Tribal Customary Adoption Tribal customary adoption is a cultural practice within Indigenous communities that aims to ensure a child is taken care of when there is a parental death or inability to provide care. This practice offers children stability and … Read More
Foster Care
Thriving Families Safer Children Supportive Communities
Today in America, some 377,000 children are living in foster care, each child removed from their home, family and the network of caregivers, educators and other caring adults in their lives. This staggering number is also a measure of how we as a nation are faring in our responsibility to ensure that every child in every community has the opportunity to grow up in their own family connected to the people, places and cultures that will help them thrive. This report shares examples of how communities are actively partnering with families to build the foundation of a better approach, how they are using new tools and approaches to better address the needs of families and children, and how they are investing effectively to ensure thriving families, safer children and supportive communities. Engaging effectively with lived experiences. The growing movement of Thriving Families, Safer Children Broadening our lens from a focus solely on child protection to one of child and family well-being will require more than just improving our current approach to investigating and addressing maltreatment. It will require designing and building a new approach, one that draws on the commitment and talents of people across all five sectors of society: government, business, philanthropic, nonprofit and faithbased, and, critically, the families and children themselves. The voices of those children and families, especially those whose lives have been shaped by their involvement with the child welfare system, have too often been left out of the discussions about how communities can improve, and ultimately transform, their approach to child and family well-being. That is beginning to change. More and more, the voices of young adults who experienced foster care and the parents and families who overcame challenges and obstacles to stay connected to and raise their children are not only being heard in the discussion, they are being valued. They are moving into leadership positions to help other children and families draw on resilience, hope and support to heal and move forward toward a better future. Read More
Aged Out How We’re Failing Youth Transitioning Out of Foster Care
Introduction Think of Us has been focused since its founding on improving the life outcomes of transition-age youth and youth who age out of foster care. In 2019, Think of Us formed a research team to investigate: Why do poor … Read More
Adoption and Guardianship for Children in Kinship Foster Care
Generations United with support from the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, created the following brief, national comparison chart, and state-specific charts that focus on adoption and guardianship for children in kinship foster care so that these children can exit foster … Read More
Child and family outcomes of the Safe Babies Court Team – A scoping review
Abstract Children under the age of three are frequently removed from their home and placed in foster care, resulting in critical impediments to their development and well-being. These placements result in significant short and long-term economic costs. The Safe Babies … Read More
Critical Child Protection Studies. (Special Issue of Social Sciences).
Special Issue Information Until the last few years of the twentieth century, there was very little critical analysis of child protection policies and practices. Child protection was embedded in discussions about what to do about child abuse—it was constituted as … Read More
Update on Efforts to Mitigate Child Labor Exploitation and Internal Audit on Placement Process Used to Transfer Custody of Unaccompanied Children to Vetted Sponsors
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) is legally required to provide for the care of unaccompanied children (defined below), who are referred to ORR until they are appropriately and safely placed with … Read More
Fostering Youth Transitions 2023
State and National Data to Drive Foster Care Advocacy BALTIMORE — Permanent families and supportive adult connections, stable housing and postsecondary education remain beyond reach for too many young people with foster care experience, according to “Fostering Youth Transitions 2023: … Read More
Four Ways That Courts Can Actively Engage Children and Youth Involved in Child Welfare Proceedings
Four Ways That Courts Can Actively Engage Children and Youth Involved in Child Welfare Proceedings, authored by the NCJFJC in partnership with the Quality Improvement Center on Engaging Youth in Permanency, outlines how judges and other court professionals can engage … Read More
2022 National Strategy to Support Family Caregivers
Actions for States, Communities, and Others Introduction & Purpose This document is a component of the 2022 National Strategy to Support Family Caregivers (Strategy), which was developed by the Recognize, Assist, Include, Support, and Engage (RAISE) Act Family Caregiving Advisory … Read More