Independence or Interdependence: Rethinking the Transition from “Ward of the Court” to Adulthood

2003 ◽  
Vol 84 (2) ◽  
pp. 259-266 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Propp ◽  
Debora M. Ortega ◽  
Forest NewHeart
Keyword(s):  
Foster Care ◽  
Child Welfare ◽  
Child Welfare System ◽  
Welfare System ◽  
The State ◽  
Foster Care System ◽  
Self Sufficiency ◽  
Empowerment Model ◽  
Model Of Practice ◽  
Care System

Youth who transition out of foster care are often overlooked and unprepared for a life outside of the child welfare system. As youth begin to grow up in the foster care system, they are encouraged to move toward the goal of self-sufficiency. This article examines the idea of self-sufficiency as it relates to youth transitioning from the foster care system and proposes a different approach to the state of transition, an approach called interdependent living. Through this examination, the authors suggest a way to reshape practice approaches by emphasizing the values of interdependence, connection, and collaboration. Together these values lead to an empowerment model of practice for youth who transition from foster care.

Race, Gender, and Poverty Governance: The Case of the U.S. Child Welfare System

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kerry C Woodward
Keyword(s):  
Child Welfare ◽  
Child Welfare System ◽  
Welfare System ◽  
The State ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
Self Sufficiency ◽  
Child Welfare Workforce ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The U.S

Abstract This article argues that the U.S. child welfare system is a primary institution of racialized and gendered poverty governance, operating at the nexus of the assistive and punitive arms of the state. With attention to the ways race and gender structure the child welfare system, I apply the concept of neoliberal paternalism to examine state efforts to reform “bad” parents into “good neoliberal citizen-parents.” I highlight the increasingly decentralized and privatized child welfare workforce and its effects on governance. Finally, I explore the contradictions around expectations of “self-sufficiency.”

scholarly journals Four essays on the child welfare system

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Hyslop ◽  
Emily Keddell ◽  
David Hanna ◽  
Claire Achmad
Keyword(s):  
Child Welfare ◽  
Child Welfare System ◽  
Welfare System ◽  
The State ◽  
Family Court ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
Policy Practice ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Legislative Changes

The year 2019 represented a watershed moment for Aotearoa New Zealand’s child welfare system, as a public spotlight was shone on systemic ethnic inequities during ongoing legislative changes aimed at centering Te Tiriti o Waitangi and whänau, hapü, and iwi considerations in policy and practice. In the midst of this dialogue, Victoria University of Wellington’s School of Government hosted the “Children, Families, and the State”– a seminar series focused on the historical, current, and future role of the state in the lives of families and children. The seminars, and the discussion it generated, was due to the calls to action from speakers across the system, including leadership at Oranga Tamariki, within the family court, non-profit providers, commissioners and advocates, and academics. The following essays in this edition of Policy Quarterly capture viewpoints from several of the seminar speakers. Despite their different perspectives, common threads unite them. A greater recognition of the structural causes of the historical and current patterns of ethnic inequities in child welfare system contact, a commitment to whänau, hapü, and iwi-centred policy, practice, and partnership, the authors argue, are vital for a more just and empowering system.

Rose's Thorn

2021 ◽  
pp. 316-329
Author(s):  
Regina Gavin Williams
Keyword(s):  
Foster Care ◽  
Support Networks ◽  
Aging Out ◽  
Public High School ◽  
Foster Care System ◽  
Post Secondary ◽  
Self Sufficiency ◽  
Daunting Task ◽  
Care System

This case study examines the life of Rose, a 17-year-old junior attending a public high school in a southeastern city. In the state where Rose resides, the year of “aging-out” of the foster care system is 18-years-old. With the age of 18 being such a pivotal year, Rose must not only think about her potential post-secondary options, but her ability to achieve adult self-sufficiency at such a young age as well. With no supports, this proves to be a daunting task for Rose. It becomes Rose's thorn. This chapter will explore the career and college readiness self-efficacy of Rose as she navigates her post-secondary options, builds her support networks, and discovers resources for adolescents aging out of the foster care system via her work with Dr. Williams, creator and counselor of the Students That Are Reaching Success (S.T.A.R.S.) program. Results from Rose's participation in the program will be shared and implications for counselors working with adolescents aging out of the foster care system will be reviewed.

scholarly journals Realising treaty-based protection in Aotearoa’s child welfare system

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire Achmad
Keyword(s):  
Child Welfare ◽  
Child Welfare System ◽  
Welfare System ◽  
The State ◽  
Family Court ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
United Nation Convention ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
Rights Of The Child ◽  
Role Of The State

The year 2019 represented a watershed moment for Aotearoa New Zealand’s child welfare system, as a public spotlight was shone on systemic ethnic inequities during ongoing legislative changes aimed at centering Te Tiriti o Waitangi and whänau, hapü, and iwi considerations in policy and practice. In the midst of this dialogue, Victoria University of Wellington’s School of Government hosted the “Children, Families, and the State”– a seminar series focused on the historical, current, and future role of the state in the lives of families and children. The seminars, and the discussion it generated, was due to the calls to action from speakers across the system, including leadership at Oranga Tamariki, within the family court, non-profit providers, commissioners and advocates, and academics. The four brief essays in this edition of Policy Quarterly capture viewpoints from several of the seminar speakers. Despite their different perspectives, common threads unite them. A greater recognition of the structural causes of the historical and current patterns of ethnic inequities in child welfare system contact, a commitment to whänau, hapü, and iwi-centred policy, practice, and partnership, the authors argue, are vital for a more just and empowering system. In this essay, Claire Achmad discusses how Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the United Nation Convention on the Rights of the Child can be frameworks for policy change aimed at making the child welfare system both child-centred while reducing ethnic inequities.

Pathologizing Latinas

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Isabella C. Restrepo
Keyword(s):  
Foster Care ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Oppositional Defiant Disorder ◽  
Welfare System ◽  
Foster Care System ◽  
Girls Of Color ◽  
Ethnographic Interviews ◽  
Oppositional Defiant ◽  
Mothers Of Color ◽  
Care System

Scholars of the welfare system have explored the racialized criminalization of mothers of color who are punished by the foster care system, through control of their children, when they are unable to meet the ideals of middle-class motherhood but have yet to fully articulate a language to understand the ways in which this criminalization and punishment extends to youth once they are placed in the foster care system. Using ethnographic interviews with agents of the care system, I explore the ways in which the system pathologizes Latinas’ quotidian acts of resistance and survival like their use of silences through the behavioral diagnosis of Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD). I argue that California’s foster care system is an arm of the transcarceral continuum, marking girls of color and their strategies of resistance as pathological, thereby criminalizing them through the diagnosis of behavioral disorders.

Becoming Wards of the State: Race, Crime, and Childhood in the Struggle for Foster Care Integration, 1920s to 1960s

2020 ◽  
Vol 85 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michaela Christy Simmons
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
Foster Care ◽  
Social Welfare ◽  
York City ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
The State ◽  
Foster Care System ◽  
American Children ◽  
Care System

Using archival materials from the Domestic Relations Court of New York City, this article traces the conflict between private institutions and the state over responsibility for neglected African American children in the early twentieth century. After a long history of exclusion by private child welfare, the court assumed public responsibility for the protection of children of all races. Yet, in an arrangement of delegated governance, judges found themselves unable to place non-white children because of the enduring exclusionary policies of private agencies. When the situation became critical, the City sought to wrest control from private agencies by developing a supplemental public foster care system. This compromise over responsibility racialized the developing public foster care system of New York City, and it transformed frameworks of child protection as a social problem. The findings highlight the political salience surrounding issues of racial access in the delegated welfare state. Tracing how the conflict over access unfolded in New York City child protection provides an empirical case for understanding how the delegation of social welfare to private agencies can actually weaken racial integration efforts, generate distinct modes of social welfare inclusion, and racialize perceptions of social problems.

Trauma and Children

2020 ◽  
pp. 168-187
Author(s):  
David R. Grove ◽  
Gilbert J. Greene ◽  
Mo Yee Lee
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Foster Care ◽  
Child Welfare ◽  
Child Welfare System ◽  
Welfare System ◽  
Trauma Survivors ◽  
Duration Of Stay ◽  
Case Examples ◽  
Family Approach ◽  
Biological Family

Trauma and children placed in foster care is examined. Statistics related to foster care placement, duration of stay, and number of disrupted placements are offered. How these factors exacerbate the problems of trauma survivors in the child welfare system is explored. A family to family approach is described. Several case examples are offered covering numerous treatment issues including how to stabilize at-risk foster placements, how to recruit and include biological family of children placed in foster care, and how to enlist therapeutic help from biological family members when their child is placed in foster care.

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