This booklet features articles written by parents with experience navigating the child welfare system. Topics addressed include peer support, visiting, legal representation, relationships with foster parents, parenting classes, fathers’ rights, addiction and recovery, domestic violence, and reunification. (Author abstract modified)
This series of eight fact sheets from MenCare and the Fatherhood Institute focuses on why and how to engage dads effectively. They are designed for an international audience of health, education, and social care professionals, policymakers, program managers and designers, researchers and evaluators, mothers and fathers. (Author abstract)
This policy brief from the Center for Poverty Research at UC Davis highlights new research that demonstrates a connection between a parent being employed or receiving cash assistance and a higher likelihood of the parent(s) being reunified with their children after a child welfare interaction. It provides examples of how a parent may become economically disconnected once their child is removed and how this can significantly impact the chance of reunification. Suggestions for further supporting vulnerable families are given.
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Journal Article This article discusses experimental tests of two recent administrative interventions, the TANF 16 intervention and the statement intervention, designed to increase child support collections in Washington State. The TANF 16 intervention sought to reimburse the state for TANF benefits paid to custodial parents by intensively pursuing collections in arrears-only cases. The statement intervention tested whether sending regular billing statements to noncustodial parents who were new to the child support system increased compliance. While the TANF 16 intervention's effects represent a substantial…
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Journal Article Promoting the relationships between noncustodial parents and their children has become a federal policy priority. Recent policy proposals aim to achieve this by integrating adjudications of custody and parenting time within proceedings to establish child support. These proposals share several laudable goals, including encouraging the involvement of fathers in their children's lives, increasing compliance with child support orders, and facilitating unmarried parents' access to court processes for resolving custody and visitation disputes. But the simplistic solutions employed by the proposals…
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Journal Article This article highlights the Future Child Advocates (FCA) initiative launched in 2012 as a vehicle to bring the issues and concerns of bullying and child abuse prevention and intervention to the next generation of citizens and diverse professionals in each community. The FCA club concept offers undergraduate and graduate students opportunities to enhance or clarify their future professional roles while providing a greater understanding of what is needed to ensure a safer world for children. Partnership possibilities with the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children are discussed…
The Positive Parenting Program, Triple P, is an evidence-based parenting program with strong empirical support that increases parenting skills and decreases child behavior problems. Few studies on Triple P include fathers or African American fathers. This study was undertaken to determine if adaptation to Triple P level 4 is necessary to ensure fit with urban African American fathers.Qualitative focus groups and interviews were conducted with African American fathers. Some received a brief overview of the program before giving feedback (series A) and others received the entire intervention (…
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Journal Article Caregivers who provide services to trauma survivors are at high risk of developing secondary traumatic stress and burnout. Researchers and practitioners in the field of traumatology emphasize the role organizational culture has on individuals who provide services to trauma survivor’s well-being. Although there is a considerable amount of theoretical literature on organizational culture and its effects on trauma workers’ well-being, there is a lack of empirical research. The purpose of this exploratory study was to identify what organizational characteristics influence trauma caregivers’…
Through this issue brief, young people who are in, or have been in, foster care offer their insights and aspirations to help guide the actions of child welfare systems as they seek to provide more normal experiences for these youth. The brief begins by explaining new provisions in the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act that promote normalcy, including the requirement for States to implement a “reasonable and prudent parent” standard that allows caregivers to make more daily decisions for young people in their care; a mandate that child welfare systems engage all young…
Brief
This brief explains the importance of father engagement in child welfare services. It begins by discussing the rising number of children being raised by single mothers and the disengagement of fathers from their children’s lives. Federal efforts towards nationwide programs that strengthen two-parent families, promote healthy marriage, encourage responsible fatherhood and increase father engagement are noted, and the benefits of paternal engagement are explained. Following sections review effects associated with poor parental engagement, causes of low engagement, and promising interventions to…
