NCJ Number
140473
Journal
Child Welfare Volume: 72 Issue: 1 Dated: (January-February 1993) Pages: 25-40
Date Published
1993
Length
16 pages
Annotation
A program designed to promote family reunification was evaluated with respect to its outcomes and the implications for policy and practice.
Abstract
The program operated through Casey Family Services, a private child welfare agency providing long-term foster care for children in New England since 1976. A social worker and a family support worker meet with the family in the home three to four times a week, providing training in parenting skills, mental health counseling, respite care, coaching in homemaking, budgeting assistance, help with job training and apartment hunting, transportation, and support for substance abuse treatment. During the program's first 2 years, from August 1989 through July 1991, the program served 110 children in 47 families. The typical parent was a single mother of several children, unemployed or underemployed, without financial resources, often homeless or living in a temporary shelter, a drug abuser, and a victim of past or current abuse. The program's experience demonstrated that families with multiple and serious problems can be reunified if a program has the resources to offer intensive services. It also revealed that an alternative to reunification may be the appropriate permanency plan for some children. Results also indicated the importance of evaluations so that program developers can use others' experiences to new efforts on behalf of children and families. Charts and 23 references