This up-to-date and comprehensive resource by leaders in child welfare is the first book to reflect the impact of the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) of 1997. The text serves as a single-source reference for a wide array of professionals who work in children, youth, and family services in the United States-policymakers, social workers, psychologists, educators, attorneys, guardians ad litem, and family court judges& mdash;and as a text for students of child welfare practice and policy. Features include: * Organized around ASFA's guiding principles of well-being, safety, and permanency * Focus on evidence-based "best practices" * Case examples integrated throughout * First book to include data from the first round of National Child and Family Service Reviews Topics discussed include the latest on prevention of child abuse and neglect and child protective services; risk and resilience in child development; engaging families; connecting families with public and community resources; health and mental health care needs of children and adolescents; domestic violence; substance abuse in the family; family preservation services; family support services and the integration of family-centered practices in child welfare; gay and lesbian adolescents and their families; children with disabilities; and runaway and homeless youth. The contributors also explore issues pertaining to foster care and adoption, including a focus on permanency planning for children and youth and the need to provide services that are individualized and culturally and spiritually responsive to clients. A review of salient systemic issues in the field of children, youth, and family services completes this collection.

Exploring the only option for a growing army of children who cannot be placed for adoption or fostering, this text demonstrates from a large-scale survey of orphan alumni that they outpace the general population in most areas of life.

Winner of the 2014 John Collier Jr. Award Winner of the Jo Anne Stolaroff Cotsen Prize Life at Home in the Twenty-First Century cross-cuts the ranks of important books on social history, consumerism, contemporary culture, the meaning of material culture, domestic architecture, and household ethnoarchaeology. It is a distant cousin of Material World and Hungry Planet in content and style, but represents a blend of rigorous science and photography that these books can claim. Using archaeological approaches to human material culture, this volume offers unprecedented access to the middle-class American home through the kaleidoscopic lens of no-limits photography and many kinds of never-before acquired data about how people actually live their lives at home. Based on a rigorous, nine-year project at UCLA, this book has appeal not only to scientists but also to all people who share intense curiosity about what goes on at home in their neighborhoods. Many who read the book will see their own lives mirrored in these pages and can reflect on how other people cope with their mountains of possessions and other daily challenges. Readers abroad will be equally fascinated by the contrasts between their own kinds of materialism and the typical American experience. The book will interest a range of designers, builders, and architects as well as scholars and students who research various facets of U.S. and global consumerism, cultural history, and economic history.

The Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA), which became law in 1997, elicited a major shift in federal policy and thinking toward child welfare, emphasizing children's safety, permanency, and well-being over preserving biological ties at all costs. The first edition of this volume mapped the field of child welfare after ASFA's passage, detailing the practices, policies, programs, and research affected by the legislation's new attitude toward care. This second edition highlights the continuously changing child welfare climate in the U.S., including content on the Fostering Connections Act of 2008. The authors have updated the text throughout, drawing from real-world case examples and data obtained from the national Child and Family Services Reviews and emerging empirically based practices. They have also added chapters addressing child welfare workforce issues, supervision, and research and evaluation. The volume is divided into four sections—child and adolescent well-being, child and adolescent safety, permanency for children and adolescents, and systemic issues within services, policies, and programs. Recognized scholars, practitioners, and policy makers discuss meaningful engagement with families, particularly Latino families; health care for children and youth, including mental health care; effective practices with LGBT youth and their families; placement stability; foster parent recruitment and retention; and the challenges of working with immigrant children, youth, and families.

In the first chapter of Foster Care: Global Issues, Challenges and Perspectives of the 21st Century, the authors explore modern research regarding children of foster parents around the world, including an overview of literature and the use of an online virtual platform to connect the fostering community. Experts from Canada, the United States, Ireland, Sweden, Australia, and the United Kingdom offered up their knowledge on children of foster parents as well as recommendations for the well-being of said children. Next, a study exploring the implementation of a kinship search program in a child welfare agency is presented in order to determine its benefits. The authors conclude that Kinship Researchers are generally perceived as respectful, helpful, beneficial, and valuable. Additionally, child welfare policy is examined. Later, the essential practice of traditional kinship foster care in Ghana is explored, including current legal provisions, public perception, potential challenges, and future recommendations. The authors also discuss the phenomenon of runaway youth in the foster care system. Due to the fact that children in the foster care system are twice as likely to display runaway indicators than those in the general population, this is a significant issue that warrants understanding. A description of running away in the foster care system is rendered, along with the ramifications that may occur for on-the-run youth. The next chapter deliberates on a study regarding children in out-of-home care in South Korea, comparing the service status of different placement types in terms of developmental outcomes of the children. The results indicate that children in foster care thought of their caregivers and environments more positively than those in institutional care over a period of two years. The following chapter discusses a variety of federal and state laws that address children who were abused and consequently served by the child welfare system. The authors use case studies of foster youth to demonstrate how the law has been used to secure the services, support, and resources needed to place foster youth on a pathway to a more positive future. The final chapter outlines an approach known as, Watch me Play! which encourages supported child-led play in acknowledgement of extensive training needs in the social care workforce. The authors also discuss the potential impact of exploratory and symbolic play to child development, attachment, and communication.

What is the nature of childhood today? On a number of measures, modern children's lives have clearly improved thanks to better public safety and support for their physical and mental health. New technologies help children to learn, socialise and unwind, and older, better-educated parents are increasingly playing an active role in their children's education. At the same time, we are more connected than ever before, and many children have access to tablets and smartphones before they learn to walk and talk. Twenty-first century children are more likely to be only children, increasingly pushed to do more by "helicopter parents" who hover over their children to protect them from potential harm. In addition to limitless online opportunities, the omnipresent nature of the digital world brings new risks, like cyber-bullying, that follow children from the schoolyard into their homes. This report examines modern childhood, looking specifically at the intersection between emotional well-being and new technologies. It explores how parenting and friendships have changed in the digital age. It examines children as digital citizens, and how best to take advantage of online opportunities while minimising the risks. The volume ends with a look at how to foster digital literacy and resilience, highlighting the role of partnerships, policy and protection.

The only parenting book based on a school-tested method As co-founder of Outreach Concern, Inc., one of the largest school-based counseling services in the country, Dr. Rick Capaldi developed a guide to raise kids into confident, independent adults. His "three Rs"—Read your child's environment, Regulate their emotional temperature, and Redirect their behavior—will help parents and teachers steer children toward emotional stability and success. This model has been effectively utilized in counseling over a half-million children and parents in over 900 schools, resulting in the development of cooperative, successful, and highly productive family relationships.