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August 2016Vol. 17, No. 6Spotlight on Family Engagement

Engaging and partnering with families involved in child welfare is the foundation of good casework practice. This month's CBX features resources highlighting the importance of family engagement and offering guidance and strategies to help professionals better partner with families.

Family engaging with caseworker

Issue Spotlight

  • Improving Father Engagement

    Improving Father Engagement

    The National Abandoned Infants Assistance (AIA) Resource Center released a research-to-practice brief to assist agencies and professionals from a variety of disciplines in better engaging fathers in services and helping fathers improve their involvement with their children. The brief, Engaging Fathers in Services, describes research regarding the benefits of father involvement on child well-being, such as the following:

    • Better educational outcomes
    • More confidence and emotional security
    • Higher level cognitive and social skills
    • Better self-control and improved self-esteem

    The brief also discusses reasons why fathers may not be involved with their children, for example, due to spousal conflict, separation, or divorce; previously modeled father-son relationships; or adverse circumstances like unemployment, mental illness, substance use, and domestic violence. The brief concludes with strategies agencies and professionals can use to engage fathers, including those with substance use issues or who are incarcerated.

    The brief is available on the National AIA Resource Center website at http://aia.berkeley.edu/media/pdf/brief_fatherengagement.pdf (2 MB).
     

  • Engaging Parents in Developing Positive Parenting Behaviors

    Engaging Parents in Developing Positive Parenting Behaviors

    Parenting interventions are structured activities aimed at engaging parents in ways that will help them develop positive parenting behaviors, such as nurturing, discipline, teaching, monitoring, and management. In a new publication, Implementing Parenting Interventions in Early Care and Education Settings: A Guidebook for Implementation, authors Tamara Halle, Diane Paulsell, Sarah Daily, Anne Douglass, Shannon Moodie, and Allison Metz provide a blueprint for the development of effective parenting intervention programs.

    With a target audience that includes Head Start or child care directors, State child care agency leads, principals, family service workers, curriculum specialists, State infant/toddler specialists, child care network leaders, and State early care and education professionals, the guidebook provides the specific tasks involved in successfully implementing a parenting intervention program. The process comprises four stages of development: exploration, installation, initial implementation, and full implementation. The exploration stage includes creating an implementation team, conducting needs assessments, developing a logic model, and creating a project plan. Collecting information about parents in the community to identify possible interventions that match parents' priorities and engaging parents in multiple ways to understand their strengths and needs are key activities during this stage.

    During the installation stage, staff within the program must make sure that all necessary resources and investments in the logic model that was developed during the exploration stage are in place so that the parenting intervention can be implemented successfully. During the initial implementation stage, staff members begin to utilize the lessons learned to deliver the intervention to families, while supervisors, managers, and coaches provide implementation supports. During full implementation, the new parenting intervention becomes fully operational with a fully-staffed program, full caseloads, and well-established implementation support. The authors suggest that fully implementing the steps outlined in the guide can take from 2 to 4 years.

    Each step of the process is described, including key take-away messages and a series of tasks to consider during each stage of implementation. The guidebook also provides a list of references, a glossary of terms, additional resources related to implementation, and a checklist of activities for each stage of implementation.

    Implementing Parenting Interventions in Early Care and Education Settings: A Guidebook for Implementation, published by the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, an agency of the Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, can be accessed at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/opre/parenting_implementation_guidebook_109_b5082.pdf (3 MB).
     

  • Multidisciplinary Parent Representation

    Multidisciplinary Parent Representation

    When children cannot remain safely in their homes and placement in foster care becomes necessary, child welfare agencies must work diligently to reunite them with their birth parents (and/or concurrently plan to achieve another permanency goal). This can be a complicated and time-sensitive process involving a number of tasks and requirements, such as locating appropriate placements for children, identifying and securing services for parents, and arranging visits. To accomplish this successfully, child welfare agencies must effectively engage birth parents in all aspects of case planning, including ensuring they receive adequate legal assistance. An article by the Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP) explores the challenges child welfare agencies encounter when engaging parents, presents a new multidisciplinary parent representation strategy that integrates legal representation and parent mentorship, and addresses the importance of agency implementation of this strategy in their jurisdictions.

    Studies show that outcomes for children improve when child welfare agencies are able to effectively engage parents—by including them in case planning efforts, giving them a voice in the decision-making process, and enabling them to advocate for themselves and their children by ensuring they're informed. However, despite the evidence of the importance of engaging parents, the field continues to struggle with this goal, and agencies may encounter difficulties engaging families for a number of reasons. For example, birth parents may mistrust the system and be reluctant to comply with services, or families may present with complex service needs that caseworkers may be unable to address.

    Multidisciplinary parent representation, a strategy being implemented by legal offices across the country, provides birth parents with a collaborative legal team made up of an attorney, a social worker, and a parent mentor dedicated to supporting, guiding, advocating for, and otherwise helping parents navigate the complexities of the child welfare system. The CSSP article outlines each partners' role in the multidisciplinary team, and it presents promising preliminary data from parent representation programs in New York City and Washington State. Not only did the use of these teams prevent the need for foster care altogether for many children, reduce the length of stay in foster care for other children, and reduce the rate of foster care reentry, they also proved cost effective.

    To read more, access the article, "Strange Bedfellows: How Child Welfare Agencies Can Benefit From Investing in Multidisciplinary Parent Representation," by Vivek S. Sankaran, Patricia L. Rideout, and Martha L. Raimon, on the CSSP website at http://www.cssp.org/reform/child-welfare/strange-bedfellows-how-child-welfare-agencies-benefit-from-multidisciplinary-parent-represenation.pdf (814 KB).
     

  • Measuring Outcomes for Home Visiting Programs

    Measuring Outcomes for Home Visiting Programs

    Home visiting programs to support at-risk families with children under age 5 are present throughout the United States, but measuring the outcomes of these programs can be challenging for States. For example, State programs and models vary in focus, content, and target population, and States often invest in more than one approach to help address specific State priorities. Several States joined with The Pew Charitable Trusts to develop the Home Visiting Data for Performance Initiative to promote common measures for these programs. Pew released a report in 2015 that presents the indicators developed by the initiative as well as the rationales for employing them. The indicators measure outcomes in the following areas:

    • Maternal health and achievement
    • Child health, development, and safety
    • Parental skills and capacity

    To learn more, access the report, Using Data to Measure Performance: A New Framework for Assessing the Effectiveness of Home Visiting, at http://www.pewtrusts.org/~/media/assets/2015/10/hv_datainitiativereport.pdf (908 KB).

    To view additional information from Pew about home visiting, refer to http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/archived-projects/home-visiting-campaign.
     

    Recent Issues

  • April 2024

    Spotlight on National Child Abuse Prevention Month

    Spotlight on National Child Abuse Prevention Month

  • March 2024

    Spotlight on Diversity and Racial Equity in Child Welfare

    Spotlight on Diversity and Racial Equity in Child Welfare

News From the Children's Bureau

We highlight a framework for providing prepermanency and postpermanency preparation and support services for children and families, as well as a report offering a snapshot of early childhood data available for children who are experiencing homelessness in each State.

  • CB Website Updates

    CB Website Updates

    The Children's Bureau website carries information on child welfare programs, funding, monitoring, training and technical assistance, laws, statistics, research, Federal reporting, and much more.

    Recent additions to the site include:

    Visit the Children's Bureau website often to see what's new at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb.
     

  • State-by-State Snapshot of Early Childhood Homelessness

    State-by-State Snapshot of Early Childhood Homelessness

    The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) published a report that explores data related to children experiencing homelessness in 50 States plus the District of Columbia (excluding territories, migrant, and Tribal information). Its key message is that homelessness in early childhood is related to poor development outcomes. Supporting research indicates that the effects of homelessness are correlated with educational, brain structure, and social emotional development, both while children are experiencing homelessness and throughout the remainder of their lifetimes.

    This report addresses the importance of easily identifiable supports to homeless children's long-term educational outcomes. These supports can counteract deficits generated by experiences of homelessness in areas such as the following:

    • Learning
    • Social-emotional development
    • Self-regulation
    • Cognitive skills

    The purpose of presenting these individual State data profiles, according to the Office of Early Childhood Development at ACF, is to help inform local, State, and Federal conversations and initiatives working toward ending family homelessness by 2020. In addition to an overarching national profile page, plus the individual State profiles, this report contains appendices on these ancillary topics:

    • Appendix 1: An overview of Federal definitions of homelessness and related issues
    • Appendix 2: Background about supportive Early Childhood Programs
    • Appendix 3: A list of data sources consulted and the methodology employed to undertake this study
    • Appendix 4: Limitations in the data studied to compile this report

    Access Early Childhood Homelessness in the United States: 50-State Profile on the ACF website at https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/ecd/homelessness_profile_package_with_blanks_for_printing_508.pdf (4 MB).
     

  • Data Sheet on Domestic Violence Services

    Data Sheet on Domestic Violence Services

    In 2014, local domestic violence programs, including Tribal programs, served about 1.27 million victims of domestic violence, and the data show that many of these victims are children. Domestic Violence Services Provided by State and Tribal Grantees, a data report from the Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB), presents demographic information, including age, gender, and ethnicity, about these victims, as well as information about the kinds of supports and services accessed.

    The information provided includes the following:

    • The majority of the adults served, approximately 92 percent, were female; only 8 percent were male.
    • Almost 50 percent of the victims served were ages 25 to 29.
    • About 22 percent (or about 288,633) of the victims were children under age 18.
    • Young adults aged 18 to 24 made up 15 percent of the victims.
    • About 9,260 youth were direct victims of intimate partner violence in their own relationships.
    • Of the clients that received domestic violence services, 45 percent were White, 18 percent were African-American, 14 percent were Hispanic or Latino, and 3 percent were American Indian/Alaskan Native.
    • Local domestic violence programs provided 8.2 million shelter nights for victims and their families, with an average stay per family of 33 nights.

    The report notes that the majority of clients served by domestic violence programs were provided support services only, including advocacy and counseling.

    FYSB is an agency of the Administration for Families and Children, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The data sheet is available on the FYSB website at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/fysb/fvpsa_state_tribal_20150731.pdf (289 KB).
     

  • Permanency Continuum Framework

    Permanency Continuum Framework

    The Quality Improvement Center for Adoption and Guardianship Support and Preservation (QIC-AG) created a framework to help guide its work with eight sites across the United States in developing evidence-based models to address the prepermanency and postpermanency support and service needs of children in foster care. The framework aims to help families get ready for the transition to permanency by ensuring families are equipped with the tools they need to address issues that may arise during the permanency process, with the hope of preventing disruption or dissolution.

    The framework comprises eight intervals that address both the prepermanency and postpermanency sides of the process, such as activities to help prepare families for transition; interventions addressing the emotional, mental, and behavioral health needs of children; both universal and selective prevention services and supports; intensive services for families in crisis; and ongoing maintenance efforts. When applied as a whole, the intervals in the framework are meant to provide a comprehensive organizing principle to not only help children and families successfully transition from foster care to adoption or guardianship, but also maintain stability and well-being after permanency.

    To learn more about the framework, visit the QIC-AG website at http://qic-ag.org/continuum-framework/.
     

  • 20th National Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect

    20th National Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect

    Professionals, researchers, policy makers, parents, and volunteers committed to working toward the well-being of children and families will gather at the 20th National Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect (NCCAN) from August 31 to September 2. Sponsored by the Children's Bureau's Office on Child Abuse and Neglect, this year's NCCAN will focus on "Building Community, Building Hope." The theme acknowledges the power communities have in solving the problem of child abuse and neglect and provides an opportunity for a variety of disciplines to come together and explore intersections of research, policy, and practice that focus on protecting children and promoting well-being.

    The 20th NCCAN will focus on the following five core topic areas:

    • Promoting Child and Family Well-Being: Effective Strategies at All Levels
    • Shaping the Workforce: Strong, Capable, and Well-Supported Teams
    • Building on Strengths: Engagement in Effective, Supportive, and Informed Systems
    • Leveraging Community Assets: Understanding Context and Building Responsive Programs and Practices
    • Partnering for Impact: Effective Work Across Systems and Disciplines to Breakdown Silos

    The conference, to be held in Washington‚ DC, is free and open to the public. The online registration deadline is Wednesday, August 17, 2016. To register and to access the conference agenda, topics, and travel/hotel information, visit http://www.2016nccan.com/index.html.
     

Child Welfare Research

We feature a brief providing guidance on research-based principles to guide effective partnerships between social work education programs and child welfare agencies; a white paper on the theoretical framework, model, and strategies that guided Strong Communities; an initiative that seeks to keep kids safe by building systems of support for families of young children; and more.

  • Florida Independent Living Programs and Supports

    Florida Independent Living Programs and Supports

    A Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) report demonstrates the many ways the State is supporting young adults in extended foster care and independent living programs. Independent Living Transition Services Outcome Measures and Oversight Activities points to several Florida initiatives that support youth aging out of foster care and into independent living, including the #ItCANbedone campaign, Florida Youth Leadership Academy, Crossover Youth Practice Model, and Casey Family Programs' Permanency Roundtables and Permanency Values Training.

    Other developments focused on young adults include:

    • DCF's Campus Coach Coordinator program for boosting postsecondary access, student retention, academic performance, and graduation rates for youth formerly in foster care
    • DCF's support of the Independent Living Services Advisory Council
    • DCF's commitment to help youth up to age 26 access health-care benefits under the Affordable Care Act
    • Working with the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity to use the Florida Education and Training Placement Information Program on behalf of older youth in foster care

    The report concludes that DCF's new service methodologies have benefitted this population, noting that enrollment in postsecondary education is rising and that over half the youth who have reached age 18 have elected to remain in extended foster care.

    The report is available at http://www.dcf.state.fl.us/programs/indliving/docs/Updated%20Final%202014%20IL%20Oversight%20Report%20%283%29_3_25_15.pdf (131 KB).
     

  • Outcome-Focused Academic and Agency Research Partnerships

    Outcome-Focused Academic and Agency Research Partnerships

    A brief from the National Association of Social Workers' (NASW's) Social Work Policy Institute is designed to promote research-based principles that will yield more effective and outcome-focused partnerships between academic social work programs and child welfare agencies. NASW partnered with Casey Family Programs and an advisory group of public, private, academic, and nonprofit stakeholders to craft the guidance, Creating and Sustaining Effective and Outcome-Oriented Child Welfare University-Agency Research Partnerships.

    The brief cites several components as central to successful partnerships, including:

    • A unified purpose
    • An interdependent relationship
    • Negotiated and clear-cut roles and responsibilities
    • Shared authority
    • Mechanisms for resolving conflict
    • Ongoing evaluations and improvement

    The brief identifies several challenges to sustaining partnerships, including:

    • Academic and agency staff turnover
    • Lack of control over external funding sources
    • Conflicting priorities and organizational values
    • Compressed agency time frames conflicting with longer term academic timelines
    • Lack of professional social work credentials among child welfare workers compared with their academic counterparts
    • Costs of maintaining partnerships

    Elements for an effective research partnership include:

    • An ongoing working relationship
    • Appreciation for, and understanding of, different cultural contexts
    • Strategic planning for leadership transitions
    • Defined parameters for project timeframes
    • Protocols for confidentiality and for sharing research and data access
    • Attention to the academic realities of tenure, promotion, and the pressure to publish
    • The creation of a continuous training, research, and practice loop

    The brief can be accessed at http://www.socialworkpolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/action-brief-march-2014.pdf (399 KB).
     

  • Child Trafficking and Child Welfare Policy, Practice

    Child Trafficking and Child Welfare Policy, Practice

    Child trafficking does not only occur internationally; it is also a problem in the United States. However, because most of the research on this issue tends to focus on child trafficking outside of the country, there is a dearth of information available to child welfare professionals on the trafficking of minors in the United States. The Journal of Trafficking, Organized Crime and Security published a study exploring the experiences and awareness of 10 child welfare caseworkers in Colorado with regard to child trafficking, including discussion of any training received related to trafficking and their ability to identify child trafficking victims. The study found that the majority of participants:

    • Had not received formal training on issues related to child trafficking
    • Were not aware if other colleagues had received such training
    • Were not aware of the existence of any resources at their agency related to child trafficking
    • Felt that child trafficking identification is difficult in their current position, and victim identification could be improved

    This study concludes that child- and family-serving agencies need to improve policies addressing child trafficking, including efforts to increase awareness and understanding of trafficking issues among child welfare professionals, as well as training on how to appropriately identify and work with child trafficking victims. In practice, it is important for child welfare professionals to develop effective interviewing skills that allow space for possible victims to safely share their stories. It is also vital that child welfare professionals collaborate with other service providers to appropriately assess which services may be needed by possible trafficking victims.

    Access "Child trafficking and child welfare: Implications for policy and practice," by Stephanie L. Mace, Journal of Trafficking, Organized Crime and Security, 1(2), 2015, at http://brownwalker.com/ojs/index.php/JTOCS/article/view/42.
     

  • Community Building for Improved Child Safety, Well-Being

    Community Building for Improved Child Safety, Well-Being

    A community-building approach to preventing child abuse and neglect has shown promising results, as reported in a white paper produced by Strong Communities for Children (Strong Communities), a large-scale initiative aimed at preventing child abuse and neglect through the establishment of watchful and supportive neighborhood communities. The Strong Communities program grew out of a 1991 call for a neighborhood-based child protection system by the U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect and is premised on cultivating and training local support systems to help keep children safe and strengthen communities.

    The paper, which was produced on behalf of Upbring, a Texas-based nonprofit social services agency, shows that after a 3-year period of implementing the Strong Communities model, neighborhoods in the South Carolina pilot area saw an 11-percent decrease in maltreatment in children age 2 and under and a 41-percent decrease in children age 4 and under, fewer emergency room visits and hospitalizations, and improved parenting practices.

    The Strong Communities model has four phases: (1) educating the community on child maltreatment, (2) mobilizing the community, (3) accessing resources, and (4) institutionalizing resources and providing training and technical assistance.

    The objectives of Strong Communities are threefold: (1) build a family's social support network, (2) encourage community reciprocity and mutual support, and (3) provide professional support when needed. 

    Access the paper How Can Strong Communities Transform Community Norms and Structures to Promote Children's Safety and Well-Being? at http://www.upbring.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/white-paper-strong-communities.pdf (259 KB).
     

Strategies and Tools for Practice

This section of CBX offers publications, articles, reports, toolkits, and other instruments that provide either evidence-based strategies or other concrete help to child welfare and related professionals.

  • Apps for Social Work Professionals

    Apps for Social Work Professionals

    An article on the Tech.co website describes how social media can be used to enhance the work of social work professionals and the people they help. Initially meant to reinforce the commonly spoken phrase, "there's an app for that," the article provides background on how specific social media channels (e.g., Facebook and Twitter), in addition to search engines (e.g., Google), offer users unique experiences when searching for information related to a topic of interest, using social work as the primary example. The article provides specific examples of applications that are designed to help social work professionals with different aspects of their jobs, such as:

    • iGrade for Social Worker: designed to help with client management
    • Social Work Jobs: created to help professionals find relevant employment opportunities
    • Mobile Cochrane Library: provides access to several databases for on-the-go research

    The article also provides information on a discretely labeled app created to help women who may be in an unhealthy or abusive relationship, called Aspire News. 

    Access the article, "Useful Apps for Social Work Professionals," by Daphne Stanford, on the Tech.co website at http://tech.co/social-work-apps-2015-10.

     

    Related Item

    Child Welfare Information Gateway launched a mobile application for its National Foster Care and Adoption Directory (NFCAD). To learn more, read the article "National Foster Care and Adoption Directory App" in the March 2016 issue of Children's Bureau Express.
     

  • Finding and Keeping Foster, Adoptive, and Kinship Homes

    Finding and Keeping Foster, Adoptive, and Kinship Homes

    The New York Office of Children and Family Services developed Revitalizing Recruitment, a resource tool for child welfare professionals to guide them in developing and implementing best practices for recruiting foster/adoptive families and engaging parents and children before and after placement. The guide includes information on the challenges and opportunities in recruitment and retention and offers tools that can help revitalize recruitment within professionals' jurisdictions. Some of the topics addressed include the following:

    • Driving recruitment with data: how data can strengthen recruitment and retention, data collection and analysis focused on the data elements related to families, and market segmentation
    • Targeted vs. general recruitment: exploring how the data can inform the cost-benefit analysis of recruitment and retention strategies, developing partnerships with diverse communities, increasing cultural competence, and engaging high-response communities
    • Child-specific recruitment and hard-to-find homes
    • Customer service for retention and support
    • Effective communication via social media

    The guide also features the following:

    • Summaries of best practices for specific communities and additional resource content
    • Specific descriptions of practice models and evidence-base practice strategies
    • A number of factsheets and guides related to best practice programs/strategies

    Revitalizing Recruitment: Practice Strategies for Finding and Keeping Foster, Adoptive, and Kinship Homes, by the New York State Office of Children and Family Services and Welfare Research, Inc., is available at http://nrcdr.org/_assets/files/DR-Grantees/year-three/NY-Revitalizing-Recruitment-2015.pdf (10 MB).
     

Resources

This CBX section provides a quick list of interesting resources, such as websites, videos, journals, funding or scholarship opportunities, or other materials that can be used in the field or with families.

  • Children's Bureau Launches Prevention-Focused Video Series

    Children's Bureau Launches Prevention-Focused Video Series

    Building Community, Building Hope is a new video series that is part of a multiyear endeavor by the Children's Bureau to promote solutions for preventing child maltreatment. The series aims to encourage and emphasize community involvement and the formation of partnerships to support prevention efforts. An accompanying discussion guide outlines the series' main messages and provides brief suggestions on how professionals can utilize the videos.

    The first video, "Building Community, Building Hope," represents phase I of this project. Stories narrated in the film highlight three specific programs recommended by the Children's Bureau: Iowa's Partners United for Supportive Housing, Oregon's Fostering Hope Initiative, and California's Magnolia Place Community Initiative. The mission of these programs is aligned with that of the Building Community, Building Hope video series: the prevention of child maltreatment through engagement with families and communities. Each program discusses its respective participation to achieve and sustain community safety as it relates to child maltreatment and family engagement.

    Phase II of the project will see the Children's Bureau include additional films that continue to focus on prevention of child maltreatment. To view "Building Community, Building Hope" and access the guide, visit the website for the National Child Abuse and Neglect Technical Assistance and Strategic Dissemination Center, a service of the Children's Bureau, Office on Child Abuse and Neglect, at http://www.cantasd.org/.

    The video is also accessible on the Child Welfare Information Gateway website at https://www.childwelfare.gov/topics/preventing/communities/bcbh/.

    April was National Child Abuse Prevention Month. The theme for the 2016 initiative also focused on "Building Community, Building Hope." For more resources to help build your community and increase hope for families, including the 2016 Prevention Resource Guide, visit the Prevention Month website throughout the year at https://www.childwelfare.gov/topics/preventing/preventionmonth/.
     

  • From School to Practice: Making a Good Social Worker

    From School to Practice: Making a Good Social Worker

    The majority of the students entering master of social work (M.S.W.) programs want to pursue a career in direct practice as clinical social workers. For the most part, M.S.W. programs are advanced generalist programs; students are expected to be able to understand and work with various clients at different levels. Managing the shift from school to practice and developing a clinical social work identity is often challenging for the newly graduated student who would like to develop a new set of competencies and skills. To address some key elements of a successful transition into a social work career, the host of the Social Work Podcast, Jonathan Singer, interviewed Dr. Danna Bodenheimer, author of Real World Clinical Social Work: Find Your Voice and Find Your Way.

    During her interview, Dr. Bodenheimer explains how stressors like taking a licensing exam, finding a job, and paying student loans may interfere with newly graduated social workers' ability to focus on doing good work. As a university professor, the author is also able to share how some students may vacillate between feelings of overconfidence and insecurity and find it difficult to integrate both parts. Dr. Bodenheimer points out that new workers may not make the best use of supervision, a most valuable tool for professional growth, due to a fear of not wanting to appear incompetent or unprofessional. She reflects on the core of the clinical social work relationship, which in her opinion should be supported by a guiding principle or a belief system about what creates wellness to shape proper interventions. 

    Other key areas discussed include concepts of transference, counter-transference, real relationship, and the importance of creating an observing ego. Finally, Dr. Bodenheimer stated that financial hardship can interfere with the ability of a clinician to think critically and that securing an adequate salary is essential to providing the best possible care. 

    Listen to the interview, "Becoming a Clinical Social Worker: Interview With Dr. Danna Bodenheimer" at http://socialworkpodcast.blogspot.com/2015/11/Bodenheimer.html.
     

  • Kinship Caregiver Resources in Oregon

    Kinship Caregiver Resources in Oregon

    Kinship caregivers, including grandparents, can play an important role in providing safe and stable environments for children. In fact, relatives and grandparents are increasingly becoming full-time caregivers to young relatives whose parents are unable to take care of them. While kin caregivers fill an important and often rewarding role, caring for kin can come with several hardships and obstacles.

    A guide from the Oregon Department of Human Services provides information on resources, services, and benefits to help kinship caregivers effectively care for their families. The guide addresses common issues kin caregivers may face, including meeting their relative child's emotional, behavioral, and physical needs; working with the Oregon Department of Human Services' Child Welfare Program; and assistance for families. A list of resources on local offices and programs that can further assist kin caregivers is also provided.

    A Resource Guide for Grandparents and Other Relatives Raising Grandchildren in Oregon is available at https://aix-xweb1p.state.or.us/es_xweb/DHSforms/Served/me9975.pdf (3 MB). 
     

Training and Conferences

Find trainings, workshops, webinars, and other opportunities for professionals and families to learn about how to improve the lives of children and youth as well as a listing of upcoming events and conferences.

  • Conferences

    Conferences

    Upcoming national conferences on child welfare and adoption through November 2016 include:

    August 2016

    • 2016 CWLA National Conference
      "Advancing Excellence in Practice and Policy: What Works for Families Affected by Substance Use"
      Child Welfare League of America (CWLA)
      August 1–3, Orange County, CA
      http://www.cwla.org/substanceuseconference/
    • 2016 North American Council on Adoptable Children (NACAC) Conference
      NACAC
      August 3–6, Nashville, TN
      http://www.nacac.org/conference/conference.html
    • 28th Annual Crimes Against Children Conference
      Dallas Children's Advocacy Center & Dallas Police Department
      August 8–11, Dallas, TX
      http://www.cacconference.org/
    • 2016 National Child Welfare, Juvenile and Family Law Conference
      National Association of Counsel for Children
      August 12–14, Philadelphia, PA
      http://www.naccchildlaw.org/event/2016_Conference
    • 20th National Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect
      "Building Community, Building Hope"
      U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Children's Bureau, Office on Child Abuse and Neglect
      August 31–September 2, Washington, DC
      http://www.2016nccan.com/

    September 2016

    October 2016

    • NCCD Conference on Children, Youth, and Families: Creating Solutions
      National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD)
      October 4–6, Garden Grove, CA
      http://www.nccdglobal.org/news-events/nccd-conference-on-children-youth-and-families
    • ISS-USA's 6th Annual Fall Conference
      "The Ties That Bind: Exploring the Causes and Consequences of Children Separated From Their Families Across International Borders"
      International Social Service (ISS) - USA Branch/University of Maryland School of Social Work
      October 13, Baltimore, MD
      http://www.iss-usa.org/training-events/iss-usa-6th-annual-conference
    • Together We Can Conference
      Pelican Center for Children and Families, Louisiana Supreme Court/CIP Program; Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services - Children's Justice Act; LouisianaChildren.org; Louisiana Children's Trust Fund; National Association of Social Workers, Louisiana Chapter
      October 24–26, Lafayette, LA
      http://www.latwc.com
    • National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth 2016 Conference
      National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth
      October 29–November 1, Orlando, FL
      http://www.naehcy.org/conference/about-2016-conference
    • APHA's 2016 Annual Meeting and Expo
      American Public Health Association (APHA)
      October 29–November 2, Denver, CO
      http://apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual

    November 2016

    • International Conference on Innovations in Family Engagement
      Kempe Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse and Neglect
      November 1–4, Ft. Worth, TX
      http://www.kempeconference.org

    Further details about national and regional child welfare and adoption conferences can be found through the Conference Calendar Search feature on the Child Welfare Information Gateway website at http://www.childwelfare.gov/calendar/index.cfm.
     

     

  • Improving Responses to Youth Charged With Status Offenses

    Improving Responses to Youth Charged With Status Offenses

    The Coalition for Juvenile Justice offers a free training curriculum titled Improving Responses to Youth Charged With Status Offenses. This training is meant to assist child welfare and related professionals in advocating for and implementing the principles of the National Standards for the Care of Youth Charged With Status Offenses in their jurisdiction. The training includes an introduction, three training modules focused on the first three sections of the national standards, and a factsheet with definitions of common terms. The training modules include the following:

    • Module 1: Principles for Responding to Status Offenses
    • Module 2: Efforts to Avoid Court Involvement
    • Module 3: Efforts to Limit Court Involvement

    Each module includes an instructor's guide, PowerPoint slides, and helpful handout materials. Sample scripts are also provided to guide instructors and facilitate conversation. After completion of the training, professionals should be able to effectively present the material to their audience.

    To access the training, visit http://www.juvjustice.org/our-work/safety-opportunity-and-success-project/national-standards/improving-responses-youth-charged.
     

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An official website of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families and the Children's Bureau

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