News From the Field (SPRING 2023)
National child welfare policy, practice and research
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Welcome back to News From the Field, and our last edition of the 2022-2023 Academic Year. At the Field Center this year, our team has focused our attention upon exploring how to best partner with those who have lived experience in the systems that serve them. This often means struggling with how and why these systems aren’t working as intended, and how we can position ourselves to make change when lasting improvements seem elusive. As researchers, advocates, educators, and practitioners, we aim to strengthen our work by including experts with first-hand knowledge. In the words of the great advocate Bryan Stevenson, in order to create change that moves our society towards real justice, we have to “Get proximate – and be prepared to be uncomfortable.”
Personally, I have been involved in various initiatives to address the gun violence epidemic that is impacting children, youth, and young adults in Philadelphia and across the nation. I’ve spent time with youth who are supported by the Beloved Care Project, which provides healing circles for those affected by gun violence. Their 2nd Annual March this April brought hundreds of youth and supporters to Center City to advocate for change. Shameka Sawyer’s 5 Shorts Project teaches filmmaking skills to youth so they can create their own documentaries of their lived experience with gun violence. At PennGSE, doctoral student Amina Brown and staff member Jasmine Marshall-Butler are listening to teachers who have lost students to gun violence, and our Office of School and Community Engagement is partnering with the SDP to provide mental health support resources for educators and leaders who are supporting others while struggling themselves in the face of repeated trauma.
Our efforts to partner with individuals with lived experience in child welfare and related systems as well as those currently serving these young people and families represent an important first step in creating systemic change. In this edition of News From the Field, you will read about our college access work, aiming to make higher education more attainable for older youth in foster care. You will also have the chance to learn how our one of our Faculty Directors, Cindy Connolly, combines her passion for child welfare and child wellbeing with other research interests.
As we look ahead to summer, we will be continuing to search for the best ways to connect to the community around us while educating the next generation of leaders at the University of Pennsylvania in this connected, responsive work. There’s much to be done – get proximate with us. With our best wishes for a safe and happy summer,
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Caroline L. Watts, Ed.D. (she/her/hers)
Director, Office of School and Community Engagement
Senior Lecturer, Professional Counseling Programs
Human Development & Quantitative Methods Division
University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education
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COLLEGE ACCESS WORK IMPACTS OLDER YOUTH IN CARE
New Resource Targets Higher Education Institutions
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Across the nation, states use many different models to promote higher education for youth in foster care. Unfortunately, in many areas of the country, young people experiencing out of home placement do not have access to the information, resources, or relational and financial support that can contribute to successfully attending and completing college. Under the Field Center’s “Foster Care to College” initiative, our team aims to increase the number of adolescents in Pennsylvania who pursue higher education through a variety of activities.
Under the training arm of the Foster Care to College Initiative, our webinars tackle rotating topics targeting different audiences. Next up is “TO AND THROUGH HIGHER EDUCATION: Innovative Approaches to Meeting the Needs of Students in Foster Care” on May 4th at 1pm EST. This free webinar is geared towards child welfare and education professionals in Pennsylvania, but national learners are welcome to attend. With commitment from intersecting systems, we can eliminate the gap in academic achievement for this population!
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New Field Center Website Improves Features |
Our new website offers visitors improved search functions to access critical child welfare information, including a calendar of all upcoming events here and a catalog of original resources organized by type here.
Have a suggestion for something you’d like to see on our website? Email us! |
Our vital work depends on you |
To promote our vision where children are loved and nurtured, and families have access to the resources they need to thrive, please consider a donation to the Field Center for Children’s Policy, Practice & Research.
All donations will be generously matched by the Joseph and Marie Field Foundation. 100% of your donation supports our critical work.
To learn more about how you can support our work, please contact the SP2 Director of Institutional Advancement Bart Miltenberger at miltenbe@upenn.edu or 215-573-5624.
For more information click
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Stay Connected and Stay Informed
Stay up to date with the latest in child welfare by following the Field Center on social media. Click the buttons below to follow The Field Center:
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Upcoming Child Welfare Conferences
ABA Center on Children and the Law 2nd National Conference on Interdisciplinary Parent Representation
May 11-12, 2023
Denver, CO
2023 QPI National Virtual Conference Keeping Children Connected to Culture, Kin, and Community: Moving from Research to Action
May 16-18, 2023
Virtual
The American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children (APSAC) 2023 Colloquium
May 22-26, 2023
Denver, CO
52nd National Foster Parent Association (NFPA) Annual Education Conference
June 23-25, 2023
Reston, VA
46th NACC National Child Welfare Law Conference From Learning to Action: Shared Accountability for Disrupting Harm and Promoting Healing
Aug 10-12 and Sept 20-22, 2023
Minneapolis, MN and Virtual
Together for Prevention: 2023 Prevent Child Abuse America National Conference
Aug 22-24, 2023
Baltimore, MD
2023 Kempe Center International Virtual Conference: A Call to Action to Change Child Welfare
Oct 2-5, 2023
Virtual
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FACULTY SPOTLIGHT: DR. CINDY CONNOLLY
By Meghan Chasar, Field Center MSW Student
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Combining her love of history and passion for nursing, Faculty Director Cindy Connolly brings her own interdisciplinary perspective to the Field Center. Cindy’s career in pediatric nursing has afforded her numerous opportunities to directly impact clients, from working in a neonatal ICU to running an adolescent eating disorders program. She then went on to earn her Ph.D. at Penn, followed by completing a fellowship on Capitol Hill, where she brought real-world experience to reauthorizing The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA). “I was the only clinician in the room who had ever known what happens when a kid enters a practice or an ER. I could talk about the flaws in the legislation,” Cindy said.
Cindy’s first publication, Saving sickly children: The tuberculosis preventorium in American life, was born out of her career as a pediatric nurse during the AIDS pandemic in the 1980s. Reflecting on her interest in this topic, Cindy remarked “I was interested in infectious diseases because I hadn’t learned anything about them in nursing school, and they drove the world in which I was practicing.” Using her interest in historical healthcare, Cindy’s drive for social justice is evident in everything she does. This encouraged her to join the interdisciplinary team at the Field Center through her existing connection with Faculty Director Dr. Cindy Christian.
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Since becoming a Co-Faculty Director in 2011, Cindy is proud to contribute to developing best practices when it comes to the care of children and youth in our nation. She brings her nursing and historical expertise into meaningful conversations surrounding issues that affect children, from abuse to poverty. Cindy’s knowledge and collaboration with the Field Center reminds us that learning about the policies of the past help us understand why we are where we are today, and how we can move forward.
Cindy also has contributed to an invited book chapter with other Field Center Faculty Directors titled “Child Welfare and Poverty: The American Paradox”, published in the Penn School of Social Policy and Practice’s 2017 collection, Social Policy and Social Justice. This collaborative piece covered diverse and historical issues surrounding child welfare. “That's my favorite part,” Cindy says, “because I feel like I’m doing something to help the kids and families.”
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EXPERT VOICES AND LIVED EXPERIENCE
By Jamie Suk, Lerner Fellow in Child Welfare Policy
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Throughout the past year, the Field Center has been dedicated to promoting the importance of elevating the voices of those with lived experience in the child welfare system. Lived experience is defined as direct, personal experience in the child welfare and Family Court system. For children and youth who have experienced foster care in the United States, all too often decisions, not only directly related to foster care, but also decisions regarding other critical aspects of their lives such as schooling and medical care, are made by adults who have no idea what it feels like to be in these youth’s shoes. The Field Center hopes to change this by exploring different ways of elevating the voices of those with lived experience because these voices are critical to creating impactful change in the child welfare system.
During my year-long externship at the Field Center, I have seen the importance of qualitative lived-experience research, such as the 2021 study on COVID and mental health, that aims to do just this. I was challenged as a student to explore how youth voices can be elevated in different sectors, including facilitating and participating in seminars and brainstorming sessions to generate future action. Finally, for my final project I aimed to produce a podcast episode for the Field Center featuring a guest with lived experience.
To read Jamie’s full article on youth voice and lived experience, click here.
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EVALUATIONS OF PROMISING PRACTICES IN CHILD WELFARE |
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NGOs respond nimbly to diverse and ever-changing needs, creating innovative solutions as they do so. These solutions may hold important implications and applications for other programs and contexts around the world. However, how can we be sure these innovative practices are achieving the results we hope for? How can we know they are producing good and not harm? Evaluation helps us to know what works, what doesn’t, and what can be better. Yet many NGOs don’t have the time or expertise to carefully evaluate the practices they are using. That’s where the CAFO Research Challenge Grant comes in.
Four Researcher + NGO pairs (including the Field Center’s Managing Faculty Director Dr. Johanna Greeson + Agape Children’s Ministry in Kenya) were matched up and worked together over the course of a year to:
· Gather data about the NGO’s promising practice
· Analyze the data to identify the practice’s strengths and areas for growth
· Translate the data into a format that’s easy to understand and put into practice
Preliminary findings from these studies will be shared in an upcoming virtual event. Join us for this webinar on May 10th, 2023 to hear directly from the four Researcher + NGO pairs about the promising practice they looked at together, the results of their evaluation, and the implications for utilizing this practice elsewhere. Registration for this global event is available here.
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YOUNG PROFESSIONALS COUNCIL ADDS NEW MEMBERS |
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The Field Center’s Young Professionals Council is a group of Philadelphia-area advocates who are passionate about child and family wellbeing. YPC members help expand the reach and impact of the Center’s work by sharing our publications, resources, events, and trainings with colleagues. The YPC also contributes to Field Center activities and hosts an annual fundraiser to support our critical child welfare initiatives. We are thrilled to welcome five new members this year:
· Lindsay Cooper, MSW
· Emma DiMarcantonio, LSW
· Jennie Mata, LMSW
· Jennifer Spata, JD
· Brendan Yospa, CRU
To view the full list of members, click here. We look forward to working with the 2023 Young Professionals Council for the remainder of the year!
The Field Center’s Young Professionals Council activities are funded in part by a generous grant from the University of Pennsylvania’s Trustees’ Council of Penn Women.
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FIELD CENTER RECENT PUBLICATIONS, PRESENTATIONS & GRANTS |
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Field Center experts recently published the following:
Drake, B., Jones, D., Kim, H., Gyourko, J., Garcia, A., Barth, R.P., Font, S.A., Putnam-Hornstein, E., Berrick, J.D., Greeson, J.K.P., Cook, V., Kohl, P.L. & Jonson-Reid, M. (2023). Racial/Ethnic Differences in Child Protective Services Reporting, Substantiation and Placement, With Comparison to Non-CPS Risks and Outcomes: 2005–2019. Child Maltreatment.
Mankad, K., Sidpra, J., Mirsky, D.M., Oates, A.J., Colleran, G.C., Lucato, L.T., Kan E, Kilborn, T., Agrawal, N., Teeuw, A.H., Kelly, P., Zeitlin, D., Carter, F., Debelle, G.D., Berger, R.P., Christian. C.W., Lindberg, D.M., Raissaki, M., Argyropoulou, M., Adamsbaum., C., Cain, T., van Rijn, R.R., Silvera, V.M., Rossi, A., Kemp, A.M., Choudhary, A.K. & Offiah, A.C. (2023). International consensus statement on the radiological screening of contact children in the context of suspected child physical abuse. JAMA Pediatrics.
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Protecting Children, Preserving Dreams |
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