Child welfare leaders, frontline workers, parents and advocatesgathered in New York City on March 16 for a forum about the impact of the Parent Advocate Initiative, a two-year project to support six NYC foster care agencies in hiring and training eight parent advocates. Parents whose own children were once in foster care now work at 22 of the private foster care agencies in New York City, as well as the city’s child welfare … Read More
News
As a Parent in Partnership, I Can Help
April 09, 2011 by
Five years ago, my sister told me that the Department of Children and Family Services in Los Angeles was having a meeting for parents who had been through the system and reunified with their children. I was thinking, “What do they want from us?” But my sister and I went together.
The social workers asked us, ”What did you go through? Can you tell us how you felt?” My children were in … Read More
Parents’ and Children’s Rights at Stake- What a case before the Supreme Court means for families
April 09, 2011 by
Chris Gottlieb, co-director of the Family Defense Clinic at the New York University School of Law, explains Camreta v. Greene, a caseheard by the Supreme Court in March:
The case Camreta v. Greene involves parents’ and children’s rights in child welfare cases. The case started when a mother in Oregon sued child protective services because of what they had done to her daughter. The child protective services (CPS) worker in the case … Read More
A Guide to Show Parents They Are Not Alone
March 09, 2011 by
About 10 years ago, I was going through a bad time in my marriage. One night when my husband abused me, I called the police and theytook my children and me to the hospital for an examination.
Child protective services (CPS) did a quick assessment and decided to take my three children. They never let me take my kids home from the hospital or even say goodbye. I was lost.
If … Read More
Parent Leaders Helped My Family Get the Services We Need
February 09, 2011 by
My husband and I have three children, ages 12, 8 and 17 months. Our oldest has deafness and ADHD, our middle child has blindness andADHD with severe behavioral problems, and our toddler has asthma, is developmentally delayed and has had liver transplants.
Last October, CPS came to our home late at night, claiming that our middle child was coming to school in dirty clothes. It’s true that he has favorite clothing that he … Read More