Tagged With "Black Role Models"
Blog Post
Free 2020 Virtual Trauma-Informed Care Conference
Each year, STAR hosts a Trauma-Informed Care Conference to help educate the next generation of leaders and build a strong network of Trauma-Informed professionals in the state of Georgia. The conference will be held on Saturday, October 3rd from 10:00am- 1:00pm EST and Sunday, October 4th , 2020 from 2:00pm-5:00pm EST conducted virtually via Zoom.
Blog Post
It's Not Just Adults Who Are Stressed. Kids Are, Too [nytimes.com]
By Christina Caron, The New York Times, November 3, 2020 Families are under an extraordinary amount of pressure right now, and the next few months will provide little relief. The trials of 2020 include economic uncertainty , winter dread , an emotionally charged presidential election and a worrying rise in coronavirus cases . Then there’s the disrupted school year , remote learning and few (or no) options for child care . (That’s an abbreviated list.) Experts are understandably concerned...
Blog Post
Whole People Watch Weekend on ACEs Connection (Dec. 11th - 13th)
The Transform Trauma with ACEs Sciences FREE Film Festival continues this weekend. Please join us to watch parts 1, 2, and 3 of the PBS Whole People series at your convenience, on ACEs Connection, by clicking play on the videos below: Whole People | 101 | Childhood Trauma | Episode 1 (27 min) Preview: Whole People | 102 | Healing Communities | Preview | Episode 2 Whole People | 102 |Healing Communities Episode 2 (27 min) Whole People | 103 |A New Response | Episode 3 (27 min) This is one of...
Blog Post
ACEs Champion: From a movie to a mission — Edwin Weaver's journey to help foster youth graduate from high school
(l to r) Elaine Miller Karas co-developer of CRM; Jim Sporleder, former principal of Walla Walla High School; and Edwin Weaver at the 2018 ACEs Conference & Pediatric Symposium in San Francisco. After watching the late Jamie Redford’s 2015 film, “ Paper Tigers ,” about a Washington state high school where ACEs integration transformed graduation rates, Edwin Weaver knew he had to take action. Weaver is the executive director of Fighting Back Santa Maria Valley , providing social services...
Blog Post
Biden Appoints Child Welfare Policy Expert, and Former Foster Youth, to Budget Office [imprintnews.org]
By Michael Fitzgerald, The Imprint, January 26, 2021 The leader of a prominent foster care reform group – who spent time as a child in foster care herself, a searing experience that she’s said shaped her work as a congressional policy adviser – has been appointed to a senior role in President Joe Biden’s administration, according to tweets and website updates today from her organization, Foster America. Sherry Lachman will become associate director for education, income maintenance and labor...
Blog Post
Staying The Course for Families [imprintnews.org]
By Jerry Milner, The Imprint, February 11, 2021 As a child welfare social worker for a few decades now, serving as the leader of the U.S. Children’s Bureau was the greatest honor of my career, perhaps my life. In my field, there is no comparable position to lead the country in shaping a vision, if one chooses, that can affect the lives of vulnerable children, youth and parents in such profound ways. It is also a place where the reigning political ideology can affect actions, drive priorities...
Blog Post
America Must Change Its View of Poverty and Neglect [imprintnews.org]
By Tom Morton and Jess McDonald, The Imprint, February 15, 2021 The child welfare system plays a conflicted role in our society’s history. It exists in a world of competing values and basic societal assumptions. Was it developed as a way to “save” children from abuse and neglect or as a means to “control families?” We chose to serve in this system to help children live safely with their families in safer communities. We believed it was possible to make a positive difference for children and...
Blog Post
Partnering with Local Mental Health Providers to Support Foster Youth in College [cccstudentmentalhealth.org]
LAST YEAR, NEARLY 18,000 CALIFORNIA COMMUNITY COLLEGE STUDENTS WERE CURRENTLY OR FORMERLY IN FOSTER CARE. These students, and students from other vulnerable or underserved groups, are motivated and resilient. However, many face higher rates of trauma and unmet mental health needs, coupled with systemic barriers that prevent them from accessing services. Without support, these challenges can contribute to lower college completion rates. BACKGROUND In 2018-2020, John Burton Advocates for Youth...
Blog Post
Santa Clara County is model for plan to give $1000 a month to California foster youth [mercurynews.com]
By Laurence Du Sault, The Mercury News, February 22, 2021 Borrowing from a Santa Clara County program he proposed, state Sen. Dave Cortese has introduced legislation to provide $1,000 monthly cash payments for California’s foster care youth as they leave the child welfare system. “I can’t think of a more urgent time to roll out this kind of assistance,” Cortese said during an online press conference Monday. “Especially as they enter the adult world during an economic decline caused by...
Blog Post
Education and Skills Training May Ease Transition to Adulthood for Young People Involved in Foster Care [childtrends.org]
By Rachel Rosenberg, Maia O'Meara, Mya' Sanders, Child Trends, September 15, 2020 Nearly 18,000 young people aged out of the foster care system in fiscal year (FY) 2018. In other words, the child welfare system failed to reunify these young people with their parents or find them another legal, permanent placement through adoption or guardianship. Relative to their peers in the general population, young people who age out of foster care often experience lower levels of educational attainment...
Blog Post
Helping Youth Prepare for the Transition to Adulthood [fosterclub.com]
Course Summary For teenagers who have been living in foster care, the transition to adulthood presents many new and often daunting experiences. This course provides foster parents with guidance on how to help youth and emerging adults build a foundation for a successful transition to adult life outside of foster care. In this course, you can expect to learn: Unique challenges youth face when exiting foster care Adolescent development and changes in the brain Laws and programs to support...
Blog Post
A Better Normal Friday, March 26, 2021: PACEs and HOPE with Dr. Christina Bethell
Please join us for our next installment of A Better Normal, our live webinar series in which we imagine and create our society as trauma-informed! You may have seen we changed our name recently from ACEs Connection to PACEs Connection. Please join us to learn all about the groundbreaking research of Positive Childhood Experiences and how this is going to transform the work we are all doing. >>Click here to register<< PACEs and HOPE Live Event Friday, March 26, 2021 Noon PT / 1pm...
Blog Post
A Better Normal March 26: Positive and Adverse Childhood Experiences (PACEs): What Happens in Childhood Matters
We at PACEs Connection are particularly interested in the interplay between positive and adverse childhood experiences. Here’s some of the relevant research:
Member
Cindy Matthews
Member
Alexa Hamel
Member
Michele Alspach
Blog Post
Exploring the Role of Culture in Healing
Join the movement of understanding mental health through a new lens by participating in these upcoming live discussions. Together, we can rewrite the story of mental health and well-being. Register at lamaidaproject.org/acesaware.
Blog Post
New Report: A Vision for Creating Networks of Parent Peer Care [risemagazine.org]
Someone to Turn To: A Vision for Creating Networks of Parent Peer Care This Insights paper presents Rise’s vision for a peer network of collective care by and for parents. This fall, Rise created a parent Peer Vision Team to explore building a peer care model that can strengthen families while reducing contact with the family policing system . Nationwide and in New York City, where Rise is based, it’s crucial to broadly reorganize supports for families so that accessing resources and...
Calendar Event
Rise's Peer and Community Care Model Webinar
Blog Post
Explore the Role of Culture in Healing with La Maida Project
La Maida Project is thrilled to share videos from our recent webinar series “Exploring the Role of Culture in Healing”. We had an great audience turn out and robust dialogue with our panel of guest speakers including Ken Epstein, PhD LCSW , leader in trauma-informed systems transformation, Anil Vadaparty , CEO of child-welfare agency McKinley, and Omid Naim, MD , integrative psychiatrist and founder of La Maida Project. In these webinars we discuss the role of leadership in trauma-informed...
Blog Post
Expand Support for Families, But Not Inside the Child Welfare System (The Imprint)
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s recent announcement that New York City will invest millions in “family enrichment centers” sounds like a win for families. But this initiative should be reconsidered, and the city should start by listening to what families actually want. While the mayor’s Taskforce on Racial Inclusion and Equity has it right that New York should invest in family support, Black and brown parents have been vocal opponents of programs funded and overseen by the child welfare system (ACS).
Member
TYRELL A RAMSAY
Blog Post
Child Abuse and Neglect: What It Is and What to Do About It
We all have a role to play in making sure children have the opportunity to thrive. In Child Abuse and Neglect: What It Is and What to Do About It , you will learn more about the types of child maltreatment, what to do when you think a child or family needs more support, and how to make a report if you suspect that a child has been abused or neglected. We all want children to be safe and healthy. However, the heartbreaking reality is that every year thousands of children are victims of child...
Blog Post
How to Advocate for Child Abuse Prevention in Your Community?
The foster care system is designed to temporarily shelter children who have been removed from their homes due to maltreatment. Each year, the United States has more than 400,000 children living in foster care (1) . Placing children in foster homes can help to provide them a safe environment. Foster parents are dedicated to giving the best care for children living in their homes. Their care can provide children with a safe and stable environment to thrive and survive (2) . Effective child...
Blog Post
Child Advocacy Centers Model Strong Skills and Partnerships for Helping Families Within the Child Welfare System [imprintnews.org]
By Paul S Dilorenzo, for Imprint News, September, 1, 2021 Most of what I write for The Imprint is about family support and primary prevention programming. Like many of my colleagues, I frequently distinguish between “upstream” and the “deep-end” activities of the child welfare system, which is a shortcut description of what we perceive and then, how we function. It serves our purpose for partializing our work. However, I’m sure we would all agree that this might not be the perception of the...
Blog Post
Educational Video for Professionals to better understand the Traumas (ACEs) in Adoption
Video resource for teachers, doctors, and mental health professionals to better understand the complexities in intercountry and transracial adoption.
Blog Post
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...
Blog Post
Treatment foster care model shows promising results (streetroots.com)
An Oregon-developed model of foster care aims for reunification by Libby Dowsett , Street Roots, November 10, 2021 Sharon Annett’s eyes are now wide open to what’s really going on behind closed doors. “I didn’t understand there are people out there mistreating children so badly,” said Sharon Annett. “It’s just horrific the stories you hear about what these little kids have been through.” Sharon Annett is a treatment foster care parent, meaning she and her husband Jim Annett care for children...
Blog Post
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...
Blog Post
Child Sex Trafficking in America: A Guide for Child Welfare Professionals (missingkids.org)
A factsheet from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) focuses on the role that child welfare professionals play in prevention, intervention, and service provision with regard to child sex trafficking. Children and youth involved with child welfare have a higher risk of being victims of sex trafficking, and one in six of the children reported missing to NCMEC were likely victims of sex trafficking. It is important that child welfare professionals be properly equipped...
Blog Post
Surveillance of Black Families in the Family Policing System (upendmovement.org)
This upEND publication by Victoria Copeland and Maya Pendleton, who helmed the Repeal Mandatory Reporting Laws panel during the 2021 How We endUP convening, discusses how the monitoring and subsequent criminalization of Black communities have expanded from the criminal punishment system to social services, education, medical systems, and the family policing system. For more information, read Surveillance of Black Families in the Family Policing System .
Blog Post
The Carceral Logic of the Family Policing System (upendmovement.org)
By Emma Peyton Williams, upEND Contributor, November 17, 2021 By including the family policing system in their book Prison by Any Other Name , Maya Schenwar and Victoria Law link the punitive nature of the prison system to “the current punitive model for social services.” The similarities that Schenwar and Law note, such as each system’s focus on coercing compliance as opposed to changing material realities and the disproportionate impact of each system on people of color, particularly Black...
Blog Post
Broader Array of Programs and Services Needed for Tribal Communities and Communities of Color
Children and families of color are disproportionately represented in the child welfare system. The Family First Prevention Services Act offers an opportunity to address these inequities with evidence-based programs and services, but includes few culturally specific ones in its Clearinghouse. Culturally specific programs and services consider the role of race and culture as integral to developing solutions to challenges families face. In this brief, Chapin Hall policy staff offer an overview...
Blog Post
New York City will stop collecting Social Security money from children in foster care [npr.org]
By Joseph Shapiro, Photo: Gary Hershon/Getty Images, National Public Radio, March 9, 2022 Child welfare officials in New York City say they will stop collecting all of the Social Security checks from children in foster care and using that money to cover the costs of their care, altering a practice criticized by advocates for children. And those advocates say they hope New York's action becomes a model for agencies across the country. Jess Dannhauser, commissioner of the Administration for...
Blog Post
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...
Blog Post
New Book: Torn Apart by Dorothy Roberts
Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families--and How Abolition Can Build a Safer World by Dorothy Roberts will be released on April 5, 2022. An award-winning scholar exposes the foundational racism of the "child welfare system" and calls for radical change. Many believe the "child welfare" system protects children from abuse. But as Torn Apart uncovers, this system is designed to punish Black families. Drawing on decades of research, legal scholar and sociologist Dorothy...
Blog Post
Creating Positive Childhood Experiences [CDC]
Note: A CDC update provided a link to a new page on the CDC website on Creating Positive Childhood Experiences. It includes sections on "What are ACEs" and "Everyone has a role to play" (parents and caregivers, coworkers, and everyone) in creating safe and healthy conditions for all children, including community programs and policies. It includes a 3-minute video and Resources section. Healthy and happy childhoods start now. Learn how you can help! Children and families thrive when they have...
Blog Post
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...
Blog Post
Housing Insecurity Is Linked with Increased Social System Involvement and Adverse Outcomes for Adolescents [housingmatters.urban.org]
By Katherine E Marçal and Kathryn Maguire-Jack, Photo: fizkes/Shutterstock, Housing Matters, April 20, 2022 Families of color and those with low incomes face high risk of experiencing housing cost burden, eviction, and housing instability. Housing instability can create challenges for adolescents, including higher levels of depression and psychological challenges, as well as behavioral issues. It can also cause increased interactions with other social systems, like the child welfare and...
Blog Post
Implementing Positive Youth Development Approaches in Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice [childtrends.org]
Original article can be found on Children's Bureau Express here . A recent working paper by Child Trends, Integrating Positive Youth Development and Racial Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Approaches Across the Child Welfare and Justice Systems , focuses on the importance of positive youth development (PYD) approaches in child welfare. Specifically, the working paper explores the need for PYD approaches that incorporate racial equity and inclusion, why it is important to focus on young...
Blog Post
May is Foster Care Awareness Month
Key Facts and Statistics from Childwelfare.gov Include these key points in your messaging to demonstrate the important role relative and kinship caregivers play in supporting family connections that are essential to a child’s health and well-being. There are over 407,000 children and youth in foster care , and 34 percent were placed with relatives or kin. The term kin encompasses both relatives (those related by blood or marriage) and fictive kin (those who are unrelated but have such a...
Blog Post
Trapped in the Web of Family Policing: The Harms of Mandated Reporting and the Need for Parent-Led Approaches to Safe, Thriving Families
By Imani Worthy, Tracy Serdjenian and Jeanette Vega Brown, RISE This article was published in the Spring 2022 Issue of Family Integrity & Justice Quarterly , "Poverty Is Not Abuse...Poverty Is Not Neglect." A family’s contact with the family polic ing system often begins with a call to the child abuse and maltreatment “hotline” made by a mandated reporter. About two-thirds of reports to New York’s Statewide Central Register (SCR) are made by mandated reporters—“ certain professionals...
Blog Post
The Impact of COVID-19 on Reunification for Child Welfare-Involved Families
Original post by Children's Bureau Express COVID-19 has been a source of disruption and stress for families and systems and has significantly changed the way child welfare operates in its day-to-day business. At the start of the pandemic, many courts and child welfare agencies suspended or reduced in-person family time, which is a critical part of the reunification process and has several benefits to attachment and well-being. Family time also provides an opportunity for child welfare...