scholarly journals Exploring Racial Disproportionalities and Disparities for Black Families Involved with the Child Welfare System

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Travonne Edwards ◽  
Amina Hussain ◽  
Christa Sato ◽  
Jason King ◽  
Michael Saini ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Child Welfare ◽  
Scoping Review ◽  
Web Of Science ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Black Families ◽  
Child Welfare System ◽  
Welfare System ◽  
Welfare Systems ◽  
Geographical Locations

Background: The overrepresentation of Black families in child welfare systems across the various geographical locations (e.g. America, Canada, United Kingdom) is a growing concern. There are competing explanations for the causes of overrepresentation and recommendations for eliminating racial disproportionalities and disparities in child welfare system. This systemic scoping review will provide a succinct synthesis of the current literature on Black disproportionality and disparity in child welfare. Methods/Design: This systemic scoping review will employ Arksey and O’Malley’s (2005) five stage framework. This will direct our search of the seven academic databases (EBSCO: Criminal Justice Abstracts OVID: Social Work Abstracts Pro Quest: PsychINFO, ERIC, Sociological Abstracts, International Bibliography of Social Sciences and Web of Science Core Collections). These seven databases have been chosen due to their interdisciplinary resources on the issue of overrepresentation of Black families in the child welfare sector. The thematic findings will be systemically synthesized using qualitative analysis and presented visually through a chart. Eligible articles for this scoping review include literature that speaks directly to the experiences of Black families involved with the child welfare system. The results of this scoping review will increase the understanding of how racial disproportionalities and disparities emerge, common outcomes and ways to begin tackling this phenomenon for Black families. Discussion: In order to tackle this gap in knowledge regarding the overrepresentation of Black families in the child welfare system, this comprehensive scoping review will systematically organize the literature in order to understand how this issue manifests and to fill this gap in research. This methodological approach will allow for the development of practical and intentional methods to move forward in mitigating this issue.

Racial Disproportionality and Disparities in the Child Welfare System: Why Do They Exist, and What Can Be Done to Address Them?

2020 ◽  
Vol 692 (1) ◽  
pp. 253-274
Author(s):  
Alan J. Dettlaff ◽  
Reiko Boyd
Keyword(s):  
Child Welfare ◽  
Black Children ◽  
Child Welfare System ◽  
Welfare System ◽  
Children And Families ◽  
Children Of Color ◽  
Racial Disproportionality ◽  
Welfare Systems ◽  
External Causes ◽  
Child Welfare Systems

Children of color are overrepresented in the child welfare system, and Black children have been most significantly impacted by this racial disproportionality. Racial disproportionality in child welfare exists because of influences that are both external to child welfare systems and part of the child welfare system. We summarize the causes of racial disproportionality, arguing that internal and external causes of disproportional involvement originate from a common underlying factor: structural and institutional racism that is both within child welfare systems and part of society at large. Further, we review options for addressing racial disproportionality, arguing that it needs to be rectified because of the harm it causes Black children and families and that forcible separation of children from their parents can no longer be viewed as an acceptable form of intervention for families in need.

scholarly journals Former Youth in Care: Kinship Care and Its Potential Impact on Black Families & Cultural Identity in the Child Welfare System

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Osei
Keyword(s):  
Child Welfare ◽  
Kinship Care ◽  
Black Families ◽  
Child Welfare System ◽  
Welfare System ◽  
Children And Youth ◽  
Greater Toronto Area ◽  
Youth In Care ◽  
System Data ◽  
Disproportionate Number

In 2016, the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) launched a public inquiry to determine whether or not there was a disproportionate number of racialized populations representing the child welfare system. Data collected from the Children’s Aid Society of Toronto (2015) showed that while African Canadians make up 8.5% of the Torontonian population, they made up 40.8% of the children and youth in the child welfare system. This alarming information called for changes in the ways Black children and youth have been impacted and what changes could be made with policy. This research study intends to highlight policies that have been implemented in response to over-represented communities in the child welfare system with a particular focus on kinship care and how it is incorporated into policy that seeks to improve the treatment and service for Black families in the Greater Toronto Area.

scholarly journals Options for Africa’s Child Welfare Systems from Nigeria’s Unsustainable Multicultural Models

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 1118
Author(s):  
Thomas Akintayo
Keyword(s):  
Child Welfare ◽  
Child Welfare System ◽  
Welfare System ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Response Options ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Welfare Systems ◽  
Mind Maps ◽  
Child Welfare Systems

The sustainability of Africa’s existing child welfare systems remains uncertain, potentially owing to the maltreatment of children amid the competing worldviews of the continent’s indigenous and non-indigenous practices and international childcare models. This article focuses on Nigeria’s unsustainable multicultural child welfare system in order to highlight the inherent challenges of child welfare systems in Africa and proffer remedies. Seven discernible trends derived from available indigenous sources of information and scholarly literature on Nigeria are used as mind maps to describe and discuss Nigeria’s multicultural characteristics and childcare practices. From the discussion, the country’s child welfare challenges manifest in the following forms: ethnocultural, or more specifically, ethnoreligious diversity; the infiltration of Nigeria by non-native worldviews; colonial legacies; vacillating post-colonial social policies; conceptual ambiguities in non-indigenous welfare terminologies; and persistent unnecessary professional rivalries, which are also present in other African countries. As remedies, three transformative response options for the sustainability of the Nigerian child welfare system and those of other African countries are recommended: embracing cultural relativity regarding child maltreatment, leveraging the transformative and expanded mandates of the social work profession for the development of effective and sustainable child welfare systems, and using research and systems thinking as a driver for transforming professional rivalries into multidisciplinary approaches.

scholarly journals Comportamientos sexuales de riesgo en adolescentes del sistema de protección: una revisión sistemática

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 367-378
Author(s):  
Olga Fernández-García ◽  
Verónica Estruch-García ◽  
Cristina Giménez-García ◽  
Jesús Castro-Calvo ◽  
Rafael Ballester-Arnal ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Behavior ◽  
Child Welfare ◽  
Sexual Risk ◽  
Foster Youth ◽  
Web Of Science ◽  
Child Welfare System ◽  
Welfare System ◽  
Palabras Clave ◽  
Revisión Sistemática ◽  
El Sistema

La salud sexual de los/as adolescentes y jóvenes suele mirarse desde una lente que se enfoca en los problemas. En el caso de los adolescentes que están en el sistema de protección infantil este análisis centrado en los riesgos es mayor si cabe, dado que experimentan tasas más altas de resultados negativos de salud sexual. La presente revisión tiene el objetivo de examinar la literatura relacionada con los comportamientos sexuales de riesgo de los adolescentes y jóvenes que se encuentran en el sistema de protección. Para ello, se han consultado varias bases de datos (Web of Science, Scopus y PUBMED), restringiendo la búsqueda a las palabras clave “sexual behavior” o “sexual risk” y “child welfare system” o “foster youth”, y el rango de publicación entre 2011 y 2021. De las 1496 publicaciones identificadas inicialmente, se eliminaron aquellas duplicadas y/o que no cumplían los criterios de inclusión, quedándonos con un total de 22 artículos. La mitad de las publicaciones que analizaban los comportamientos predictivos de conductas sexuales de riesgo se centraban en las experiencias de abuso sexual en la infancia. Por otro lado, el 22,7% de los artículos analizados informaban de un uso deficitario del preservativo entre los jóvenes en hogares de acogida, mientras que el 18,2% afirmaban que este colectivo presenta una mayor prevalencia de ITS y el 31,8% reportan que las tasas de embarazo son más altas entre las chicas de esta población. Asimismo, el 18,2% de los estudios analizados encontraron indicios de una posible relación entre la participación en el sistema de bienestar infantil y en actividades de sexo transaccional. Así, aunque la investigación sobre este tema sigue siendo escasa, esta revisión pone de manifiesto el riesgo de desarrollar patrones poco saludables de sexualidad entre los jóvenes del sistema de protección.

scholarly journals Stuck in the Ways of the South: How Meritocracy, Bureaucracy, and a One-Size-Fits-All Approach to Child Welfare fails Nunavut’s Children

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Johnston
Keyword(s):  
Child Welfare ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Child Welfare System ◽  
Current Approach ◽  
Welfare System ◽  
Colonial Power ◽  
Welfare Systems ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Government ◽  
Auditor General

Based on qualitative research that explored the experiences of social workers in Nunavut’s child welfare system, this paper examines the current approach to child welfare in light of a critical report issued by Canada’s Auditor General in March 2011. Through a discussion of meritocracy, this study highlights the problematic approach to child welfare used by the Government of Nunavut, particularly in their reliance on Qallunaat or nonInuit social workers. The territory’s current child welfare system, modeled on child welfare systems operating throughout southern Canada, does little to change the status quo and instead serves to maintain the colonial power structure in place for the last 50 years. This study determined that a unique and culturally relevant approach to child welfare is needed in Nunavut and Inuit traditional knowledge is essential is the move towards this important goal2.

scholarly journals Highlighting two black families experience with Ontario's Child Welfare System

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Felix
Keyword(s):  
Child Welfare ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Black Children ◽  
Black Families ◽  
Child Welfare System ◽  
Welfare System ◽  
Black Parents ◽  
Qualitative Research Study ◽  
Canadian Population ◽  
Ongoing Relationship

Black children are entering child welfare system at a rate five times higher than that of the average Canadian population (Polanyi et al., 2014). There are approximately 539, 205 (8% of the population) Black individuals living in Ontario, yet Black children make up 41% of the children in the care of Children’s Aid Society (Polanyi et al., 2014). The disproportionate apprehension of marginalized children is not a new issue; it is only recently that child welfare organizations have acknowledged that this is an issue. This prompted some agencies to release disaggregated race-based data outlining racial disparities. This phenomenological qualitative research study intends to highlight the stories of two Black parents who have had an ongoing relationship with Ontario’s child welfare system. This research hopes to outline their similarities, differences and the intricate experiences. Their experiences will be examined through a critical lens guided by anti-black racism and critical race theory.

scholarly journals Highlighting two black families experience with Ontario's Child Welfare System

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Felix
Keyword(s):  
Child Welfare ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Black Children ◽  
Black Families ◽  
Child Welfare System ◽  
Welfare System ◽  
Black Parents ◽  
Qualitative Research Study ◽  
Canadian Population ◽  
Ongoing Relationship

Black children are entering child welfare system at a rate five times higher than that of the average Canadian population (Polanyi et al., 2014). There are approximately 539, 205 (8% of the population) Black individuals living in Ontario, yet Black children make up 41% of the children in the care of Children’s Aid Society (Polanyi et al., 2014). The disproportionate apprehension of marginalized children is not a new issue; it is only recently that child welfare organizations have acknowledged that this is an issue. This prompted some agencies to release disaggregated race-based data outlining racial disparities. This phenomenological qualitative research study intends to highlight the stories of two Black parents who have had an ongoing relationship with Ontario’s child welfare system. This research hopes to outline their similarities, differences and the intricate experiences. Their experiences will be examined through a critical lens guided by anti-black racism and critical race theory.

scholarly journals Using Peacemaking Circles to Indigenize Tribal Child Welfare

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Van Schilfgaarde ◽  
Brett Lee Shelton
Keyword(s):  
Child Welfare ◽  
Extended Family ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Child Welfare System ◽  
Welfare System ◽  
Reciprocal Relationship ◽  
Federal Policies ◽  
Welfare Systems ◽  
Circle Processes ◽  
Child Welfare Systems

Historical child welfare policies explicitly aimed to exterminate Indigenous culture and disrupt tribal cohesion. The remnants of these policies form the foundation for the contemporary child welfare system. These policies view the child as an isolated and interchangeable asset, over which parents enjoy property-like rights, and in which the child welfare system is incentivized to “save” children from perceived economic, cultural, and geographic ills through an adversarial process. Extended family, community members, and cultural connections have minimal voice or value. These underpinnings inform federal policies that influence all child welfare systems, including tribal child welfare systems. The result is that tribal child welfare systems perpetuate the individual, rights-centric, adversarial child welfare system that harms Indigenous families. Indigenous children have the right to maintain connections to their Indigenous family, tribal nation, culture, and cultural education. These rights translate into obligations the community owes to the child to ensure that these connections are robust. Tradition-based systems of dispute resolution—frequently called “peacemaking,” among other names, but which we will call “circle processes”—offer a hopeful alternative. Circle processes are rooted in an Indigenous worldview that perceives an issue, particularly a child welfare issue, as evidence of community imbalance that directly impacts the community, and conversely, imparts an obligation on the community to respond. Through the circle, family and community can complete their natural reciprocal relationship. Tribal child welfare has the potential to be a transformative system that promotes community, family, and children’s health and the self-determination and sovereignty of tribes. This Article outlines the ways in which the modern tribal child welfare system has been structured to compartmentalize families and perpetuate historical federal policies of Indian family separation. This Article then suggests that circle processes are a framework for re-Indigenizing the tribal child welfare system to not just improve outcomes (for which it has the potential to do), but to also honor the interconnected, responsibility oriented worldview of Indigenous communities. Ultimately, however, tribes should lead that re-Indigenization process, whether through a circle process framework or otherwise.

Racial disparity in the Ontario child welfare system: Conceptualizing policies and practices that drive involvement for Black families

2021 ◽  
Vol 120 ◽  
pp. 105711
Author(s):  
Faisa Mohamud ◽  
Travonne Edwards ◽  
Kofi Antwi-Boasiako ◽  
Kineesha William ◽  
Jason King ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Child Welfare ◽  
Racial Disparity ◽  
Black Families ◽  
Child Welfare System ◽  
Welfare System ◽  
Policies And Practices
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