The Center for the Study of Social Policy’s child welfare work
falls into four categories. Within each category are specific projects
that have the potential to unify our learning agenda and influence how
we share the future of child welfare and continue to push the field. The
work encompasses: 1) our analysis of and field work in community-oriented
child welfare; 2) analysis and recommendations for improving national
and state policy frameworks for child welfare; 3) an extensive review
of lessons we have learned from our experience in class-action litigation
vis-à-vis child welfare systems; and 4) efforts to address racial
disproportionality and disparities of treatment within the overall system.
CSSP’s work in child welfare is manifestly ambitious, diverse,
and far-reaching. By working toward a common learning agenda and
sharing knowledge across various projects the Center can continue to be
a leader in the child welfare field of the future.
1. Community-Oriented Child Welfare
The Center’s efforts to improve outcomes for children– like
all its work – combine field-learning and constituency-building
with policy analysis and recommendations. These modes feed and reinforce
one another, and all contribute to our growing knowledge-base about future
directions in community-oriented child welfare. The Center continues
to provide technical assistance to states, strategizing to
have child welfare partner more effectively with community stakeholders
and constituents of the system.
- Family to Family- Working closely with states implementing
the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Family to Family program,
the Center consults regularly on improving front-line practice
in family engagement and assessment. In addition, we have written
curricula on front-line practice reform which have been incorporated
into two state systems. And our role in convening and setting
learning objectives for regional meetings of all states involved
with Family
to Family has helped us think about how to promote fuller implementation
of strategies that guide reform.
For more information on Family
to Family visit the Annie
E. Casey Family to Family Initiative website
- Los Angeles Prevention Initiative - In July of 2007, CSSP
entered into an exciting partnership with Casey Family Programs
(CFP) to assist the largest child welfare system in the country
(Los Angeles) in instituting a child welfare reform and
prevention agenda. Our help has centered on building local
networks of support throughout the eight regions of the County,
assisting the child welfare department in blending multiple
funding streams toward a common prevention approach, and
figuring out how to connect the neighborhood networks with the
County's differential response system. The goal is to ensure
that families who are reported to child protective services, but
whose reports are either screened out or unsubstantiated, are
connected directly with community networks of support to address
problems before further state intervention is necessary.
Perfecting this approach will greatly aid states that have
embraced differential response but have not figured out how to
engage families with the services that they need.
For more information on the LA Prevention Initiative contact
Susan Notkin, Director, Community-Oriented Child Welfare,
susan.notkin@cssp.org
- Community
Partnerships for Protecting Children (CPPC) – CPPC is a community
approach that harnesses the creative talents of neighborhood leaders,
human service providers, the faith community and local organizations to
work with the public child protection agency to enhance safety and well-being
for all families. Among the TA approaches that CSSP offer include:
neighborhood network building, self-evaluation, frontline practice training
and support, and system analyses.
For more information on CPPC contact Susan Notkin Director,
Community-Oriented Child Welfare,
susan.notkin@cssp.org
2. Analysis of and recommendations for improving, national and
state policy frameworks in child welfare
CSSP services as a guide to state leaders by assembling research on
effective polices in the areas most important to a family’s opportunity
and stability: employment, income and asset growth, health, education,
and healthy family relationships.
While our projects in child welfare have policy implications that we
are continually mining, we have just completed one project
and begun another aimed at a comprehensive analysis of existing policies
and recommendations for reform.
This latest report brings together in one source document recommendations
for a policy agenda for the child welfare field. No other document
contains so complete a tally of the research, practice and
evidence-based listing of child welfare policies which span from prevention
to post adoption policies.
For more information on Policy Matters contact
Noel Bravo, Senior Associate, noel.bravo@cssp.org
Our second project is a collaboration with the Urban Institute. CSSP
has initiated several activities to recognize the 10th anniversary of
the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA). We are writing and commissioning
a series of policy papers that will analyze the implementation and effects
of ASFA. The papers will provide perspectives from children and
families directly affected, child welfare leaders who have experienced
these reform efforts firsthand, and researchers, advocates, and policy
analysts who will be examining the implications of ASFA for specific populations
and child welfare systems. We intend the papers to offer a thoughtful
analysis of ASFA, to be provocative, to be research-data based, to discuss
intended and unintended consequences to ASFA, and to suggest policy recommendations
for the future. The papers will be completed by March of 2009.
For more information contact Kristen Weber, Senior Associate, kristen.weber@cssp.org
3. Experience in non-adversarial child welfare reform
Since the early 1990’s, CSSP has engaged in negotiating class action
settlements, monitoring consent decrees, and providing technical assistance
to a number of states and localities undergoing litigation. We
are sought after by defendants and plaintiffs alike to assist in developing
and carrying out plans which balance pragmatism about the complexity of
reform with a sense of urgency for change. Currently, we are involved
with five jurisdictions: Tennessee, District of Columbia, New Jersey,
Connecticut and Georgia. After many years, we are now at the point
of formulating the lessons we have learned to inform the field about the
nature of reforms advanced by litigation. Ideally, these efforts
will serve as a roadmap for other jurisdictions looking to initiate reform
without the threat of litigation.
For more information on Non-Adversarial
Child Welfare Reform contact
Judy Meltzer, Deputy Director, judy.meltzer@cssp.org
4. Addressing Racial Disproportionality and Disparities, and
Promoting Racial Equity
CSSP’s commitment to becoming an anti-racist organization is mirrored
in our extensive work to address over-representation of children of color
in the child welfare system. This involves managing the Alliance
for Racial Equity, a collaboration between Casey Family Programs, Jim
Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the
Marguerite Casey Foundation, Casey Family Services, parents, youth, and
CSSP. Through the Alliance we provide technical assistance to
four jurisdictions chosen as leaders in the pursuit of equity in child
welfare, create a network for ten state and local jurisdictions committed
to remedying racially determined disparities, and support the development
of a national policy agenda on this pressing topic.
For more information on Racial Equity in Child Welfare contact
Khatib Waheed, Senior Fellow, khatib.waheed@cssp.org
The development of the institutional assessment is a promising
approach for examining policies, practices and organizational
processes which contribute to the overrepresentation of children of
color in the child welfare system. For the past two years we have been working
with the creator of this “institutional ethnography” approach,
originally applied to domestic violence. Together, we have transformed
the method to examine issues in child welfare, specifically racial disparities. We
have now piloted the approach in tow counties in Michigan, Saginaw and
Detroit, and are refining the tool, capturing lessons learned, and planning
for the careful expansion of this work. This assessment approach
has the unlimited potential (with factors beyond racial equity) for uncovering
the reasons that child welfare succeeds or fails to achieve desired results. Our
challenge is to simplify this process, train a cadre of expert
reviewers, and develop a roll-out strategy that is bold yet feasible.
For more information on the Race Equity Review Findings in
Michigan or the Institutional Assessment tool contact Kristen Weber,
Senior Associate, kristen.weber@cssp.org
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