Child Welfare Programs
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American Humane and Casey Family Programs teamed up for an innovative project to improve safety and risk assessments in the child welfare system. The effort draws on some of the foremost experts in the country to plan, field test, evaluate and rapidly establish new strategies and tools to transform child welfare practice.
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Children represent one of the largest and fastest-growing immigrant populations in the United States. As a result of this growth, the child welfare field faces many new issues in practice, policy and research specific to immigrant children and their families. American Humane provides child welfare workers and child welfare systems with new skills and strategies to address the specific needs of this growing population through the Migration and Child Welfare National Network (MCWNN).
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For more than a decade, national statistics on child abuse and neglect have indicated that more than half of all child victims in the United States suffer neglect. Guided by national child welfare experts, this initiative addresses the unique safety and protection needs of children whose families are unable to meet their basic needs, such as protection, supervision, food, clothing and medical care. When neglect goes undetected or without appropriate intervention, the repeated incidents are likely to have severe developmental consequences for these children.
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Differential response, also referred to as "dual track," "multiple track," or "alternative response," is an approach that allows child protective services to respond differently to reports of child abuse and neglect. Through conferences, trainings, workshops, teleconferences, and resources, American Humane advocates for the implementation of Differential Response Systems in Child Welfare as an effective way to respond to these reports by encouraging families to recognize their own needs and seek services to enhance parenting skills, mental health concerns, substance abuse issues, work/day care issues and/or other distinct needs of each family. Differential response encourages family participation in agency- and community-based services.
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American Humane established the National Center on FGDM in 1999 as a vehicle for promoting and supporting family and community involvement and leadership in decision making about children who need protection or care. This national center provides training and technical assistance, research, and resources to communities implementing FGDM across the country.
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American Humane is seeking to understand fathers' engagement in the child welfare system through the National Quality Improvement Center on Non-Resident Fathers and the Child Welfare System. The Children's Division is committed to expanding knowledge and developing resources to enable children to regain connections with their fathers and paternal relatives, so fathers have new ways to redefine and embrace their role, and so the systems that support children and families are invigorated with new knowledge and practices that help achieve positive outcomes.
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American Humane's prevention programs focus on building and supporting the ability of community stakeholders including parents, youth, schools, businesses, community and faith-based organizations, and public child welfare agencies to respond effectively to the needs of vulnerable children and families.
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Children at risk for being abused or neglected are predisposed to becoming at-risk teenagers involved in the juvenile justice system. American Humane promotes restorative justice to help young offenders repair the harm they caused and accept accountability for their actions, decreasing the likelihood that they will progress to the adult criminal justice system.
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