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Tagged With "Group home"

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Handouts for parents about ACEs, toxic stress & resilience

Jesus Gaeta ·
Hey everyone, here are some handouts that our founder, Jane Stevens, discovered as she was writing a story about the trauma-in formed elementary schools in Spokane, WA .   We've updated it, and provided three different versions. The text is the...
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Happy Halloween

Dr. Cathy Anthofer-Fialon ·
Goblins and ghosts don’t scare me. What scares me is what scares many grandparents across the U.S., a grandchild at risk. Recently I was talking with a friend about my situation as guardian of my grandson, and she confided in me. She told me she’s scared every time her grandson goes back home with his mom. My friend “helps out” when her daughter finds herself in a tough spot. My friend worries there’s enough for her grandson to eat when he’s home with his mom. She worries he’s safe from the...
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Hard work of reunification often entails rehab, intensive home services [centerforhealthjournalism.org]

Alicia Doktor ·
"Fixing our foster care crisis” was made possible through major funding from the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona and additional support from the University of Southern California Annenberg Center's Fund for Journalism on Child Well-being. They call it the “miracle question.” In Michigan’s Family Reunification Program, it’s asked of parents who’ve lost custody of their kids because of abuse or neglect and are about to be reunited as a family. If you were to wake up, and none of this...
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He was about to age out of the foster care system. Then an Anchorage woman read a Facebook post that changed their lives. [Anchorage Daily News]

Karen Clemmer ·
In a downtown Anchorage courtroom last Tuesday afternoon, a judge declared Andrea Conter and Mitchell Hershey mother and son. It was an unusual adoption: Hershey was a week away from turning 21, and has been in Alaska’s foster care system for more than half his life. Conter is a 53-year-old bookstore manager who had barely considered motherhood until two years ago, when a Facebook post about a college-aged boy who needed a home changed both of their lives. In the fall of 2017, Conter, who is...
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Healing ACE's

David Kenney ·
Healing Childhood Trauma I’d like to thank each member of ACE’s Connection for all your work helping and supporting children through various activities and organizations. You are clearly a collection of people who care about the children of the world. It is in recognition of these efforts that I ask you to consider two books on healing childhood trauma. They represent a life-time partnership dedicated to raising and educating healthy children. Secondly, I’d like to ask you for a word of...
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Health Status of Young Adult Mothers with a History of Child Welfare Involvement [policylabchop.edu]

Alissa Copeland ·
How many of you are aware of the disproportionate relationship between adolescent mothers and the child welfare system? As this research points out, although teen pregnancy is on the decline nation-wide, half of female youth who have current or previous involvement with child welfare also experience pregnancy by age 19 – and half of that number have experienced multiple pregnancies by this age. Researchers at Children’s Hospital Philadelphia research institute looked at one Mid-Atlantic city...
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Helping New Parents Make Room for Uncertainty

Claudia Gold ·
A new program for parents and infants, thanks to generous support from Mill Town Capital , is coming to Pittsfield, Massachusetts. The Hello It’s Me Project shines a spotlight on these tender new relationships, investing resources around the birth of a baby with the long-term goal of building a healthy community from the bottom up. When world-renowned child development researcher Dr. Ed Tronick spoke in the spring of 2018 for an audience of a wide variety of practitioners in Berkshire County...
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Helping Youth Transition to Adulthood: Guidance for Foster Parents

Karen Clemmer ·
Please see the attached document to learn more about: The transition to adulthood and self-sufficiency can be challenging for any young person. For teenagers who have been living in foster care, the transition to life outside of care can be daunting. Generally, youth who have experienced foster care do not have the same safety nets and support networks as others their age, and the transition challenges can be even greater.
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How do these pediatricians do ACEs screening? Early adopters tell all.

Laurie Udesky ·
Last week, three pediatricians — with a combined experience of 15 years integrating ACEs science into their practices — reflected on the urgency they felt several years ago that prompted them to begin screening patients for childhood adversity and resilience when there was practically no guidance at all. Along their journey , they accumulated a list of lessons learned for other pediatricians and family clinics to use. The three pediatricians participated in the ACEs Connection webinar,...
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How Incarcerated Parents Are Losing Their Children Forever [themarshallproject.org]

Alicia Doktor ·
Lori Lynn Adams was a mother of four living in poverty when Hurricane Floyd struck eastern North Carolina in 1999, flooding her trailer home and destroying her children’s pageant trophies and baby pictures. No stranger to money-making scams, Adams was convicted of filing a fraudulent disaster-relief claim with FEMA for a property she did not own. She also passed dozens of worthless checks to get by. Adams served two year-long prison stints for these “blue-collar white-collar crimes,” as she...
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How Many Children Experience Eviction During Childhood? [howhousingmatters.org]

Marianne Avari ·
Evictions are destabilizing events that increase families’ financial stress and strip away the psychological and physical security of having a home. These effects are particularly traumatizing for children, who often suffer emotionally and academically. While these negative consequences are well researched , little evidence exists to estimate the number of children who are evicted during childhood. To help fill this knowledge gap, this study calculates the proportion of children born in...
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How Schools For Kids In Foster Care Act As ‘Educational Black Holes’ [HuffingtonPost.com]

Jane Stevens ·
PHILADELPHIA and GREENVILLE, Pa. — Back when he still lived with his family, when school was across the street from his home in West Philadelphia, Johnathan Hamilton used to plow through reading assignments and research religious questions online. He stumbled over fractions — math was always a struggle — but started getting into philosophy as an early teen. Then, at 15, his relationship with his parents grew violent, and Hamilton went to live in a city shelter for foster youth. When a bed...
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How to Shelter in Place if You Live With Domestic Abuse [kqed.org]

By Michelle Wiley and Shannon Lin, KQED, March 24, 2020 Last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom enacted a shelter-in-place order across California. The order, which limits the kinds of businesses and activities that are allowed, is meant to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and encourages people to stay inside their homes as much as possible. But what do you do when home is a dangerous place? For many survivors of domestic violence in California, sheltering in place can feel strangely familiar. Many...
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HOWEVER KINDLY INTENTIONED: STRUCTURAL RACISM AND VOLUNTEER CASA PROGRAMS [cunylawreview.org]

Alissa Copeland ·
When we talk about child welfare reform, we shouldn’t shy away from issues of disproportionality and institutionalized oppression, as both are prevalent, present, and deserving of dialogue. One area of conversation I’ve noted of late is with CASA programs. CASA’s are Court Appointed Special Advocates who make recommendations to the court on behalf of the child’s best interest. More often than not, CASA volunteers are well-meaning individuals who give their time to help children. But, many...
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HSC holds symposium on childhood adversity [dailylobo.com]

Alissa Copeland ·
The University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center recently held a symposium to generate ideas for the state to address childhood adversity. As reported in this piece, New Mexico ranks 49th in the Nation for child well-being, and many of the ideas generated at this symposium focused on improvements to working with families experiencing adversity. Hsi said he feels the childhood protective system would benefit from “sustaining funding for a decade to see if we can make a difference,” as...
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'I know they are going to die.' This foster father takes in only terminally ill children (latimes.org)

Of the 35,000 children monitored by the county’s Department of Children and Family Services, there are about 600 children at any given time who fall under the care of the department’s Medical Case Management Services, which serves those with the most severe medical needs, said Rosella Yousef, an assistant regional administrator for the unit. There is a dire need for foster parents to care for such children. And there is only one person like Bzeek. “If anyone ever calls us and says, ‘This kid...
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'I've Always Been a Lioness When It Comes to My Children': Stories From Inside the Child Welfare System (www.jezebel.com)

Christine Cissy White ·
Cissy's note: This has been an exceptional series. Here's more about the entire series and an excerpt from the most recent essay. In collaboration with Rise magazine , Jezebel is publishing a series of articles written by parents affected by the child welfare system. This post, the third in the series, features narratives by LaQuana Chapelle and Lashonda Murray, two mothers who themselves grew up in foster care. In New York City, an estimated 25 to 40 percent of mothers with children in...
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Implementing an Evidence-Based Pregnancy Prevention Program for Youth in Out-of-Home Care: Lessons Learned From 5 Implementing Agencies

Former Member ·
  This report  from the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy offers guidance and promising practices for implementing the adapted Making Proud Choices, an evidence-based program that has demonstrated delayed initiation...
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In Child Welfare, Two Worlds When it Comes to Legal Representation [chronicleofsocialchange.org]

Alicia Doktor ·
A few weeks ago , a close friend came home from work surprised to find the business card of a Child Protective Services (“CPS”) worker wedged inside his door. No letter, or even a handwritten note, accompanied the card. Being uncertain what the card signified, he called the worker, only to learn that he was the subject of a CPS investigation. So he did the first thing that any of us would do in this situation. He called a lawyer. He called me. Families with resources immediately turn to...
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InBrief: Relilience Series [developingchild.harvard.edu]

Alissa Copeland ·
This series of videos from the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University provide a great resoruce on resilience: 1. InBrief: What is Resilience? 2. InBrief: The Science of Resilience 3. InBreif: How Resilience is Built Reducing the effects of significant adversity on young children’s healthy development is critical to the progress and prosperity of any society. Yet not all children experience lasting harm as a result of adverse early experiences. Some may demonstrate “ resilience...
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2-Yr-Old Girl Finds a New “Mommy”—11 Minutes Later, Her 2 Words Shatter This Mama’s World (faithit.com)

Making the decision to become a foster parent is one that will radically change anyone’s life. It grows your knowledge of the 400,000 children in the U.S. foster care system, it breaks your heart for what breaks God’s, and opens your eyes, home, heart and world to a child who desperately needs love. But for most foster parents , they’ll tell you that the joy outweighs the heartbreak. Showing a child who may have experienced trauma, or unthinkable situations, what safety, security, love and...
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2019 State Trends in Child Well-Being [aecf.org]

Marianne Avari ·
By the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The 30th edition of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s KIDS COUNT® Data Book begins by exploring how America’s child population — and the American childhood experience — has changed since 1990. And there’s some good news to share: Of the 16 areas of child well-being tracked across four domains — health, education, family and community and economic well-being — 11 have improved since the Foundation published its first Data Book 30 editions ago. The rest of the...
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4 years after integrating ACEs science, Pueblo, CO clinic improves services for families; cuts ER costs, doctor stress

Laurie Udesky ·
Four years ago, Dr. Leslie Dempsey would never have talked about ACEs — adverse childhood experiences — with her patients. Now ACEs is a common topic. “Just as I don’t feel awkward asking someone if they smoke or do intravenous drugs, I don’t really feel awkward talking about their childhood traumas in a way that it relates to their health. It’s just integrated into obtaining background and social history,” she says. Dr. Leslie Dempsey Dempsey is a physician in obstetrics who oversees a team...
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6 problems with the foster care system — and what you can do to help [mashable.com]

Alicia Doktor ·
When Tenaja Jordan came out to her parents at 17 years old, they kicked her out of their home. As a teenager, she was still considered a child in the eyes of the state, and was immediately placed into New York City's child welfare system. Following the trauma of the situation, one question remained on Jordan's mind: Where was she going to live? Jordan made her needs clear to child welfare workers: She didn't want to live on Staten Island or with a homophobic guardian. But that's exactly...
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A Federal Thumbs Up for Co-Parenting in Foster Care [chronicleofsocialchange.org]

Marianne Avari ·
By John Kelly, The Chronicle of Social Change, May 5, 2020. In 2019 , Nebraska announced plans for a pilot project in which foster parents would play a starring role in the reunification process, going beyond the traditional role of a caregiver for kids. These specialized resource families, through a strategy known as shared or co-parenting, support and mentor birth parents in hopes that children can more quickly and safely be returned home. Just before the coronavirus hit, New York City’s...
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A grandmother learns to be a mom again [CopeFamilyCenter.org]

Karen Clemmer ·
One Friday afternoon, as Jana was on her way to pickup her grandson from school , she received a very disturbing call. The police had come to her daughter’s apartment the night before, arrested her for drug involvement and taken her grandson, David, into the custody of Marin County’s Child Protective Services . After meeting with CPS, she was able to obtain temporary custody of D avid and take him home with her to Napa. She was not prepared to instantly become a mother again . David’s father...
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A Hidden Crisis: The Pipeline from Foster Care to Homelessness for LGBTQ Youth [chronicleofsocialchange.org]

Alissa Copeland ·
This article points out the inequity of the foster care system in meeting the needs of LGBTQ youth, especially LGBTQ youth of color - all of whom often experience trauma as a result of rejection from their primary caregivers, both biological parents and foster parents. It's true, child welfare systems across the country are under-funded, staff are over-worked, and there is a troubling shortage of foster parents in general, and even more so when speaking of foster parents willing to foster...
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A Qualitative Research Study Of Kinship Diversion Practices [ChildTrends.org]

Samantha Sangenito ·
This brief explores the practice of “kinship diversion,” in which children are placed with relatives as an alternative to foster care. Also referred to as informal or voluntary kinship care or safety plans, its use varies across the country. In this brief we present findings from an in-depth review of kinship diversion in one state. Interviews and focus groups revealed common themes among agency caseworkers, kinship caregivers, and court personnel around the reasons for using kinship...
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ACE-Aha Moments & Parenting: Meet Aprel Phelps Downey

Christine Cissy White ·
Aprel Phelps Downey What was your ACEs Aha moment? When did you first hear about ACEs and what impact did/does it have on you? How do ACEs impact you as a parent? How is your parenting impacted by past trauma? What’s been most helpful to you as a parent parenting with ACEs? What’s been most challenging for you as a parent parenting with ACEs? What has parenting taught you? What have you learned? How do you manage complex family relationships? What inspires/encourages and helps you? I know...
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ACEs Research Corner — February 2020

Harise Stein ·
Editor's note: Dr. Harise Stein at Stanford University edits a web site — abuseresearch.info — that focuses on the health effects of abuse, and includes research articles on ACEs. Every month, she's posting the summaries of the abstracts and links to research articles that address only ACEs science. Thank you, Harise!! -- Jane Stevens] Kambeitz C, Klug MG, Greenmyer J, Popova S, Burd L. Association of adverse childhood experiences and neurodevelopmental disorders in people with fetal alcohol...
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Adverse Childhood Experiences, Commitment Offense, and Race/Ethnicity: Are the Effects Crime-, Race-, and Ethnicity-Specific? [International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health]

Alissa Copeland ·
Abstract Adverse childhood experiences are associated with an array of health, psychiatric, and behavioral problems including antisocial behavior. Criminologists have recently utilized adverse childhood experiences as an organizing research framework and shown that adverse childhood experiences are associated with delinquency, violence, and more chronic/severe criminal careers. However, much less is known about adverse childhood experiences vis-à-vis specific forms of crime and whether the...
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Advocates for Families First (Enhancing Support and Advocacy for Children in Kinship, Foster and Adoptive Families)

Former Member ·
The mission of  Advocates for Families First  is to build a unified national movement in support of kinship, foster, and adoptive families who care for children and youth, promote their healing, and help them thrive. We envision a world...
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Aging Out Institute: The best Collection of Resources for Aging Out of Foster Care on the Internet

Former Member ·
National Resources Below you will find programs that are not state-specific, but rather can be leveraged regardless of where the foster youth lives in the U.S. Simply click on the name of the program to get to more information about it. A Home Within:...
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All hands on deck (from a distance): remote care for traumatized moms and babies

Jonathan Joseph Goldfinger ·
Dear colleague, Coronavirus is forcing providers and allied professionals serving mothers and babies to make unprecedented decisions. Should pregnant women needing care go through our hospital quarantine entrance? Should moms deliver without partners, family or doulas present? Be sent home early before key screenings or jaundice treatment are completed? To make matters worse, our systems aren't ready for basic remote care of mothers and infants now "socially distanced". Prenatal, post-partum...
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An Invitation to Remake Child Welfare [chronicleofsocialchange.org]

Alicia Doktor ·
A few days before Christmas , the federal government extended an invitation to state child welfare agencies that has the potential to completely transform the system. The invitation did not arrive with great publicity. Nor was it lengthy. Instead, it was announced in a few ordinary-looking sentences, in a very ordinary-looking email. But looks can be deceiving. The change announced by the federal government could lead to far fewer children being placed in foster care. It could expedite the...
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Announcing the Parenting with ACEs Monthly Chat Series!

Christine Cissy White ·
I'm thrilled to announce our NEW Live Chat series!!! Starting in May, once a month, we will have a live Chat Event. It will take online in the Parenting with ACEs Group the second Tuesday of the month at 10 a.m. PST (1 p.m. EST). We'll learn from our featured guests (below) about ACE-related issues. We'll have discussions and share experiences, stories, and resources with each other. Here is who and what we have scheduled for 2017. 2017 Monthly Chat Schedule / Time is Always: @ 10 AM PST (1...
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Answering Children's Questions About Foster Care

Former Member ·
Recently, a colleague came to me for advice on addressing a very tough question from a child: Why don’t I live with mommy anymore? With roughly 400,000 children in out-of-home placements in the United States, this is a question that gets asked...
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Articles

Joanna Weill ·
78 Children Missing From State Custody Link: http://www.muskogeephoenix.com...2d7a5a.html?mode=jqm   Aging Out of Foster Care: The Costs of Doing Nothing Affect Us All Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...care-_b_3658694.html   Applied...
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Balancing Adverse Childhood Experiences with Hope [alliance1.org]

Alissa Copeland ·
This report presents evidence for HOPE (Health Outcomes of Positive Experiences) based on newly released, compelling data that reinforce the need to promote positive experiences for children and families in order to foster healthy childhood development despite the adversity common in so many families. These data: Establish a spirit of hope and optimism and make the case that positive experiences have lasting impact on human development and functioning, without ignoring well-documented...
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Berkeley Bound [JJIE.org]

Samantha Sangenito ·
If you had asked me at the age of 7 what my meaning of home was, I probably would’ve answered with “I don’t know.” When I turned 7, I was taken from my father and placed into a foster home. I remember my social worker telling me that I was going to a sleepover for a few days. Even though I didn’t know this lady, I believed her. As the strange lady walked me out the front door, I saw tears in my father’s eyes. He told me to be brave and to always remember that he loved me and that no matter...
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Better Child Abuse Fatality Reviews are Key to Overhauling Child Welfare [chronicleofsocialchange.org]

By Theresa Covington and Ilana Levinson, August 15, 2019 The Family First and Prevention Services Act (FFPSA), which passed into law as part of the 2018 budget resolution, is one of the largest overhauls of our nation’s child welfare system in the last decade. The law aims to realign resources toward prevention and intervention before a child reaches the critical point of being placed into the foster care system. Most of the attention on the new law is focused on new ways to use Title IV-E...
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Beyond Faith: How One Community Raised 70 Kids from the Texas Foster Care System [ChronicleOfSocialChange.org]

Samantha Sangenito ·
Diann Sparks hadn’t planned on adopting, until one of her sisters asked her to attend an adoption class in a town 120 miles away from her home in Possum Trot, part of east Texas’ Shelby County. At the time, Sparks had one biological daughter and was a single parent working a full-time job at a chicken plant. Possum Trot, a deeply religious black Baptist community in a mostly white county, doesn’t show up on Google maps. It has no streetlights, no post office, no grocery store and a lot of...
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Brief Aims to Better Understand How Positive Factors Change Child Trauma [socialjusticesolutions.org]

Alissa Copeland ·
According to a leading group of children’s advocates, it’s not enough to just study the impact of childhood trauma and how we can lessen its toll on children and adults later in life. Armed with new data, researchers from Center for the Study of Social Policy, Alliance for Strong Families and Communities, Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative, Prevent Child Abuse America, Casey Family Programs and the Montana Institute say that positive childhood experiences are more important...
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Permanency for Sibling Groups: The Neighbor to Family Model [cbexpress.acf.hhs.gov]

Former Member ·
Research has shown that keeping siblings together when they enter foster care bolsters positive outcomes, including reducing the trauma they experience upon being removed from their homes. The  Neighbor To Family  (NTF) model was designed to...
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Promoting Trauma-Informed Parenting of Children in Out-of-Home Care: An Effectiveness Study of the Resource Parent Curriculum. (Abstract Only) [psycnet.apa.org]

By Kathryn J. Murray, Kelly M. Sullivan, Maria C. Lent, et al., APA PsycNET, March 2020 Abstract The Resource Parent Curriculum (RPC) is a workshop designed to promote trauma-informed parenting among foster, adoptive, and kinship caregivers (i.e., resource parents). The ultimate goal of RPC is to improve placement stability and promote healing from traumatic stress in children who have been placed in out-of-home care. The current study examined data from multiple RPC implementation sites...
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Providers Hope Trauma Legislation Will Help Native Children in Foster Care [ChornicleOfSocialChange.org]

Samantha Sangenito ·
Recent federal legislation put forward by senators Sens. Dick Durbin (D-IL), Al Franken (D-MN) and Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) proposes to address the issue of childhood trauma through the creation of a federal trauma task force. The Trauma-Informed Care for Children and Families Act would gather federal officials and members of tribal agencies to create a set of best practices and training to help create a better way to identify and support children and families that have experienced trauma. In...
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Rebuilding Lives while Building Homes: Tony McGuire's Resilience-Building Carpentry Class

Tara Mah ·
Tony McGuire is a great carpenter. He ran his own construction business for years. Then he wanted to get into teaching. He became a Tenured Faculty member at a local community college, and landed in the state penitentiary as a Basic Skills Carpentry instructor. So how could that be connected to saving lives with a 20 buck investment? Tony got touched by CRI’s trauma-informed training. He saw himself past and present and knew somehow that, “with this information comes the responsibility to...
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Reimbursement for Parenting Education and Support Services

Unfortunately, regardless of training received and degrees earned, parenting educators can't serve families and get reimbursed by public and private insurers for their services. In an effort to bring light to this issue, I wrote the attached paper with two colleagues at NC State. Our (unpublished) paper outlines research supporting parenting education services and their efficacy to improve individual and family health and long term wellbeing and community prosperity. We highlight the fact...
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Report Reveals Foster Youth’s Top Priorities (socialjusticesolutions.org)

In an effort to highlight the most important issues identified by foster youth, advocacy organization Foster Youth in Action conducted a poll last October of more than 500 foster youth. Results indicated that sibling visitation, homelessness prevention, college access and success, and opportunities for independent living are the top priorities among current and former foster youth. The current and former foster youth polled ranged in age from the early teens to the early 30s, and priorities...
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Reporters reveal deep faults in Arizona’s swollen foster care system [centerforhealthjournalism.org]

Alicia Doktor ·
When Arizona’s foster care system swelled to an all-time-high of over 19,000 children in 2016, the reason should have been obvious to the state’s lawmakers. It certainly wasn’t because thousands of residents were suddenly abusing and neglecting their children, but Arizona approached the problem with that mentality. As a result, thousands of children were taken from their families when in-home services and support would have sufficed. Here’s what was actually happening: Since the Great...
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