This paper chronicles the exploration and development of a residential program of the child welfare authority of Renfrew County in Ontario, Canada. Recognizing that virtually its entire population of youth in care was failing to achieve positive outcomes in education, Renfrew County Family and Children Services embarked on a program development…

Training is widely believed to be an important element in promoting good child welfare practice. Scholarly attention to training, however, has been limited. To facilitate further development of child welfare training, in this article, we discuss the importance of conceptualization in the design and evaluation of training projects, offer a…

This paper reviews the research on youth empowerment in seven child welfare programmatic areas. A lack of studies specifically focused on the empowerment of youth in foster care was found. Conceptual perspectives and existing data, however, suggest that the empowerment of youth in and transitioning out of care is essential and should be overtly…

The lack of culturally appropriate health and mental health care has contributed to the large number of African American youth and families involved in the child welfare system. This article reviews the consequences of the insufficient access to culturally sensitive, evidence-supported interventions for African American foster youth. The authors…

As the health, social, and developmental needs of infants in foster care become more complex, foster families are challenged to develop specialized knowledge to effectively address these needs. The goal of this qualitative research study was to identify the process of becoming a foster family and providing family foster caregiving within the…

Articulates how the family support movement emerged in the last 20 years, and describes the philosophical premises, principles, and practices that currently guide it. Considers the inability of current family support program typologies to guide outcome evaluations, and introduces a typology that deconstructs family support programs into their…

This article presents findings from a consultation project conducted by faculty from six schools of social work with approximately 150 child welfare supervisors over a two-year period. The purpose of the program was to assist supervisors with their roles as educators, mentors, and coaches for casework staff, specifically in relationship to case…

Examines the concept and application of prevention programs in the child welfare services, and provides a framework for child welfare services based on the public health model of prevention, which focuses on helping program administrators identify and plan services and programs for target populations at different stages in their development. (CM)

A review of the current status of children who were placed in foster care in New York City as infants or as preschool children. Emphasizes the need to stress plans for permanency. A supplement on data from upstate New York is appended. (BD)

Conflict between new child welfare service priorities and underlying attitudes is a major factor contributing to supervisory burnout. Training to prevent or alleviate supervisory burnout should be directed first to the development of realistic coping strategies and secondly to resolving problems of organizational structure in the work place.…

Examines the implications of a family-focused life cycle approach for delivering health and welfare services to developmentally disabled children and their families. (CM)

Presents the results of telephone interviews, self-questionnaires, and site visits of 48 state child protective service offices regarding policies, procedures and protocols for handling complaints of abuse and neglect in children's institutions. Institutional child protection is seen as a relatively unformed appendage of interfamiliar child…

Several policy and practice issues impede successful implementation of the federal Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997. Montgomery County, Maryland devised a blended model of intervention to achieve the dual mandates of county Child Welfare Services and alcohol and drug services. The approach made use of graduated levels of intensity in…