Welcome to the Summer Issue of News From the Field! My colleagues and I celebrate the end of another successful year and we congratulate all of the graduates who have committed themselves to the study of child welfare and child wellbeing. We are excited to see how these new professionals incorporate the learning undertaken at the University of Pennsylvania in their future careers as social justice changemakers.

This coming year, we will continue our deep dive into critical child welfare issues. I’m honored that my colleague and acclaimed child welfare researcher Brett Drake, MSW, PhD, Professor of Data Science for the Social Good in Practice at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis is joining us on campus at the University of Pennsylvania in October for an invited lecture: Racial Disproportionality in CPS: What Can Big Data Tell Us? This event will be free and open to the public. Many local folks who receive this newsletter will also be invited to attend Dr. Drake’s lecture. If you’re out of town and would like to attend, let us know and we’ll send along the details.

I extend my congratulations to Faculty Director Kara Finck, who is taking a well-deserved sabbatical during the 2023-2024 Academic Year. We will miss your fierce advocacy and critical insights at the Field Center this year. We look forward to catching up after your return!

In other personnel news, The Field Center and the School of Social Policy and Practice continue our nationwide search for The Joanne and Raymond Welsh Chair of Child Welfare and Family Violence. The successful candidate will join the SP2 faculty as a Full Professor, and the Field Center as a Faculty Director, advancing the mission of the Field Center, as well as teaching in SP2’s master’s and doctoral programs. To learn more about this position, send me an email!

Thank you to the Faculty, Staff, and Students who bring your energy and ideas to the Field Center every day. I am excited to see what our next year together brings! To our readers, as always, thank you for reading and subscribing. It matters.

With Gratitude,

On June 1, the Field Center cosponsored the 2023 Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Symposium, “Gun Violence: Impacts and Solutions from a Maternal and Child Health Perspective” at Drexel University’s Dornsife School of Public Health. Other event cosponsors included the Drexel MCH Student Organization, CHOP Center for Violence Prevention, CHOP PolicyLab, and the Penn Injury Science Center, University of Pennsylvania.

·      5 Shorts Project Gun Violence Deterrent Program (combatting youth gun violence through video production)

·      Emir Healing Center (trauma and grief healing through support and education)

·      CeaseFirePA (advocating for gun violence prevention legislation)

A recording of the Symposium is available online here.

All donations will be generously matched by the Joseph and Marie Field Foundation. 100% of your donation supports our critical work.

To learn more about how you can support our work, please contact the SP2 Director of Institutional Advancement Bart Miltenberger at miltenbe@upenn.edu or 215-573-5624.

here.

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:

46^th NACC National Child Welfare Law Conference From Learning to Action: Shared Accountability for Disrupting Harm and Promoting Healing

Aug 10-12 and Sept 20-22, 2023

Minneapolis, MN and Virtual

Aug 22-24, 2023

Baltimore, MD

Oct 2-5, 2023

Virtual

Jan 20-25, 2024

San Diego, CA

April 17-19, 2024

Washington, DC

Findings from the evaluation indicate that basic needs and food insecurity remain a challenge to family stability for many families in rural Kenya, but that spiritual and relational connectedness are protective, and provide families with hopefulness and a sense of resilience. Families reported improved functioning on numerous domains after receiving family strengthening services.

To learn more about this project, visit our website.

The Field Center celebrates the Supreme Court’s June 15, 2023 decision in Haaland v. Brackeen, upholding the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) as it faced challenges from states and plaintiffs declaring it unconstitutional. Long considered the “Gold Standard” in child welfare, ICWA provides fundamental protections to Native children and families that are involved with child welfare by prioritizing family and community connections and requiring state courts to make active efforts to protect the interests of Native children. Petitioners asserted that the law infringed upon state sovereignty and allows for race-based discrimination, but the SCOTUS decision rejected all challenges and affirms the constitutional authority of Congress to enact the ICWA. Fourteen states already have a state Indian Child Welfare Act to support and strengthen the federal law. Following this reaffirmation of ICWA nationally, the Field Center hopes to see more states adopting enhanced legislation to build on the protections in the federal law.

To view the Field Center’s two-part Community Symposium series discussing the history and future of ICWA, click here. For a full description of the issues addressed in Haaland v. Brackeen, including a summary of the Oral Arguments from November 9, 2022, read the Field Center’s blog post here.

Personal finance website WalletHub just released a new data-driven report on 2023’s States with the Most Underprivileged Children. Using 26 key indicators of need, including the share of children in households with below-poverty income, the child food-insecurity rate, and the share of maltreated children, WalletHub compared all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The 3 states where children fare the best are New Jersey, Utah, and Connecticut, whereas the 3 states where children are deemed most underprivileged are New Mexico, Mississippi, and Alaska.

In the “Ask the Experts” section, WalletHub’s Financial Writer spoke with Field Center Managing Faculty Director Johanna Greeson to ask “What are the most efficient and effective programs for equalizing opportunity for children?” Dr. Greeson shared the importance of mentoring and tutoring programs – particularly natural mentoring for youth in foster care – as well as high-quality early childhood education programs, digital inclusion initiatives, and free and reduced school meal programs. To read the full interview and learn more about WalletHubs’s main findings and methodology, click here.