Parents

There’s a Place: How Parents Help Their Children Create a Capacity for Playfulness and can it be Sustained across the Lifespan

This article traces the ways that playfulness shifts and grows with the child and with the parent-child dyad. It also speaks to the paradoxical manner in which feeling essential as a parent is both necessary at the beginning of the … Read More

The Critical Role of Parent Partner Programs: Policy and Practice Considerations

INTRODUCTION Maintaining a secure relationship with a trusted caregiver is critical for the health and well-being of infants and toddlers. When very young children are placed in out-of-home care, including foster and kinship care, problems can be compounded if the … Read More

Reunification From Foster Care: A Guide for Parents

For many parents, the process of reuniting with their children who are in foster care can be overwhelming. A recently updated factsheet from Child Welfare Information Gateway provides parents with guidance for the reunification process. Reunification From Foster Care: A Guide … Read More

Friends

Voices of Parent Leaders

Sharing the Journey Sharing the Journey: Voices of Parent Leaders was created by the parent leaders of the FRIENDS National Center Parent Advisory Council (PAC) who work in their communities and nationally to help family support and child abuse prevention practitioners and … Read More

Improving Services for Expectant and Parenting Youth in Care

Entering and navigating the child welfare system can be stressful and confusing for young people separated from their families. It can be even more challenging for young people who are parents, are pregnant, or are expecting. Expectant and parenting youth … Read More

7 Ways to Introduce Executive Functions to Kids & Teens

Executive functioning skills are the building blocks to success. These are the skills that help us plan, organize, prioritize, start tasks, manage our time, and work through challenges. Without a doubt, these are skills we all use every day, and … Read More

Leadership Self-Assessment

CWLA partner NCWWI has developed an online leadership self-assessment to help child welfare workers discover their strengths & areas for growth. Topics include: leadership fundamentals, leading change, leading in context, leading for results, and leading people. NCWWI LEADERSHIP TOOLKIT TAKE … Read More

Parent Leaders and Their Impact on Children and Families

By Amanda Klessig, CWLA Practice Excellence Intern Upon first hearing the term “parent leader” I was puzzled regarding its actual meaning. Who is a parent leader, and what are the qualifications to become one? What do these individuals do? Are … 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

Highlights from a special issue of Family Court Review

Vivek Sankaran and Christopher Church turn the current “master narrative” about securing “permanency” for children on its head.  That false narrative, pushed hardest by those who hate birth parents (and yes, that’s the right word) claims that only adoption guarantees a … Read More