| |
NASW Practice Snapshot:
Promising Practices in Child Welfare
Office of Social Work Specialty Practice
Social workers in child welfare often seek out research and best
practice models for guidance in helping children improve their lives.
A significant amount of research has been done to address the overrepresentation
of children of color in the child welfare system. This issue is of
concern to practitioners and policy makers because there are more
children of color in the foster care system than in the general population.
This Snapshot considers the University of Iowa 's National Resource
Center for Family Centered Practice's (NRCFCP) work to reverse this
trend. It also considers the importance of fostering resiliency in
children by reviewing the work of the Search Institute and the Family
Connections program.
National Resource Center for
Family Centered Practice
The ( NRCFCP works to promote family-centered, culturally responsive
practice across human service delivery systems through research,
evaluation, training, technical assistance, and information dissemination.
Their Disproportionate Minority Confinement Resource Center is working
with the Iowa Department of
Human Services (IDHS) in two local demonstration sites to reduce
the overrepresentation of minority children in the child welfare
and juvenile justice systems. The sites employ African American caseworkers
that are responsible for developing a comprehensive care plan for
all families referred into the project. Based on information provided
by IDHS and through in-home family assessment, the care plan identifies
family strengths and needs to include the psychosocial needs of the
family, family income, health, housing, food, clothing, and educational
concerns.
A key feature of the program is the role of the project case manager.
When referrals are made, the case manager attends meetings to ensure
that the cultural and ethnic needs of the family are taken into consideration
when services are planned or provided. Additionally, an African American
care worker is employed to act as a coach/helper to families in the
project, a role which may include the provision of emergency transportation,
help with meal preparation, and assistance with emergency child care.
Search Institute
The Search Institute offers research and other resources that promote
healthy children, youth, and communities. Their research suggests
that a key program innovation for fostering resiliency in children
is to acknowledge, but minimize, the role of risk factors while emphasizing
protective factors, or those strengths that help children and youth
contend more effectively with risk factors and stressful life events.
Resiliency is a strength-based approach that focuses on an individuals
ability to develop and/or maintain healthy functioning despite adverse
circumstances (Greene, 2002).
Caring relationships that promote high expectations for a child's
learning and behavior, and opportunities that offer children a chance
to participate in engaging, challenging, and interesting activities
or “flow” experiences foster the whole range of resilient strengths.
Also, b uilding "developmental assets" can help to reduce
many forms of youth substance use, particularly when asset building
engages the whole community in contributing to a child's healthy
development. Children with low levels of developmental assets are
two to four times as likely to use alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs
than those who have above-average asset levels, according to the
Search Institute's report, “ Unique Strengths, Shared Strengths:
Developmental Assets Among Youth of Color, (2003).” This relationship
is true for young people from all racial/ethnic, family, and socioeconomic
backgrounds, the report states.
In addition, the Search Institute offers the Prototype Early Childhood
Developmental Assets Framework (ECDAF): A Practical and Ecological
Approach to Promoting Positive Development. It is a tool used fo
r assessing the developmental assets for early childhood by combining
knowledge of what fosters holistic early childhood development with
a practical approach that offers specific guidance to practitioners,
parents, family members, and policy makers. To access the framework,
go online to http://www.search-institute.org/research/EarlyChildhoodFramework.pdf
Family Connections
Family Connections, a community-based neglect prevention program,
has been shown to improve protective factors such as parenting skills
and attitudes, and reduce risk factors such as parent depression,
caregiver drug use, caregiver stress, and children's behavioral problems.
The program also demonstrated reduced incidents of child abuse and
neglect and increased child safety and well-being.
It targets at-risk families with children between the ages of five
and 11. The program, based at University of Maryland in Baltimore
, was the only program in the nation designated as "demonstrated
effective" in showing positive outcomes in the prevention of
child abuse and neglect in the 2003 report, “ Emerging
Practices in the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect .” The
program is now being replicated in eight communities with funding
from the Children's Bureau , U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services.
You can learn more about this program by going online to http://nccanch.acf.hhs.gov/topics/prevention/emerging/family.cfm
Resources
Greene, Roberta R. (2002). Resiliency: an integrated approach to
practice, policy, and research. Washington , DC : NASW Press.
Leicht, Thomas. (2003). Emerging practices in the prevention of
child abuse and neglect.
Available at: http://nccanch.acf.hhs.gov/topics/prevention/emerging/family.cfm
Sesma, Arturo, Jr., & Roehlkepartain, Eugene, C. (2003).
Unique strengths, shared strengths: Developmental assets among youth
of color. Search Institute Insights & Evidence, 1 (2), 1-13.
Available at: www.search-institute.org
NASW, March 2005
|
|
