Beginning in the 1960s, large numbers of Aboriginal children in Canada were removed from their families by provincial child welfare services. Known as the Sixties Scoop, the practice resulted in the destruction of individuals and the devastation of communities. Today, Aboriginal children comprise roughly half of the children in state care in Canada, but since the 1980s, bands and tribal councils have developed unique community-based child welfare services to better protect Aboriginal children. Protecting Aboriginal Children explores contemporary approaches to the well-being of Aboriginal children through interviews with practising social workers employed at Aboriginal child welfare organizations and the state child protection service in British Columbia. It places current practice in a socio-historical context, describes emerging practice in decolonizing communities, and identifies the effects of political and media controversy on social workers. While the dangerous, stressful, and political aspects of the work are not minimized, the creative and original practice developing outside the spotlight of media and government scrutiny are highlighted. communities and to describe child protection practice simultaneously from the point of view of both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal social workers. Those working in child welfare or contemplating a career in child protection will find the book an insightful analysis of current practice thinking and experience. Aboriginal peoples with an interest in health and human services, as well as social work students, child welfare workers and administrators, and health, education, and human service professionals will find it particularly useful.

This timely publication sheds new light on the complex factors that drive parents to smack, shout and criticise their children and offers alternative solutions. It also explores the arguments both for and against smacking and looks at the ongoing debate about introducing a law to ban all corporal punishment. A must read for parents, carers and those working with children.

In 1996, Democratic president Bill Clinton and the Republican-controlled Congress ""ended welfare as we know it"" and trumpeted ""workfare"" as a dramatic break from the past. But, in fact, workfare was not new. Jennifer Mittelstadt locates the roots of the 1996 welfare reform many decades in the past, arguing that women, work, and welfare were intertwined concerns of the liberal welfare state beginning just after World War II. Mittelstadt examines the dramatic reform of Aid to Dependent Children (ADC) from the 1940s through the 1960s, demonstrating that in this often misunderstood period, national policy makers did not overlook issues of poverty, race, and women's role in society. Liberals' public debates and disagreements over welfare, however, caused unintended consequences, she argues, including a shift toward conservatism. Rather than leaving ADC as an income support program for needy mothers, reformers recast it as a social services program aimed at ""rehabilitating"" women from ""dependence"" on welfare to ""independence,"" largely by encouraging them to work. Mittelstadt reconstructs the ideology, implementation, and consequences of rehabilitation, probing beneath its surface to reveal gendered and racialized assumptions about the welfare poor and broader societal concerns about poverty, race, family structure, and women's employment.

Why are there proportionally more African American children in foster care than white children? Why are white children often readily adoptable, while African American children are difficult to place? Are these imbalances an indication of institutional racism or merely a coincidence? In this revised and expanded edition of the classic volume, Child Welfare, twenty-one educators call attention to racial disparities in the child welfare system by demonstrating how practices that are successful for white children are often not similarly successful for African American children. Moreover, contributors insist that policymakers and care providers look at African American family life and child-development from a culturally based Africentric perspective. Such a perspective, the book argues, can serve as a catalyst for creativity and innovation in the formulation of policies and practices aimed at improving the welfare of African American children. Child Welfare Revisited offers new chapters on the role of institutional racism and economics on child welfare; the effects of substance abuse, homelessness, HIV/AIDS, and domestic violence; and the internal strengths and challenges that are typical of African American families. Bringing together timely new developments and information, this book will continue to be essential reading for all child welfare policymakers and practitioners.

About a dozen federally supported child nutrition programs and related activities -- including the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (the WIC program) -- reach over 36 million children and almost 2 million lower-income pregnant and postpartum women. The School Lunch and School Breakfast programs provide cash subsidies to participating schools and residential child care institutions (RCCIs) for all meals they serve; larger subsidies are granted for free and reduced-price meals served to lower-income children. The Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) subsidises meals and snacks served by child care centres and day care homes; in centres, higher subsidies are given for meals/snacks served to lower-income children, while subsidies for homes generally are not varied by children's family income (but are larger for homes in lower-income areas or operated by lower-income providers). Schools, RCCIs, and other public and private non-profit organisations operating programs for children also can receive subsidies for snacks (and, in some cases, meals) served in after-school and other outside-of-school settings. The Summer Food Service Program subsidises food service operations by public and private non-profit sponsors in lower-income areas during the summer; all meals/snacks they serve are subsidised, generally without regard to individual children's family income. The Special Milk Program operates in schools and RCCIs without a lunch program and subsidises all milk they serve. All these subsidies are inflation-indexed and are paid only where the subsidised meals/snacks meet federal nutrition standards. In addition to cash aid, many providers receive food commodities from the Agriculture Department, at a set value per meal (and may receive 'bonus' commodities from stocks acquired for agricultural support purposes). Grants also are made to help cover state administrative expenses. And, the WIC program provides nutrition services and tailored food packages to lower-income pregnant, breastfeeding, and postpartum women, infants, and children who are judged to be at nutritional risk. Other significant federal programs/activities include: a WIC farmers' market nutrition program, support for a Food Service Management Institute, and initiatives to improve meal quality, food service, and safety.

Head Start is a federal program that has provided comprehensive early childhood development services to low-income children since 1996. Services provided to preschool-aged children include child development, educational health, nutritional, social and other activities, intended to prepare low-income children for entering kindergarten. The program is administered by the Administration for Children and Families of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Unlike many other social service programs, federal Head Start funds are provided directly to local grantees, rather than through states. Programs are locally designed, and are administered by a network of about 1,500 public and private nonprofit agencies. outlines the past, present and future of this socially beneficial program. The long-term impact on the children aided, particularly with respect to educational attainment, is addressed and continues to be an area of focus and concern. In addition, the numerous roadblocks that exist with regard to the Head Start program, are assessed and handled accordingly. CONTENTS: Preface; Head Start: Background and Funding (Alice Butler and Melinda Gish); Head Start Issues in the 108th Congress (Alice Butler and Melinda Gish); Head Start: Better Data and Processes Needed to Monitor Underenrollment (Marnie S. Shaul); Bibliography; Index.

Focusing on Alabama's textile industry, this study looks at the complex motivations behind the "whites-only" route taken by the Progressive reform movement in the South. In the early 1900s, northern mill owners seeking cheaper labor and fewer regulations found the South's doors wide open. Children then comprised over 22 percent of the southern textile labor force, compared to 6 percent in New England. Shelley Sallee explains how northern and southern Progressives, who formed a transregional alliance to nudge the South toward minimal child welfare standards, had to mold their strategies around the racial and societal preoccupations of a crucial ally--white middle-class southerners. Southern whites of the "better sort" often regarded white mill workers as something of a race unto themselves--degenerate and just above blacks in station. To enlist white middle-class support, says Sallee, reformers had to address concerns about social chaos fueled by northern interference, the empowerment of "white trash," or the alliance of poor whites and blacks. The answer was to couch reform in terms of white racial uplift--and to persuade the white middle class that to demean white children through factory work was to undermine "whiteness" generally. The lingering effect of this "whites-only" strategy was to reinforce the idea of whiteness as essential to American identity and the politics of reform. Sallee's work is a compelling contribution to, and the only book-length treatment of, the study of child labor reform, racism, and political compromise in the Progressive-era South.

Child Protective Services practice is multifaceted and challenging, requiring professionals to make difficult decisions that profoundly impact children and families. This second edition of Helping in Child Protective Services: A Competency-Based Handbook is a comprehensive desk reference that serves as both a daily guide for workers and a training tool for supervisors and administrators. This invaluable resource provides CPS workers with the knowledge and skills necessary to assist vulnerable families, covering such key issues as assessment, decision making, intervention, child development, medical evaluation, accountability, and the legal framework of culturally responsive practice.

The handbook begins with a diary that describes a typical CPS case from initial report to case closure in order to illustrate the complexity of the CPS system and the situations CPS workers might encounter. The book also covers the history of CPS and the laws governing intervention when children are mistreated. Specifically, this handbook helps CPS professionals and students explore the casework process from intake through case closure with step-by-step instructions and examples; learn about child development, key developmental milestones, and the importance of intervention; understand the medical evaluation of child abuse and neglect through a detailed guide of various forms and indicators of abuse and neglect; learn how to structure interviews and phrase questions to obtain information from families and guide the casework process; and understand the importance of accountable practice to families, their agencies, and the public.

This latest edition of Helping in Child Protective Services compiles the most up-to-date research and practice information to help professionals provide the highest quality and most innovative services to children and families.

Published in association with Indo-Dutch Programme on Alternatives in Development Child labour has become a hot issue. International attention has often been focused on South Asia, and initiatives have been undertaken to use pro-active policies, such as a trade boycott, to pressurise governments in India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh to implement a complete ban on child labour and to realize universal education. A gathering of outstanding international scholars, financed by the Indo-Dutch Programme on Alternatives in Development, has discussed these issues on the basis of empirically grounded research papers. A selection of these papers has been edited for this volume. The volume contains papers on the extent of child labour in South Asia (and the spread across regions and sectors), its correlation with education, some of the worst forms of child labour, and best practices. The papers are a good mix of social anthropology, economics and political science approaches. The expertise of the contributors and their concern for what continues to be a stark reality in South Asia make this book an invaluable source of reference on the issue of child labour, academically rigorous and politically relevant. It will be highly relevant to policy makers, scholars, journalists and practitioners.

In recent years, childhood studies has become an increasingly popular programme at colleges and universities. This broad-ranging guide has been designed for use on such courses and introduces students to the key issues in the study of childhood, from infancy through to adulthood.

The text approaches childhood studies from an interdisciplinary and multi-professional perspective, presenting the basics of psychology, social welfare, education, health, law, culture, rights, politics and economics as they relate to children. For each discipline, the role of relevant professionals, such as social workers, nursery teachers, paediatric nurses and child lawyers, is also considered. The contributors have both practical and academic backgrounds in a range of specialist areas.To support student learning, each chapter includes an independent learning activity, case studies and an annotated bibliography, and there is a glossary of technical terms at the back of the book.

The authors examine the dynamics of urban life and street children's health in the era of globalization and structural adjustments in Tanzania. They discuss the factors that push children out of their homes, how the children survive in streets, the hardships and violence they endure and how this affects their health. They argue that the impact of the legacy of colonial policies and some post-colonial development policies, the negative consequences of uncontrolled process of globalization, the impact of structural adjustments and the HIV/AIDS epidemic are simultaneously intensifying the situation of poverty in Tanzania. These processes are not only destroying families and communities that have for many years acted as safety nets for children in need, but are also manufacturing poor, helpless and powerless children most of whom resort to street life.

"In We Are Not Babysitters, Mary Tuominen dispels not only myths about why women choose to be family child care providers and what it means to them, but also exposes how our social attitudes about care and our public child care policies shortchange these providers, most of whom are working mothers themselves with their own tenuous hold on self-sufficiency. A must read for policy makers, advocates, and practitioners."-Marcy Whitebook, founding executive director, Center for the Child Care Workforce (Washington, D.C.), and director, Center for the Study of Child Care Employment, University of California, Berkeley "This book is a wonderful addition to the literature on care giving. We Are Not Babysitters provides an illuminating analysis of the relation between the larger values of society and the indifference to the needs of both the care receivers and care givers. Tuominen's sophisticated analysis creates a marvelously acute picture of the way family child care in the home is constructed and offered."-Arlene K. Daniels, professor emerita, Department of Sociology and Women's Studies, Northwestern University Using in-depth interviews with child care providers, Mary C. Tuominen explores the social, political, and economic forces and processes that draw women into the work of family child care. In We Are Not Babysitters, the lives and work of twenty family child care providers of diverse race, ethnicity, immigrant status, and social class serve as a window into understanding the changing meanings of community, family, work, and care. Their stories require us to rethink the social and economic value of paid child care providers and their work. Mary C. Tuominen is an associate professor of sociology/anthropology and women's studies at Denison University, Granville, Ohio and the co-editor of Child Care and Inequality.

John Robinson had the worst possible start in life, taken into care at only four months, John was left in abusive foster homes for most of his childhood. Yet today he has found hope and is working in Manchester with the Eden Bus Ministry with children who are as deprived and unloved as he was.

Mission Statement: This book investigates issues surrounding the creation of social policy and support systems for children and families in this emerging democracy. Approaches advocated by progressively oriented Lithuanian educators, mental health and human service professionals toward addressing these conditions are presented by Lithuanian and American educators and mental health practitioners who have been working toward the development of democratically based social institutions.

"Childhood in the Promised Land" is the first history of France's" colonies de vacances," a vast network of summer camps created for working-class children. The" colonies" originated as a late-nineteenth-century charitable institution, providing rural retreats intended to restore the fragile health of poor urban children. Participation grew steadily throughout the first half of the twentieth century, "trickling up" by the late 1940s to embrace middle-class youth as well.

At the heart of the study lie the municipal "colonies de vacances," organized by the working-class cities of the Paris red belt. Located in remote villages or along the more inexpensive stretches of the Atlantic coast, the municipal colonies gathered their young clientele into variously structured "child villages," within which they were to live out particular, ideal visions of the collective life of children throughout the long summer holiday. Focusing on the creation of and participation in these summer camps, Laura Lee Downs presents surprising insights into the location and significance of childhood in French working-class cities and, ultimately, within the development of modern France.

Drawing on a rich array of historical sources, including dossiers and records of municipal colonies discovered in remote town halls of the Paris suburbs, newspaper accounts, and interviews with adults who participated in the" colonies" as children, Downs reveals how diverse groups--including local Socialist and Communist leaders and Catholic seminarians--seized the opportunity to shape the minds and bodies of working-class youth." Childhood in the Promised Land" shows how, in creating the summer camps, these various groups combined pedagogical theories, religious convictions, political ideologies, and theories about the relationship between the countryside and children's physical and cognitive development. At the same time, the book sheds light on classic questions of social control, highlighting the active role of the children in shaping their experiences.

This book on the state of children in India gives a comprehensive overview of the development of Indias young human resource after Independence. It is a departure from earlier publications on child development which have dwelt on specific child development issues indicating the schemes implemented, and the monies spent. The text of this publication brings together different sectors of child development for an integrated view. It takes stock of the promises that were made by the Constitution for the development of children, the policy statements enunciated from time to time, and the five year development plans. The publication gives a quantitative analysis of current outcomes and the unfinished agenda. The book reviews the achievements and failures so that child development concerns and future strategies can be seen in a realistic manner. It is aimed at the general reader interested in child development so that the key concerns are better understood. It will be of great value of policy makers, administrators, non-governmental organizations, academicians, social activists and media personnel for discussion, debate and action, and for assessing funding requirements for child development programmes.

Impoverished young Americans had no greater champion during the Depression than Eleanor Roosevelt. As First Lady, Mrs Roosevelt used her newspaper columns and radio broadcasts to crusade for expanded federal aid to poor children and teenagers. She was the most visible spokesperson for the National Youth Administration, the New Deal's central agency for aiding the needy young, and she was adamant in insisting that federal aid to young people be administered without discrimination so that it reached blacks as well as whites, girls as well as boys. This activism made Mrs Roosevelt a beloved figure among poor teenagers and children, who between 1933 and 1941 wrote her thousands of letters describing their problems and requesting her help. ""Dear Mrs Roosevelt"" presents nearly 200 of these documents to open a window into the lives of the Depression's youngest victims. In their own words, the letter writers confide what it was like to be needy and young during the worst economic crisis in American history. Revealing both the strengths and the limitations of New Deal liberalism, this book depicts an administration concerned and caring enough to elicit such moving appeals for help yet unable to respond in the very personal ways the letter writers hoped.

About one-third of births in the United States occur to unmarried parents. Evidence suggests that children who grow up in families headed by single parents have worse socioeconomic outcomes than those raised by married parents. "Fatherlessness" has become a byword in public debate and policymaking, yet fundamental questions about unmarried parents and their ideas of paternal responsibility remain unanswered.In My Baby's Father, Maureen R. Waller draws on interviews with unmarried parents whose children receive welfare to address several basic, vital questions: How do low-income mothers and fathers define the father's obligation to his children and explain irresponsible behavior among fathers? How do they negotiate private arrangements of paternal acknowledgment and support? And how do these informal practices interact with mandatory welfare and child-support regulations?The majority of research on low-income families focuses on single mothers. Waller's book also gives a voice to the fathers, historically either excluded from academic and policy discussions or simply characterized as "deadbeat dads" with no sense of paternal responsibility. By documenting the experiences of African-American and white parents simultaneously, Waller illustrates the extent to which beliefs and practices are likely to cut across racial lines. She also shifts the focus from teenagers to adults, who constitute the largest group of unmarried parents.My Baby's Father provides honest glimpses into the lives of unmarried parents. In addition, it offers specific recommendations for social policies that are both better suited to unmarried parents' socioeconomic situations and more responsive to the practices of responsible fatherhood in low-income families.

This book encourages creativity in therapy with children who have moved to new families through fostering or adoption. It contains a broad range of activities designed to help these children overcome emotional and behavioural difficulties in a gentle and positive atmosphere. Guidelines are included about how, when, where and at what age to use the activities.

Activities such as 'Family Web', 'Pick up a Privilege', 'The Anger Debugging Kit' and 'I Can Do It (Now)' can be used by therapists or caregivers as part of, or to supplement, many different therapeutic approaches. Although most are appropriate for use where children are in long-term care, or when the plan is that they should not return to their birth family, some will help build resilience in children who will undergo multiple moves. All are suitable for both boys and girls.

Although it stands as a text on its own, the book builds on the information and activities already published in two previous books by Angela Hobday and Kate Ollier, "Creative Therapy: Activities with Children and Adolescents" and "Creative Therapy 2: Working with Parents."

Practical guide and theoretical manifesto, "New Frontiers for Youth Development" is a vital roadmap to the problems and prospects of youth development programs today and in the future.

In response to an unprecedented array of challenges, policy makers and care providers in the field of youth dvevelopment have begun to expand the field both practically and conceptually. This expansion has thus far outstripped comprehensive analysis of the issues it raises, among them the important matter of establishing common standards of legitimacy and competence for practitioners. "New Frontiers for Youth Development" is an overview of the field designed to foster a better understanding of the multifaceted aspects and inherent tensions of youth development.

Melvin Delgado outlines the broad social forces that affect youth, particularly at-risk or marginalized youth, and the programs designed to address their needs. He stresses the importance of a contextualized approach that avoids rigid standardization and is attuned to the many factors that shape a child's development: cognitive, emotional, physical, moral, social, and spiritual. The key characteristic of youth development in the twenty-first century, Delgado suggests, is the participation of young people as practitioners themselves. Youth must be seen as assets as well as clients, incorporated into the educational process in ways that build character, maturity, and self-confidence.

In an era when headlines often seem dominated by horrific stories about abused children, "Solomon's Sword" weaves together the elements of two painful custody battles into a memorable book that no reader who cares about children will be able to put aside. In examining collisions between children, parents, and the law, Shapiro meets judges, lawyers, social workers, clergy, and therapists who must advocate a course of action in thousands of cases each year across America. Reading about these dedicated people, professionals in the vanguard of new approaches to the problem of mistreated children, will leave readers hopeful that we are finally learning how to ameliorate this enduring national disgrace. "Solomon's Sword" sheds new light on a dire social problem in a powerful book that will influence public policy for years to come.

Written for those who work with parents, adolescents, and children in various family contexts, this book describes the practical process of assessment and intervention which can lead to empowering individual families and improving their quality of life.

Illustrative case material is used throughout the book to highlight the step-by-step assessment process, and to link theory and practice with evaluation. Flow charts and checklists are also included to assist practitioners in assessing client situations and in monitoring interventions and outcomes.

In addition, the third revised edition:
Expands the material on underlying theoretical approaches to understanding behavior.
Gives attention to the problems which arise from intervening in personal relationships and interactions within families.
Includes new chapters addressing how children and families can go beyond solving their immediate problem and find renewed interest in social and community networks.
Stresses the importance of evaluating all practices and programs as service environments change and demands for accountability increase.

As kinship relationships and support networks across family lines weaken with modernization, economic stressors take a great toll on children. Kenya, like some other nations in Africa and around the globe, has witnessed a rapid rise in street children. The street children in Nairobi come from single parent families which are mostly headed by women. Another group are AIDS orphans. This study documents how street children in Nairobi follow survival strategies including (for boys) collecting garbage, and (for girls), prostitution. Gender is emphasized throughout the book. Although impoverished families are the most likely to produce street children, not all poor families have their children on the streets. The problem of street children is a complex one that calls for a comprehensive and coordinated policy and program for intervention at all levels and in all sectors of society. Alleviating poverty and rebuilding the family institution should be among the first steps in addressing the problem.