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This Casey Family Programs issue brief looks at the use of peer mentors (“parent partners”) who work with parents entering in and engaging with the child welfare system. These parent partners have already encountered and worked with the child welfare system themselves, and the mentoring that they offer can encourage and instill hope for parents initially interacting with the system. The brief outlines these parent partner programs’ benefits and program research evaluation findings, and provides guidance on how these programs are structured and funded. It also provides brief summaries of…
On Wednesday, May 29, 2019 Princeton University and the Brookings Institution released the latest volume of “The Future of Children”—a journal that promotes effective, evidence-based policies and programs for children, along with a policy brief titled “Achieving Broad-Scale Impacts for Social Programs.” This volume, titled “Universal Approaches to Promoting Healthy Development,” explores universal social programs designed to serve entire…
Abstract
To make a serious dent in the [US] social and health problems, the child welfare system— and others—must develop strategies that have broad impact on people and contexts. That is, they must seek to make a difference at the level of entire populations, rather than targeting only the individuals and families at highest risk. In this brief from Universal Approaches to Promoting Healthy Development, Ron Haskins,…
CCAI’s Foster Youth Internship Program® is a highly esteemed congressional internship for young adults who spent their formative years in the U.S. foster care system. In their annual policy report, the interns focus on subjects they are personally passionate about due to their experiences and understanding after living in foster care and make personal recommendations for improving the U.S. foster care system. This report is presented at both congressional and White House briefings. This publication includes policy reports on sibling connections, supporting foster parents, placement…
This report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation reminds policymakers and child advocates in the US of the barriers that young families face. It examines national and state-level trends — highlighting areas of opportunity and concern — and then shares potential solutions that can help these families thrive.
This policy report focuses on opportunities to invest in ensuring young families find pathways to success. By helping young parents navigate the difficult transitions to both adulthood and parenthood, we can change the odds for both them and their children — truly an investment that…
This special report from the Education Commission of the States describes initiatives and policy changes underway in the US that support foster youth in pursuing postsecondary education. Four states (Colorado, Oregon, Iowa, and Texas) are highlighted for their progress in increasing access to postsecondary education for foster youth.
This brief discusses key takeaways from the collaborative convening, in addition to providing:
- Information about existing foster youth support programs.
- Goals for foster youth educational attainment in Colorado, Oregon and Texas…
States have passed reinstatement statutes to address the increased number of legal orphans in the foster care system. For the most part, however, these laws have been inadequate to address the problem because they are motivated by a view of terminated parents that does not fit current realities. Terminated parents have typically been viewed as obstacles to permanence rather than a realistic placement option. The laws often punish parents who opposed the termination of their parental rights and reward those who voluntarily signed relinquishments.
Reinstatement statutes alone are inadequate…
This paper describes a study that examined the economic challenges faced by low-income, unmarried parents in the United States who participated in the Strong Couples - Strong Children (SC - SC) program, a federally funded initiative intended to help strengthen relationships of fragile families by providing relationship education programs. The article provides a policy background and literature review, describes the SC-SC program, explains the focus and methodology of the study, offers data analysis and findings from the study, highlights the strengths of the SC-SC program participants, and…
This comprehensive policy report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation summarizes what is known about kinship care in the United States, identifies the problems and issues these families face, and recommends how best to support caregivers as they step up to take responsibility for children in their extended families and communities. Extended family members and close family friends care for more than 2.7 million children in the United States, an increase of almost 18 percent over the past decade. The vast majority of these living…
Over the last decade, research in basic human development has revealed that institutional care - particularly when used to serve children under five - is not an appropriate form of alternative care, and instead of protecting children can put them at further risk of harm. Efforts have been made to transition international thinking away from the use of orphanage-based systems and toward providing family-based care. With this in mind, the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute’s (CCAI) The Way Forward Project brought together a group of…