Other
Child welfare and related professionals often struggle to find parent education programs and modalities that can help at-risk parents make long-lasting changes in their parenting practices. This article describes The Video Home Training (VHT) and Video Interaction Guidance (VIG), two evidence-based, strengths-based programs that rely on video feedback that have shown promising results for parents and others.
Other
This article explains how family group decision making (FGDM) can be used as a powerful tool for improving the engagement of father and paternal relatives in the lives of children involved with the child welfare system. It highlights a brief published by American Humane that discusses how FGDM can overcome barriers to father involvement in child welfare and strategies to minimize safety concerns relating to FGDM.
Brief
As a children's attorney or lawyer guardian ad litem (GAL), your advocacy should include efforts to engage fathers in child welfare cases. Many of your child clients' biological fathers may not live with them when CPS becomes involved with the family. Or, the father may not be accused of abuse or neglect when CPS intervenes. This guide offers practice tips to identify and engage these fathers in your child clients' cases. Some of this material may also be useful when working with noncustodial mothers or custodial fathers. The information and tips will help you make informed recommendations…
Brief
A large percentage of poor children live with just one parent, usually their mother, and single-parent families are more vulnerable to economic downturns than are two-parent families. Living arrangements also affect the optimal design of policies related to income support and child support. In this paper we briefly review changes in family structure and the relationship between family structure and employment, and then focus on policies that are essential to reducing poverty in the context of the current work-based safety net, in which low-income families with children rely increasingly on…
Brief
This Practice Sheet summarises and builds upon the findings from the Engaging Fathers study (Berlyn, Wise, & Soriano, 2008). It provides ideas for practitioners and policy-makers about how to increase engagement of fathers in child and family services and programs. (Author abstract)
Other
This Resource Guide was written to support service providers in their work with parents, caregivers, and their children to strengthen families and prevent child abuse and neglect. The guide includes information about protective factors that help reduce the risk of child maltreatment, strategies for changing how communities support families, and evidence-informed practices. It also offers suggestions for enhancing protective factors in families, tools to build awareness and develop community partnerships, information about child abuse and neglect, a directory of national organizations that…
Brief
This policy brief, published by the Brookings Institute, presents major findings and policy recommendations based on results from The Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. The study shows that a large number of parents are not married when they have a child, which contributes to problems with parenting, couples' relationships, and children's well-being. Also, many unwed parents may be in close relationships when children are born, but few of these relationships last. Unwed parents often have characteristics (i.e., low education, poor health) that make finding employment, forming stable…
Brief
This tip sheet offers six ways that parents can positively influence their teens' daily decisionmaking, impact healthy behaviors, and help them to become responsible adults. (Author abstract modified)
Brief
Out of wedlock births, divorce, and repartnering havebecome increasingly common in America, contributing togreater complexity in family structures. In fact, one-thirdof American children are expected to live with a nonbiologicalparental figure, usually a social father, at somepoint in their lives. As these experiences become moreprevalent, policy makers and public advocates need tounderstand the dynamics and effects of various kinds ofparental relationships.A widespread belief, reflected in training materialsfrom the Department of Health and Human Services forChild Protective Services (CPS)…
Brief
This tip sheet provides a basic plan that schools, community professionals, and youth leaders can use to ease pain following a traumatic death. It explains ways to show teens that their grief is understood and offers suggestions to facilitate communication and provide appropriate support.
