Child And Family Advocacy

Current statistics on child abuse, neglect, poverty, and hunger shock the conscience—doubly so as societal structures set up to assist families are failing them. More than ever, the responsibility of the helping professions extends from aiding individuals and families to securing social justice for the larger community. With this duty in clear sight, the contributors to Child and Family Advocacy assert that advocacy is neither a dying art nor a lost cause but a vital platform for improving children's lives beyond the scope of clinical practice. This uniquely practical reference builds an ethical foundation that defines advocacy as a professional competency and identifies skills that clinicians and researchers can use in advocating at the local, state and federal levels. Models of the advocacy process coupled with first-person narratives demonstrate how professionals across disciplines can lobby for change. Among the topics discussed: Promoting children's mental health: collaboration and public understanding. Health reform as a bridge to health equity. Preventing child maltreatment: early intervention and public education Changing juvenile justice practice and policy. A multi-level framework for local policy development and implementation. When evidence and values collide: preventing sexually transmitted infections. Lessons from the legislative history of federal special education law. Child and Family Advocacy is an essential resource for researchers, professionals and graduate students in clinical child and school psychology, family studies, public health, developmental psychology, social work and social policy.

"Child and Family Advocacy" is a road map to help you help your child. You know your child best, and when you get the gut feeling that something is wrong, you are usually correct. What can you do? What are the laws? Who is on your side? Why won't some people listen to you? What are your rights? You'll find the answer to those questions and more within. .Laws you need to know .Parental rights .Navigating the juvenile justice system .Conflict resolution .Advocacy plans .Funding issues .Extensive resources for additional support

Child and Family Advocacy is a road map to help you help your child. You know your child best and when you get that "gut" feeling that something is wrong, you are usually correct. What do you do? What are the laws? Who is on your side? Why won't they listen to you? What are your rights? Many questions are answered here written specifically for the Parent and Family that no one has taken the time to share their rights with them. To give them informed consent of what they plan to do with their child, to make them an equal participating member of the "Team" for Identification, Referral, Evaluation, Planning, Implementation and Review of their child's life. This endeavor includes specific Chapters on your Child's Advocacy, Psych-Social and Developmental History, Education, Special Education, Parental Rights, Developmental Disabilities, Juvenile Justice, Behavioral Health/Grief, Funding, Laws to Advocate By, Conflict Resolution and Advocacy Management and Documentation. The Appendix covers National Resources, State Resources, copy of your Parental Safeguards from IDEIA 2004, Key Concepts and lists of acronyms from several children's systems. Two hands-on tools for Parents to control and drive their child's trip to success; The Psych-Social/Developmental History can be completed at your convenience without being rushed and missing key elements. An incomplete Psycho-Social/Developmental History can be as damaging to your child as none at all. The second tool is the, Advocacy Plan which will help you to identify what you believe is the Problem. It will assist you in defining the goal including objectives, methods, resources, strengths, laws and systems required to get your child's needs met. Never forget you know your child best and their most valued and successful advocate because you hold that one element that no one can match, Love.

Examining when and why governments implement progressive childcare policies, this study takes a look at the different systems Canadians have adopted over the past five decades and argues that childcare is better understood as a public responsibility.

Trial Advocacy for the Child Welfare Lawyer: Telling the Story of the Family was a first of its kind publication and gave lawyers working in child welfare court their first real trial skills book five years ago. Thousands of lawyers became more proficient at trial work because of that seminal publication. Now, the Juvenile Law Society (JLS) has made it even better with Trial Advocacy for the Child Welfare Lawyer: Telling the Story of the Family, Second Edition, by Marvin Ventrell and Patrick Furman. Trials, effectively presented, are stories—stories of mothers, fathers, children—stories of the family. Trial Advocacy for the Child Welfare Lawyer, Second Edition teaches you how to present the story of the family from the unique and powerful perspective of each litigant. From nuts and bolts to advanced practice techniques, each trial skill is treated as a mechanism of persuasion. For the Second Edition, JLS Founder and Director Marvin Ventrell teamed up with his long-time trial skills training partner and highly regarded teacher and trial lawyer, Patrick Furman as co-author. Ventrell and Furman expand the nine essential trial skills of the first edition and have added a new chapter on The Child Witness. From case analysis to opening statement, to witness exam to evidentiary foundations, to objections, to closing argument and professionalism and ethics, Trial Advocacy for the Child Welfare Lawyer, Second Edition prepares the lawyer for children, parents, and state agencies to go to court. Reviews The Juvenile Law Society [JLS] has made a profound contribution to the field of child welfare law with this succinct and practical book. It really should be required reading for all lawyers appearing in child welfare court. It is an artful blending of the essentials of trial advocacy with the particulars of child welfare court. This book will empower attorneys to provide improved advocacy for children, parents, and agencies . . . and that, in turn, will lead to better judicial outcomes for our most vulnerable children and their families. —Jennifer L. Renne, Esq., Director, Capacity Building Center for Courts, American Bar Association

Six Steps to Successful Child Advocacy: Changing the World for Children (by Amy Conley Wright and Kenneth J. Jaffe) offers an interdisciplinary approach to child advocacy, nurturing key skills through a proven six-step process that has been used to train child advocates and create social change around the world. The approach is applicable for micro-advocacy for one child, mezzo-advocacy for a community or group of children, and macro-advocacy at a regional, national, or international level. This practical text offers skill-building activities and includes timely topics such as how to use social media for advocacy. Case studies of advocacy campaigns highlight applied approaches to advocacy across a range of issues, including child welfare, disability, early childhood, and education. Words of wisdom from noted child advocates from the U.S. and around the world, including a foreword from Dr. Jane Goodall, illustrate key concepts. Readers are guided through the process of developing a plan and tools for a real-life child advocacy campaign.

In Informed Advocacy in Early Childhood Care and Education: Making a Difference for Young Children and Families the author outlines six contexts for advocacy in the field of early childhood education -- individual child and family, advocacy for the profession, program-based advocacy, private-sector advocacy, political activism, and advocacy in the global arena. This practical guide describes the critical need for advocacy in the field of early care and extols the ethical responsibilities of all early child educators, as outlined in the Code of Ethical Conduct (NAEYC 2005). Organized into three parts, the text begins with advocacy in the field of early childhood education, discusses how to develop an advocacy agenda, and concludes with becoming an advocate for life. Additionally, a wide range of advocacy activities are addressed, including: choosing effective strategies, networking, advocating for program changes from within, navigating and being effective in the political process, working with the private sector to bring about positive changes for children, developing and managing an advocacy agenda, and working with the media.