Posts

An Interview with Dr. Michelle Munson

LY: As an expert on youth aging out of the child welfare system, what have you found to be the most important factors in youth making a “successful” transition into adulthood? MM: So many things go into making a “successful” transition to adulthood. We know that for all young people it takes a lot of […]

Children’s Bureau Advises Agencies to Provide Supportive Care for LGBTQ Youth

Reprinted from the Annie E. Casey Foundation The U.S. Children’s Bureau affirmed its sup­port for LGBTQ and gen­der non­con­form­ing chil­dren and youth, espe­cial­ly those in fos­ter care, in a March 2022 infor­ma­tion mem­o­ran­dum to the nation’s child wel­fare agencies. The Children’s Bureau advis­es state, trib­al and ter­ri­to­r­i­al agen­cies receiv­ing fed­er­al funds to ensure that their […]

Integrating Positive Youth Development and Racial Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Approaches Across the Child Welfare and Justice Systems

By Hannah Lantos, Tiffany Allen, Fadumo M. Abdi, Felipe Franco, Kristin Anderson Moore, Jasmine Snell, Billie-Ann Bruce, Zakia Redd, Rebecca Robuck, & Jennifer Miller, Reprinted from Child Trends Over the past 30 years, a growing body of research has indicated that Positive Youth Development (PYD) approaches can improve mental and physical health, education, and employment […]

Helping Young People After Natural Disasters: There’s a Tool Kit (or Two) for That

Reprinted from the Annie E. Casey Foundation How can child-serving systems react to natural disasters in meaningful and effective ways? What actions can child welfare and juvenile justice practitioners take to help young people heal? The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Disaster Relief and Response Team has contemplated these very questions over the years. In 2019, this […]

A Toolkit for Child Welfare Agencies to Help Young People Heal and Thrive During and After Natural Disasters

By Jessica Dym Bartlett, Rebecca L. Vivrette, Akiva Liberman, Allison Hebert, & Margaret Haas, Reprinted from Child Trends The United States is among the top five countries in the world that are most affected by natural disasters, with an average of over 20 natural disasters per year from 2010-2020. Approximately 14 percent of children and […]

Fostering Healthy Futures for Teens: Permanency outcomes of a mentoring intervention for teens with child welfare involvement

Taussig, H.N., Bender, K., Bennett, R., Combs, K.M., Fireman, O., Wertheimer, R. (2019). Mentoring for Teens with Child Welfare Involvement: Permanency Outcomes from a Randomized Controlled Trial of the Fostering Healthy Futures for Teens Program. Child Welfare 97(5), 1-24. Summarized by Ariel Ervin Notes of Interest:  With more and more children entering their teenage years, there is a […]

Five Ways Child Welfare Agencies Can Empower Young People

Reprinted from The Annie E. Casey Foundation Young people with foster care experience know best what they need to heal, grow and thrive. As a result, it’s critical for child welfare leaders to enlist youth as integral partners in addressing their needs and planning for their future.  Staff from the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Jim […]

The impact child welfare parent mentoring programs have in reducing racial disparities

Soffer-Elnekave, R., Haight, W., & Jader, B. (2020). Parent mentoring relationships as a vehicle for reducing racial disparities: Experiences of child welfare-involved parents, mentors and professionals. Children and Youth Services Review, 109, 104682. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2019.104682 Summarized by Ariel Ervin Notes of Interest:  Many parents experience multiple stressors when they enter into and try to navigate in the child welfare […]

What youth-serving groups can learn by using frameworks from other fields

By Rebecca Fabiano, Youth Today I am known to borrow tips, tricks and tools from all kinds of sources. I rely on a multitude of frameworks from the field of youth development to support or further the work I do. You may be familiar with the Search Institute’s 40 Developmental Assets Framework or their Developmental Relationships Framework? Maybe […]

Sustainability of supportive housing for families in the child welfare system

By Nickolas Bagley, Youth Today Published: June 26, 2019 Report Intro/Brief: The Partnerships to Demonstrate the Effectiveness of Supportive Housing, funded by the US Department of Health and Human Services, was designed to explore the effects of providing housing and intensive services to high-need families in the child welfare system. Demonstration sites created new service delivery […]