Blog

Welcome to the Toolkit for Transformation Building an international parent-led movement fighting for families affected by child welfare In this toolkit, you will find information and resources that parent advocates and their allies around the world have created. We envision the toolkit as a way that we can learn from each other’s experiences as an international community building the power of parent advocacy. The parent advocacy movement seeks to build the power of parents who have been...

By Tricia Stephens, Rise, June 24, 2020 This report is intended to provide family court officers and child welfare professionals who engage with child welfare involved (CWI) parents, introductory knowledge on the trauma-informed approach. Readers will be introduced to the importance of using the trauma-informed approach in their work with CWI parents, with a focus on the impact that language has on the way in which CWI parents are depicted and responded to in the courtroom. Definitions of...

Free Interactive Webinar on Building Positive Relationships with Children who have Experienced Trauma. Perfect for professionals, parents, foster-parents, and teachers. Meets Tuesday nights from March 23rd to May 11th from 5 to 7:30 pm central time. The curriculum is aligned with the NCTSN, has TF-CBT components, and is researched based. Please e-mail Rhonda Rude by March 12th if you are interested in attending, it's an amazing training!

By Kris Kittle and Kelly Reed, AdoptUSKids, January 16, 2021 When you adopt a child, it’s easy to focus on their immediate needs: home, food, routine, education, people, etc. These are all important, and your child certainly experiences significant changes that require patience, love, and understanding from you as they adjust to their unfamiliar life. But there are other areas of focus that can help an older child adjust as well. Be trustworthy. Your child may not have experienced...

By Johanna K.P. Greeson, Sara R. Jaffee, Sarah Wasch, and John Gyourko, The Field Center for Children's Policy, Practice & Research, September 2020 Executive Summary Disasters, including disease outbreaks like COVID-19, share a common potential for significant ecological and psychosocial disruption at the individual, community, and societal levels. The detrimental impact of COVID-19 is revealed daily in our news media. Although COVID-19 affects all segments of the population, it is...

LAST YEAR, NEARLY 18,000 CALIFORNIA COMMUNITY COLLEGE STUDENTS WERE CURRENTLY OR FORMERLY IN FOSTER CARE. These students, and students from other vulnerable or underserved groups, are motivated and resilient. However, many face higher rates of trauma and unmet mental health needs, coupled with systemic barriers that prevent them from accessing services. Without support, these challenges can contribute to lower college completion rates. BACKGROUND In 2018-2020, John Burton Advocates for Youth...

The child welfare system — like other powerful institutions, including law enforcement and the incarceration system — is under attack. The devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic along with a reckoning with systemic racism and inequality over the past year are shining a harsh spotlight on child protective services (CPS), the nation’s system for protecting children from abuse and neglect. Similar to the movement to defund the police, long-standing concerns about racism and other gross inequities...

“ Our fingerprints don't fade from the lives we touch.” - Judy Blume Hope, healing & help for trauma, abuse & mental health. The latest edition of the Surviving Spirit Newsletter is posted at the website - http://newsletters.survivingspirit.com/index.php & here's the PDF - http://newsletters.survivingspirit.com/pdfs/2021-02-The_Surviving_Spirit_Newsletter_February_2021.pdf “ Our brains developed along with music and singing as a survival mechanism.” - Tania De Jong To sign up for...

By Tom Morton and Jess McDonald, The Imprint, February 15, 2021 The child welfare system plays a conflicted role in our society’s history. It exists in a world of competing values and basic societal assumptions. Was it developed as a way to “save” children from abuse and neglect or as a means to “control families?” We chose to serve in this system to help children live safely with their families in safer communities. We believed it was possible to make a positive difference for children and...

This Sunday evening's "Breaking the Silence with Dr. Gregory Williams" Radio Show LIVE at 8:00 pm CST will be discussing an amazing new tool to bring the latest level of technology to help in the placement of foster children in the system. The experts in the field that will be special guests on this week's radio programs are Jennifer Jacobs and Jessica Stern, Co-Founders of Connect Our Kids. Jennifer Jacobs is the chief executive officer and a co-founder of Connect Our Kids, a non-profit...

By Jerry Milner, The Imprint, February 11, 2021 As a child welfare social worker for a few decades now, serving as the leader of the U.S. Children’s Bureau was the greatest honor of my career, perhaps my life. In my field, there is no comparable position to lead the country in shaping a vision, if one chooses, that can affect the lives of vulnerable children, youth and parents in such profound ways. It is also a place where the reigning political ideology can affect actions, drive priorities...