Fostering Opportunities is an innovative student engagement program for middle school and high school students who have experienced foster care. The goal of the program is to help youth who have experienced foster care be successful in school and ultimately earn a high school credential. Fostering Opportunities was developed because of the clear…

To address the economic crisis facing the nation, President Barack Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) into law on February 17, 2009. ARRA provides $787 billion in new funding; of this amount, more than $16 billion can be used to support asset-building programs and services for the individuals and communities most…

A new multi-year effort to promote the health, positive development, and well-being of children has been established in the midwest Great Lakes region. The working name of this project is the Kellogg Pre-Birth through Age Three initiative. The first phase focuses on cross-site participation in the development of an overall design. Phase 2 will…

To succeed today, service models for group care of those in the child welfare system must emphasize a holistic approach, taking into account the needs of the individual, family, and surrounding social environment. Articulating the many tasks associated with both starting and running a community-based group home, this book provides a guide for…

This manual is a guide for those who are planning preventive/restorative family service programs to provide alternatives to placing children in state foster care systems. Chapter I briefly discusses the rationale for family-centered social services. Objectives, characteristics, and advantages of these services are listed. Planning and…

This article examines issues that child protective agencies might consider when evaluating the impact of risk assessment implementation on service delivery. The paper recommends using qualitative and quantitative measures in a process and an outcome evaluation to determine the degree of model implementation and the impact of implementation on case…

This booklet is a school and community action guide designed to assist local communities in the identification of needs, exploration of alternatives, and implementation and evaluation programs to address issues affecting children and youth. The action guide is presented as a four-step process of: (1) conducting a needs assessment; (2) organizing…

Designed to help political leaders plan and organize a systematic set of government initiatives and policies to improve the quality of life for American families, this document provides a blueprint for mounting a comprehensive effort in support of America's children and their families. The document begins by outlining the need for a national plan,…

This booklet discusses the opportunities and challenges for improving the educational opportunities of young children in the developing world in light of recent political and economic changes, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), the World Conference on Education for All (1990), and the World Summit for Children (1990).…

In today's wars, children are on the front lines. This handbook, the result of a meeting of psychologists and humanitarian workers, presents a strategy to meet the needs of children in war and refugee crises that intends to be cost-effective, empowering, and child-focused. The strategy emerged from field work based on the belief that each…

This guide explains how to design and implement financial work supports in order to improve family and child well-being. The information provided draws heavily from the study of these three programs that increased employment and earnings while improving employment stability, boosting income, and reducing poverty: Minnesota Family Investment…

During the past three decades, there has been an increase in knowledge about early childhood development. Early experiences can function as either risk factors or protective factors for a child's future health and development. This has led to concern about how current health systems contribute to the quality of the earliest experiences of life.…

In 2003, the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB) released a "Strategic Plan for Early Childhood Health." In recognition of the critical role states play in the development of early childhood initiatives and of the unique contributions that state Title V programs can make to these initiatives, the Bureau operationalized their…