News From the Field (December 2020)
National child welfare policy, practice and research
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Every child deserves a bright future, including the “big kids,” whom we sometimes forget about. When a young person ages out at 18 or 21, it can be devastating. Little resources, few connections, feeling left behind. My work at The Field Center is all about the “big kids,” and I am excited to share that we have received our first seed funding from the Callaghan-Pierog Family Foundation to support the implementation and testing of my social support intervention C.A.R.E. for older youth who age out of foster care. C.A.R.E. is unique in that it prioritizes relational connectedness and social support development for older youth in foster care instead of skills. Because they never achieved permanency, many assume these young people don’t have adults in their lives who care about them and could be resources for them during the aging out process and the transition to adulthood. The truth is, we have just never looked for them and figured out how to intentionally and effectively incorporate them into the care of older youth. This is why we need C.A.R.E. and other similar relationship-based interventions to become the norm in child welfare. We need to show the “big kids” that we care! Every child deserves a forever family, regardless of how old they are and the form it takes. No one is ever too old for family. The Field Center is committed to transforming child welfare at its core, especially for the “big kids.”
To learn more about C.A.R.E., watch our short video:
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Johanna Greeson, PhD, MSS, MLSP
Managing Faculty Director
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New Field Center Monthy Blog |
The Field Center team is passionate about our child welfare work and our new blog provides the opportunity to share more of our stories, impacts and reflections with you. The monthly posts will represent perspectives across multiple disciplines.
Click here to view the blog.
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Help advance the work of the Field Center |
Now more than ever, and in this season of giving, please consider a donation to the Field Center for Children’s Policy, Practice & Research to support our continued work on behalf of those most vulnerable. All donations will be generously matched by the Joseph and Marie Field Foundation. This vital work is only possible with you.
You can make your gift online here.
To learn more about how you can support our work, please contact Director of Development
Hannah Rawdin at
hrawdin@upenn.edu or (267) 432-9938.
For more information click
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FOSTERING COLLEGE SUCCESS IN PENNSYLVANIA VIRTUAL TRAINING SERIES REACHES ADVOCATES ACROSS THE COMMONWEALTH |
Responding to the needs of the newly-designated higher education campus points of contact for foster youth, The Field Center offered a virtual training series this fall to provide training and professional development. With the Fostering Independence Through Education Act going into effect this year, many institutions had questions about its implementation and best practices in serving students with experience in foster care.
The three-part virtual training series allowed stakeholders across Pennsylvania to participate in interactive sessions featuring financial aid experts, government representatives, national researchers and leaders, and current or former college students with experience in foster care. Attendees found the training series extremely helpful and noted that their knowledge of these topics increased. Participants remarked “I enjoyed listening to the panelists; they were very informative” and “Thank you for taking these steps to spread awareness about Foster Ed.”
To view recordings of the virtual sessions, click here.
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FAMILY REGULATION VERSUS FAMILY SUPPORT IN FEDERAL CHILD WELFARE LEGISLATION
By Chih McDermott, Field Center Lerner Fellow, Penn Law 2022
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In a recent article, University of Pennsylvania Professor Dorothy Roberts warns of the “punitive ideology” underlying foster care, describing its ability to reinforce the surveillance, regulation, and destruction of black, brown, and indigenous families. [i]
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In it, she calls for the radical transformation or abolition of foster care, advocating that we reallocate billions of dollars “to cash assistance, health care, housing, and other material supports” that help keep families together. It feels intuitive that, in a system seeking to promote child welfare, we would concentrate resources on supporting families before children are removed rather than after. However, a quick look at the history and effects of federal child welfare legislation indicate an opposite approach by the federal legislature.
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Upcoming Child Welfare Conferences, Trainings, & Events |
Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR) Conference “Social Work Science for Social Change”
Jan 19-22, 2021
Virtual
2021 National School Social Work Conference
Mar 22-24, 2021
Virtual
39th Annual Protecting Our Children National American Indian Conference
April 11-14, 2021
Virtual
JuST (Juvenile Sex Trafficking) Conference
Nov 17-19, 2021
Washington, DC
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Stay Connected and Stay Informed |
Stay up to date with the latest in child welfare by following the Field Center on social media. Click the buttons below to follow The Field Center |
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THE EXPERIENCES OF OLDER YOUTH IN & AGED OUT OF FOSTER CARE DURING COVID-19 |
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The Field Center completed a national, online survey study of the experiences of older youth in and recently aged out of foster care during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although all segments of the population are affected, it is especially harmful to members of social groups in vulnerable situations, including youth in foster care and those who have recently exited care. Our goal was to learn about participants’ housing, food security, finance, education, employment, health, mental health, and personal connections over one month of the COVID-19 crisis. Among our findings: |
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Almost half of participants reported COVID-19 having a negative impact on their living situation and nearly three-quarters reported a financial situation that would be stable for no more than one month. Fifty-five percent of participants reported being food-insecure as a result of COVID-19 and almost half reported COVID-19 having a negative impact on their employment. Two-thirds of participants reported that COVID-19 was having a major negative impact on their educational progress and slightly more than half reported symptoms of depression or anxiety
The resulting report, The Experiences of Older Youth In & Aged Out of Foster Care During COVID-19, published in September 2020, offers recommendations that could have an immediate impact on the safety, health, and well-being of older youth with foster care experience, as well as recommendations for overall improvements in the delivery of child welfare services to promote resiliency and preparation for future public health crises or disasters. |
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This report would not have been possible without the time and energy of the 281 youth who participated in an online survey during an unprecedented public health crisis. Their emotional labor serves to educate us all on the needs of older youth transitioning from foster care and we can only hope that their energy produces positive changes for the young people still in foster care. We are grateful to each and every young person for taking the time to let us know how COVID-19 has affected them.
To view a short video highlighting report findings, click here.
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FIELD CENTER ADVISORY BOARD UPDATE |
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The Field Center is delighted to welcome Ethan Falkove to our Advisory Board. Mr. Falkove is a Managing Director in Neuberger Berman’s Private Equity Group. Ethan is primarily responsible for sourcing, evaluating, structuring and purchasing secondary investment opportunities. He is a member of several investment and valuation committees at Neuberger Berman. Ethan received his M.B.A. from Columbia Business School and his B.S. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Ethan lives in New York with his wife and four children. |
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LISTENING & LEARNING IN NATIONAL ADOPTION MONTH
By Sirui Chen, MSW Graduate Student
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November was National Adoption Month – a federal initiative calling for attention to the urgent need for adoptive families for children in foster care. This year’s theme, “Engage Youth: Listen and Learn,” highlighted the importance of listening to and learning from older youth in foster care and supporting them in securing lifelong legal and emotional connections.
In recognition of the recent conclusion of National Adoption Month, The Field Center wishes to share a documentary that highlights the challenges with regards to permanency for older youth in foster care. Unadopted starts with filmmaker Noel Anaya’s question of why he had never been adopted, eventually emancipating from the foster care system. After leaving the foster care system, he started his journey to find his past. Three other young adults, Chris, Sequoia, and Tisha are also introduced in this documentary. The documentary shows their different backgrounds, experiences, and attitudes towards pursuing “forever family,” and emphasizes the hardships incurred by older youth in finding adoptive families.
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FIELD CENTER WELCOMES 2020-2021 GRADUATE STUDENTS |
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Through the Multidisciplinary Student Training Institute, The Field Center provides internship and field placement opportunities for selected students across multiple disciplines. Students receive training, career mentorship, and hands-on work opportunities within the field of child welfare. Each year, The Field Center works with graduate social work students, a law fellow in child welfare policy, and other promising graduate and undergraduate students, to create the next generation of leaders. Meet two of our stellar 2020-2021 graduate student interns below (Full bios here):
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Sirui Chen joined the Field Center in September 2020 as a 2nd year full-time MSW student from the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice with a macro concentration. Her first-year field placement was at United Communities Southeast Philadelphia where she worked as a truancy case manager intern to support students attending Furness High School in South Philadelphia. She graduated from Renmin University of China in 2019 with her Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics.
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Chih McDermott is a J.D. Candidate in his second year at Penn Law and the Field Center’s 2020-2021 Lerner Fellow in Child Welfare Policy. Chih earned a B.A. from Williams College in 2014 and an M.Ed. from Boston University in 2016. He started his professional career with Teach for America (TFA) and taught mathematics for five years at Durfee High School in Fall River, MA. During his summers, Chih helped train new teachers with TFA and worked as an education policy intern in the Rhode Island Governor’s Office.
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FIELD CENTER RECENT PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS |
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Field Center Faculty Director Cindy Christian, MD, gave the following virtual talks: “Protecting children in the age of alternative facts: lessons from the front line” at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health Grand Rounds, Madison, WI and as the Hans Hartenstein Lecture, Upstate Medical University, State University of New York, Syracuse, NY; “Abusive Head Trauma: Evidence, obfuscation and informed management” with Ann-Christine Duhaime, MD at the 17th International Conference on Shaken Baby Syndrome / Abusive Head Trauma in Philadelphia, PA; “A medical crib sheet for homicide investigations and prosecutors” with Vincent Palusci, MD at the Trauma Investigations Bootcamp, Babies and Toddlers, Inc; and “Recognizing and responding to child sexual abuse” at the Villanova Task Force on the Sexual Abuse Crisis in the Catholic Church in Villanova, PA.
Program Manager Sarah Wasch, MSW presented a session titled “Strengthening the Pathway to Higher Education Success for Youth in Foster Care” at the Virtual Paving the Way to Educational Success Conference.
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Field Center experts recently published the following:
Barth, R.P. Jonson-Reid, M., Greeson, J.K.P., Drake, B., Berrick, J.D., Garcia, A.R., Shaw, T.V., and Gyourko, J. (2020). Outcomes following child welfare services: What are they and do they differ for black children? Journal of Public Child Welfare, 14(5), 477-499. doi: 10.1080/15548732.2020.1814541
Christian, C.W., Finck, K.R., Connolly, C., Jaffee, S., Greeson, J., Garcia, A., Carlough, S.L., & Watts, C.L. (2020). Tear down those walls: The future of graduate education in child and family advocacy. International Journal of Child Maltreatment: Research, Policy, & Practice, 3(3), 307-315. doi: 10.1007/s42448-020-00057-3
Greeson, J.K.P., Garcia, A.R., Tan, F., Chacon, A., & Ortiz, A.J. (2020). Interventions for youth aging out of foster care: A state of the science review. Children and Youth Services Review, 113. doi: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.105005
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The Field Center in the Media: |
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COVID-19 Strips Safety Net for Foster Youth ‘Aging Out’ During Pandemic
MedPage Today
Lack of coordination leaves many transition-age youth homeless, hungry, and alone
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Radio Times Regional Roundup
WHYY
As the second guest on the show, University of Pennsylvania researcher and Associate Professor Johanna Greeson discusses the hardships facing youth who are aging out of foster care during the pandemic. (Section begins at 13:50.)
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The Sulfonamide Revolution and Children's Health Care Delivery in the US
Cynthia Connolly, PhD, RN, FAAN, spoke on October 15th. The program was live-streamed globally, and archived, by NIH VideoCasting.
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Protecting Children, Preserving Dreams |
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The Field Center is a collaboration of |
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The Field Center is a member of |
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