It has been a very productive year for the Field Center’s Foster Care to College (FC2C) initiative, which engages in a wide range of activities to make higher education more accessible for older youth with foster care experience. Over the past year, we have continued to hold quarterly statewide networking meetings for professionals working with youth aging out of foster care, creating opportunities for new connections and student projects that support the important work of these professionals. Field Center interns created resource guides for older youth in counties across Pennsylvania for members of our FC2C network to help them direct students to resources in their communities that address their various needs. In partnership with the Marks Family Center for Excellence in Writing at Penn, the Field Center is piloting an essay writing program that matches Penn writing fellows with students who have been in foster care, providing them with personalized guidance and constructive feedback on their college and scholarship essays. The Field Center also continues to provide information and consultation to institutions seeking to create or improve their campus support programs for students with foster care experience.

Our recent Spring 2024 FC2C webinar was a major success, with nearly 70 professionals in Pennsylvania and across the country tuning in to learn about strategies for promoting self-sufficiency and accountability among college students with foster care experience. Titled “Fostering Relationships: Effective Strategies for Campus Success,” the webinar featured an engaging presentation from Ronicka Hamilton, Director of the Seita Scholars Program at Western Michigan University, and Lexi Jackson, a current Seita Scholar and student at Western Michigan University. Click here to view a recording of this important webinar. We look forward to next school year as we continue to expand our Foster Care to College network and programming. Learn more about FC2C here. 

The Field Center is thrilled to announce the new Executive Committee of the Young Professionals Council (YPC), stepping into their roles in the Spring of 2024. Jessica Taflin, Director of Outpatient Services at Children’s Crisis Treatment Center, takes on the role of YPC Chair. Molly McLaurin, Founder of Monarch Connections, LLC, is the new Events Chair. With these new leaders at the helm, the YPC will continue to benefit from the Field Center’s critical professional education and contribute to our work by broadening our reach.

Earlier this semester, the YPC held their very first webinar — a panel discussion on the topic of “Strengthening Families Impacted by Foster Care and Adoption”. The panel discussed three main questions of 1) the importance of attending to the unique needs of families impacted by foster care and adoption, 2) how caregivers and adoptive parents can support and understand healthy child development, and 3) how caregivers and adoptive parents support their children who experience grief and trauma. The three panelists brought expert perspectives in kinship care, transracial adoption, and foster care/adoption and LGBTQ identity.

To read Maggie’s full recap and to hear directly from Jessica and Molly, click here. 

The Field Center is grateful for the support of the Advisory Board members that make our work possible. For this issue of News From the Field, we are proud to shine a spotlight on the Advisory Boad Chair, Adam Landau. Adam is a co-market leader of Cerity Partners in Philadelphia, a wealth management firm for individuals, businesses, & nonprofits. Adam’s philanthropic journey began in high school when his friends and family encouraged him to participate in fundraising. Later, Adam became involved in the board for CB Community School – a high school for students with foster care experience in Philadelphia. Ever since, he has been “passionate about children in the foster care system, and at a higher level about any population that is particularly vulnerable.”

Through an insightful interview with one of our MSW Interns, Adam shares his experiences and motivations that propel him to enact transformative change through philanthropy and his support of initiatives at The Field Center. In his interview, Adam discusses the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration and how The Field Center combines diverse expertise across the academic community to meet the needs of children and families in a variety of areas. Summarizing the Center’s impact, Adam says, “The work being done by the Field Center addresses issues that are felt by vulnerable children around the globe.”

Click here to read the full interview with Adam to see more regarding his passion for The Field Center and how you can get involved.

Faculty Director Dr. Cindy Christian gave numerous talks including “Working together to protect abused children”, “What every health care provider needs to know about child abuse”, and “Sticks and stones may break my bones” at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Faculty Director Dr. Cindy Christian provided the morning report at the University of Botswana in Gaborone, Botswana titled “The medical evaluation of child sexual abuse.” She also presented a session titled “What every pediatrician needs to know about child abuse” at the Botswana Pediatric Society Meeting.

Faculty Director Dr. Cindy Christian presented to the Office of Special Trial Counsel (Army) in Indianapolis, IN at the Prosecuting Child Abuse Course. Her session was titled “Best supporting actors- injuries in child physical abuse”.

Field Center experts recently published the following:

Greeson, J.K., Gyourko, J.R., Wasch, S., & Page, C.S. (2024). “The program encourages people not to have a heavy heart”: a qualitative study of a family strengthening program in Kenya. Vulnerable Children and Youth Studies, 1-22.

Greeson, J.K., Gyourko, J.R., Wasch, S., & Page, C.S. Reintegration of street‐connected children in Kenya: Evaluation of Agape Children's Ministry's Family Strengthening Programme. Child & Family Social Work.

Schilling, S., Wood, J.N., & Christian, C.W. (2024). Struggling to stem the tide of child maltreatment. JAMA, 331(11), 918-919.

Ortiz, R., Kershaw, K.N., Zhao, S., Kline, D., Brock, G., Jaffee, S., Golden, S.H., Ogedegbe, G., Carroll, J., Seeman, T.E. & Joseph, J.J. (2024). Evidence for the association between adverse childhood family environment, child abuse, and caregiver warmth and cardiovascular health across the lifespan: the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study. Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, 17(2), e009794.

Collins, A.N., Propper, C.B., Mills-Koonce, W.R., Brown, E.D., & Jaffee, S.R. (2024). Allostatic load in childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood: Are assumptions of measurement invariance warranted?. Psychosomatic Medicine, 10-1097.

Jaffee, S.R. (2024). Commentary on the power of predictability: patterns of signals in early life shape neurodevelopment and mental health trajectories. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.

Jaffee, S.R. (2024). ‘The people they are a changin’–overview of the 2024 Annual Research Review. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 65(4), 381-383.