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…

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…

Based on the work of the National Council on Research in Child Welfare (NCRCW), this handbook is designed to help social service agency executives cope with changing times for child welfare agencies, strengthen traditional services to meet today's needs, and analyze and plan for the future. The manual aims to demystify quality improvement theory…

This guide helps child welfare agencies and their partners craft more family-focused and neighborhood-based service systems. It suggests a framework that agencies can use to assess their current policies and practices and develop plans to integrate Family to Family values, principles, and strategies into existing initiatives and activities. Family…

This user's manual, designed to meet the needs of adoption exchange administrators and program managers for a formal tool to assist them in the overall management and operation of their program, presents the Model Adoption Exchange Payment System (MAEPS), which was developed to improve the delivery of adoption exchange services throughout the…

This manual, which provides guidelines for effective adoption services for children in residential group child care who need new, permanent families, emphasizes interagency collaboration and communication as critical to effective adoptive plans. The manual is intended for public agency social workers responsible for placement and permanency…

Considering such factors as disruption of Indian families caused by Anglo educational programs (missionary schools, BIA boarding schools), by Indian relocation programs, and other non-Indian institutions, many of today's abusive and neglectful Indian parents were victims as children in these same institutions. The 9-page information sheet offers a…

Crisis nursery programs were developed to offer temporary relief from child care responsibilities for parents experiencing a crisis or extreme stress. While the programs focus on being helpful and supportive, they may seem threatening to some parents. Service providers need to understand parents' fears and concerns about using crisis nurseries and…

This publication reports on a study to examine the failures of social institutions to prepare teenage parents to support themselves and their chldren. Chapter 1 explores issues involved in helping young parents achieve economic independence. Obstacles to economic self-sufficiency are discussed. Chapter 2 reviews existing programs' attempts to meet…

To help families of latchkey children, school personnel must understand the problems they face; identify families in need of assistance through parent and student surveys and interviews; and provide services to assist them, such as parent education programs, networking, discussion groups, survival skills training, and student assessment and…

This manual is designed to provide school administrators, child abuse designees, and other personnel with the information necessary to: (1) identify children who may be abused and/or neglected; (2) report suspected cases to the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services; (3) comply with child protective investigations; (4) provide supportive…

Many factors make it difficult for establishment institutions to recruit adoptive minority families. Minority adoptive parent groups have begun to have an impact on removal of obstacles to recruitment of families and placement of minority children in permanent homes. Because parent groups have organized to educate both their communities and the…

This article describes the characteristics of before- and after-school child care programs and deliniates the features needed to accommodate children with special needs. Potential ways to adapt current programs to fill this need and suggestions for design of future programs are discussed. Characteristics of effective programs are reviewed. (PB)

Developed by a group of researchers, administrators, and practitioners, this manual provides a practical guide for improving the coordination of education, health, and human services for at-risk children and families. Divided into three main sections, the guide leads readers through a five-stage process of group collaboration. The milestones in…

This handbook was developed to assist community colleges, foster parent associations, and licensing and placement agencies in planning and implementing foster parent training programs. It is intended to serve as a guide to developing educational offerings in community colleges which meet the needs of the local foster care community. The handbook…