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Journal Article Communities across the United States, in both urban and rural areas, are seeking ways to promote well-being for their citizens in sustainable ways. This paper provides a descriptive case study of one rural community that used an inquiry-based approach to ask, “How can we engage our citizens to improve child and family well-being in our community?” The group also wondered “What if Brookings had one place for families to access all family resources that support well-being?” “What if all families had a place where their needs were heard?” and “What if all resources for families looked at the…
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Journal Article This article discusses experimental tests of two recent administrative interventions, the TANF 16 intervention and the statement intervention, designed to increase child support collections in Washington State. The TANF 16 intervention sought to reimburse the state for TANF benefits paid to custodial parents by intensively pursuing collections in arrears-only cases. The statement intervention tested whether sending regular billing statements to noncustodial parents who were new to the child support system increased compliance. While the TANF 16 intervention's effects represent a substantial…
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Journal Article This issue on fathers was conceived as a rallying cry for all professionals to examine their practices of including fathers in their services. For too long, infant mental health professionals have either ignored fathers' important influences on infants and toddlers or have given lip-service to their importance while allowing the status quo of not including fathers to continue. This article provides history and context for the impetus behind --and the hurdles to--moving from focusing on dyads to family systems, and it highlights a few forward-looking new programs and initiatives already…
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Journal Article This study sought to describe fathers' participation in a statewide home-visiting program to prevent child abuse and to assess program impact on their parenting. This randomized trial followed 643 at-risk families for 3 years. Data were collected through program record review, staff surveys, and annual maternal interviews. Participation in visits varied by the parents' relationship and paternal employment, violence, and heavy drinking at baseline. Overall, the program had no apparent impact on fathers' accessibility to the child, engagement in parenting activities, and sharing of…
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Journal Article The CARRI Program at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey's Community Mental Health Center in Piscataway developed a home-based family therapy program for adolescent parents that included their extended families. Participation of extended families is important especially for cultural groups such as African-Americans, who have strong intergenerational bonds. This article provides an overview of cultural and systemic issues in African American families and their experience with teen pregnancy. Multigenerational incidence of teen pregnancy and single parenthood,…
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Journal Article Only in the last few years have researchers begun to pay close attention to the child-only cases that fall under the provision of the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program. Few attempts have been made to talk directly to kinship caregivers to understand their day-to-day lives. This triangulated study utilizes multiple strategies to assess the needs of child-only recipient caregivers in one northeast county. There are two distinct child-only recipient caregiving populations: (1) Caregivers who have been designated as disabled and who are receiving Supplemental Security Income (…
