Editorial: Roles and Expertise

We all take on roles, probably several each day. Parent, worker, consumer, spouse, or shortstop, the roles we play are varied and complex. After one's own family, perhaps the roles of consumer and worker are most important to Family Preservation. How do we come to play these roles, and in what ways are they changing, or should they change? Often, neither the worker or family set out to play their roles, but through the twist and turns of life, the opportunity to serve and preserve a family presents itself. At a recent conference, a group of workers spoke of how, rather than having a career goal to do Family Preservation, Family Preservation found them. Many of the families probably say the same thing! In the fields of mental health, developmental disabilities, and adoption, families may seek Family Preservation services; rarely do families involved in juvenile justice, corrections, or child welfare systems look for Family Preservation. Family Preservation finds them. And thus the roles begin.

Answers from the Editorial

Answers from the editorial

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Title pages, table of contents, etc.

Walking Our Talk in the Neighborhoods: Building Professional/Natural Helper Partnerships

This article describes our efforts in Tacoma, Washington, to establish professional and natural helper partnerships to work with families involved in the child protective service system. It uses our experiences to describe the ways that natural helpers and professionals can help one another in getting better results for families.

Intersystem Collaboration: A Statewide Initiative to Support Families

The study described in this paper utilized a qualitative case study method to assess the processes involved in inter-system collaboration in the context of one state's system change initiative. The collaborative experience is described from the perspective of participating service system professionals and family members. The major themes of collaboration that emerged from the study included changes in communication across systems, changes in inter-system relationships, changes in attitudes, changes in interactions with families, and changes in the ways services are delivered. Lessons learned and practice implications of each theme are discussed.

Front Matter

Table of Contents, Editorial Board, General Information

Front Matter

Table of Contents, Editorial Board, General Information

Changing Tides and Changing Focus: Mapping the Challenges and Successes of One State's Implementation Of the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997

In 1997, the Adoption and Safe Families Act shifted from the preservation of families to an emphasis on safety, permanency, and well-being through expediting the termination of parental rights, establishing exceptions to the reasonable efforts clause of preserving the family, and fiscal incentives for finalizing adoptions. The current project assessed the role of a full service array in achieving the outcomes set forth in ASF A. Concept mapping was utilized to elicit information from participants (both urban and rural) regarding the identified research question. Participants recognized family preservation versus safety, community connections, mandates versus reality, and worker recruitment and retention as critical components for meeting ASFA goals. Perceived importance and level of success in implementing these services was also highlighted. Recommendations supported through the data are also provided.

Supporting Families through Short-Term Foster Care: An Essay Review

Aldgate, J. and Bradley, M. (1999). Supporting families through short-term fostering. London: The Stationery Office. This essay reviews a British qualitative study of short-term foster care from the perspectives of birth parents, children, foster parents, and social workers. Respondents highlighted the value of short-term foster care as a family support service and also offered many recommendations for improving service delivery. The study provides useful implications for restructuring child welfare services in the United States and for promoting cross-national collaboration in future research activities in the area of child and family services.

Failed Child Welfare Policy: An Essay Review

Hutchinson, J.R. (with C.E. Sudia) (2002). Failed Child Welfare Policy—Family Preservation and the Orphaning of Child Welfare. Lanham, MD: University Press of America. This essay reviews Failed Child Welfare Policy (Hutchinson, 2002), in which the author argues that the public child welfare system has failed to meet the needs of children and families coming to its attention. She recommends using the available—and limited—resources to reorganize and reconstruct the service delivery system with emphasis on familycentered services.

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Title pages, table of contents, etc.

You Know You Are Evidence-Based If...

This issue of the Family Preservation Journal further contributes to our knowledge of what works in family preservation and family support by offering seven articles that are evidence-based.

Parental Employment and Home Visiting Program Service Delivery

Home visiting programs, which provide in-home services to disadvantaged families with young children, rest on the assumption that poor parents can be reached at home. Increased levels of maternal employment raise questions about this assumption. In this study, longitudinal data collected for a home visiting program evaluation were analyzed to assess whether employment patterns of parents who receive home visiting services reflect employment patterns of other poor mothers between 1995 and 2000. The study also addresses the relationship between maternal employment and home visiting service intensity. To effectively reach home visiting participants, service providers may need to modify service delivery practices.

Why the Village is so Hard to Find: Challenging Ourselves, Transforming Our Helping Systems

Keynote address presented by Roger Friedman, PhD, LCSW at the Family Preservation Institute Annual Conference, San Antonio, Texas, September 9, 2004. Looking at Language and Concepts Looking closely at certain language that we use helps us understand how we think about our work and our world—and ultimately, it helps us understand ourselves better. The term "village " as used in the title of the paper and in many of our professional conversations is worthy of such an inquiry