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"The North American approach to child protection is broadly accepted, despite frequent criticisms of its core limitations: parental fear and resistance, the limited range of services and supports available to families, escalating costs, and high stress and turnover among service providers. Could these shortcomings be improved through organizational or system reform? Based on findings from a decade's worth of research, Creating Positive Systems of Child and Family Welfare provides original reflections on the everyday realities of families and front-line service providers involved with the system. It includes data from a variety of regions and situations, all linked together through a common investigatory framework. The contributors highlight areas of concern in current approaches to child and family welfare, but also propose new solutions that would make the system more welcoming and helpful both for families and for service providers."--Publisher's website

"The North American approach to child protection is broadly accepted, despite frequent criticisms of its core limitations: parental fear and resistance, the limited range of services and supports available to families, escalating costs, and high stress and turnover among service providers. Could these shortcomings be improved through organizational or system reform? Based on findings from a decade's worth of research, Creating Positive Systems of Child and Family Welfare provides original reflections on the everyday realities of families and front-line service providers involved with the system. It includes data from a variety of regions and situations, all linked together through a common investigatory framework. The contributors highlight areas of concern in current approaches to child and family welfare, but also propose new solutions that would make the system more welcoming and helpful both for families and for service providers."--Publisher's website

Recognizing child maltreatment as a complex phenomenon requiring multifaceted responses, this volume provides a current and comprehensive assessment of the problem, and argues for an expanded conception of helping on the part of those who work with maltreated children, their families, and their communities. Contributions follow a general outline that addresses current theory and models of practice, and empirical knowledge regarding the problem, intervention, and outcomes.Presenting and up-to- date and encompassing view of how to combat child abuse and neglect, this book discusses the c

The comparisons made by the essays in this volume allow for a consideration of constructive and feasible innovations in child and family welfare and contribute to an enriched debate around each system. This book will be of great benefit to the field for many years to come.

The need for services that respond to the 'maltreatment' of children and to the struggles of families is at the core of social service systems in all developed nations. While these child and family welfare systems confront similar problems and incorporate common elements, there are substantial differences in philosophy, organization, and operation across international settings and models. In this new collection of essays, Nancy Freymond and Gary Cameron have brought together some of the finest international minds to provide an original and integrated discussion of child protection, family service, and community caring models of child and family welfare. The volume not only examines child protection and family service approaches within Western nations - including Canada, the United States, England, the Netherlands, France, and Sweden - it is also the first comparative study to give equal attention to Aboriginal community caring models in Canada and New Zealand. The comparisons made by the essays in this volume allow for a consideration of constructive and feasible innovations in child and family welfare and contribute to an enriched debate around each system. This book will be of great benefit to the field for many years to come.

ABSTRACTFathers can make positive contributions to their children's well‐being. However, involving the literature and this research indicate that fathers are much less likely to be engaged with child welfare services than mothers. This paper reports the findings of life story research with 18 fathers involved with child welfare. It focuses on these men's perspectives of fatherhood and their relationships with their children. Also, reactions to these fatherhood stories from father and service provider focus groups are examined. The findings challenge common perceptions of these fathers and highlight similarities and differences in perspectives between fathers and service providers. Implications for engaging fathers in child welfare practice are discussed.

Faced with rapidly changing social and economic conditions, service professionals, policy developers, and researchers have raised significant concerns about the Canadian child welfare system. This book draws inspiration from experiences with three broad, international child welfare paradigms - child protection, family service, and community healing/caring (First Nations) - to look at how specific practices in other countries, as well as alternative experiments in Canada, might foster positive innovations in the Canadian child welfare approach.; Foundational values and purposes, systems design and policy, and organisation and management are discussed, as are front-line service delivery, service provider work environments, and the realities of daily living for families. Informed by recent research, the contributors provide clear directions for policy, administration, and service-delivery reforms. Informing policy debates addressing child maltreatment and family welfare, this book will serve as a vital resource for managers, service providers, professionals, and students in the fields of social work, child and youth care, family studies, psychology, and special education.

ABSTRACTThe lack of engagement of fathers by child welfare services is well‐documented in the literature as a serious problem. Towards addressing this problem, this paper reports the findings of interviews with 18 fathers about their involvement with child welfare services in Ontario, Canada. Qualitative analysis of the interviews yielded themes about what men saw as the positive and negative aspects of their involvement with child welfare. Positive aspects of service involvement for fathers included understanding and supportive workers, useful assistance from workers, being connected to useful resources and being given a 'wake‐up call'. Negative aspects of service involvement included uncaring, unhelpful and unprofessional workers; prejudice against fathers; and experiencing the child welfare system as unresponsive, uncaring and rigid. Implications for practice are discussed with a view to improving the engagement of men in, and their experiences with, child welfare services.