Examines the increasingly commercial aspects of adoption services. Discusses adoption as a legal service, a social service, and a service business, noting the conflicting cultural values within and between these models. (HTH)

Examines the current understanding of the most promising and effective means of serving families. It highlights the family-centered service approach, explaining family support services and family preservation services. Evaluations of the two types of family-centered services are reviewed, and issues related to planning and service delivery are…

Describes a program evaluation system in which the review of programs' definitions of success serve as indicators of stated goals and changes in programs. Review of definitions of success of eight programs suggests information that programs want to use in making decisions across the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, delinquency prevention services. (SLD)

Describes the roles of Child Protective Services (CPS) and domestic violence service programs in responding to child abuse and domestic violence and presents results of a national survey completed by 40 state CPS administrators and 26 directors of domestic violence coalitions about system responses to these two forms of violence. Describes…

Conducted a large-scale evaluation of the Comprehensive Child Development Program (CCDP) to provide information about this widely used approach. This six-year impact evaluation, which considered more than 4,410 families, shows that CCDP's case-management approach, which is costly, does not lead to improved outcomes for parents or children. (SLD)

A federal appeals court has reinstated a lawsuit that challenges activities of the centers for faith-based initiatives in the Department of Education and other U.S. agencies. The centers are a key part of the Bush administration's push to promote the inclusion of religious organizations in government social-services programs. President Bush used…

We use exogenous variation in Social Security payments created by the Social Security benefits notch to estimate how retirees' use of prescription medications responds to changes in their incomes. Using data from the 1993 Wave of the AHEAD, we obtain instrumental variables estimates of the income elasticity of prescription drug use that are…

The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina brought devastation and confusion to the Mississippi Gulf Coast region on August 29, 2005. A desperate need for leadership, collaboration, and coordination of relief and recovery efforts was revealed during a March 2007 strategic planning session involving 96 organizations, groups, agencies, and researchers…

Washington State has experienced a significant increase in the number of children entering licensed child care. In 2005, the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) conducted a study of licensed child care, including both licensed home and facility care. The DSHS study concluded that the number of children in child care…

This paper offers unique rankings of the extent to which fiscal structures of U.S. states contribute to economic growth. The rankings are novel in two key respects: They are well grounded in established growth theory, in which the effect of taxes depends both on the level of taxes and on the composition of expenditures; and they are derived from…

Day-care, the context of this research, is a significant service in Finland because every child under compulsory school age (7 years) has the right to municipal day-care once the parental allowance period ends. Finnish day-care is generally organised by municipalities as part of the social services. It is inclusive by nature, as there are no…

There has been considerable interest in recent years in comparing the operation of social work services for children and families internationally, particularly between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. Reviewing the respective policy environments and drawing on recent research experience in these three nations, the author…

Under the New Policy Agenda, international development institutions have promoted non-profit organizations (NPOs) in developing countries, on a dual logic: firstly, they deliver social services more efficiently than the state; secondly, they mitigate equity concerns around privatization of basic social services by reaching out to the poor. Based…

This study explored the relationship between personal resources and previous adverse life events such as homelessness and depression. Participants were recruited from two church sponsored multisite social service centers in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. The interview included demographics and several standardized scales to assess history of…

In most states, child support paid on behalf of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) participants is used to offset TANF and child support administrative expenditures; this policy primarily benefits taxpayers. In contrast, Wisconsin allowed most custodial parents to keep all support paid on their behalf. This policy, which treats welfare…