Recent concern over the standard of social work practice, as evidenced by inquiries into child abuse cases, have led to something of a crisis in trust in the profession. As a result, there is now an emphasis on increasing practitioners' competency to practice in complex situations. Critical reflection is seen as key to achieving this increase in…

A study investigated similarities and differences in the views of experienced vocational rehabilitation (VR) counselors serving African Americans who are blind or visually impaired. A total of 26 counselors, 11 of whom were African American, reported their views in structured telephone interviews. In general, there were more similarities than…

Discusses facilitating opportunities for a grounded knowledge base, building culturally competent relationships, facilitating discussion of stereotyping, and forming collaborative alliances with culturally and ethnically diverse communities. Asserts that child welfare workers need to lay a foundation of excellence in these areas and presents child…

Service-Learning can be a rewarding and challenging experience for students. One of the rewards for students can be the connection between their course work and real life experience. However, students interacting with populations with which they have limited prior experience face unique challenges. We developed a training program designed to…

Objective: In the UK there have been no initiatives identified to increase the use of sun safety policies in preschool establishments. This study tests the hypothesis that health visitors with appropriate sun safety training can successfully facilitate the development and implementation of sun safety policies and practices in preschool education…

Used qualitative interviews to examine beliefs and values about biological and adoptive parents. Considered how biological kinship, gender, and actual parenting behavior affect the assessments respondents made of the emotional bonding between parents and children. Found that biological and adoptive parents viewed motherhood as instinctive and…

Describes the evaluative model used to examine unsuccessful family reunification. Discusses findings regarding parental ambivalence and its effect on child placement reentry and implications of the findings for individual case assessment and for permanency services in general. (BB)

This study sought to identify lessons for social workers from the health care research on influencing practitioners to use evidence-based practices (EBP). Research reviews of strategies to influence providers to use EBP are summarized. Among the findings are that printed educational materials, the use of local opinion leaders, and continuous…

Objective: Using a theory of change framework, this study examines outcome measures of a home visitation program that provided services to first-born children and their parents living in southwestern New Mexico. Method: Home visitation workers conducted pretest and posttest assessments for prenatal and postpartum periods for 109 families receiving…

Recent concerns regarding permanence for foster children have inspired child welfare agencies to re-focus more of their efforts on biological parents as permanent resources for children in care. The social work field has responded to this situation with family-focused training for frontline staff; one such curriculum is the Family Development…

French farms have to adapt quickly in an economic and social context that is in profound change. For this, advice procedures must themselves be reconsidered. The aim of this work was to characterize the advice practices in beef-cattle systems in Creuse and define farmers' and advisers' requirements according to future methods of providing advice.…

This paper presents the results of a discrete-time event-history analysis of the relationships between client and program characteristics and the length and outcome of participation in a drug court program. We identify factors associated with both successful completion and premature termination. Having an African-American case manager, being…

This booklet describes a state subsidy program designed to facilitate the adoption of black children in need of permanent homes. Program participants were children, ages 3 months to 17 years of age living in foster homes in Chicago and East St. Louis, Illinois. Some of the children had serious emotional and/or physical problems, but all were free…

This report is the third in a series of four final reports and several research briefs that present the findings of the Longitudinal Study of the Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) Services Program, a study that the Research Triangle Institute (RTI) has conducted for the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA), U.S. Department of Education. The…

Many community colleges have pursued aggressive initiatives to serve students on welfare, creating new academic programs or expanding existing ones. This chapter highlights case studies of best practices that illustrate how institutional initiatives targeting welfare students have resulted in an expanded capacity to educate and serve mainstream…