June 2012, Children and Family Research Center: In some cases, child abuse and neglect is a crime and law enforcement needs to investigate. Some professionals raise concerns that law enforcement and child protective services may interfere with each other’s work, but others suggest that police and caseworkers can provide substantial assistance to each other. One study found that families were more likely to receive a range of services when police were involved in child protective service investigations, even when differences in case characteristics were taken into account statistically. Link to Research Brief
Keeping Families Together Matters: An Introduction to Creating Supportive Housing for Child Welfare-Involved Families
2012, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: Keeping Families Together was designed to address the needs of the most vulnerable families. The model shows real promise in preventing child welfare involvement and reuniting children with their families in a safe, stable environment.
The Keeping Families Together innovative supportive housing approach combines affordable housing with customized case management services. By leveraging the collaboration of a number of city agencies, the program helps families overcome the bureaucratic hurdles that can arise when trying to navigate these services on their own. The Keeping Families Together pilot achieved promising outcomes for high-need families (see the Metis Evaluation report found at http://www.csh.org/resources/keeping-families-together-guidebook). Although the model is not yet considered evidence-based, CSH attributes much of the success of the pilot to its five core components and recommends that any community wishing to initiate a similar project incorporate them. Link to KFT Guidebook
Enhanced Services to Children and Youth Exposed to Domestic Violence
January 2012: Family and Youth Services Bureau, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
This Guide captures the promising practices and lessons learned from nine demonstration projects funded by the Family Violence Prevention and Services Program of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services during 2005 through 2008. These Demonstration of Enhanced Services to Children and Youth Exposed to Domestic Violence sites expanded the fields’ understanding of the varied ways in which children, youth and families experiencing domestic violence can be identified and provided essential services and supports. The Guide showcases these nine demonstration projects, focusing on their goals, collaborative partnerships, experiences, challenges, and successes. The voices of domestic violence victim
advocates at the local and state level, as well as therapists and researchers, are threaded throughout showcase narratives. Their accounts of the promising practices developed and the lessons learned along the way offer the reader a unique opportunity to share in and learn from their experiences. Link to pdf Guide; See also: Violence Against Women Website – contains details of studies including two commentaries on Michigan studies.
Preventing Teen Pregnancy Through Outreach and Engagement
This tip sheet offers practical tips for engaging the foster care and juvenile justice communities in teen pregnancy prevention efforts, with a focus on helping these providers understand how teen pregnancy prevention relates to their mission and the concrete steps you can take in working with them to reduce teen pregnancy. Link to pdf Tip Sheet
Improving the Economic Security of Children in Foster Care and Young People Who are Transitioning from Foster Care
July 9, 2012, State Policy Advocacy and Reform Center: This brief discusses ways that advocates can help foster children and youth who aged out of foster care access critical public benefits including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the School Lunch Program, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Though not the only available benefits, improving access to these initiatives offers real potential to improve children’s lives. Link to Brief
Sex Ed For Foster Youth: Why It’s A Necessity
Lack of comprehensive sexual education for youth in foster care has a significant correlation with high pregnancy rates and contraction of sexually transmitted diseases, among other negative outcomes. Despite these stark facts, the system has been slow to make meaningful reforms in this arena, but now as attention mounts, there is an increasing will for change. There needs to be consistency for any child who attends schools in the U.S. to receive appropriate sex education, but we know that doesn’t happen for children in foster care. Because of the circumstances that youth in foster care find themselves in they happen to be at a greater risk, and they need extra help. Link to Article