Transforming Child Welfare

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.

"Canada has among the highest rate of children in foster care in the developed world--a national tragedy that has its roots in poverty, residential schooling, and other forms of colonialism. Tackling the "wicked" and intransigent problems encountered by social workers, educators, health care workers, and others, Transforming Child Welfare examines systemic issues within the child welfare system, including child abuse, neglect, and FASD. Reflecting on previous strengths, and integrating research and practice, the contributors to this volume provide professionals with best practice solutions that can be applied in different contexts."--

Introduction: Voices of Passion, Voices of Hope / Sharon McKay -- 1. Passion within the First nations School Work Profession / Dexter Kinequon -- 2. Passion, Action, Strength and Innovative Change: The Experience of the Saskatchewan Children's Advocate's Office in Establishing Rights-based "Children and Youth First" Principles / Marvin M. Bernstein and Roxane A. Schury -- 3. From Longing to Belonging: Attachment Theory, Connectedness, and Indigenous Children in canada / Jeannine Carriere and Cathy Richardson -- 4. Jumping through the Hoops: A Manitoba Study Examining Experiences and Reflections of Aboriginal Mothers Involved in Child Welfare in Manitoba / Marlyn Bennett -- 5. Rehearsing with Reality: Exploring Health Issues with Aboriginal Youth Through Drama / Linda Goulet, Jo-Ann Episkenew, Warren Linds and Karen Arnason -- 7. The Moving Forward Project: Working with Refugee Children, Youth and Their Families / Judy White et al. -- 8. Passion for Those Who care: What Foster Carers Need / Rob Twigg -- 9. Children with FASD involved with the Manitoba Child Welfare System: The Need for Passionate Action / Don Fuchs, Linda Burnside, Shelagh Marchenski and Andria Mudry -- 10. Physical Punishment in Childhood: A Human Rights and cxhild Protection Issue / Ailsa M. Watkinson -- 11. Complex Poverty and Home-grown Solutions in Two Prairie cities / Jim Silver [Winnipeg and Saskatoon].

Transforming Child Welfare tackles the "wicked" problems encountered in the child welfare system by social workers and other professionals, and suggests best practice solutions that professionals can use in their own practices.

Faced with rapidly changing social and economic conditions, service professionals, policy developers, and researchers have raised significant concerns about the Canadian child welfare system. This book draws inspiration from experiences with three broad, international child welfare paradigms—child protection, family service, and community healing/caring (First Nations)—to look at how specific practices in other countries, as well as alternative experiments in Canada, might foster positive innovations in the Canadian child welfare approach. Foundational values and purposes, systems design and policy, and organization and management are discussed, as are front-line service delivery, service provider work environments, and the realities of daily living for families. Informed by recent research, the contributors provide clear directions for policy, administration, and service-delivery reforms. Informing policy debates addressing child maltreatment and family welfare, this book will serve as a vital resource for managers, service providers, professionals, and students in the fields of social work, child and youth care, family studies, psychology, and special education.

In 1994 a group of researchers and decision makers met to discuss the state of child welfare. Also present were a few practitioners and two youth in care. Six years later, when they met again, the number of practitioners and youth had grown considerably and were joined by a strong contingent of foster parents. Thus the findings and insights presented were affirmed or challenged by those most affected -- those on the front line. It was an exciting event, worth capturing in book form. Kathleen Kufeldt and Brad McKenzie have gathered the papers presented at the 2000 Symposium and have organised them under four themes: incidence and characteristics of child maltreatment; the continuum of care; policy and practice; and future directions. An analysis and synthesis of the work informs each of these themes, while an eight-point research agenda developed in an earlier symposium is used to assess developments to date and provide guidance for the future.

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.

Joining the ranks of Evicted and The New Jim Crow, a former caseworker’s searing, clear-eyed investigation of the child welfare system—from foster care to incarceration—that exposes the deep-rooted biases shaping the system, witnessed through the lives of several Black families. Dr. Jessica Pryce knows the child welfare system firsthand and, in this long overdue book, breaks it down from the inside out, sharing her professional journey and offering the crucial perspectives of caseworkers and Black women impacted by the system. It is a groundbreaking and eye-opening confrontation of the inherent and systemic racism deeply entrenched within the child welfare system. Pryce started her social work career with an internship where she was committed to helping keep children safe. In the book, she walks alongside her close friends and even her family as they navigate the system, while sharing her own reckoning with the requirements of her job and her role in the systemic harm. Through poignant narratives and introspection, readers witness the harrowing effects of a well-intentioned workforce that has lost its way, demonstrating how separations are often not in a child’s best interests. With a renewed commitment to strengthening families in her role as activist, Pryce invites the child welfare workforce to embark on a journey of self-reflection and radical growth. At once a framework for transforming child protective services and an intimate, stunning first-hand account of the system as it currently operates, Broken takes everyday scenarios as its focus rather than extreme child welfare cases, challenging readers to critically examine their own mindsets and biases in order to reimagine how we help families in need.