Kinship diversion, an alternative to foster care, is a common response to allegations of child abuse and neglect, yet little research has been conducted on this practice. An estimated 100,000 to 300,000 children are diverted from foster care to live with relatives each year. However, few jurisdictions collect data on the practice, making it challenging to understand these children’s experiences—and to decide whether kinship diversion is beneficial. For several years, with the support of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Child Trends has sought answers to key questions about kinship diversion…
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Journal Article This project explored the integration of Responsible Fatherhood within Foster Care Service within Philadelphia Pennsylvania. It was hypothesized that the key to reducing the number of children who are at risk of entering, re-entering and remaining in various systems of care are the social service programs and systems created to meet the needs of children. One element to improve the outcomes for children is to establish that engaging fathers of foster children can be important not only for the potential benefit of a child-father relationship but also for making placement decisions and…
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Journal Article The Incredible Years (IY) Parent and Child Series are evidence-based interventions that increase knowledge and mastery of parenting, mood regulation, and interpersonal problem solving strategies for caregivers while developing similar social and emotional skills in their children. Rogers, Bobich, and Heppell (2016) use a case study approach to examine the effectiveness of adaptations of the IY program for delivery in a transitional housing shelter. They describe strategies for modifying IY to meet the needs of a vulnerable population within the context of the shelter and the broader welfare…
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Journal Article The commentaries by Williams (2016) and Gartenberg and Lang (2016) on the case of Cathy and her mother Ms. Z (Rogers, Bobich, & Heppell, 2016) explore the similarities between children who have been homeless and those in the foster system, and highlight the importance of trauma-focused treatment to address their mental health needs. A further consideration of the challenges to obtaining such treatment due to system barriers, stigma, and the intergenerational transmission of trauma is applied to the case of Cathy. This illustrates the importance of an array of mental health treatment…
This action plan reviews both federal and state barriers to identifying and serving children of incarcerated parents, and offers policy recommendations for the U.S. Congress and the Administration. The action plan is designed to help federal leaders improve policies for children of incarcerated parents, but also includes recommendations of value to states and local governments that can facilitate and complement federal initiatives and result in better responses to this population. (Author abstract)
This report begins by urging support for the reauthorization of the federal Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA), legislation that will encourage communities to engage juvenile offenders in programs proven to help steer them away from a life of crime. The report then reviews the current situation resulting from placing juvenile offenders in residential facilities with other troubled youth, including a cost of more than $5 billion to keep juvenile offenders in facilities. The benefits of providing community services and family coaching to juvenile offenders is discussed, and…
Over the last year, the Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP), which manages the Alliance for Racial Equity in Child Welfare, has reviewed data and research literature, talked to young African American men who are in - or had been in - foster care and identified initiatives and strategies that are showing promise. This paper is a product of that work and is intended to: Summarize what we know about the situation of African American males involved with the child welfare system; Outline an approach to more effective action to improve outcomes for these boys and young men; and…
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Journal Article The high prevalence of mental health problems in foster children is well-documented (e.g., Armsden, Pecora, Payne, & Szatkiewicz, 2000; Tarren-Sweeney, 2008). From an ecological perspective, it can be expected that several factors in different systems (e.g., foster child, foster family, biological parents, and community) influence foster children's behavioral problems. Mainly, the influence of pre-care experiences, such as a history of maltreatment (Oswald, Heil, & Goldbeck, 2010), and in-care experiences, such as the number of out-of-home placements (Newton, Litrownik, &…
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Journal Article Emerging adulthood is a phase in the life course recently identified by development theorists. For youth in foster care, recent federal legislation in the United States has engendered new programs, typically called independent living programs, to help them become successful adults. This qualitative study reports the findings of interviews with a diverse sample of 27 current and former foster youths in a Midwestern state, focusing on the quantity and quality of independent living services received. The youths reported hopeful expectations and plans for their futures, widspread support for…
This final report presents information on the outcomes and accomplishments of the African American Male Adoption Project, which used an innovative approach to find adoptive homes for African American boys in Minneapolis and St. Paul, MN. The report describes the accomplishments of the project, including the development of specialized and ongoing family recruitment strategies, such as announcing the project in church bulletins, airing radio public service announcements, providing materials at African American community events, and compiling photo albums of targeted children. Other activies…
