The Prevention Initiative Demonstration Project, funded by the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), is a community-specific strategy delivered through eight regional networks designed to address the full spectrum of community-based prevention. This article summarizes a strong and meaningful pattern of improvements…

This study describes predictors of secondary traumatic stress and burnout in a national sample of helping professionals, with a specific focus on the unique responses of child welfare (CW) workers. Specific worker and exposure characteristics are examined as possible predictors of these forms of occupational distress in a sample of 669…

Most studies of ethnic disproportionality in child welfare examine data in one of two ways: a point in time approach or an entry cohort approach. While each provides insight into disproportionality, neither gives a full picture of the differences among ethnic groups in the experience of the child welfare system over time. This study uses…

This study examines the characteristics and patterns of child maltreatment among Cambodian refugee families in Los Angeles and assesses the implications for child welfare practice with Cambodian refugee families. Data were extracted from 243 active Cambodian case files maintained by the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services…

The Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) of 1997 includes provisions to deny reunification services under specified conditions and gives states latitude to develop any number of additional "aggravated circumstances" in which parents need not be offered services. California legislators have developed a relatively large number of…

Describes a process and instrument developed by the Children's Bureau of Los Angeles to evaluate its in-home family support program. The agency has combined case assessment, reporting and recording, evaluation structure, and research data collection in one instrument and one case-long process. (RJC)

The TIES [Training, Intervention, Education, and Services] for Adoption program in Los Angeles, attempts to reduce obstacles to adoption of children in out-of-home care who experienced prenatal substance exposure. Interviews with parents conducted at intervals following home placement reveal experiences and concerns, parenting aspects and adoption…

Describes the Fresno Amicus Program, a program of volunteer, court-appointed advocates who assist in cases of abuse and neglect involving minority families. Also describes an outcome study of the program. In the amicus group, significantly fewer children were placed in long-term foster care than in the comparison group. Significantly more children…