Child Welfare News

Working with the Oklahoma State Department of Health’s Family Support and Prevention Service division, six communities across the state -- Ardmore, Lawton, McAlester, Oklahoma City, Shawnee and Stillwater -- will now begin implementing The Front Porch Project, the American Humane Association’s community-based initiative to prevent child abuse and neglect.

National studies identify a disproportionate representation of children of color in the child welfare system, compared to their percentage in the general population. Once in the system, children and families of color often face unequal opportunities and access to needed services, and are more at risk for poor short- and long-term outcomes than their white counterparts

John Fluke, Ph.D., director of American Humane’s Child Protection Research Center, will give two presentations at the Atlantic Canada Child Welfare Forum III in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, on March 25, 2010.

American Humane Association has named Robert Sawyer a senior fellow of its Children’s Division. Sawyer has led the implementation of a number of progressive child welfare and child mental health reforms, including differential response in child protection and family group decision making in Olmsted County, Minn.

In testimony today before the U.S. House Committee on Education and Labor’s Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities, Caren Kaplan, MSW, director of child protection reform for the American Humane Association, strongly urged Congress to reauthorize and increase funding for the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA), the landmark 1974 legislation that addresses child abuse and neglect. The hearing was titled “Preventing Child Abuse and Improving Responses to Families in Crisis.”

The American Humane Association today announced that Michael Doolan, former adjunct senior fellow at the School of Social Work and Human Services at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, has joined American Humane’s National Center on Family Group Decision Making as a fellow.