships in Child Welfare. The Foundation made an $11 million dollar grant—implemented over the next 3 years—to the Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP) to create the New York City-based center. The new center, managed by Susan Notkin, will be responsible for completing and evaluating the Foundation's Community Partnership for Protecting Children initiative.

The initiative aims to determine the benefits of collaboration between community members and child protective service agencies in promoting child safety. The grant will be used to support State and local agencies leading partnership activities, to provide technical assistance to enhance partnerships' capacity, expertise, and skills, and to assist State and national organizations that encourage informed debate on community-based approaches to child protection.

The grant to the CSSP will enable the continued implementation of the Community Partnerships initiative in the current four sites: St. Louis, Missouri; Jacksonville, Florida; Louisville, Kentucky; and Cedar Rapids, Iowa. In addition, the grant will allow for evaluation of the impact of this work, being conducted by the Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago.

Visit the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation at http://www.emcf.org/ for more information.

Based on 20 years of research and practice with over 1,500 families at risk for child physical abuse or neglect, the authors show how to help parents improve interactions with children, create safer home environments, and respond effectively to child health care needs. They present step-by-step instructions for assessing and teaching key parenting skills which are proven to prevent or reduce child maltreatment, and offer tips and resources for service providers. The guide contains more than 30 assessment forms and checklists, many of which are ready to photocopy and use, including:

• Planned activities training checklists for playtime, mealtime, bathtime, getting dressed, and bedtime
• An interaction skills checklist
• A parent behavior checklist (parent version and counselor's version)
• A health recording chart
• Parent-Child Interaction Staff Training Quizzes and Answers.

To purchase a copy, contact:

Guilford Publications, Inc.
72 Spring St.
New York, NY 10012-9902
Phone: 800-365-7006 or 212-431-9800
Fax: 212-966-6708
Email: info@guilford.com
Website: http://www.guilford.com

Lifebooks are available to children, adoptive parents, social workers, and case workers to assist children in recording their personal histories as they go through the adoption or foster care process. Designed to be a constant in children's adoption or foster care experiences and starting from their birth, lifebooks help children understand their histories and new beginnings with photos, artwork, and other personal memories.

My Foster Care Journey, written by Beth O'Malley, allows children to complete information such as their favorite foods, families they have lived with, schools they have attended, and more; it also has room for favorite pictures and signatures of friends. The lifebook provides simple definitions of birthparents, judges, and foster homes. A Spanish version is also available.

Lifebooks: Creating a Treasure for the Adopted Child, also by Beth O'Malley, provides parents with many ideas in creating their own lifebook for their child. It offers tips in dealing with roadblocks such as what information to discuss and when; lifebook "essentials" such as always starting from the child's birth, mentioning the birthparents, and reasons why the child was adopted; and the differences between lifebooks and scrapbooks.

Foster Children's Life Books: A Caseworker's Handbook, by The Center for Child and Family Studies at the University of South Carolina's College of Social Work, provides caseworkers with strategies to create and maintain lifebooks. In some instances a caseworker may be the only constant in a child's life for a period of time, and can assist the child with his or her lifebook. There is a specific section on therapeutic uses of the lifebook and developing relationships, separation and grief, working with a grieving child, adjusting to a new family, getting at feelings, dealing with conflicts and crises, and building self-esteem.

For more information on My Foster Care Journey and Lifebooks: Creating a Treasure for the Adopted Child contact:

Adoption-Works
440 Revere Street
Winthrop, MA 02152
800-469-9666
Website: http://www.adoptionlifebooks.com

For more information on the Foster Children's Life Books: A Caseworker's Handbook lifebook, contact:

The Center for Child and Family Studies
College of Social Work
University of South Carolina
Columbia, SC 29208
803-777-9408
Website: http://www.sc.edu/cosw/center/center.html

According to analyses of the 1997 National Survey of America's Families (NSAF), there are 1.8 million children in kinship care. Nearly three-fourths (1.3 million) of these children lived with relatives privately—without involvement of the child welfare system—while a half a million children were removed from their parents by a public welfare agency and placed in kinship care because of abuse and/or neglect. The study also found that 20 percent of children in kinship care live in precarious socioeconomic conditions and that despite their eligibility, relatively few children in kinship care receive benefits and services to which they are entitled.

Kinship caregivers are getting more attention and numerous programs are working to offer support and services to children in kinship care and their families, but more remains to be done to reach those who need such services.

In California, San Mateo County' (www.smchsa.org/smc/department/home/0,,15584775_18137716_20770891,00.html) is offering relative caregivers a variety of services to assist them in raising the children in their care. The program offers parenting help, peer mentoring, support services, and youth services for elders raising their relatives' children.

The Grandparent Caregiver Law Center, at the Brookdale Center on Aging in New York City, was created to address the financial and legal issues faced by grandparents who are the primary caregivers of their grandchildren.

The Grandparent Information Center (http://www.aarp.org/life/grandparents/), part of the website for the American Association for Retired Persons (AARP), provides grandparents raising grandchildren with a variety of information including fact sheets, a newsletter, legal referrals, and information and referrals to local support groups.

For other examples of kinship care programs, search the documents database on the National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect Information website (http://basis.caliber.com/cwig/ws/library/docs/gateway/SearchForm).

Related Items

Visit the National Adoption Information Clearinghouse (http://naic.acf.hhs.gov) for the following related items:

• Kinship Care factsheet (new title is Keeping the Family Tree Intact Through Kinship Care)
• Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Resources

Many sexually abused children have different reactions to the abuse they suffer and can exhibit anything from psychoses to almost no reaction at all. As with any problem related to abuse, other influences on the child, such as family troubles, can make identifying symptoms directly related to sexual abuse difficult. Choosing the appropriate treatment methods in this situation can be challenging. For evaluators working within the legal system, making the distinction between symptoms related to sexual abuse and those related to other sources is important, as the findings will help in determining legal damages, both compensatory and punitive. The author focuses on symptoms more commonly seen in sexual abuse and includes a literature review of current research, an overview of the assessment format, and details on scoring the protocol during the clinical evaluation. Various protocols include:

• The Sexual Effects Group
• The Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Group
• The Nonspecific Effects Group
• The Projectives Group.

To purchase a copy, contact:

Creative Therapeutics, Inc.
PO Box 522
155 County Rd.
Cresskill, NJ 07626-0522
Phone: 800-544-6162 or 201-567-7295
Website: http://www.rgardner.com/

Kinship caregivers face numerous obstacles in obtaining basic services for the children they are raising. Health care coverage, in particular, may be difficult to acquire due to numerous administrative barriers and a lack of awareness about what is available. Now, the Children's Defense Fund (CDF) is offering two new publications meant to aid kinship caregivers in understanding and applying for Medicaid and the Federal Child Health Insurance Program (CHIP).

Healthy Ties: Ensuring Health Coverage for Children Raised by Grandparents and Other Relatives is based on the CDF's 50-state survey of Medicaid and CHIP enrollment policies for children being raised by kinship caregivers. Healthy Ties presents "State Snapshots," which outline each State's policy for health insurance enrollment as well as barriers faced by kinship caregivers. It also offers suggestions on how State agencies and advocates can increase access to health insurance for children living with kinship caregivers.

The companion brochure, Healthy Ties: The Grandparent's and Other Relative Caregiver's Guide to Health Insurance for Children, provides kinship caregivers answers to basic questions about enrolling children in Medicaid and CHIP. The brochure also lists helpful resources for kinship caregivers and State contacts for children's health programs.

Healthy Ties: Ensuring Health Coverage for Children Raised by Grandparents and Other Relatives is available in PDF format at http://www.childrensdefense.org/pdf/healthyties_fullreport.pdf.

Healthy Ties: The Grandparent's and Other Relative Caregiver's Guide to Health Insurance for Children is available in PDF format at http://www.childrensdefense.org/pdf/healthyties_cg.pdf.

Copies of the publications can also be ordered by calling the Children's Defense Fund at 202-662-3568, by email at healthyties@childrensdefense.org, or by writing to the Children's Defense Fund, Child Welfare and Mental Health Division, 25 E Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001.

Related Items

• "Kinship Caregiver Programs" (April 2002 CBX)
• "Generations United Announces 10 KinNET Grants for 2002-2003" (January 2002 CBX)

Prevent Child Abuse Virginia has launched a Training Institute aimed at professionals, volunteers, and parents. All seminars take place at the Prevent Child Abuse Virginia offices in Richmond, but registrants from any State are welcome.

The schedule from September 2000 through January 2001 includes sessions focused on conflict resolution, domestic violence, substance abuse, and ways to work with mentally challenged parents.

Full-day seminars cost $85; half-day seminars cost $50. For more information and a complete list of seminars, contact:

Linda Halstead
Training Institute Director
Prevent Child Abuse Virginia
4901 Fitzhugh Ave.
Suite 200
Richmond, VA 23230
Phone: 800-CHILDREN or 804-359-6166
Fax: 804-359-5065