Child Well-Being

Offering Walk-in Counselling as a Low-Barrier and Accessible Service for Youth

A Struggle to Access Youth‑Centred, Timely and Integrated Care Across Canada, youth are experiencing the highest rates of mental illness of any age group. The COVID-19 pandemic, drug toxicity crisis, climate change and rise in anti-2SLGBTQIA+ hate are just a … Read More

The 2023 Federal Human Trafficking Report

INTRODUCTION The methods used by traffickers to recruit, coerce, and exploit victims of trafficking are ever-changing. For this reason, we turn to data to help us better understand how traffickers operate and to create informed and targeted solutions to protect … Read More

Sexual Cyberbullying Research Summary

Purpose Sexual cyberbullying is any sexually aggressive or coercive behavior facilitated by electronic media. Professionals who support youth experiencing the child welfare and/or juvenile justice system, homelessness, and/or disconnection from school and work (i.e., opportunity youth) identified a need for … Read More

State Child Welfare Data Linkages Descriptive Study Technical Report: Study Background and Design

Introduction The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA), first authorized in 1974 and reauthorized regularly since then, requires the examination of a wide range of topics related to the incidence of child abuse and neglect with the aim of … Read More

Babies in Care Proceedings: What Do We Know About Parents with Learning Disabilities or Difficulties?

This mixed method study, completed by the Institute of Public Care at Oxford Brookes University in September 2023, explored three important questions about parents with learning disabilities and learning difficulties in relation to care proceedings involving their babies. The study … Read More

State-level Data for Understanding Child Welfare in the United States

This comprehensive child welfare resource provides state and national data on child maltreatment, foster care, kinship caregiving, permanency, and older youth in care. The data are essential to help policymakers understand how many children and youth come in contact with … Read More

The Current State of Youth Homelessness Approaches: Insights and Observations

Introduction As of 2018, researchers have estimated that over 700,000 adolescent minors, or 1 in 30 of the population of 13- to 17-year-olds, have experienced homelessness. These numbers are even more alarming when looking at young adults ages 18-25, of … Read More

Safety by Design for Generative AI: Preventing Child Sexual Abuse

Issue Overview Offline and online sexual harms against children have been accelerated by the internet. The child safety ecosystem is already overtaxed. In 2022 reports to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) contained over 88 million files … Read More

Incorporating Lived Experience Into Child Welfare Capacity Building

Purpose and Scope The purpose of this brief is to inform child welfare professionals about the work being done by the Child Welfare Capacity Building Collaborative (The Collaborative), which includes the Center for Courts, Center for States, and the Center … Read More

Partnering for Success Symptom Monitoring Outcomes: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Plus for Children and Youth in Child Welfare

A substantial proportion of children and youth in the child welfare system have mental health concerns that warrant attention. While these youth are more likely to receive treatment in general, they are less likely to receive evidence-based treatments. Cognitive Behavioral … Read More