From Rights to Reality is designed to unite parents and parent advocacy around a common set of goals. It identifies 15 rights for parents affected by the child welfare system. Most parents do not yet have these rights in child welfare proceedings. From Rights to Reality represents a commitment to working in our communities and nationwide to make these rights a reality.
Each right is illustrated by parents’ stories—stories that show how families can be strengthened and transformed when parents have these rights, and stories that show how families are harmed when these rights are denied.
These rights are essential to ensuring that children receive the best possible care—at home or while in foster care. In child welfare proceedings, children’s needs and parents’ rights are often portrayed as incompatible. Research and practice have demonstrated that, in most cases, this is not true. Children do better if they can remain connected to their parents and return home.
Most of the promising practices described here were advanced through tireless parent advocacy or through meaningful parent participation in child welfare reform. They developed because parents made themselves heard and child welfare practitioners listened. From Rights to Reality gives parents a clear, resounding voice in leading the process of child welfare reform in their communities. Child welfare practitioners must listen and respond.
Parents, we hope our stories will guide you in working with advocacy organizations and other parents in your community to make your voices heard. Child welfare leaders, policymakers, frontline workers and advocates, we hope these stories will deepen your understanding and compassion for families in the child welfare system and guide you in joining with parents in your communities to advance needed reforms.
Youth and Credit
Published By: © 2013 The Annie E. Casey Foundation
Every year, more than 26,000 young people age out of foster care, many with no permanent home and no parent to help them navigate the road to adulthood. For some young people, like Rivera, stolen identities and bad credit pose yet another obstacle on the road to independence. For youth who have faced years of instability and uncertainty, bad credit stands in the way of some basic life activities, such as renting an apartment, buying a car, getting a job, having a bank account or securing student loans.
Medicaid and CHIP FAQs: Funding for the New Adult Group, Coverage of Former Foster Care Children and CHIP Financing
Published by:
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services 7500 Security Boulevard, Mail Stop S2-26-12 Baltimore, Maryland 21244-1850
A Changing World – Shaping Best Practices through Understanding of The New Realities of Intercountry Adoption
“A Changing World” represents the most extensive independent research into intercountry adoption to date, including into the regulatory framework/treaty called the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption (HCIA). The research – funded by the American Ireland Fund and the Adoption Institute – was conducted over the past two years by scholars at Tufts University and the Institute; among its components are surveys of about 1,500 adoptive parents, adoption professionals in the U.S. and other “receiving” countries and countries of origin, as well as interviews with senior policymakers in 19 nations.
Funded by:
American Ireland Fund and the Donaldson Adoption Institute
This report was researched and written by Dr. Ellen Pinderhughes, Associate Professor, Eliot-
Pearson Department of Child Development, Tufts University; Jessica Matthews, Doctoral Student,
Tufts University; Georgia Deoudes, Legislation & Policy Director of the Adoption Institute; and Adam Pertman, President of the Adoption Institute.
Untangling the Web – A Research-Based Roadmap for Reform
Today’s reality is far different as a result of the Internet, and the changes – some or better, others for worse – are accelerating every day. That means people who want to make connections are being enabled to do so more easily and more quickly than had ever been possible before, but it also means that for-profit brokers and facilitators are expanding their reach, with virtually no monitoring or regulation. And so, for instance, highly commercialized and aggressive marketing is being aimed at expectant mothers and prospective adoptive parents, promising easy and quick solutions to very complex human situations. Ads pop up alongside almost any search related to adoption, sometimes offering “a baby in less than 3 months” or “a free college education” for women who place their infants. Would-be families advertise online, describing an almost perfect future for any baby they might adopt, the kinds of ads one adoptive parent in our study described as “butterflies and rainbows,” while ignoring the pain, loss and grief inherent in adoption. And “desperate” mothers-to-be (who may not be desperate or even pregnant) reach out over the Internet to offer unborn children in exchange for money.!
Published by:
This report was researched and written by Dr. Amy Whitesel, Assistant Research
Professor of Psychology, George Washington University, and Dr. Jeanne Howard,
Policy and Research Director, Donaldson Adoption Institute.
Untangling the Web – The Internet’s Transformative Impact on Adoption Policy and Practice Perspective
It is difficult to describe the extent to which the Internet is changing the everyday realities of adoption – and the lives of the millions of people it encompasses – without using words that sound hyperbolic. But a yearlong examination of the effects of this very new technology on a very old social institution indicates that they are systemic, profound, complex and permanent. Social media, search engines, blogs, chat rooms, webinars, photo-listings and an array of other modern communications tools, all facilitated by the Internet, are transforming adoption practices, challenging current laws and policies, offering unprecedented opportunities and resources, and raising critical ethical, legal and procedural issues about which adoption professionals, legislators and the personally affected parties, by their own accounts, have little reliable information, research or experience to guide them.
Published by:
All contents (c) 2012 by the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute.
Send questions and comments to info@adoptioninstitute.org
Testimony to NYS Human Services Budget Hearing
Presented by:
Marie Dolfi, LCSW
Volunteer Advocacy Chairperson, NYSCCC
LTC Guide Long Term Care
The content included within this handbook is intended to provide general information on long-term supportive services while connecting the reader with additional resources and may not be all inclusive.
Over time financial data and eligibility criteria for programs will change and become outdated. The user is encouraged to verify this time sensitive data.
Should you notice an omission or error, please notify the Department of Healthand Senior Services at dacs@doh.state.nj.us .
The Children’s Bureau Legacy
On April 9, 1912, the U.S. Children’s Bureau became the first national government agency in the world to focus solely on the needs of children. During the past 100 years, the Children’s Bureau has played a critical role in addressing vital issues affecting families—from reducing infant mortality and eradicating child labor, to preventing child maltreatment and promoting permanency for children and youth.
Openness in Adoption – From Secrecy and Stigma to Knowledge and Connections
This report is the first in a series the Institute plans to publish that will address the phenomenon of openness in domestic infant adoptions. It summarizes research knowledge on the topic and presents findings from a survey of 100 infant adoption programs in the U.S. regarding their practices around openness and the qualities that facilitate successful open adoption relationships. The institute is also in the final stages of preparing a related curriculum for pre-adoptive parents and expectant parents considering adoptive placement for their children.
Policy & Practice Perspectives are research-based publications that focus on important and timely issues in the field. This report was researched and written by Dr. Deborah H. Siegel, Professor of Social Work, Rhode Island College, and Susan Livingston Smith, Program and Project Director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute. It was edited by Adam Pertman, Executive Director of the Institute. We are deeply grateful to several graduate student interns who assisted with this research – Rebecca Knickmeier, Sarah Malloy-Good and Preeti Vissa. We also appreciate the assistance of several adoption scholars and professionals who reviewed this paper and provided research and editorial assistance. They include Dr. Ruth McRoy, Leslie Pate Mackinnon, and Dr. Harold Grotevant.
Send questions and comments to info@adoptioninstitute.org.
All contents (c) 2012 by the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute.
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