Topics
What's New (updated 7-24-08)
* Pathways to Collaboration: Factors That Help and Hinder Collaboration Between Substance Abuse and Child Welfare Fields (PDF)
This curriculum from the California Social Work Education Center highlights research and activities related to collaboration between substance abuse and child welfare systems. Topics covered include research on cross-systems collaboration, promising models for collaborative practice, factors that promote and hinder collaboration, and communication and confidentiality issues across systems.
* Out of the Shadows: What Child Welfare Workers Can Do to Help Children and their Incarcerated Parents (PDF)
This issue of Reaching Out, published by the Center for Human Services at the University of California, Davis Extension, discusses the issues surrounding families in which children are in foster care and a parent is incarcerated and provides information to help child welfare workers better address this situation.
* Learning and Working Together!: Integrating Domestic Violence and Child Welfare Services (PDF)
This paper, prepared by the Wisconsin Association of Family and Children's Agencies, explains how cross-training, collaboration, and accountability can be implemented to improve outcomes for families at risk of child abuse and domestic violence. It highlights innovative programs and methods and provides links to related resources for more information.
* Improving Outcomes for Rural Native American Foster Youth
Tribal STAR (Successful Transitions for Adult Readiness) is a collaborative between the San Diego State University School of Social Work and other partners with the goal of developing and implementing a training program to improve frontline and supervisory staff's capacity to meet the needs of rural Native American foster youth in California. They have developed two training programs: "Creating Connections: The Gathering" for frontline child welfare staff, and "Creating Connections: The Summit" for supervisory staff.
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Child and Family Service Reviews (CFSR)
Families Gaining Their Seat at the Table: Family Engagement Strategies in the First Round of Child and Family Services Reviews and Program Improvement Plans (PDF)
To study the extent to which State child welfare systems are implementing family engagement models, American Humane reviewed family engagement strategies through Child and Family Services Reviews (CFSRs) and Program Improvement Plans (PIPs). The CFSRs evaluate States’ child welfare programs, and based on the results of their CFSRs, States develop PIPs to address all areas “needing improvement”. This report provides an overview of States’ use of family engagement strategies, as identified in the first round of CFSRs and PIPs.
Child and Family Services Reviews 2001 - 2004: A Mental Health Analysis (PDF)
This Mental Health Analysis is based upon a review of the 52 Final Reports and 52 Program Improvement Plans from the first round Child and Family Service Reviews of State child welfare systems. The report identifies trends in mental health service delivery, as well as the administration/management of these services across States. It also presents a summary of the challenges States are facing in meeting the mental health challenges of children and their families in the child welfare system. The report also identifies efforts to reform systems to better address the complex behavioral health needs of children, youth, and families in child welfare and identifies issues needing further attention.
General Information on the Child and Family Service Reviews (CFSRs)—Includes factsheets on the CFSRs, schedule of upcoming CFSRs for states in 2007 and 2008, and a newsletter update.
Reports and Results of the 1st and 2nd Rounds of the Child and Family Services Reviews—The following reports are available through a searchable database by State:
- Preliminary Assessments
- Statewide Assessments
- CFSR Final Reports
- Program Improvement Plans (PIPs)
- Individual Key Findings Reports
Promising Approaches in Child Welfare
The Children's Bureau identifies promising approaches in child welfare during the child and family services reviews. The promising approach descriptions are provided as a resource to States regarding areas of common concern identified during the child and family services reviews and Program Improvement Plan process.
Changing the Culture of the Workplace
This resource presents comments by Jerry Milner, National Child and Family Service Review Team, on lessons learned from States on improving outcomes for children and families through systemic change in child welfare.
Child and Family Service Review (CFSR) Toolkit for Youth Involvement (PDF)
This document offers practical strategies for collaborating with youth in the CFSR.
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Cultural and Linguistic Competence (CLC)
Connecting the Dots: Improving Neighborhood-Based Child Welfare Services for Asian Pacific American Children and Families (PDF)
This report from the Coalition for Asian American Children and Families looks at the New York City child welfare system to analyze the needs of Asian Pacific American families, the barriers they face to accessing child welfare services, and opportunities that exist for collaboration with the Asian Pacific American community. Recommendations to reduce child abuse and neglect in the Asian Pacific American community are also presented.
Racial Disparity in the Child Welfare System
This Thursday's Child public policy forum focuses on the issues surrounding racial disparity in the child welfare system. Chapin Hall Research Fellow Fred Wulczyn discusses a recent Chapin Hall study that found African-American infants are nearly three times more likely than white infants to be placed in foster care. Child welfare administrators on the panel also discuss initiatives being implemented in New York City and Washington DC to close the gaps in racial disparity.
Access to the audio recording.
Culturally Competent Practice With Latino Children and Families
Using a Children's Bureau grant, a team of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) and two universities developed these family-focused training protocols that encourage culturally appropriate community-based services. The training targets supervisors and caseworkers from the Texas DFPS who work primarily with Latino families in their homes and promote family preservation. It also addresses findings from Texas's Child and Family Services Review, which indicated needed improvements in the areas of safely maintaining children in their own homes and family involvement in case planning.
Latino Child Welfare Issues [Website]
This National Resource Center for Family-Centered Practice and Permanency Planning webpage contains links to national and state resources and other information on child welfare issues that affect Latino children and families.
Time for Reform: A Matter of Justice for American Indian and Alaskan Native Children
According to a new brief from Pew Charitable Trusts and the National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA), while the Indian Child Welfare Act and other federal programs provide some American Indian and Alaskan Native tribes with limited funding for child welfare services, tribes do not have direct access to the largest source of federal child welfare funding – Title IV-E of the Social Security Act, which authorizes federal foster care and adoption assistance. The brief provides information on federal financing for tribal child welfare services, critical issues in the accessibility of funding by tribal governments, and implications for service delivery.
Evidence-Based Practice and Cultural Competence in Child Welfare
Prepared by University of Minnesota, the School of Social Work
Addressing Disproportionality in the Child Welfare System: What State Policymakers Should Know [Webcast]
Presented by the National Governors Association, Center for Best Practices
This webcast provides an overview of the disproportional representation of minorities in the child welfare system and offers examples of how states are responding to this important and complex issue.
Best Practice Principles: Gay and Lesbian Youth in Care (PDF)
Prepared by D. Mark Ragg and Dennis Patrick, Child Welfare League of America
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Education
Foster Care and School Mental Health (PDF)
This issue brief from the Center for School Mental Health at the University of Maryland School of Medicine presents information on the mental health and special education needs of children in foster care, and discusses what schools can do to help these students. A listing of related resources and initiatives is included.
Educational Needs of Youth in Foster Care
This Information Packet from the National Resource Center for Family-Centered Practice and Permanency Planning includes facts and statistics, policies and legislation, promising practices and model programs, web sites and resources, and a bibliography on the topic of the educational needs of youth in foster care.
Educational Services for Children in Foster Care: Common and Contrasting Perspectives of Child Welfare and Education Stakeholders
This study explores attributes of the child welfare and education systems that affect foster children's academic performance. It also identifies differences in perceptions between child welfare and education workers regarding the educational issues that foster children face.
Available for purchase only.
Fact sheet: Educational Stability and Continuity for Children and Youth in Out-of-Home Care
This fact sheet from the Legal Center for Foster Care & Education includes information about education and children in out-of-home-care and the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act.
Teacher's Desk Reference on Child Abuse and Neglect: What You Do Can Save a Child's Life
This brochure from the New Jersey Department of Children and Families offers information on how to report child abuse and neglect, what happens once a report is made, and the roles that the school district and the Department of Children and Families play in the process.
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Engaging Families
Family Engagment Information Packets
These Information Packets from the National Resource Center for Family-Centered Practice and Permanency Planning include facts and statistics, best practice tips and model programs, policies and legislation, websites and resources, and a bibliography about the topic of the needs and services of birth parents.
Family Group Decision Making in Child Welfare: Purpose, Values and Processes (PDF)
In this document, American Humane clarifies the definition of “family group decision making” (FGDM) in order to increase understanding on the subject and enable accurate classification of family-involvement practices as being FGDM. A clarified definition is helpful for the purposes of funding application, research and evaluation, and training and education. This document covers the purpose, values, processes of family group decision making.
Promoting Healthy Families in Your Community: 2008 Resource Packet
This packet highlights strategies to strengthen families by promoting key protective factors that prevent child abuse and neglect. It also includes tip sheets in both English and Spanish to share with parents, strategies for increasing knowledge about child abuse prevention in communities, and information about child abuse and neglect. The Resource Packet is produced annually by the Children's Bureau, Child Welfare Information Gateway, and the FRIENDS National Resource Center on Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention.
A Closer Look: Family Involvement in Public Child Welfare Driven Systems of Care
This issue of A Closer Look, from the National Technical Assistance and Evaluation Center for Systems of Care Resources, examines definitions of family involvement; families in child welfare, yesterday and today; grant communities responses to challenges in strengthening family involvement; operationalizing family involvement in system change; and what leaders can do to support family-agency partnerships for system transformation.
Supporting Kinship Care - Promising Practices and Lessons Learned
This Casey Family Programs report was developed by their Breakthrough Series Collaborative (BSC). The focus of this BSC is specific to kinship families involved with the public or tribal child welfare system and the report summarizes the successful strategies that BSC teams developed to support kinship care.
Bringing Families to the Table: A Comparative Guide to Family Meetings in Child Welfare
There are several distinct practice models available that use family-centered principles in combination with family group meetings to involve families in discussion, problem solving, and supporting one another. The expanding variety of approaches to family meetings now available in child welfare systems causes a good deal of uncertainty about which model or combination of approaches to employ. This guide offers a descriptive outline of six practice models, their commonalities, their core elements, and their unique features for involving families. Administrators and policymakers can use this paper to help them select the family meeting model that best fits the strengths, barriers, and unique characteristics of the families they seek to engage in decision-making.
Parent Engagement and Leadership
This fact sheet, developed by the FRIENDS National Resource Center for Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention (CBCAP), describes parent engagement and leadership, the benefits of parent engagement, and strategies for recruitment, engagement and training.
Making it Work: When Families that Represent a Service Population Become Employees
This document from the Consortium for the Employment of Parent Representatives identifies the most significant issues in family member employment, describes reasonable approaches for addressing these issues, and identifies promising approaches.
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Juvenile Justice
Caught Between Two Courts: Maintaining and Enhancing Child Welfare Services for Older Youth Involved in the Juvenile Justice System (PDF)
This article focuses on the challenges of dual system youth and the juvenile courts. It discusses Pennsylvania’s goal of enhanced supports and better coordination of services by 2010, as outlined in the Joint Position Statement on Aftercare, and explains how the efforts of State and local professionals are making strides toward improvement.
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For Families
Rise Magazine: Immigration
Rise Magazine is written by and for parents who have been involved in the child welfare system. This issue features articles and resources written by immigrant parents about how to strengthen and protect your family while in an unfamiliar system and culture.
Mediation in Child Welfare (PDF)
According to a new brief, mediation facilitates family and youth participation in child protection planning and allows for collaborative and improved outcomes. This resource, developed by the Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development (GUCCHD), outlines what mediation is, what it looks like, how to develop an effective mediation program, and how to sustain good programs.
Home Visiting: Strengthening Families by Promoting Parenting Success (PDF)
This practice/policy brief from the Family Strengthening Policy Center illustrates how home visiting can have positive effects for families facing parenting and child-rearing challenges. The brief notes that governments, the research community, and other community sectors need to increase their support of home visiting programs, and that home visiting agencies must also take steps of their own to strengthen outcomes.
Making the Decision to Become a Child's Permanent Family
This guide from the Iowa Department of Human Services discusses: Differences Between Adoption and Guardianship; Post-Permanency Services Available to Guardians; Educational Resources; Planning for Future Circumstances; and Questions to Help Families Who Are Considering Guardianship.
Making "Relative Search" Happen: A Guide to Finding and Involving Relatives at Every Stage of the Child Welfare Process
This guide from Child Focus offers a framework for creating and supporting a process of expanding relative connections at the policy, agency and worker levels to ensure that youth are connected to family members. It addresses the specifics of a relative search, as well as the underlying values and principles needed to guide a strong relative search process.
Parent Handbook: A Guide for Parents with Children in Foster Care
This handbook was written for parents with children in foster care, and answers questions you may have about foster care and the Administration for Children's Services (ACS).
Supporting Kinship Care: Promising Practices and Lessons Learned
Casey Family Programs sponsored a Breakthrough Series Collaborative (BSC) in 2004 to improve how systems support kinship care for families involved with the child welfare system. A recent report summarizes strategies developed by the BSC for use by administrators and practitioners in improving services in their own areas jurisdictions.
A Foster Parent's Guide To Investigations: Answers To Your Most Frequently Asked Questions
This informational brochure was prepared by the Vermont Department for Children and Families, Family Services Division.
Culture and Parenting: A Guide for Delivering Parenting Curriculums to Diverse Families (PDF)
This guidebook discusses topics found in parenting education curriculums, such as communication, discipline, parent-child emotional bonding, family structure and roles, gender role development, play, and sleeping arrangements. It can be used to assess an organization’s cultural competence and offers advice for making parenting programs more culturally competent.
A Family's Guide to the Child Welfare System
This comprehensive resource answers many of the questions families face when they become involved with
the child welfare system.
Download the guide in PDF format: English version | Spanish version
Download the Training Manual for "A Family's Guide to the Child Welfare System"
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Funding
Medicaid Managed Care for Children in Child Welfare (PDF)
This issue brief from the Center for Health Care Strategies discusses the complex health care needs and associated costs for children in the child welfare system, and outlines both the opportunities and challenges that Medicaid offers to manage their care.
Time for Reform: Investing in Prevention: Keeping Children Safe at Home (PDF)
Kids Are Waiting: Fix Foster Care Now, a project of the Pew Charitable Trusts, released this report, which examines the role that child welfare programs play in keeping children safe and helping families remain together whenever possible. This report highlights some prevention and reunification programs that have shown promising results, describes federal legislative efforts to support these practices, and recommends some changes to the child welfare financing structure that could improve States' ability to provide these services.
Successes for Children and Families: It's Time to Build on What Works in Child Welfare
This report from the North American Council on Adoptable Children outlines nine innovative programs that illustrate how flexible funding has helped States and counties improve outcomes for youth and families. The report indicates that these programs have shown success in keeping children and families together, reuniting children in foster care with their families, and moving children into permanency placements.
Funding for Children's Mental Health Services: Making the Most of Medicaid
Certain Medicaid-related services and options are not used as effectively as they could be. Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment (EPSDT), Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) waivers, and the Tax Equity and Financial Responsibility Act (TEFRA) option are often under-utilized, primarily because states are unfamiliar with or misinformed about the available options, or are concerned about costs. This Issue Brief focuses on the under-utilization issues of these services and options.
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Mental Health
The Mental Health of Adolescents: A National Profile, 2008 (PDF)
This National Adolescent Health Information Center brief presents national data about adolescent mental health, assesses the shortcomings of the current data, and offers recommendations to address the data’s limitations.
Resources on Collaboration between Mental Health and Child Welfare Systems (PDF)
This document offers links to many resources on the mental health and child welfare systems, including resources about the mental health needs of children and youth in the child welfare system, how to meet the mental health needs of these youth, interagency collaboration between the two systems, and training for providers/caregivers.
Information Packet: Mental Health Care Issues of Children and Youth in Foster Care (PDF)
This resource from the National Resource Center for Family-Centered Practice and Permanency Planning offers an overview of the mental health care issues of youth in foster care and includes statistics, information on policy and legislation, best practice tips and programs, and additional resources.
Mental Health Care Issues of Children and Youth in Foster Care
This Information Packet from the National Resource Center for Family-Centered Practice and Permanency Planning includes an overview of the issue, Facts/Statistics, Policy and Legislation, Best Practice Tips & Programs, and Web Sites and Resources.
Starting Points for Communities Developing New Transition Programs for Young People with Mental Health Difficulties (PDF)
The Research and Training Center for Family Support and Children’s Mental Health created this document to address the many challenges in developing effective transition services for young people with mental health difficulties. The information provided here is based on literature, research with young people and families, and evaluations of transition programs. The document is a synthesis of lessons learned and advice gained from youth, families, and transition service providers, and outlines ten important points that communities should focus on in developing transition programs.
Child and Adolescent Health and Mental Health Care
This page of the The National Resource Center for Family-Centered Practice and Permanency Planning's Web site offers several guides, resources, presentations, and links to other Web sites that focus on health care and mental health care for children in the child welfare system.
Post-Adoption Services: Meeting the Mental Health Needs of Children Adopted From Foster Care
This report by the North American Council on Adoptable Children (NACAC) describes strategies for expanding and improving post-adoption mental health services for adopted children and their families.
Mental Health, Ethnicity, Sexuality, and Spirituality Among Youth in Foster Care: Findings from the Casey Field Office Mental Health Study
Casey Family Programs’ mission is to provide and improve foster care. This study on adolescents in Casey’s care found similar mental health diagnosis rates among Casey youth as compared to youth in the general population; however, lifetime rates were higher among Casey youth. Additional data on spirituality, ethnic identity, and sexual orientation as well as policy, program, and research recommendations are provided.
Families Navigating Multiple systems: Working with the Child Welfare System to Meet Children's Mental Health Needs (PDF)
Prepared by Portland State University
Families of children with mental health needs often encounter a variety of stresses and may be confronted with a lack of appropriate resources. For these and other reasons they sometimes become involved in the child welfare system. This forum explored parental experiences with navigating the child welfare and mental health systems and the responsiveness of the child welfare system to families' needs.
Mental Health Needs of Youth in Foster Care: Challenges and Strategies
Prepared by L. Austin, The Connection, 20(4), 2004
Explores possible mental health problems of children and adolescents in foster care and the challenges of identifying mental health disorders and needs. Describes an innovative program that offers long-term individual psychotherapy to foster youth.
Best Practice/Next Practice: Family-centered Child Welfare (PDF)
Prepared by the National Child Welfare Resource Center for Family-Centered Practice
Children served by the child welfare system are at high risk for socio-emotional, behavioral, and other mental health problems that complicate the care provided by caseworkers, foster parents, and relative caregivers. This issue describes mental health problems that arise during childhood and adolescence and presents recommendations for screening and treatment. Articles address topics such as resiliency, attachment, the role of foster families in mental health treatment, the types of mental health services that should be offered, cultural competency, and support for parents with mental illness.
ADHS Practice Improvement Protocol (PDF)
The Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) has now published a revision of its practice improvement protocol addressing the unique behavioral health needs of children and families involved with the child welfare system.
Child and Family Services Reviews 2001 - 2004: A Mental Health Analysis (PDF)
This Mental Health Analysis is based upon a review of the 52 Final Reports and 52 Program Improvement Plans from the first round Child and Family Service Reviews of State child welfare systems. The report identifies trends in mental health service delivery, as well as the administration/management of these services across States. It also presents a summary of the challenges States are facing in meeting the mental health challenges of children and their families in the child welfare system. The report also identifies efforts to reform systems to better address the complex behavioral health needs of children, youth, and families in child welfare and identifies issues needing further attention.
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Out-of-Home Care
Foster Care Outcomes: Does Foster Care Help or Harm Children's Emotional and Social Development? (PPT)
This presentation was given by Dee Wilson, Executive Director of the Northwest Institute for Children and Families in March 2008 to Washington State Children's Administration medical consultants. The slides discuss several findings from the National Survey on Child and Adolescent Well-Being.
Blueprint for Education Success for Children in Foster Care (Word)
Prepared by the National Working Group on Foster Care and Education and the Legal Center for Foster Care and Education
This blueprint identifies eight goals that stakeholders can work toward to promote educational success for youth in foster care.
Social Worker's Practice Guide to Education for Children and Youth in Foster Care (PDF)
Prepared by the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services
Improving Educational Outcomes for Children in Foster Care: What States Can Do [Webcast]
Presented by the National Governors Association, Center for Best Practices.
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Privatization
National Quality Improvement Center on the Privatization of Child Welfare Services (QIC PCW)
The National Quality Improvement Center on the Privatization of Child Welfare Services is a part of the Children’s Bureau’s Quality Improvement Center initiative and is designed to be a central source of information on the current status of privatization in child welfare and the effectiveness and efficiency of this strategy.
Child Welfare Privatization Initiatives: Assessing Their Implications for the Child Welfare Field and for Federal Child Welfare Programs – Assessing Site Readiness: Considerations about Transitioning to a Privatized Child Welfare System (PDF)
Prepared by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation
This paper will help child welfare administrators think through 12 key issues that administrators need to consider when transitioning to a privatized system of service delivery.
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Substance Abuse
Child Welfare's Next Challenge: Parenting Meth's Young Victims
This article from the North American Council on Adoptable Children discusses the increasing problem that methamphetamine (meth) is causing the child welfare system.
Primer Hands On – Child Welfare: Training For Child Welfare Stakeholders In Building Systems of Care
The National Technical Assistance Center for Children’s Mental Health and the National Child Welfare Resource Center for Organizational Improvement have developed this resource for child welfare stakeholders working in systems of care. The primer includes a skill-building curriculum, trainer’s guide notes, and all of the PowerPoint slides, handouts, exercises, and team questions to be used with the curriculum.
Access the curriculum and related materials.
Screening and Assessment for Family Engagement, Retention and Recovery (SAFERR)
SAFERR is a guidebook designed to help staff of public and public agencies respond to families in the child welfare system who are affected by substance use disorders. The book guides collaborative teams of child welfare, alcohol and drugs and the courts who can improve services to families, develop clear expectations regarding accountability, address state level policies, and use screening and assessment tools and strategies that can be incorporated into daily practice. Understanding the Needs of Children in Families Involved in the Child Welfare System Who Are Affected by Substance Use Disorders (Appendix C) highlights how parental substance use disorders can affect children both prenatally and postnatally, how to improve screening of children by raising awareness of signs to look for in children, and provides information about potential referral sources for assessments and services. Examples of Screening and Assessment Tools for Substance Use Disorders (Appendix D) provides information about and samples of screening and assessment tools for substance use disorders. In the description of each tool, the definition follows the tool acronym.
Understanding Substance Use Disorders, Treatment and Family Recovery: A guide for Child Welfare Professionals (Supervisor Handbook) (PDF)
Prepared by the Utah Division of Child and Family Services
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Systems of Care
Collaboration Between System of Care Communities and the Child Welfare System: Creative Ideas for How to Make it Work (PDF)
This Issue Brief outlines the benefits that system of care communities can gain by collaborating with the child welfare system, as well as common barriers to successful collaboration. Examples of effective approaches used by seven system of care communities are also presented.
Effective Financing Strategies for Systems of Care: Examples From the Field – A Resource Compendium for Developing a Comprehensive Financing Plan (PDF)
This document from the Research and Training Center for Family Support and Children’s Mental Health is a companion to the Self-Assessment and Planning Guide. It offers examples of effective financing strategies for each of the seven areas discussed in the Guide, and is designed as a technical assistance document to help stakeholders identify strategies that could be implemented in their own states and communities.
Developing Community Partnerships in Child Welfare
This National Child Welfare Resource Center for Organizational Improvement Fact Sheet describes why community partnerships are important, how community partnerships develop, and what the Resource Center can do to help in the partnership building process.
2006
Enhancing the Service Array in Child Welfare: Assessing the Capacity of a Jurisdiction/State to Meet the Individualized Needs of Children and Families; and Creating and Implementing a Resource and Capacity Development Plan – A Description of the Process
This document from the National Child Welfare Resource Center for Organizational Improvement and the National Resource Center for Child Welfare Data and Technology outlines the process of enhancing the service array through capacity assessment and development.
Achieving Successful Outcomes for Children: A Rationale for the Service Array Process; and A Listing of the Capacities a Jurisdiction Needs to Flexibly Meet the Needs of Children and Families in the Child Welfare System
This document from the National Child Welfare Resource Center for Organizational Improvement and the National Resource Center for Child Welfare Data and Technology identifies the capacities that a jurisdiction should have in order to meet the needs of children and families in the child welfare system.
Assessing and Enhancing the Service Array in Child Welfare
This National Child Welfare Resource Center for Organizational Improvement Fact Sheet explains the service array assessment process.
Getting Started With Differential Response: Fundamentals and First Steps [PowerPoint Presentation]
Caren Kaplan and Patricia Schene of American Humane presented this session at the Second National Conference on Differential Response (November 2007). These slides include considerations for jurisdictions moving to implement differential response, and address the purpose of implementing differential response, and discuss issues of assessment, engaging families, and coordinating with community services.
Building the Infrastructure to Support a Child Welfare Driven System of Care: A Guide for Communities (PDF)
This Guide was developed by the Children's Bureau and their National Technical Assistance and Evaluation Center, based on the strategic plans of nine Children's Bureau System of Care grantees. This guide provides useful information to State, tribal, county, city, or neighborhood agencies providing services to children, youth and families who are interested in establishing child welfare driven systems of care.
Systems of Care: A Complete Reference Guide for Putting SOC in Action. Think of the Child First!
Prepared by the Delaware Children's Department System of Care Action Work Group
System of Care: A Quick Reference Guide for Putting SOC in Action. Think of the child First! (PDF)
Prepared by the Delaware Children's Department System of Care Action Work Group
Integrating Systems of Care: Improving Quality of Care for the Most Vulnerable Children and Families
Prepared by the Child Welfare League of America
Systems of Care in Child Welfare Website
In 2004 the Children's Bureau, Administration for Children and Families, HHS funded 9 demonstration sites to implement systems of care with the goal of improving child welfare outcomes. Systems of Care in Child Welfare provides background and resources for developing systems of care to enhance children's safety, find permanent homes, and promote well-being. The websection includes the following:
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Trauma
Child Welfare Trauma Training Toolkit 2008
The Child Welfare Trauma Training Toolkit was designed by the National Child Traumatic Stress Network to teach basic knowledge, skills, and values about working with children in the child welfare system who have experienced traumatic stress. It also teaches how to support children's safety, and permanency through case analysis and interventions. The Toolkit includes a trainer's guide and a comprehensive guide, which provides background reading material on the impact of traumatic stress on children in the child welfare system.
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