This booklet features articles written by parents with experience navigating the child welfare system. Topics addressed include peer support, visiting, legal representation, relationships with foster parents, parenting classes, fathers’ rights, addiction and recovery, domestic violence, and reunification. (Author abstract modified)
Brief
Child Protective Services (CPS) and domestic violence centers are two institutions dedicated to ensuring the safety of families. Child maltreatment and domestic violence often occur within the same families, thus CPS and domestic violence centers share many mutual clients. Despite their shared goals, CPS and domestic violence centers have different service philosophies and procedures that can come into conflict when working with families who are involved with CPS and also receiving domestic violence services. This new brief describes the lessons learned from the first year of a pilot…
Recognizing that domestic and sexual violence directed against women is a serious social problem that continues to plague America, the National Football League Players Association has joined with A CALL TO MEN, the leading national men's organization dedicated to addressing this problem, to produce Dedicated to Daughters, a book celebrating the unique and indestructible bond between fathers and daughters. In it NFL players and coaches, through inspiring personal accounts, talk about what it means to be a father, and the importance of being a role model for their daughters.These courageous men…
Brief
Designed for programs seeking to engage men and fathers, this brief explains the impact exposure to violence can cause on children and the harm that can result unless they receive support to help them cope and heal. The warning signs of exposure to violence are listed for children ages 5 and younger, children ages 6-12 years, and teenagers ages 13-18. The importance of fathers' engagement with their children to prevent and reduce the impact of exposure to violence is stressed, and the following recommendations are made for programs for engaging fathers: develop protocols to response…
This chapter looks at the extent and impact of fathers' violence on children and children's own perspectives on their violent fathers. Key findings from the research on the varying ways children are harmed through this violence are summarized, as well as research on children's views of living with paternal domestic violence and their feelings towards their fathers. (Author abstract modified)
Designed to assist advocates for nonresident fathers in child welfare cases, this checklist provides tips for addressing special advocacy issues. Strategies for advocates are explained for addressing substance abuse, mental health concerns, domestic violence allegations, and immigration concerns.
Brief
This FRPN research brief explores the issue of intimate partner violence and how fatherhood programs can address parental conflict to educate fathers about the effects of violence on their children. It also provides several assessment tools for programs to use to screen for and identify intimate partner violence. (Author abstract)
Brief
This brief explains families affected by co-occurring intimate partner violence (IPV) and substance use face unique and interconnected needs and identifies promising practices and programs to meet the needs of these women and children. It begins by discussing the prevalence of IPV and substance abuse and the consequences of IPV, including health concerns and mental health concerns. Links between IPV and substance abuse are explored, and the impacts of IPV and parental substance use on children are then described. The following part of the brief outlines best practices for assessing…
This chapter discusses the need for interventions that bring fathers and paternal family members to the table in child protection efforts, and shares a case study from Vermont that illustrates how restorative justice can be used in family group meetings to challenge totalizing characterizations of fathers and men and help social workers partner with families and collaboration with their professional colleagues to create balanced assessment’s and manage risks. 64 references.
Brief
This fact sheet provides parents with helpful tips on how to effectively discipline children without using violence, reduce the amount of violence that children are exposed to, and healthy conflict resolution.Note: PDF version available.