Rural Child Welfare Practice

Drawn from real stories of rural child welfare practice, Rural Child Welfare Practice displays lessons learned from people working in the services field of child welfare. The casebook has 18 chapters illustrating rural child welfare practice rewards, challenges, strategies, and practice wisdom. Case vignettes include racial, ethnic, religious, sexual orientation, and rural diversity, with particular attention to working with Native Americans/American Indians as well as First Nation (Canada) and Aborigine (Australia) people. The book also covers a wide range of child welfare services - such as protective services, kinship care, and adoption - through a variety of perspectives. It is particularly useful for students, professionals, and educators exploring what today's rural child welfare experts say must happen to engage in effective rural child welfare practice with children and families.

Drawn from real stories of rural child welfare practice, Rural Child Welfare Practice displays lessons learned from people working in the services field of child welfare. The casebook has 18 chapters illustrating rural child welfare practice rewards, challenges, strategies, and practice wisdom. Case vignettes include racial, ethnic, religious, sexual orientation, and rural diversity, with particular attention to working with Native Americans/American Indians as well as First Nation (Canada) and Aborigine (Australia) people. The book also covers a wide range of child welfare services - such as protective services, kinship care, and adoption - through a variety of perspectives. It is particularly useful for students, professionals, and educators exploring what today's rural child welfare experts say must happen to engage in effective rural child welfare practice with children and families.

"The purpose of this annotated bibliography is to promote the development of research, policy and social work practice in the area of child welfare in Canada's northern, isolated and rural communities ... The annotations included in this piece look at a range of studies on issues affecting small communities and families, children and human service workers in these communities"--Page 7.

Community Work Approaches to Child Welfare presents a number of case studies that illustrate alternative approaches to child welfare that recognizes the strengths and tenacity of families who live in resource poor and essentially unfriendly environments (and that would drive middle class professionals to distraction!). The strengths of these families can be harnessed to improve their situation and that of others. Community work approaches are provided by accessible organizations that involve families in the design and implementation of programs that affect them and that are dedicated to developing the capacity of communities to care for children and families. The case studies range from urban child welfare agencies in Toronto and Winnipeg, to the rural setting of Hazelton, B.C. and to examples of First Nation communities that have taken control of child welfare. The studies are written by Canadian scholars who are widely recognized for their innovative research and writing in community work and child welfare. Community Work Approaches to Child Welfare is also an indictment of the policies and practices that now govern the provision of child welfare services in Canada. The indictment argues that the policies that hold parents, and particularly single parent women, responsible for the care of their children without regard for the circumstances in which these families live is neither realistic nor helpful. It further holds that individualized and office-based practice dominated by a paradigm of risk turns clients into objects thereby robbing them of their dignity and strengths. Community approaches make a viable alternative.

Imagining Child Welfare in the Spirit of Reconciliation is a most crucial look at child welfare practices in Canada, social work as a tool for advocacy, and the need to address the historical legacy of the Sixties Scoop.

The practice of child welfare in rural communities faces the same expectations as practice in more urban settings despite budget disadvantages, travel constraints, lack of personnel or professional practitioners, and other economic, human, physical, and technological challenges. These standards provide a framework for assessment and training for rural cultural competence throughout the field.

Papers presented from the 2000 Child Welfare Symposium have been collected together as a single volume of research on child welfare practice. This book will be valuable to practitioners and policy makers in the field of child welfare and covers many areas of interest to social workers dealing with child protection, alternative care and families.