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Rural Issues in Child Welfare
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Resources
- Am I Rural?
This service from the Rural Assistance Center can be used to help determine whether a specific location is considered rural based on various definitions of rural, including definitions that are used as eligibility criteria for federal programs. Just enter an address or zip code to access the database and receive an easy-to-read report.
- Rural Research Needs and Data Sources for Selected Human Services Topics
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services launched a study to learn more about social and economic conditions and trends in rural areas, identify high-priority family and community needs, and assess knowledge about these needs and the services available to address them. This report from Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. describes the study and findings. It also identifies data that could support empirical research, presenting information on 80 data sources that the research community could use to study three human services topics in rural areas: work supports for low-income families, substance abuse, and child welfare.
- Interagency Collaboration in Rural Areas
This issue of Managing Care for Children and Families from the National Resource Center for Organizational Improvement This newsletter explores two approaches
to interagency collaboration
in rural areas, and the potential
of these collaborations to improve
the services available to children
and families. It features the
work of local, community-based
interagency groups and highlights
the HERO collaboration and family
resource center in Hale County,
Alabama; and discusses collaboration
between child-serving
systems at the state level that support
interagency teamwork on the
local level, illustrated by the partnerships
between child welfare,
mental health and local systems of
care in Utah.
- Reaching Out: Current Issues for Child Welfare Practice in Rural Communities
The Summer 2005 issue of this newsletter from the Center for Human Services and the Northern California Training Academy includes statistics on ways in which California rural and urban counties differ with respect to child welfare and a number of articles about providing services in rural communities.
- Rural Child Welfare 101
This article from the Child Welfare League of America's Children's Voice provides an overview of issues in child welfare practice in rural areas.
- Meeting the Challenge of Social Service Delivery in Rural Areas
This Issue Note from the Finance Project (formerly the Welfare Information Network) explores the challenges facing social service agencies in delivering services to meet the special needs of rural area residents. It offers suggestions on how to design programs and policies to address those needs.
Resources from the States
- Training for Effective Child Welfare Practice in Rural Communities
The Children's Bureau is funding six projects, beginning in FY 2003 and running for five years. Grantees are:
- Portland State University, Portland, OR
Portland State University is partnering with Oregon's Department of Human Services, Children, Adults, and Families, and the Family & Youth Services Training Academy at the University of Alaska at Anchorage to create a plan and curricula to train over the life of the grant 418 rural child welfare workers and 400 foster parents and community partners to better understand and implement effective practice to provide for the safety, permanency and well-being of rural children and families.
- San Diego State University Foundation, San Diego, CA
- Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, CA
- Southwest Missouri State University, Springfield, MO
- Texas State University, San Marcos, TX
The Texas State University School of Social Work has launched a technology assisted MSW degree program with an emphasis in rural child welfare. This program is tailored to address the unique needs and challenges of social work in a rural setting.
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC
The goal of the Rural Success Project at UNC Jordan Institute for Families is to develop training to enhance the effectiveness of child welfare workers and supervisors who serve rural communities. Planned project products include a multi-module curriculum, tools for conducting agency and community engagement dialogues, a guide for helping States develop rural child welfare outreach strategies, proceedings from state and national summits, annual evaluation reports, and related articles and publications.
Websites
- Rural Assistance Center
A product of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Rural Initiative, the Rural Assistance Center (RAC) was established in December 2002 as a rural health and human services "information portal." RAC helps rural communities and other rural stakeholders access the full range of available programs, funding, and research that can enable them to provide quality health and human services to rural residents.
Last updated 08/22/07
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