Tagged With "youth in court"
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Laura Haynes Collector
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Beverly Tobiason, PsyD
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Foster Boy: National Foster Care Month Screening [fosterboy.com]
You're invited to a nationwide screening of the award winning film, ' Foster Boy ,' executive produced by Shaquille O'Neal and starring Matthew Modine, Shane Paul McGhie, Louis Gossett Jr., Amy Brenneman, & Julie Benz, and participate in a live Q&A about the importance of reforming the foster care system. REGISTER WATCH THE TRAILER Screening window: May 7 - May 10 Live Panel discussion + Q&A: May 11th at 8:00 pm EST/7:00 pm CST/5:00 pm PST MEET OUR PANELISTS Jay Paul Deratany Jay...
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Child Protective Services Investigates Half of all Black Children [motherjones.com]
By Julia Lurie, Mother Jones, April 26, 2021 For decades, researchers have pointed out that the child welfare system is riddled with inequities. Black children are far more likely than their white counterparts to be investigated as victims of abuse and neglect, to be placed in foster care, and to be permanently separated from their biological parents. “Spend a day at dependency court in any major city and you will see the unmistakable color of the child welfare system,” wrote Dorothy...
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Minneapolis Lawyers Rely on 'Gold Standard' Law to Keep Native American Families Together [imprintnews.org]
By Elizabeth Amon, The Imprint, May 17, 2021 A federal law enacted 43 years ago designed to protect Native American families from separation is now under threat like no time in recent history. Last month, the Indian Child Welfare Act, widely considered to be the “gold standard” of the field, was found to be constitutional by a federal appeals court. But the justices nevertheless chipped away at key provisions that make the law known as ICWA successful. The lengthy, complicated decision could...
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Major Child Welfare Bills Pass in New York, Texas, Oregon [fosteringmediaconnections.org]
The early summer has seen a slew of high-impact state legislation on child welfare and youth justice. Last week, New York lawmakers moved several landmark bills while punting a few to next year’s legislative session. Among the biggest moves: The state will now give parents whose rights have been terminated a path to court-ordered contact with their children, even those who have been adopted from foster care. Children below the age of 12 can no longer be arrested and processed in New York’s...
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From Data to Practice: Moving Youth to Family – Level of Need and the Impact on Legal and Relational Permanency (Casey Family Programs)
This report — the third volume of the From Data to Practice series — explores permanency outcomes for youth who, at the time they came into Casey Family Programs’ out-of-home care (OOHC), were not residing with a family member. Family was defined as either biological family, kin or fictive-kin. The target population was 513 youth who entered Casey OOHC between July 1, 2013, and December 31, 2017, and who exited care between January 1, 2015, and December 31, 2017. The outcomes indicated that...
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The Opportunity is Now: Five Ways to Better Serve Adolescents and Young Adults through the Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA)
This brief from the Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP) highlights opportunities within the Families First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA) for states to build a prevention continuum that includes a focus on healthy adolescent development and that recognizes and helps rectify disparate opportunities and outcomes for Black, Latinx/e, and Native American youth, and youth who identify as LGBTQ+. Click here to download the brief.
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Study Finds Overrepresentation of LGBTQ+ Youth in Midwest Foster Care System
The study outlined here is one of the first of its kind to be conducted in a Midwestern state, where available data on LGBTQ+ youth is extremely limited. It follows similar studies in New York City and Los Angeles showing equally high representation of youth with diverse SOGIE in foster care. Together these studies provide evidence that in the middle of the country, as well as in large urban areas, a greater proportion of LGBTQ+ youth are represented in foster care than in the general...
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What Lessons Can the Child Welfare System Take from the COVID-19 Pandemic?
This report from American Enterprise Institute makes the following key points: COVID-19 and subsequent government responses introduced new barriers to detection and responding to child maltreatment and achieving permanency for children in foster care. New strategies and better use of existing technologies are needed to detect child maltreatment for children unseen by school personnel. Improved use of virtual technology could improve family court processes and family treatment options during...
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Color-Blind Ambition: The idea of removing race from child removal decisions is growing, despite some skepticism. (The Imprint)
In an all-too-common occurrence in the nation’s largest local child welfare system, a 37-year-old mother of five from Los Angeles County dialed 911 about two years ago, seeking protection from an abusive partner. That call brought not only the police but the Department of Children and Family Services to her home. Under the watch of social workers, Kenia Charles said, she moved into a shelter for domestic violence survivors, but still, the child welfare agency argued in court it had concerns...
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‘How’s Our Girl?’: On Loving a Foster Child and Letting Go (NY Times)
Every time we choose to love other mortal beings, someday, we will have to give them back. “Cute baby,” strangers said when they saw her. “Your first?” they asked. And when we told them she was our foster daughter, that we might have to return her to her biological mother, I watched them step back. “I couldn’t do that,” they said. “I’ll pray for you,” they said. I didn’t know if I could do it, either. But I also knew it’s what we do every time we choose to love another mortal being. Someday,...
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Ed Kilcullen
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Marielsa A. Bernard
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Rebecca Hellman
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Away From Home: An in-depth report on the experiences and perspectives of young people who have recently lived in institutional placements in foster care (Think of Us)
A new report from Think of Us examines the experiences of foster youth who are placed in congregate care placements, such as group homes or residential treatment centers. The report uses stories, art, and other first-person accounts from foster youth to understand their day-to-day lives in these living arrangements. The experiences of these youth offer ideas for improving congregate care placements, and for alternatives to these placements that better support the development and well-being...
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I Will Never Forget That I Could Have Lived With People Who Loved Me (nytimes.com)
By Sixto Cancel, The New York Times, September 16, 2021 When I was 15, an usher at my church offered to become my foster parent. Hers was one of the best foster homes I lived in. But she wanted a son. It was more than I was able to give. I had been in foster care since I was 11 months old because of my mother’s drug addiction and poverty. Adopted at age 9 by a racist and abusive woman, I was locked out of the house at age 13. For two years, I couch surfed with friends, then entered foster...
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Indigenous children set to receive billions after judge rejects Trudeau challenges [theguardian.com]
By Leyland Cecco, The Guardian, September 29, 2021 A federal court in Canada has paved they way for billions in compensation to First Nations children who suffered discrimination in the welfare system, after a judge dismissed a pair of legal challenges by the government. Two years ago , the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruled that the federal government had “wilfully and recklessly” discriminated against Indigenous children living on reserves by failing to properly fund child and family...
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Youth Empowerment Summit
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Introducing a New Course in Supporting Marginalized Students!
Did you know that societal inequities can impact a person's long-term health outcomes? Marginalization is the exclusion of a disadvantaged person or group to the fringe of society. It results in individuals being overlooked when laws, policies, and practices are established that protect the privileged class, and leads to adverse community environments--such as poverty, poor housing, and lack of mobility--that promote fertile ground for structural violence and harm, including racism and...
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Foster Youth Strategic Initiative 2020 Evaluation Report (Child Trends)
The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation’s Foster Youth Strategic Initiative (the Initiative) aims to ensure that older youth in foster care in Los Angeles County (LA) and New York City (NYC) become self-sufficient and thriving adults. The Initiative equips transition-age foster youth (foster TAY or foster youth) ages 16 to 24 for career and college success. To help foster youth achieve positive educational and career outcomes, the Initiative’s grantees provide a continuum of supports to help all...
Member
Dina Mezza
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Examples of Current Trauma-Informed Judicial Systems
Please join us for a new series entitled: Trauma-Informed Criminal Justice. This monthly virtual Zoom series will feature conversations facilitated by Porter Jennings-McGarity, PACEs Connection’s criminal justice consultant, with special guests to discuss the need for trauma-informed criminal justice system reform. Using a PACEs-science lens, this series will examine the relationship between trauma and the criminal justice system, what needs changing, and strategies being used in this area...
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Dual System Youth: At the Intersection of Child Maltreatment and Delinquency (nij.ojp.gov)
By Barbara Tatem Kelley and Paul A. Haskins, National Institute of Justice Journal, August 10, 2021 Youth who have experienced both the child welfare and juvenile justice systems have complex needs that require collaborative, multipronged interventions. In a perfect world, a push of a button would connect all juvenile court judges and authorized staff to relevant local child welfare files for each young person summoned before the court. The imperfect reality is that in many American juvenile...
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Homeless and Foster Youth, Racial Inequity, and Policy Shifts for Systemic Change (sr.ithaka.org)
An issue brief from Ithaka S+R, Homeless and Foster Youth, Racial Inequity, and Policy Shifts for Systemic Change , highlights the racial disparities inherent in foster care and homelessness and the causes of homelessness and foster system involvement. It illustrates the challenges that youth experiencing foster care and homelessness face in earning a college degree and proposes policy changes for states to address and meet the needs of these youth. There is a disproportionate number of...
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Achieving Racial and Ethnic Equity in U.S. Health Care A Scorecard of State Performance (childtrends.org)
This Toolkit from Child Trends is for child welfare staff, supervisors, and administrators who work with and on behalf of children, youth, and families who experience a natural disaster. The information and resources in the Toolkit provide evidence- and trauma-informed guidance for promoting positive outcomes for children and youth who experience natural disasters. Click here to access the toolkit.
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The All-Too-Common Tragedy of Foster Care (nytimes.com)
By Jane Coaston, title image by Alex Merto, The New York Times, December 18, 2021 In 2006, 3-year-old Marcus Fiesel was murdered by his foster parents near Cincinnati. They left him in a second-floor closet in August wrapped in tape and a blanket in a playpen with no food or water while they went out of town to a family reunion, dog in tow. When they returned home, they took his body to an abandoned chimney, doused it in gasoline and burned it, throwing most of the remains into the Ohio...
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Foster Care Supply Drive delighted by community response
After a successful pilot launch, the Foster Care Supply Drive is set to expand throughout SW Washington State in the Spring of 2022. During the pilot phase, which began in Washougal/Camas we were able to procure enough donations from 6 businesses to create 110 welcome bags for youth entering foster care. Donation bins and marketing materials are scheduled to be delivered between March 1st, 2022, and March 4th, 2022. The Foster Care Supply Drive was created based on first-hand experiences of...
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Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP) reports related to youth involved in systems of care
The Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP) recently released several reports related to youth involved in systems of care: Breaking the Stigma and Changing the Narrative: Strategies for Supporting Expectant and Parenting Youth Involved in Systems of Care provides an overview and critique of research findings about expectant and parenting youth and the stigma associated with young parenthood. It also discusses four strategies to break the stigmatization of expectant and parenting youth,...
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Child welfare and justice systems can use the STRENGTH principles to support young people (childtrends.org)
In collaboration with the Annie E. Casey Foundation and Child Focus, Child Trends has developed the STRENGTH principles to serve youth in the child welfare and justice systems in positive, developmentally appropriate ways. The principles help systems that serve children and young adults apply Positive Youth Development approaches, focus on equity and inclusion, and involve communities and families. More information is available here: Integrating Positive Youth Development and Racial Equity,...
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Stop Blaming the Uncooperative Mother [imprintnews.org]
By Karen Baynes-Dunning, Photo: Unsplash, The Imprint, January 31, 2022 I titled this essay Stop Blaming the “Uncooperative Mother,” because it has become a racial trope used by well-intentioned people who work with families throughout our nation’s child welfare system. Over nearly 30 years of working in and around the child welfare system, I have heard variations on this theme: the angry mother; the hostile mother; the disrespectful mother; the antagonistic mother; the aggressive mother;...
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Trauma-Informed Guiding Principles for Working with Transition Age Youth: Provider Fact Sheet
This fact sheet from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network offers information for providers supporting transition age youth with trauma-informed guiding principles to inform their work. This fact sheet describes transition age youth and their unique experiences, and six trauma-informed guiding principles to better support youth in their journey and recovery. Please click here to download the fact sheet.
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WEBINAR: Strengthening Social-Emotional Wellbeing for Youth in Care
In today's uncertain times, many youth experience housing insecurity, unstable or unsafe relationships, and toxic stress. Social and emotional wellbeing can help these young people overcome adversity, heal from trauma, and build resilience, thereby increasing their hopes for the future. Learning and practicing mindfulness skills can be the pathway to increasing self-regulation, building healthy relationships, and increasing resilience. The question is how can youth move towards social and...
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Appropriate Care and Treatment Study: Looking for participants
Looking for opinions from former youth residents of residential treatment facilities and their parents. The study team at the University of South Florida Department of Child and Family Studies is conducting a national online survey of former youth residents of residential treatment facilities and their parents and caregivers to understand their experiences and perspective of the care received by the facilities. Download the flyer with information about how to participate here .
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Proposed class-action alleges systemic discrimination of Inuit children in care in Quebec (aptnnews.ca)
The wheels are officially in motion for a proposed class-action lawsuit involving Inuit children in the northern Quebec region of Nunavik. On Monday, a trio of law firms filed an application in Quebec Superior Court on behalf of all Inuit children who endured “decades of allegedly discriminatory and unlawful underfunding of child welfare” and other essential services in the north. If approved, the class-action would impact all Inuit children who were taken into the Quebec child welfare...
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Financial Empowerment for Youth Who Age Out of Foster Care (MoneyGeek)
A resource curated by MoneyGeek, a website created to make personal finance more "approachable and accessible" to everyone through free content and tools, provides expert input and guidance aimed at ensuring the successful financial futures of youth exiting foster care. The webpage utilizes infographics, call-out boxes, and bullets to convey information in a digestible format, organized into three sections: Financial roadblocks and solutions: Five financial challenges specific to youth...
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Cocreating a More Equitable Child Welfare System [cbexpress.acf.hhs.gov]
By the Capacity Building Center for States, Children's Bureau Express, March 2022 "Historically, the child welfare system has not served all people equitably, and too often, poverty has been treated as neglect and child maltreatment."— Letter From Children's Bureau Associate Commissioner Aysha E. Schomburg , August 3, 2021 Racial inequity, disparities, and disproportionality are complex and longstanding challenges in child welfare that cannot be addressed in isolation. Rather, the effort to...
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Youth Thrive Blueprint: Tools and Resources for Putting Youth Thrive into Practice [cssp.org]
CSSP is excited to share our new Youth Thrive Blueprint: Tools and Resources for Putting Youth Thrive into Practice . The Youth Thrive Blueprint is: A practice resource for youth-serving agencies and organizations to advance the well-being of young people—ages 9-26 years. Full of actionable ideas and tools to build young people’s strengths and Protective and Promotive Factors . Developed with a focus on young people in foster care and relevant to other settings such as: afterschool and...
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Casey Life Skills (CLS) toolkit: Free Toolkit Assesses Life Skills Youth Need for Independence
An updated version of the Casey Life Skills (CLS) toolkit is now available with recent revisions made using a diversity and equity lens. The updated toolkit includes two new skill areas—civic engagement and navigating the child welfare system—and a supplemental assessment that evaluates youth access to formal and informal supports. The CLS toolkit also contains a series of free, youth-centered, self-reporting instruments developed to empower youth ages 14 to 21, regardless of social strata...
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Register now! Building a National Movement to Prevent Trauma and Foster Resilience Workshop Series Friday, April 1, 2022 from 1-5pm ET/10am-2pm PT - Activating and Equipping Community Coalitions!
It's free to join, so sign up at this link today! You’re invited to participate in Building the Movement in Activating and Equipping Community Coalitions , the seventh of eight remarkable workshops featured in the series, “Building a National Movement to Prevent Trauma and Foster Resilience”. This half-day workshop will occur virtually on Friday, April 1 from 1 p.m. - 5 p.m. ET. The half-day convening comprises presentations made up of educators and experts from across the country who will...
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An algorithm that screens for child neglect raises concerns [apnews.com]
By Sally Ho and Garance Burke, AP News, April 29, 2022 Inside a cavernous stone fortress in downtown Pittsburgh, attorney Robin Frank defends parents at one of their lowest points – when they risk losing their children. The job is never easy, but in the past she knew what she was up against when squaring off against child protective services in family court. Now, she worries she’s fighting something she can’t see: an opaque algorithm whose statistical calculations help social workers decide...
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Building Coregulation Capacity to Support Positive Development for Youth in Foster Care [acf.hhs.gov]
Original article can be found on Children's Bureau Express here . A report from the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation within the Administration for Children and Families of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services explores how self-regulation can be applied as a framework for promoting youth health and well-being through coregulation. It reviews which developmental skills and competencies are addressed in the current literature, how coregulation is presented, and what...
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Best Practices Guide for Improving Education Outcomes for Youth in Foster Care [Alliance for Children's Rights]
Original article can be found on Children's Bureau Express here . Youth in foster care continue to have poorer education outcomes compared with their peers. For example, the high school graduation rate in California for youth in foster care is 58 percent while the general population graduation rate is 84 percent. Best Practices Guide for Developing a District System to Improve Education Outcomes for Youth in Foster Care from the Alliance for Children's Rights seeks to build on its Foster...
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Reconnecting Family Ties for Children and Youth in Foster Care
Written by the Capacity Building Center for States "Reconnecting with and strengthening my relationships with family has always been an important part of finding my identity and sense of belonging. However, this power comes with a different set of unexpected challenges. Family events can often be stressful as we struggle with how to treat one another. It is difficult to have healthy relationships because we did not have the opportunity to learn how to do this when we were younger."— Aleks...
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Support and Resources for Expectant and Parenting Young People in Foster Care [familyvoicesunited.org]
Original article can be found on Children's Bureau Express here . Family Voices United published a report featuring a summary of responses from youth with lived foster care experience to the question "What supports should be provided to maintain stable foster care placements for expectant and parenting youth, or to support them in achieving safe reunification with relatives/loved ones?" Policymakers can use this report to better understand constituents and tailor programs and systems to...