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Tagged With "Child Protection Services"

Blog Post

Telling a more complete story about child welfare

Heather Gehlert ·
A new study from Berkeley Media Studies Group found that coverage of the child welfare system omits important context and connections to other issues. Here are four steps practitioners can take to improve the news.
Blog Post

Temporary Free Access to Paediatrics & Child Health (PCH) articles (Oxford Academic)

Elizabeth Perry ·
Temporary free access to highly cited articles making an impact in Paediatrics & Child Health ( PCH ) has just been opened up by Oxford Academic. If you're a research hoarder like me, you'll want to check this out. https://academic.oup.com/pch/pages/highly_cited_articles
Blog Post

Toxic Stress: Issue Brief on Family Separation and Child Detention [immigrationinitiative.harvard.edu]

By Jack P. Shonkoff, Immigration Initiative at Harvard, October 2019 Background The separation of children from their parents and their prolonged detention for an indefinite period of time raise profound concerns that transcend partisan politics and demand immediate resolution. Forcibly separating children from their parents is like setting a house on fire. Preventing rapid reunification is like blocking the first responders from doing their job. And subjecting children to prolonged...
Blog Post

Two New Grant Opportunities for Youth Development and Diversion Services

Briana S. Zweifler ·
In 2019, more than $40 million will become available to fund community-based, culturally rooted, trauma-informed services for youth in California as alternatives to arrest and incarceration. Thousands of California youth are arrested every year for low-level offenses. Youth who are arrested or incarcerated for low-level offenses are less likely to graduate high school, more likely to suffer negative health-outcomes, and more likely to have later contact with the justice system.
Blog Post

We Need to Help Relatives Navigate Their Child Welfare Options [chronicleofsocialchange.org]

By Jenny Keefe and Nikeyah Flagg, The Chronicle of Social Change, November 21, 2019 A new data project focusing on foster care capacity has illustrated a growing reality across the nation’s child welfare system: relatives are increasingly stepping up to provide care for children removed from their parents. The newly released data, compiled and analyzed by The Chronicle of Social Change, shows that the most recent surge in youth entering foster care is over. It also finds that a majority of...
Blog Post

We need to protect people’s housing during this pandemic. And beyond. [preventioninstitute.org]

From Prevention Institute, March 27, 2020 Physical distancing has become key to managing the coronavirus pandemic in the United States. But the economic disruption that accompanies “sheltering in place” has caused millions of people to lose their jobs. Come April 1, when the rent or mortgage payment is due, the many people who just became unemployed and those who were already living paycheck to paycheck will be at risk of losing their homes in addition to their livelihoods. Stable, safe, and...
Blog Post

When should a child be taken from his parents? [newyorker.com]

Alissa Copeland ·
What should you do if child-protective services comes to your house? You will hear a knock on the door, often late at night. You don’t have to open it, but if you don’t the caseworker outside may come back with the police. The caseworker will tell you you’re being investigated for abusing or neglecting your children. She will tell you to wake them up and tell them to take clothes off so she can check their bodies for bruises and marks. She will interview you and your kids separately, so you...
Blog Post

Why Focus on Resilience? 2019 BPT Conference Big Idea Session with Teri Barila

Tara Mah ·
“There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in” -Desmond Tutu. This quote captures the essence of why resilience matters. To Community Resilience Initiative, Resilience is not about “lifting yourself up by your bootstraps” or “bouncing back” from serious harm or injury. To us, Resilience is about self-discovery and self-awareness based on what the ACE Study, neurobiology, and epigenetics tell us...
Comment

Re: Is child protective services effective?

Former Member ·
When I entered child welfare, the worker who came into my beat down, no plumbing trailer asked me what I did to make my parents - parents who had provided me with 10 ACEs- so mad? I was going to be Valedictorian despite all the Hell and Pain I had endured. They separated me from my brother and sister and put them in a separate foster home where I had no contact. When I called, the new home my sister was in told me to never call back because my sister had a new family now. I almost died from...
Comment

Re: Is child protective services effective?

Karen Zilberstein ·
Thanks for sharing your story. I agree that the child welfare system misses on a lot of fronts and tends to pile more ACEs on to people who have already experienced many. Instead of maintaining your sibling relationships, they caused you more stress. Hopefully we can work to get the system to work better.
Comment

Re: When should a child be taken from his parents? [newyorker.com]

Thank you Alissa for sharing this gut wrenching article! My heart and soul ache reading through Mercedes life experiences as a child, daughter and mother., in addition to her heartbreaking experiences with the foster care system. We have much work to do... "The reckless destruction of American families in pursuit of the goal of protecting children is as serious a problem as the failure to protect children,” Martin Guggenheim, Sherman’s former colleague, says. “We need to understand that...
Blog Post

I learned the impact of prolonged exposure to stress from my foster child [washingtonpost.com]

By Jenn O'Connor, The Washington Post, June 6, 2020 You know what stress is, right? You’re late for work, your car won’t start, gas costs more than you expected. We’ve all been there, and it’s not pleasant, that palm-sweating, heart-racing anxiety. Luckily, it’s not long-lasting — not toxic. What is toxic stress? It’s prolonged adversity and/or abuse — not having enough to eat or being exposed to violence. It’s the kind of stress that puts you on edge and keeps you there, day after day after...
Blog Post

Connecting the Brain to the Rest of the Body: Early Childhood Development and Lifelong Health Are Deeply Intertwined [developingchild.harvard.edu]

By National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, Center on the Developing Child, Harvard University, June 10, 2020 We know that responsive relationships and language-rich experiences for young children help build a strong foundation for later success in school. The rapidly advancing frontiers of 21st-century biological sciences now provide compelling evidence that the foundations of lifelong health are also built early, with increasing evidence of the importance of the prenatal period...
Blog Post

George Floyd's Death is Killing Me [Medium]

Tory Henderson ·
By Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, Medium.com, June 11, 2020 Like many of you, I have experienced the events of the past weeks with a profound sense of anguish. My heart goes out to the families of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor. My heart breaks at the incomprehensible number who have been harmed by racist violence and by the inaction that has allowed those harms to take place. The images of protesters wearing face-masks in the streets, carrying signs that say “Black Lives Matter,”...
Blog Post

Resources to Support Children's Emotional Well-Being Amid Anti-Black Racism, Racial Violence and Trauma [childtrends.org]

By Dominique Parris, Victor St. John, Jessica Dym Bartlett, Child Trends, June 23, 2020 Most Black children in the United States encounter racism in their daily lives. Ongoing individual and collective psychological or physical injuries due to exposure and re-exposure to race-based adversity, discrimination, and stress, referred to as racial trauma , is harmful to children’s development and well-being. Events that may cause racial trauma include threats of harm and injury, hate speech,...
Blog Post

OPINION: ‘For our many Black and Brown children, the threats to their physical safety now and into the future are eating away at their insides’ [hechingerreport.org]

By Karen Gross, The Hechinger Report, June 22, 2020 Our students are traumatized. They are living with fear and confusion. They are experiencing or witnessing police violence, rioting and looting. And schools, a place where children typically process events and emotions, are shuttered. What are children to do? Who will acknowledge, understand and respond to their trauma and its accompanying symptomology? Who’s there to enable our students to understand racism and violence, and to mitigate...
Blog Post

Community Resilience Series Part 1: Parenting in an Age of Uncertainty [Peace & Justice Institute at Valencia College]

Kelsey Visser ·
The Peace and Justice Institute (PJI) at Valencia College is excited to offer 3 free, online workshops with Dr. Ken Ginsburg , as part of a Community Resilience Series. The first workshop in this FREE series will be specifically for parents: Parenting in an Age of Uncertainty , July 7th from 5:30 - 7:00 pm EST (zoom). REGISTER HERE “As parents, we want to protect our children from witnessing the fear and uncertainty brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. We wish we could take away the disruption...
Blog Post

Column: How parents can help a child with post-traumatic stress disorder [milforddailynews.com]

By Lauren Barry, The Milford Daily News, June 27, 2020 When most people think of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) they likely picture an adult who has been in combat, a serious accident or experienced violence. Children can also have PTSD either from experiencing trauma directly or witnessing it. Childhood trauma can be from a specific event like a car accident or dog bite, but it can also include witnessing domestic violence or enduring neglect or abuse. Children diagnosed with PTSD...
Blog Post

Do Affirmations Work for Children? Building Brainpower for Resiliency

Beth Tyson ·
When an affirmation works, we gather real-life examples our brain can use as evidence that success IS possible, which changes the way we think. In my work with children, I find that this tool can work magic at home and in school! When we challenge our thoughts with evidence that a positive result is possible, it can stop negative thinking in its tracks.
Blog Post

The Teaching That Works for Traumatized Students [theatlantic.com]

By Laura McKenna, The Atlantic, July 28, 2020 W hen ben started flipping desks in the classroom, his teacher Heather Boyle ushered the rest of her first-grade class into the hallway for safety. Things had begun to unravel a few moments earlier, when Ben—whose real name isn’t being used, to protect his privacy—struggled with a math lesson. He crawled under desks, bumping into other children’s legs. When his classmates complained, Boyle asked him to come out. “I don’t know how to do this...
Blog Post

Asking mental health to take a backseat during the coronavirus pandemic is a dangerous proposition

Julia Slayne ·
Understanding and limiting the spread of coronavirus has consumed our focus over the past few months. Physical distancing, child care and school closures, the persistence of masks, hand washing, have been essential steps to help protect each of us from the virus. However, this physical distancing has consequences that we need to talk about: isolation, loneliness, boredom, monotony, stress, anxiety, and fear. Mental health often takes a backseat when physical health is at risk. Health is both...
Blog Post

Coping with Stress During the COVID-19 Pandemic: One-Pager

Christine Cissy White ·
Coping with Stress During the COVID-19 Pandemic: One-Pager
Blog Post

With less money and more risk, waves of child-care providers call it quits [latimes.com]

By Rikha Sharma Rani, Los Angeles Times, August 22, 2020 Kirsten Hove and her mom have been taking care of kids in San Francisco for decades. Hove’s mother opened a day-care program in her home in the city’s Marina neighborhood more than 30 years ago. In 2006, Hove and a family friend expanded the business by opening sites in their apartments nearby. The days were long, but the women loved the work. What took years to build, however, was dismantled by the coronavirus in just a few months. [...
Blog Post

Day Care, Grandparent, Pod Or Nanny? How To Manage The Risks Of Pandemic Child Care [npr.org]

By Katherine Harmon Courage, National Public Radio, August 21, 2020 Pre-pandemic, about half of U.S. families reported having trouble finding care for a young child. That number jumped to nearly two-thirds this spring as day cares closed and other caretakers, such as grandparents and nannies, were told to stay home. And with many schools operating remotely, in a hybrid model or abruptly changing course this fall, many more parents, including those with kids in elementary school and beyond ,...
Blog Post

Early Child Care & COVID-19: The Science of Transmission, Safe Practices, Stress and Resilience [ucsf.edu]

From University of California, San Francisco, September 9, 2020 Please join UCSF's Early Success Clinic Collaborative for a panel discussion on "Early Child Care & COVID-19: The Science of Transmission, Safe Practices, Stress and Resilience" on Thursday, September 10th from 6:30-8:30 P.M. This conversation will be focused on translating the science around COVID-19 in preschool and early childhood ages to help inform considerations to keep children, teachers, and caregivers healthy. The...
Blog Post

The Research Doesn’t Support Child Welfare Abolition [imprintnews.org]

By Richard Barth, Jill Duerr Berrick, Melissa Jonson-Reid, et al., The Imprint, October 5, 2020 Current calls to eliminate all elements of structural racism in the United States include proposals to abolish child welfare services. Alan Dettlaff and Kristen Weber, in an op-ed published by The Imprint this summer, based their abolition argument on the idea that “the child welfare system causes harm to Black children and we have known this for decades.” Their article has the laudable intent of...
Blog Post

New Resource: Coping with Stress During the COVID-19 Pandemic One-Pager (English & Spanish!)

Elena Costa ·
English: The California Department of Public Health, Injury and Prevention Branch (CDPH/IVPB) and the California Department of Social Service, Office of Child Abuse Prevention’s (CDSS/OCAP) , Essentials for Childhood (EfC) Initiative , ACEs Connection , and the Yolo County Children’s Alliance have co-created a newly developed resource, “Coping with Stress During the COVID-19 Pandemic” in both English and Spanish. This material is intended for Californian families experiencing the severe...
Blog Post

New Resource: Coping with Stress During the COVID-19 Pandemic One-Pager (English & Spanish!)

Elena Costa ·
English: The California Department of Public Health, Injury and Prevention Branch (CDPH/IVPB) and the California Department of Social Service, Office of Child Abuse Prevention’s (CDSS/OCAP) , Essentials for Childhood (EfC) Initiative , ACEs Connection , and the Yolo County Children’s Alliance have co-created a newly developed resource, “Coping with Stress During the COVID-19 Pandemic” in both English and Spanish. This material is intended for Californian families experiencing the severe...
Blog Post

Azzi-Lessing: Reform the Child Welfare System to Protect Vulnerable Children

Linda Manaugh ·
The child welfare system — like other powerful institutions, including law enforcement and the incarceration system — is under attack. The devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic along with a reckoning with systemic racism and inequality over the past year are shining a harsh spotlight on child protective services (CPS), the nation’s system for protecting children from abuse and neglect. Similar to the movement to defund the police, long-standing concerns about racism and other gross inequities...
Blog Post

Partnering with Local Mental Health Providers to Support Foster Youth in College [cccstudentmentalhealth.org]

Karen Clemmer ·
LAST YEAR, NEARLY 18,000 CALIFORNIA COMMUNITY COLLEGE STUDENTS WERE CURRENTLY OR FORMERLY IN FOSTER CARE. These students, and students from other vulnerable or underserved groups, are motivated and resilient. However, many face higher rates of trauma and unmet mental health needs, coupled with systemic barriers that prevent them from accessing services. Without support, these challenges can contribute to lower college completion rates. BACKGROUND In 2018-2020, John Burton Advocates for Youth...
Blog Post

The Experiences of Older Youth In & Aged Out of Foster Care During COVID-19 [fieldcenteratpenn.org]

Natalie Audage ·
By Johanna K.P. Greeson, Sara R. Jaffee, Sarah Wasch, and John Gyourko, The Field Center for Children's Policy, Practice & Research, September 2020 Executive Summary Disasters, including disease outbreaks like COVID-19, share a common potential for significant ecological and psychosocial disruption at the individual, community, and societal levels. The detrimental impact of COVID-19 is revealed daily in our news media. Although COVID-19 affects all segments of the population, it is...
Calendar Event

Caregiver Panel: Are We Ready for Re-Opening?

Blog Post

Foster Boy: National Foster Care Month Screening [fosterboy.com]

You're invited to a nationwide screening of the award winning film, ' Foster Boy ,' executive produced by Shaquille O'Neal and starring Matthew Modine, Shane Paul McGhie, Louis Gossett Jr., Amy Brenneman, & Julie Benz, and participate in a live Q&A about the importance of reforming the foster care system. REGISTER WATCH THE TRAILER Screening window: May 7 - May 10 Live Panel discussion + Q&A: May 11th at 8:00 pm EST/7:00 pm CST/5:00 pm PST MEET OUR PANELISTS Jay Paul Deratany Jay...
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Minneapolis Lawyers Rely on 'Gold Standard' Law to Keep Native American Families Together [imprintnews.org]

By Elizabeth Amon, The Imprint, May 17, 2021 A federal law enacted 43 years ago designed to protect Native American families from separation is now under threat like no time in recent history. Last month, the Indian Child Welfare Act, widely considered to be the “gold standard” of the field, was found to be constitutional by a federal appeals court. But the justices nevertheless chipped away at key provisions that make the law known as ICWA successful. The lengthy, complicated decision could...
Blog Post

African American Grandfamilies: Helping Children Thrive Through Connection to Family and Culture

Natalie Audage ·
Both inside and outside the child welfare system, the probability that African American children will live in grandfamilies is more than double that of the overall population, with one in five African American children living in grandfamilies at some point during their childhood. Over the last few decades, drug epidemics, hurricanes and other tragedies have both created African American grandfamilies and challenged existing ones. The COVID-19 pandemic is the latest such crisis. As of mid-May...
Blog Post

The Opportunity is Now: Five Ways to Better Serve Adolescents and Young Adults through the Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA)

Natalie Audage ·
This brief from the Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP) highlights opportunities within the Families First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA) for states to build a prevention continuum that includes a focus on healthy adolescent development and that recognizes and helps rectify disparate opportunities and outcomes for Black, Latinx/e, and Native American youth, and youth who identify as LGBTQ+. Click here to download the brief.
Blog Post

Supporting the First 1,000 Days of A Child’s Life: An Anti-Racist Blueprint for Early Childhood Well-Being and Child Welfare Prevention

Natalie Audage ·
To support the health and well-being of children and families of color, we must implement comprehensive strategies that address systemic and institutional racism. This report offers a blueprint for creating equity-centered, anti-racist policies that support the health and well-being of children and families of color. Download the report from the Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP) here. Watch a webinar on the Blueprint here.
Blog Post

6 tips for foster parents preparing for reunification (adoptuskids.org)

Natalie Audage ·
The majority of children in foster care are reunified with their birth family, and foster parents must support that outcome. When it can be done safely, reunification is usually in a child’s best interest. But that knowledge does not make it any easier to say goodbye to a child you’ve loved and cared for. In this post, we offer six suggestions for smoothing the transition. [ Click here to continue reading this blog post. ]
Blog Post

How can child welfare systems support families in rural communities? (Casey Family Programs)

Natalie Audage ·
Due to significant differences between geographical areas, some traditional or evidence-based child welfare strategies developed for urban settings may be less effective in rural communities. Recognizing the unique strengths of rural communities and making creative use of both traditional and nontraditional funding is essential to provide services that not only protect children, but strengthen their families and support economic development and well-being for the community as a whole. Many...
Blog Post

What Lessons Can the Child Welfare System Take from the COVID-19 Pandemic?

Natalie Audage ·
This report from American Enterprise Institute makes the following key points: COVID-19 and subsequent government responses introduced new barriers to detection and responding to child maltreatment and achieving permanency for children in foster care. New strategies and better use of existing technologies are needed to detect child maltreatment for children unseen by school personnel. Improved use of virtual technology could improve family court processes and family treatment options during...
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Helping children in foster care understand their history (AdoptUSKids blog)

Natalie Audage ·
We live in a country where everything is always “fine.” An acquaintance asks you how you are doing, and even if you’re having the worst day of your week, you’re probably going to say “fine.” We’re just not good at discussing difficult—and potentially hurtful—topics. So we avoid doing it. But if you’re a foster parent or adopting children from foster care—especially older children—you’ll probably need to talk with them about their past. Because the reality is that a lot of kids don’t know...
Blog Post

Color-Blind Ambition: The idea of removing race from child removal decisions is growing, despite some skepticism. (The Imprint)

Natalie Audage ·
In an all-too-common occurrence in the nation’s largest local child welfare system, a 37-year-old mother of five from Los Angeles County dialed 911 about two years ago, seeking protection from an abusive partner. That call brought not only the police but the Department of Children and Family Services to her home. Under the watch of social workers, Kenia Charles said, she moved into a shelter for domestic violence survivors, but still, the child welfare agency argued in court it had concerns...
Blog Post

‘How’s Our Girl?’: On Loving a Foster Child and Letting Go (NY Times)

Natalie Audage ·
Every time we choose to love other mortal beings, someday, we will have to give them back. “Cute baby,” strangers said when they saw her. “Your first?” they asked. And when we told them she was our foster daughter, that we might have to return her to her biological mother, I watched them step back. “I couldn’t do that,” they said. “I’ll pray for you,” they said. I didn’t know if I could do it, either. But I also knew it’s what we do every time we choose to love another mortal being. Someday,...
Blog Post

Expand Support for Families, But Not Inside the Child Welfare System (The Imprint)

Natalie Audage ·
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s recent announcement that New York City will invest millions in “family enrichment centers” sounds like a win for families. But this initiative should be reconsidered, and the city should start by listening to what families actually want. While the mayor’s Taskforce on Racial Inclusion and Equity has it right that New York should invest in family support, Black and brown parents have been vocal opponents of programs funded and overseen by the child welfare system (ACS).
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