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Advocating for Families
Caseworkers advocate for services for individual families and help families learn to advocate for themselves and negotiate with service systems to obtain needed help. Caseworkers can also play a prominent role in empowering and advocating for families to become interdependent members of the community.
Family advocacy focuses on the principles of family development, communication skills for workers, and promoting the participation of community residents and families in the design of services.
Advocacy Matters: Helping Mothers and Their Children Involved With the Child Protection System (PDF - 420 KB)
Family Violence Prevention Fund (2003)
Underscores the importance of advocacy, provides tips for how to improve practice in this area, and helps workers understand a woman's situation and help her navigate the road to safety, well-being, and self-sufficiency.
Advocating for the Needs of Children and Families
Murphy & Leake
Protecting Children, 17(2), 2002
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Examples of case-level advocacy efforts include the Court Appointed Special Advocate program for children, the American Family Advocacy Center, and foster and adoptive parent support groups.
Better Public Policy for Children, Youth and Families: An Advocacy Guide
Rollin (2001)
In Advocacy for Children and Families: Moving from Sympathy to Empathy
Designed to assist advocates in effectively lobbying for services for children, youth, and families at the Federal level.
Empowerment Skills for Family Workers Instructor's Manual
Palmer-House & Forest (2003)
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Course outlines and instructions for implementing the Empowerment Skills for Family Workers curriculum for social workers and other professionals who serve families.
Empowerment Skills for Family Workers: A Worker Handbook
Forest (2003)
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Describes practice strategies for implementing the family development approach.
Families at the Center of the Development of a System of Care
Tannen (1996)
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Describes efforts to establish a family-designed system of care in the Adirondack Mountains in rural Essex County, New York.
Information Packet: Child, Youth and Family Advocacy (PDF - 110 KB)
Cho (2003)
Describes the basis for social worker involvement and outlines advocacy strategies that can be utilized by professionals. The packet also includes a review of policies and legislation and lists of references and web resources.
Managed Behavioral Health Care for Children and Youth: A Family Advocate's Guide
Osher, Koyanagi, & Schulzinger (1996)
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Explains the application of managed care plans for mental health services for children. Describes principles of managed care, reimbursement methods, review procedures, and State plans to use managed care arrangements for public health programs.
The Parent Leadership Project: Volunteers in Action Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect
Rafael (1997)
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Final report from a 3-year grant project that enhanced the capacity of Parents Anonymous volunteers to strengthen communities by creating leadership roles for parents, who then become successful change agents to prevent child abuse and neglect.
Promoting the Participation Rights of Children and Young People in Family Group Conferences (PDF - 50 KB)
Horan & Dalrymple (2004)
The work of Barnardo's Family Group Conference Project in Wiltshire, England, and its use of independent advocates to promote the participatory practice of children and young people in the family group conference process.
The Role of Family Members in Systems of Care
Koroloff, Friesen, Reilly, & Rinkin (1996)
In Children's Mental Health: Creating Systems of Care in a Changing Society
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Discusses the involvement of families in organizing and providing services needed by their children with serious emotional disorders, in terms of the early role of parents and other caregivers as targets for change, the inclusion of families as part of the therapeutic target system and as informal providers of community services, collaborative efforts between families and professionals, the development of advocacy roles for family members, and the use of wraparound services.
Self-Governance in Communities and Families
Nelson (2000)
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Explains the benefits of self-governance and describes how social institutions can use discussions to engage citizens in planning. The concepts are based on collaboration between individuals and government agencies.
Taking Families Seriously: Family Impact Analysis as an Essential Policy Tool
Ooms (1996)
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Describes a conceptual framework and methodology for assessing the impact of certain policies and programs on families.