The figure of the lost child has haunted the Australian imagination. Peter Pierce's original and sometimes shocking study The Country of Lost Children traces this ambivalent and disturbing history. Drawing on a wide range of sources, from poetry, fiction and newspaper reports to paintings and films, The Country of Lost Children analyzes the cultural and moral implications of the lost child in Australian history and illuminates a crucial aspect of our present condition. At its core are confronting, often troubling, questions about childhood itself.

The Kindness of Strangers tells the story of a group of concerned adults who mentor inner-city youth. It describes what volunteers can do to ameliorate the conditions of young people living in poverty. It chronicles the rise of the mentoring movement and examines its wider implications for education and social policy. Based on interviews with over 300 mentors, young people, scholars, and youth workers, The Kindness of Strangers takes a hard look at mentoring and asks some critical questions: How much can mentoring really accomplish? What does it take to be a successful mentor? What makes the difference between an effective program and one fraught with difficulties? Marc Freedman brings experience, research, and realism to these questions in an effort to present the truth about the mentoring movement sweeping America today. This revised edition contains a new introduction that highlights research that has been conducted since the original publication of the book in 1993. Marc Freedman is President of Civic Ventures, a research and development organization based in Berkeley, California. He has studied education and social policy for more than a decade and prior to starting Civic Ventures he was director of special projects for Public/Private Ventures, an organization focused on helping young people in poverty.

Get up-to-date information on children's and parent's rights Children have a basic human right to be free of abuse and maltreatment. The late Dr. John Pardeck's Children's Rights: Policy and Practice, Second Edition comprehensively explores the latest legal, psychological, sociological, policy, and child advocacy issues dealing with children's rights. Essential issues are clearly discussed involving children at home, in school, in foster care, and in residential facilities. This new edition of The Haworth Social Work Practice Press classic examines the practical and ethical issues inherent in balancing a child's right to self-determination against the same child's need to be protected. Children's Rights: Policy and Practice, Second Edition delves deep into the causes of abuse and neglect and offers help for families at risk. Techniques are presented for case and cause advocacy, as well as venues for family and individual therapy. Other discussions address the role and function of child protective services and the juvenile justice system, a review of effective social policy to protect and care for children, family health and children's rights issues, and children's rights in schools and day care facilities. This essential exploration includes extensive references and notes, a list of Web sites, and a comprehensive glossary of influential legal rulings focusing on children's rights. Children's Rights: Policy and Practice, Second Edition includes over 100 pages of new and updated material on: new rulings of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) that have implications for children's rights legal case studies an overview and analysis of the Leave No Child Behind Act children's rights and school violence an expanded discussion on practice interventions focusing on various approaches for helping children adjust to substitute care an expanded examination on advocacy and children's rights, with emphasis on legal case studies as a tool for enhancing the rights of children Balancing theoretical considerations, solid information, and practical advice, Children's Rights: Policy and Practice, Second Edition is an essential resource for child welfare workers, attorneys, educators, students, parents, and social workers.

This book, now in a revised edition, is a political history of child care in Australia from the 1890s to the 1990s. Once provided by philanthropic groups and available only to those deemed underprivileged, child care has now become part of the mainstream political agenda. Deborah Brennan provides an in-depth analysis of policy developments in this significant area since the Commonwealth became involved in 1972. The revised edition provides a detailed analysis of the shifts in policy under Labor as well as an up-to-date account of developments under the Howard government since 1996.

Protecting Children in Time provides a highly original analysis of the origins and development of the taken-for-granted notion that it is possible through social intervention to protect children from avoidable harm and even death, to protect children in time . By using case-studies which span the past 120 years of 'modern' practices and drawing on the work of leading social theorists of modernity and risk society it provides a new way of thinking about constructions of child abuse as a social problem and child protection as a late-modern expert system and experience. It proposes new ways of conceptualizing relationships between professionals, children at risk and families and deepens our understanding of what effective interventions have to involve.

The poverty rate for children in the United States exceeds that of all other Western, industrialised nations except Australia. Moreover, poverty among children has increased substantially since 1970, affecting more than one-fifth of US children. These persistent high rates require new ideas in both research and public policy. Escape from Poverty presents such ideas. Four modes of possible change are addressed: mothers' employment, child care, father involvement, and access to health care. It examines the implications of these new policy-driven changes for children. The editors have developed an interdisciplinary perspective, involving demographers, developmental psychologists, economists, health experts, historians, and sociologists - a framework essential for addressing the complexities inherent in the links between the lives of poor adults and children in our society.

Child welfare, both as an academic subject and an important area of government policy and professional practice, has become increasingly specialised and compartmentalised. It is therefore difficult for students, teachers and professionals to keep abreast of the wide range of policy developments and to appreciate their impact on the welfare of children. issues, policies and practices affecting child welfare, with particular emphasis on the changing nature of the relationship between child welfare and social policy. No other book brings together such a wide selection of material to form an attractive and indispensable teaching and learning resource. of child welfare in England and Wales; high quality contributions from leading authorities in the field; discursive introductions to each section that set individual chapters in the broader context of childhood studies; case study material to bring discussions to life. law, medicine, social work, social theory and child welfare; children's rights and democratic citizenship; children as raw material for 'social investment'. academics in social policy, sociology, education and social work. It is also a useful resource for health and social work professionals wishing to follow current debates in theory and practice.

How can we end the inter-generational cycle of poverty and dysfunction in the US's urban ghettos? This ground-breaking and controversial book is the first to provide a child-centered perspective on the subject by combining a wealth of social science information with sophisticated normative analysis to support novel reforms-to child protection law and practice, family law, and zoning- that would quickly end that cycle. The rub is that the reforms needed would entail further suffering and loss of liberty for adults in these communities, and liberal advocacy organizations and academics are so adult-centered in their sympathies and thinking that they reflexively oppose any such measures. Liberals have instead promoted one ineffectual parent-focused program after another, in an ideologically-driven quest for the magic pill that can save both adults and children in these communities at the same time. This `insider critique' of liberal child welfare policy reveals a dilemma that liberals have yet to face squarely: there is an ineradicable conflict of interests between many young children and their parents, especially in areas of concentrated poverty, and one must choose sides. It is a must read for legal academics, political scientists, urban policy experts, as well as professionals working in social work, law, education, urban planning, legislative offices, and administrative agencies.

Life Story Therapy is an approach designed to enable children to explore, question and understand the past events of their lives. It aims to secure their future through strengthening attachment with their carers and providing the opportunity to develop a healthy sense of self and a feeling of wellbeing. This comprehensive overview lays out the theory underlying life story therapy, including an accessible explanation of contemporary research in neurobiology and trauma. Featuring tried and tested ideas, with tools and templates illustrated through instructive case studies, the author identifies how life story therapy can be implemented in practice. Finally, the relationships between life story therapy and traditional 'talking' therapies are explored. Life Story Therapy with Traumatized Children is essential reading for those working with children and adolescents, including social workers, teachers, child psychotherapists, residential care staff, long-term carers, psychologists and other professionals.

Important reforms are taking place in children's services in the UK, with a move towards greater integration. In England, Scotland and Sweden, early childhood education and care, childcare for older children, and schools are now the responsibility of education departments. This book is the first to examine, cross-nationally, this major shift in policy. work best, which welfare states are most effective and the future role of schools; examines why and how the three countries have integrated departmental responsibility for these major children's services and explores the very different consequences; through cross-national comparison, it offers new perspectives on the integration of children's services and the different ways in which it can be taken forward; addresses changing understandings of the child and childhood in each country; provides an invaluable understanding of current and possible future changes, including choices to be made about policy, provision and the workforce. implemented, this book is essential reading for practitioners, managers, politicians, trainers and researchers in children's services, including schools, early years, school-age childcare, leisure and recreation, child welfare and health.

This important text analyzes the relationship between child development research and the design and implementation of social policy concerning children and families. The editors have compiled contributions from leading experts in the fields of developmental psychology, psychiatry, public health, business, political science, and education. By so doing, they present a multidisciplinary account of the controversies and challenges that have emerged in the field of child development and social policy, and an analysis of recent changes in our national ethos toward children and families.

According to the United Nations' latest data, the United States has more children living in poverty than any other industrialized nation in the world. More than a fifth of all children grow up in poverty. The poverty rates for African-American and Latino children often exceeds 40 percent. Furthermore, the United States--a country that once pioneered strategies to prevent child abuse and that now spends more money fighting child abuse than any other industrialized country--also has the highest rate of child abuse in the industrialized world.

Against this background, Duncan Lindsey, a leading authority on child welfare, takes a critical look at the current welfare system. He traces the transformation of child welfare into child protective services, arguing that the current focus on abuse has produced a system that is designed to protect children from physical and sexual abuse and therefore functions as a last resort for only the worst and most dramatic cases in child welfare. In a close analysis of the process of investigating child abuse, Linsey finds that there is no evidence that the transformation into protective services has reduced child abuse fatalities or provided a safter environment for children. He makes a compelling argument for the criminal justice system to assume responsibility for the problem of child abuse in order for the child welfare system to be able to adequately address the well-being of a much larger number of children now growing up in poverty.

This new edition of The Welfare of Children takes into account a major legislative change since the publication of the first edition: the welfare reform legislation of 1996. This legislation has fundamentally altered the public child welfare system as broadly understood, and Lindsey thoroughly examines its implications on policy and practice, refuting the claim that welfare reform has actually reduced child poverty. The Welfare of Children, 2nd Edition is a compassionate blueprint for the comprehensive reform of the current child welfare system to one that administers to the economic security of the larger number of disadvantaged and impoverished children. Concrete policy proposals such as a Child's Future Security account, similar to the Social Security program for older citizens, will spark serious debate on a major public policy issue facing our society.

The poverty rate for children in the United States exceeds that of all other Western, industrialized nations except Australia. Moreover, poverty among children has increased substantially since 1970, affecting more than one-fifth of U.S. children. These persistent high rates require new ideas in both research and public policy. This volume presents such ideas. Four arenas of possible change are addressed: mothers' employment, child care, fathers' involvement, and access to health care. These four types of change have each been brought under the umbrella of the Family Support Act of 1988, after several years of debate over welfare reform. The goal of this landmark legislation is to enable poor families to escape poverty by requiring education, employment training opportunities for mothers, and improving child support by noncustodial fathers. Escape from Poverty is designed to examine the implications of these new policy-driven changes for children. The editors have developed an interdisciplinary perspective, involving demographers, developmental psychologists, economists, health experts, historians, and sociologists - a framework essential for addressing the complexities inherent in the links between the lives of poor adults and children in our society. This book will appeal to both researchers and policy makers.

The results of this report from a major international research project, funded by UNICEF, on child rights and child poverty in the developing world are shocking. They show that over one billion children - more than half the children in developing countries - suffer from severe deprivation of basic human need and over a third (674 million) suffer from absolute poverty. The study's findings indicate that considerably more emphasis needs to be placed on improving basic infrastructure and social services for families with children, particularly with regards to shelter, sanitation and safe drinking water in rural areas. Anti-poverty strategies need to respond to local conditions, as blanket solutions to eradicating child poverty will be unsuccessful. (REPORT)

This new book traces the transformation of day care from a charity for poor single mothers in the early twentieth century to a socially accepted need of ordinary families by the 1950s. Using Philadelphia as a case study, Elizabeth Rose explores the history of day care from the perspective of the families who used it as well as the philanthropists and social workers who administered it. This study helps us understand the roots of our current dilemmas about day care in the context of debates on welfare, women's work, and "family values."

When a family member or close friend dies, it can be difficult to know how best to help the children and teenagers involved. Someone Very Important Has Just Died is a practical book written for those caring for children and teenagers suffering a close bereavement. Intended for use immediately or soon after the death has occurred, this book gives practical and detailed guidance on what adults might say and do to help children.;This much-needed resource tackles the sensitive issues of what to tell children, how far to include them in the events immediately after the death, and how to tend to their physical and emotional needs. The material is suitable for anyone regardless of their background and beliefs, and is supplemented with information on where to go to obtain longer term bereavement support.;Someone Very Important Has Just Died is an ideal resource for professionals in all areas of work relating to bereavement. It is designed to be given to adults with children in their care at the time of a death.

Children and child welfare sit at the heart of New Labour's plans for social inclusion but how does the government view children is it reflecting public opinion, or leading it? How does New Labour perceive child welfare? What are the motivations behind, and objectives of, current social policy for children? Are the Rights of the Child being subsumed under duties and responsibilities? This revisionist account provides critical answers to these questions within a historical framework and from a child-centred perspective. the ideological thrust behind them, but also provides an informed historical perspective on the evolution of child welfare during the last century. social policy for children; examines contemporary policies within a historical context; uses the concept of ageism as an explanatory device; and relates concepts of childhood to policy formation and implementation. students, academics, social workers, and policy makers.

What does it mean to be a child or an adolescent growing up on the streets or in a state institution? How do children define their everyday lives in the midst of global processes? This ethnographic study situates childhood and adolescence as social forms within the changing family and political structures of the complex urban world of Caracas, Venezuela. The presence of youngsters on the streets of Caracas embodies social contradictions at the national level, and this book discusses how these contradictions are played out in an oil-producing nation afflicted with hyperinflation, generalized corruption, the deterioration of public services, increasing poverty, and violence. Vivid life stories told by street children themselves portray their relations with family and friends, as well as with people they encounter: police officers, journalists, social workers, and passersby at their local hangouts. The book also describes and analyzes the justice system and institutions for minors, illustrating the constant failures to respond to, contain, or lessen youth violence. Many young people come from shantytowns to the streets of Caracas for a better life, and the author shows how they seek status and power through style, pursuing commodities of the global consumer market, from Nike shoes to cellular phones. Drawing on her ethnographic data and contemporary theories of power, control, and style, the author critiques the inequalities of the Venezuelan class structure and the oil boom's failure to provide adequate social services for a great majority of the population.

The numbers of children living in poverty in the United States increased dramatically during the 1980s and remains high. Why are so many children growing up in poor families? What are the effects of poverty on children's physical, cognitive, social and emotional development? What role can public policy and policy research play in preventing or alleviating the damaging effects of poverty on children? This book examines these questions, focusing on the child, rather than on parents income or self-sufficiency. The contributors come from diverse fields - economics, sociology, public health, psychology, child development, and education affording depth and wide coverage of the topic, and displaying an even mix of research and applications. This book should appeal to policy makers, advocates and scholars; although the contributors use a data-driven approach, the text is accessible to a range of people interested in policy issues.

What part should children take in decisions about their lives? Does their need to be involved in decisions conflict with adult responsibility for their welfare? In its search for answers to these questions, Children, family and the state examines different theories of childhood, children's rights and the relationship between children, parents and the state. Focusing on children who are looked after by the state, it reviews the changing objectives of the care system and the extent to which children have been involved in decisions about their care.

Childhood poverty has moved from the periphery to the centre of the policy agenda following New Labour's pledge to end it within twenty years. However, whether the needs and concerns of poor children themselves are being addressed is open to question. The findings raise critical issues for both policy and practice - in particular the finding that children are at great risk of experiencing exclusion within school. School has been a major target in the drive towards reducing child poverty. However, the policy focus has been mainly about literacy standards and exclusion from school. This book shows that poor children are suffering from insufficient access to the economic and material resources necessary for adequate social participation and academic parity. Childhood poverty and social exclusion will be an invaluable teaching aid across a range of academic courses, including social policy, sociology, social work and childhood studies. All those who are interested in developing a more inclusive social and policy framework for understanding childhood issues from a child-centred perspective, including child welfare practitioners and policy makers, will want to read this book. Studies in poverty, inequality and social exclusion series Series Editor: David Gordon, Director, Townsend Centre for International Poverty Research. Poverty, inequality and social exclusion remain the most fundamental problems that humanity faces in the 21st century. This exciting series, published in association with the Townsend Centre for International Poverty Research at the University of Bristol, aims to make cutting-edge poverty related research more widely available. For other titles in this series, please follow the series link from the main catalogue page.

The turn of the 1990s saw a number of high profile public inquiries into the handling of child sexual abuse cases in Great Britain. Governing Child Sexual Abuse examines the implications of these inquiries on the regulation of relationships between families and the state. In so doing, Samantha Ashenden brings a number of contemporary debates in social and political theory to bear upon the governance of child sexual abuse. In particular, drawing on the work of Foucault and Habermas, she looks at:

*how to analyze the boundary between public and private spheres
*the legal and scientific determination of legitimate intervention
*the relationship between democracy and expertise in the governance of social life.

This book will be of particular interest to scholars and students of social and political theory, political sociology, the sociology of law, and social policy.

An updated edition of The Shed That Fed A Million Children first published in 2015. The original book tells the incredible story of how Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, a quiet, unassuming fish farmer from Argyll, Scotland, became the international CEO of a global school-feeding charity. At that time, Mary's Meals was feeding a million children every school day in some of the poorest countries of the world. Fast forward six years and that figure has now doubled to more than 2 million children who now receive Mary's Meals daily in their place of education. In this edition, which features an additional chapter as well as a new preface and epilogue, Magnus brings the story right up-to-date, recounting how the continued growth of the international movement has been made possible, thanks to a global legion of staff, volunteers and supporters. Their unwavering commitment, dedication and continued 'little acts of love' have created an organisation that now holds the key to eradicating child hunger altogether. This humble, heart-warming yet powerful story has never been more relevant in our society of plenty and privilege. It will open your eyes to the extraordinary impact that Mary's Meals makes in the lives of the children it serves - for them, food changes the story. Speaking Volumes Christian Book of the Year 2016. Previously published as The Shed That Fed a Million Children.

DARE To Be You (DTBY) is a program that has both a conceptual foundation and is demonstrably effective in building assets linked to a decrease in problem behaviors. Its success is based on working not only with the individual child, but also with multiple systems that affect the child. These systems include family, peers, school and the broader community. The DTBY curricula is age-appropriate and adapted to account for changing developmental needs. While this volume focuses on the DTBY program for families with 2 to 5 year old children, references are made to the programs for school aged children and teens. This program has proven effective in diverse settings including a Native American community; an urban setting of mixed cultures; a traditional Hispanic and Anglo rural community; and a poor, isolated agricultural region.

Currently enrolling approximately 900,000 poor children each year, Head Start has served 25 million children and their families since it was established 44 years ago. Presidents and policymakers have embraced and scorned it. At times scientists have misguided it and the media has misunderstood it. Despite its longevity and renown, much of Head Start's story has never been disclosed to the general public.
The Hidden History of Head Start is a detailed account of this remarkable program. Surveying projects that were forerunners of Head Start, its birth during the Johnson administration, its fate during the presidency of George W. Bush, and the many years between--as well as what the future may hold in store for Head Start--Edward Zigler and Sally Styfco offer an inside view of the program's decades of service, detailing the ever-changing waves of politics, ideology, science, media interest, and public mood that oftentimes threatened the program's very existence. Providing a balanced assessment of Head Start's effectiveness, which has been a matter of debate since its inception, the authors also strive to answer questions that continue to pervade discussions about the program and its future. For example, why is Head Start, a leader of early childhood services, still struggling to prove itself? Why does it serve such a narrow segment of the population? And how can Head Start continue its mission as universal preschool becomes a reality? The Hidden History of Head Start will be of great importance to those who shape Head Start's future, and to those who wish to develop, research, and implement new early childhood programs. Students, historians, and scholars in the fields of early intervention and developmental science, as well as policymakers, will find here an invaluable resource as well as a fascinating chronicle of one of the foremost social programs in US history.