Only 8 percent of children born into poverty graduate from college by the age of 25. Consider what that means for the estimated 500,000 New York City kids living in poverty. It is a fact: The better educated a person is, the better her chances of upward mobility. So when fewer than one in 10 children born into poverty reach their academic…

Nonprofit family-run organizations, such as Tennessee Voices for Children (TVC), are providing leadership in advocating for and delivering services to children and families in need. Utilizing a family-driven approach and a staff partially comprised of parent-professionals, TVC's Nashville Connection and Family Connection programs have strengthened…

As a result of the impact of economic industrialization on the U.S. economy, the extended family in the United States has fragmented; nuclear families have lost contact with sources of parenting information and, increasingly, when parenting problems have occurred, the assistance of social service agencies has been requested. The lack of parenting…

Tested the effectiveness of intensive, in-home family reunification services in reunifying families separated by the placement of a child in out-of-home care. After 90 days, 93% of the families assigned to receive the intensive treatment were reunited, compared to 28% of families in a control group who received routine out-of-home care services.…

Home based family centered (HBFC) service programs have been developed as alternatives to out-of-home placement. These programs have reported relatively high service success rates at costs signficantly lower than foster home and institutional care while, at the same time, avoiding the social and psychological risks of out-of-home placement.…

This report presents an evaluation of the Intensive Services Project in Lincoln and McCook, Nebraska, which was designed to demonstrate that caseworkers with smaller child protective caseloads could offer more effective home-based services. The background of the project is described focusing on staffing and service setting. Service principles and…

Family based services attempt to maintain and strengthen the client family and prevent family dissolution and the placement of a child or several children in substitute care. This study compared programs that serve children and their families in their home. Variances in program costs were attributed to differences in number of casework hours per…

Evaluates the Family Program, a family-centered program in northern Virginia which provides intensive in-home support and treatment to families with children in the custody of county child welfare departments. The sample comprises 42 closed cases. Results show that families that are at risk benefit significantly from extensive support systems.…

This double issue of the journal "Report" focuses on the collaboration among seven social service systems that support and serve children and families. Each of the sections discusses one of the seven systems, presents an overview essay, and profiles programs that execute the service. The first section, on education, emphasizes linkages…

Describes an approach to welfare services based on a home visitor model. Notes that child welfare agencies have moved to a decidedly short-term orientation toward service delivery, whereas the problems faced by many families require a more long-term approach, with services designed to address problems with roots in a host of social, economic, and…

Presents an exploratory, descriptive study on family-centered, home-based services, involving a secondary analysis of an existing database. Suggests that both these services are effective in the prevention of placement for both high- and low-risk clients. Notes, however, that home-based services seemed to be more effective with multi-problem…

Special Training for Exceptional People (STEP) is a private, nonprofit agency serving children with developmental disabilities (0-22 years) and their families in the south-central section of Montana, encompassing Billings and a Crow Indian Reservation. One of the services provided by STEP is specialized family care, to prevent placement out of…

This report recommends a 10-year plan for changes in services to people with intellectual disabilities in Victoria, Australia. Intended key outcomes of the plan include: increases in the numbers of clients receiving direct residential support in community-based accommodations; reductions in numbers of adult clients resident in large scale…