Almost 80 percent of abused or neglected children will remain or return to live with their family of origin. (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2005.)

This issue* of A Closer Look examines:

• Definitions of family involvement;
• Families in child welfare, yesterday and today;
• Grant communities respond to challenges in strengthening family involvement;
• Operationalizing family involvement in system change; and
• What leaders can do to support family-agency partnerships for system transformation.

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Defining Family Involvement
• Insights from the Field
• Challenges and Strategies for Involving Families in Meaningful Ways
• Implications for Administrators and Stakeholders
• Demonstration Sites and References

Improving Child Welfare Outcomes Through Systems of Care
In 2003, the Children's Bureau funded nine demonstration grants to test the efficacy of a system of care approach to improving outcomes for children and families involved in the child welfare system and to address policy, practice, and cross-system collaboration issues raised by the Child and Family Services Reviews. Specifically, this approach is designed to improve the capacity of human service agencies to strengthen and support families involved in public child welfare through a set of six guiding principles:

1. Interagency collaboration;
2. Individualized strengths-based care;
3. Cultural and linguistic competence;
4. Child, youth, and family involvement;
5. Community-based services, and;
6. Accountability.

A Closer Look is a series of short reports that spotlight issues addressed by public child welfare agencies and their partners in implementing systems of care approaches to improve services and outcomes for the children and families they serve. These reports draw on the experiences of nine communities participating in the Children's Bureau's Improving Child Welfare Outcomes Through Systems of Care demonstration initiative, and summarize their challenges, promising practices, and lessons learned. The reports provide information communities nationwide can use in planning, implementing, and evaluating effective child welfare driven systems of care.

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^* The National Technical Assistance and Evaluation Center wishes to thank the following family leaders and agency practitioners for their contributions to the development of this resource: Lynn Usher, Susan Franklin, and Ed Cohen. back

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This material may be freely reproduced and distributed. However, when doing so, please credit Child Welfare Information Gateway.