Child Welfare Information Gateway
Skip to main content
  • U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
  • Administration for Children & Families
  • Children's Bureau
Child Welfare Information Gateway
REPORT ABUSE OR
NEGLECT
FIND HELP WITH A
PERSONAL SITUATION   

Home Topics Publications Library State Resources More Tools & Resources News & Events
REPORT ABUSE OR
NEGLECT
FIND HELP WITH A
PERSONAL SITUATION   
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Chat
  • Free Subscriptions
  • Resources in Spanish
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Chat
  • Resources in Spanish
  • Shopping Cart
  • Home
  • Topics
    • Family-Centered Practice
      • Philosophy and Key Elements of Family-Centered Practice
      • Family-Centered Practice Across the Service Continuum
      • Engaging Families
      • Family-Centered Casework Practice
      • Family Group Decision-Making
      • Engaging Communities to Support Families
      • Creating a Family-Centered Agency Culture
    • Child Abuse & Neglect
      • Definitions of Child Abuse & Neglect
      • Identification of Child Abuse & Neglect
      • Risk Factors That Contribute to Child Abuse and Neglect
      • People Who Engage in Child Abuse or Neglect
      • Impact of Child Abuse & Neglect
      • Child Abuse & Neglect Fatalities
    • Preventing Child Abuse & Neglect
      • National Child Abuse Prevention Month
      • Overview: Preventing Child Abuse & Neglect
      • Promoting Child & Family Well-Being
      • Public Awareness & Creating Supportive Communities
      • Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Programs
      • Developing & Sustaining Prevention Programs
      • Evidence-Based Practice for Child Abuse Prevention
      • Evaluating Prevention Programs
    • Responding to Child Abuse & Neglect
      • Introduction to Responding to Child Abuse & Neglect
      • Reporting Child Abuse and Neglect
      • Assessment in Child Protection
      • Differential Response in Child Protective Services
      • Child Protection Casework Practice
      • Responding to Child Maltreatment Near Fatalities and Fatalities
      • Trauma-Informed Practice in Child Welfare
      • Collaborative Responses to Child Abuse & Neglect
    • Supporting & Preserving Families
      • Supporting Families With Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders
      • Introduction to Family Support and Preservation
      • In-Home Services Involved With Child Protection
      • Family Support Services
      • Resources for Managers of Family Support and Preservation Services
      • Family Preservation Services
    • Out-of-Home Care
      • National Foster Care Month
      • Overview: Out-of-Home Care
      • Foster Care
      • Group and Residential Care
      • Kinship Care
      • Casework Practice in Out-of-Home Care
      • Transition to Adulthood and Independent Living
      • Placement Decisions
      • Resources for Foster Families
    • Achieving & Maintaining Permanency
      • Overview: Achieving & Maintaining Permanency
      • Reunifying Families
      • Recruiting and Retaining Resource Families
      • Permanency With Relatives and Kin
      • Guardianship
      • Permanency for Specific Youth Populations
      • Legal and Court Issues in Permanency
      • Interjurisdictional Placements
      • Working With Children, Youth, and Families in Permanency Planning
      • Working With Children, Youth, and Families After Permanency
      • Resources for Administrators and Managers About Permanency
      • Resources for Families About Permanency
    • Adoption
      • National Adoption Month
      • All-In Foster Adoption Challenge
      • Children's Bureau Adoption Call to Action
      • Adoption and Guardianship Assistance by State
      • Introduction to Adoption
      • Ethical Issues in Adoption
      • For Adopted People
      • For Adoption Program Managers & Administrators
      • For Expectant Parents Considering Adoption and Birth Parents
      • How to Adopt
      • Laws Related to Adoption
      • Parenting After Adoption
      • Preplacement Adoption Casework Practice
      • Postplacement Adoption Casework Practice
      • Search & Reunion in Adoption
    • Management & Supervision
      • Administering & Managing Child Welfare Agencies & Programs
      • Child Welfare Practice Improvement
      • Disaster Preparedness & Response
      • Ethical Practice & Client Rights
      • Evaluating Program and Practice Effectiveness
      • Funding
      • Information Systems & Data
      • Supervising Child Welfare Services
      • System Reform
      • Training
      • Workforce
    • Systemwide
      • Assessment
      • Behavioral Health & Wellness
      • Courts
      • Cultural Responsiveness
      • Diverse Populations and Communities
      • Domestic Violence
      • Human Trafficking
      • Laws & Policies
      • Service Array
      • Statistics
      • Well-Being
      • Youth
  • Publications
    • Publications Series
    • Browse by Topic
    • Browse by Title
    • índice de Títulos en Español (Spanish Title Index)
  • Library
    • Library Services
    • Library Search Help
  • State Resources
    • State Statutes
    • National Foster Care & Adoption Directory
    • State Guides & Manuals Search
    • State-Related Organizations Lists
    • Adoption and Guardianship Assistance by State
  • More Tools & Resources
    • Related Organizations
    • Learning Center
    • Resources From the Children's Bureau
      • Children's Bureau Discretionary Grants
      • The Story of the Children's Bureau
      • Children's Bureau Video Series
    • Child Welfare Information Gateway Podcast Series
    • Multimedia
      • Videos
      • Webinars
    • Family Engagement Inventory
  • News & Events
    • Free Subscriptions
    • Adoption Triad
    • Children's Bureau Express (CBX)
    • The Grantee Connection
    • New on Information Gateway
    • New From the Children's Bureau
    • Event Calendar
  • Home
  • Topics
  • Family-Centered Practice
  • Family-Centered Casework Practice
  • Advocating for Families

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.

The following resources address ways to advocate for families and include State and local examples.

From Rights to Reality: A Blueprint for Parent Advocacy and Family-Centered Child Welfare Reform
Rise Magazine (2015) 
Encourages parents and parent advocates to rally around a common set of goals. This special issue of Rise magazine outlines 15 proposed rights that Rise believes parents involved in the child welfare system should have.

How to Advocate
North American Council on Adoptable Children
Explains how foster parents, kinship caregivers, young people, and child care professionals can advocate and change the world. The website provides links to learn more about advocacy. Read tips for working with policymakers, explore sample strategies others have used, and learn how to convey messages. A toolkit on adoption-related issues is also included. 

Improving Messages in Kinship Care, Foster Care, and Adoption [Webinar]
North American Council on Adoptable Children
Provides access to a webinar on improving public perception of kinship, foster, and adoptive caregivers and their children and youth. The webinar covers tips and tools that can be used to shape messages, information about how language matters in discussions about these topics, and examples. 

New Resources and Developments for Kinship Advocates
American Bar Association (2017)
Child Law Practice Today, July
Offers a list of national organizations working on behalf of kinship families and provides descriptions of each, including resources that may be useful to kinship care advocates.  

Prevent, Protect & Provide: How Child Welfare Can Better Support Low-Income Families (PDF - 397 KB)
Martin & Citrin (2014)
Center for the Study of Social Policy
Presents information on the state of poor families in the child welfare system and describes how it is important for child welfare systems to consider more sustainable ways to support families' needs and help them on a long-term path of well-being. The report provides examples of ways communities have been helped and lists best practices for working with and advocating for low-income families.

Where Have We Been and Where Are We Going? A Conceptual Framework for Child Advocacy
Cascardi, Brown, Shpiegel, & Alvarez (2015)
SAGE Open 
Examines the development of child advocacy as a field of study and concludes with a conceptual framework for research and higher education in child advocacy. The article outlines the history of child advocacy, discusses balancing children's rights and protection, and provides a framework for future study. 

(Back to Top)

State and local examples

Advocacy and Political Action Committee
Chicago American Indian Community Collaborative
Describes a program designed to enhance services and bridge communication between the State and communities involved with American Indian/Alaskan Native children and families. The organization also works to identify and advocate for these families and ensure compliance with the Indian Child Welfare Act.

Child Advocates
Mobilizes court-appointed volunteers to break the cycle of child abuse and speak up for children in the child welfare system in Houston, TX, and surrounding areas. 

Children's Advocacy Resource Center
Kansas Legal Services (2018)
Offers support and legal services to people serving and caring for homeless children and children in the foster care system in Kansas. The website also offers information about advocacy and links to several resources. 

Children's Ombudsman Offices/Office of the Child Advocate
National Conference of State Legislatures (2018)
Describes the Children’s Ombudsman Office, alternatively known as the Office of the Child Advocate, that many states have established to assist in providing oversight of children's services. The website provides an overview of what an ombudsman/child advocate does and lists their jurisdiction, powers, and duties in each State. 

Court Appointed Special Advocates Guardians ad Litem for Children
Supports and promotes court-appointed volunteer advocacy so every abused or neglected child in the country can be safe, have a permanent home, and have the opportunity to thrive. 

Promoting Safe and Stable Families: Detroit Center for Family Advocacy (PDF - 2,601 KB)
University of Michigan Law School Child Advocacy Law Clinic (2014)
Explores the work of the Detroit Center for Family Advocacy and describes how it has helped specific families in Detroit. The organization provides direct legal and social services while using outreach and training, policy advocacy, collaboration, education, and instruction to push for change on all levels. 

(Back to Top)

Children's Bureau - An office of the Administration for Children and Families

Child Welfare Information Gateway is a service of the

  • Children’s Bureau
  • Administration for Children and Families
  • U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
↑ Back to top
  • HOME
  • TOPICS
    • Family-Centered Practice
    • Child Abuse & Neglect
    • Preventing Child Abuse & Neglect
    • Responding to Child Abuse & Neglect
    • Supporting & Preserving Families
    • Out-of-Home Care
    • Achieving & Maintaining Permanency
    • Adoption
    • Management & Supervision
    • Systemwide
  • National Initiatives
    • National Adoption Month
    • National Child Abuse Prevention Month
    • National Foster Care Month
  • Publications
    • Publications Series
    • Browse by Title
    • Browse by Topic
    • Índice de Títulos en Español
  • Library
    • Search the Library
  • State Resources
    • State Statutes
    • National Foster Care & Adoption Directory
    • State Guides & Manuals
    • State Related Organizations Lists
    • Adoption Assistance by State
  • More Tools & Resources
    • Related Organizations
    • Learning Center
    • Children's Bureau Resources
    • Information Gateway Podcast
    • Multimedia
    • Family Engagement Inventory
  • NEWS AND EVENTS
    • New on Information Gateway
    • New From the Children's Bureau
    • Event Calendar
  • ABOUT US
    • How to Report Child Abuse or Neglect
    • Find Help With a Personal Situation
    • Frequently Asked Questions
    • Glossary
    • Search A to Z
  • Contact Us
    • 1-800-394-3366
    • info@childwelfare.gov
    • Subscribe to Free Updates
    • Chat With Us
  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on YouTube
  • POLICIES & HELPFUL LINKS
    • Disclaimer and Policies
    • Privacy Policy
    • Accessibility
    • FOIA requests
    • No FEAR Act data
    • Office of the Inspector General
    • Performance reports
    • Vulnerability Disclosure Policy
    • USA.gov
    • Download Acrobat Reader
  • ↑ Back to top