New Journal Editors Appointed
Families in Society welcomes two new journal editors: Dr. Sondra J. Fogel will be serving as associate editor and Dr. Christine Lowery assumes the book review editor position.

Dr. Fogel is associate professor, School of Social Work, University of South Florida whose research interests include poverty, particularly homeless and working poor families; community-building strategies in low-income areas; strength-based interventions with at-risk youth; families and older adults; and mitigation factors in death penalty cases.

Dr. Lowery is associate professor at the Helen Bader School of Social Welfare, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (UWM). She is a member of the Hopi and Laguna Tribes (Southwest) and her research work centers on spirituality in the recovery processes of Native Americans. Additionally Dr. Lowery is a scientist with the Center of Addictions and Behavior Health Research at UWM.

Subscriptions: Preserve Your Core Publications
Let your librarian, CQI officer, or training manager know FIS is a key knowledge-building tool for your program. Complete the request form and forward it to your library, or find a subscription that best fits your needs. Click here for ordering options.

As a trusted forum for social service practitioners, educators and students to explore ideas and concepts, FIS offers vital information on significant trends and techniques through practice-related articles on research and theory, direct-practice issues, and the delivery and management of services.

FIS is one of only five journals that routinely comprise the core of the social work journal network¹ and its impact factor is ranked highly among top social work titles in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) Social Science Edition².

Practice and Policy Focus Practitioner Supplement
Each edition of this newsletter will highlight articles related to a particular topic of interest for social workers and other social service practitioners and clinicians:

• Fathering and Fatherhood
  (2007, Issue 2)
• Social Work with At-Risk Youth
  (2007, Issue 1)
• Best Practices in Foster Care and Adoption
  (2006, Issue 2)
• Ethics and Risk Management in Social Work
  (2006, Issue 1)
   

Online Continuing Education
CE4Alliance, the online continuing education program provided by Families in Society and its publisher, the Alliance for Children and Families, features over 100 courses arranged in 20 topic categories. Visit the site, or download the course catalog.

Three new courses, developed from articles in the current issue, are now available.

• Juvenile Offenders as Fathers: Perceptions of Fatherhood, Crime, and Becoming an Adult
  by Sarah K. S. Shannon & Laura S. Abrams
  Course #101110 │Abstract
  Current research offers conflicting findings regarding how, or if, fatherhood influences youth offenders’ criminal trajectories. This course provides insight into young fathers’ understanding of their responsibilities towards their children and prospects for future criminal activity and also emphasizes obstacles fathers experience when trying to achieve their parental ideals including financial pressure, strained relationships with their children’s mothers, and lack of male role models.
   

• Social Workers’ Suggestions for Effective Rural Practice
  by Joanne Riebschleger
  Course #101109 │Abstract
  Narrative and discussion about social work practice with individuals and families living in rural communities are provided by a sample group of experienced practitioners. This course summarizes current practices for practitioners in rural social work and identifies practice recommendations within the main themes of community, connections, generalist practice and diversity.
   
• Support Needs of Family Caregivers of People Who Experience Mental Illness and the Role of Mental Health Services
  by Janki Shankar & Senthil Sonai Muthuswany
  Course #101108 │Abstract
  Family caregivers are an irreplaceable resource for the mental health services system and the pillars on which the system currently rests. Addressing the needs of these caregivers is therefore crucial for the survival of the system. This course will explore the experience and needs of family caregivers whose relatives were at various stages of recovery from mental illness and highlight the diverse needs of these caregivers and the difficulties they experience in accessing the support from public mental health services.
   

Hot Topic Webinars
Families in Society and its publisher, the Alliance for Children and Families, present the Hot Topic Webinar and teleconference series. Interactive presentations with nationally recognized experts focus on topics relating to practice, education, and policy within social services.

Incarceration and Reentry: The Impact on Women Offenders and Their Families
Women remain less than ten percent of those who are incarcerated; however they constitute the fastest growing population in prison, surpassing the growth rate of the male population in every state. Improving outcomes for released female offenders and their families entails examining practices that affect women’s entry into prison, their treatment while in prison, and their access to services after release from prison.

This Webinar provides an overview of the impact on families and communities, the systems and people involved in reentry, points of intervention, and policy reforms and recommendations.

For additional information and to order a CD-Rom of this Webinar, click here.

Preview the Next Issue: Working But Poor
The July-Sept 2007 issue (Vol. 88, No. 3) will feature strategies and interventions in social work to address conditions experienced by individuals and families living in poverty despite employment. For this special issue, Families in Society collected manuscripts, essays, and case studies containing research, policy, and practice interventions. More information.

Public Policy and Program Development
New national initiative to strengthen social services for older adults
A $2.6 million grant intended to improve the readiness of the nation’s nonprofit human and social services workforce has been awarded to the Alliance for Children and Families by The Atlantic Philanthropies. The five-year program will help member organizations with training, staffing, and programs. More information.

“We are committed to informing and influencing how the nonprofit human services workforce thinks about and responds to issues of aging in America,” explains Peter Goldberg, president and CEO of the Alliance. A preliminary planning study conducted by the Alliance in 2006 suggests that, while aware of the advancing wave of aging Americans and the challenges associated with a rapidly aging population, the country’s social and human services workforce needs further preparation to meet the anticipated expansion of needs.

May 2007 is National Foster Care Month
National Foster Care Month serves as a platform for connecting vulnerable children in foster care to concerned, nurturing adults who, no matter how much time they have to give, can do something that will change a lifetime for a young person in foster care.

Browse the FIS article archive for research, case studies, and policy recommendations in foster care, adoption, and child welfare. More information.

Read the Alliance for Children and Families report Child Welfare Workforce: Implications for the Private Nonprofit Sector, a white paper addressing what author Susan Dreyfus says is a crisis that must be addressed immediately by the sector. This report was made possible with funding from Houston-based Cornerstone for Kids.

Dreyfus, Alliance COO, says that the association views the focus on workforce issues …as "timely, imperative, and critical to the improvement of child welfare outcomes.”

Conferences
2007 Senior Leadership Conference
The Alliance for Children and Families’ 39th Annual Senior Leadership Conference, “Valuing the Past and Looking to the Future”, provided participants with three developmental tracks: programmatic, leadership, and organizational.

Browse the online post-conference materials for sessions like “A Platform for Strengthening Families”, “Developing a Political Advocacy Strategy”, and “Maintaining an Energized Workforce Requires Creativity and Innovation”.

Reports
Spreading the Pain: The Social Cost of Incarcerating Parents
The Alliance for Children and Families Research and Evaluation Services presents a collection of various studies that examine the concept of social cost and its application to incarceration. An overview is provided of a broad range of literature documenting the direct and indirect effects of incarceration on individuals, families, communities, and the public at large.

Spreading the Pain is a report that includes a comprehensive itemization of the elements of social cost and social benefit, and application of the analysis to a cohort of drug felons in New York State.

Current Issue  │ Table of Contents  │  Article Summaries  │ Editorial

This issue includes topics on spirituality and social work, approaches for agency services, parenting and child care, fathering and fatherhood, mental health issues, and social work practice.

Online subscribers and registered users can access the full-text article links below. Sign in now, subscribe, or register for a free account.

To view all articles, visit the current issue page. Online subscribers can view the complete issue and non-subscribers can view all abstracts and summaries.

Helping Nonresidential Fathers: The Case for Teen and Adult Unmarried Fathers
by James R. Dudley
Nonresidential fathers, especially unmarried adults and teens, consistently report feeling neglected both by the legal and family courts systems and in social work practice. This article challenges practitioners to make a greater commitment to these fathers, few of whom have legal parental rights though many long for greater involvement with their children. The author posits that, in many cases, the same approaches that have helped nonresidential divorced fathers can be applied in aiding unmarried fathers. For social service professionals, assisting fathers includes approaches such as adopting strengths-based practice methods and mediating custody arrangements. Training and support in parenting skills, mentoring, support groups and guidance in understanding and establishing the man’s identity as a father would also prove beneficial.
Abstract │  Article PDF (free to registered users)

A Model for Organizational Change: Using an Employee-Driven, Multilevel Intervention
by Maryann Amodeo, Michael A. Ellis, Jonna Hopwood, & Laura Derman
To respond to emerging social problems, evolving community needs, and fluctuations in funding, human service organizations need mechanisms for designing, implementing, and solidifying agency-wide change. The case study presented in this article demonstrates a multimethod initiative to effect organizational change. Specifically, the study describes the development of standards of excellence in client care by a cross-functional, multisite, not-for-profit addiction treatment agency. A “change team” of employees from throughout the organization used a variety of methods to integrate the standards into agency practice. Principles of effective change were reflected in the initiative’s comprehensive nature; its transparency to staff and ample communication between organizational levels and groups; and its provision of tools (e.g., standards, training sessions, manual, supervision) to staff members so they could make the necessary changes in their performance to meet the newly clarified expectations.
Abstract │  Article PDF (free to registered users)

Service Coordination in Family-Centered Childhood Disability Services: Quality Assessment From the Family Perspective
by Barry Trute
Over the past several decades, there have been substantial advances in how child health and family support services have been conceptualized and delivered to children with developmental disabilities. Central to this change has been the commitment to family-centered services (FCS), of which service coordination (formerly termed case management in the human services) is a pivotal aspect. It requires the provision of needed services for the child and the family to be delivered in an integrated and coordinated manner. This article presents a strategy for the quality assessment of service coordination that is based on the perspective of the service recipient. A model is suggested that identifies a tentative service path for the delivery and evaluation of the service coordination function and recognizes key targets of functional family outcomes.
Abstract │  Article PDF (free to registered users)

Four Areas of Support for Child and Youth Care Workers
by Mark Krueger
Despite the critical role child and youth care workers have in the effectiveness of group care, many factors, including low pay and demanding working conditions, make it difficult to recruit, prepare, and keep competent workers. Authored by a child and youth care trainer/consultant with 25 years experience, this article reflects on the development of care staff as an interpersonal, intersubjective, contextual process of human interaction. In particular, development can be a parallel process in which the way workers and other members of an organization interact with each other is interconnected with the way they interact with children, youth, and families. If workers can have empathy for each other, they are more likely to have empathy for consumers and their families, and vice versa. In this context, the author emphasizes how workers and administrators can work together to create an environment that cares for self, mentors new workers, promotes participation, and supports an atmosphere of inclusion and expression.
Abstract │  Article PDF (free to registered users)

We want to hear from you...
FIS is a forum for social workers, practitioners, and educators to explore and share new ideas and concepts in the fields of social work and human services.  Let your voice be heard through Letters to the Editor, Field Notes, or Op-Ed pieces.  See www.familiesinsociety.org/writing.asp for more information. 

Is there something missing you’d like featured in an FIS E-Alert? Send an email with your idea: alerts@familiesinsociety.org