January 2009 Children, Youth, and Families Interest Group Newsletter

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CHI LORE N, YO UTH , IN TEREST GROUP

LET US KNOW WHAT YOU TH I NK :

The Children, Youth, & Fantilies Interest Group Newsletter

• CO MTACT THE CY& F GROUP AT SSWCYF@U" ICH . EO U

• Would JOU" a19ncy lllclB to participate In a collaboratory!

I NS I DE THIS ISSUE :

February 2009 Collaboratory On February 2, 2009, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., the Children, Youth, and Families (CY&F) Interest Group will sponsor a collaboratory at the University of Michigan's School of Social Work titled ''Settlement Agreement of the Class Action Lawsuit filed by Children's Rights against Michigan Department of Human Services."

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Professor Karen Stalle r Assists San Francisco

A collaboratory is a conversation among SSW faculty, doctoral students, MSW students, community practitioners, and clients involving cutting-edge issues related to Children, Youth, and Families, and sponsored by the U-M School of Social Work. The objectives for the collaboratory on the Michigan Children' s Rights Lawsuit Settlement are as follows:

I. To apprise participants of the conditions in Michl-

gan' s foster care system that spurred the Children' s Rights lawsuit.

2. To apprise participants of the provisions in the settlement agreement between Children's Rights and the State of Michigan.

5. To describe next steps in implementing the agreement.

6. To critically evaluate class action lawsuits as a strategy for achieving social justice for children.

3. To describe the obstacles and challenges of implementing the sweeping changes called for in the settlement agreement.

The moderator will be Kathleen Coulbom Faller, Marion Eliz.abeth Blue Professor of Children & Families. All speakers will have 20 minutes to present and I 0 minutes for questions.

4. To discuss the progress in implementing the changes to date.

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SA VE THE DA TE CY&F Collaboratory February 2, 2009 1 p.m.-4 p.m.

School of Social Work Educational Conference Center 1080 S. University Ann Arbor, Ml 48109

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Collaboratory Preview, Continued Kathryne O'Grady, JD, Michigan Department of Human Services deputy for children and adult policy, will speak about negotiating the settlement and the challenges of implementing such an agreement in hard economic times.

Sarah Bartosz, JD, Children's Rights attorney, will speak about the role of class action lawsuits in seeking justice for children, the investigation process employed in constructing a class action lawsuit, the litigation process, and outcomes from class action lawsuits.

Lisa Alexander-Taylor, JD, member of the Federal Monitor Team from Public Catalyst Group for the Michigan Settlement Agreement, will speak about the role of a federal monitor and challenges of implementation of settlement agreements.

Lisa Alexander-Taylor

The sum.maiy speaker will be Vivek Sankaran, JD, assistant professor, Law School, and supervising attorney, Child Advocacy Law Clinic, Class Action Lawsuits and Social Justice for Children.

A reception will follow.

Vivek Sankaran

Previous Collaboratory: Barriers to Mental Health Service Use by Diverse Children and Families On April 11, 2008, the CY&F Interest Group sponsored a collaboratory at the Guidance Center in Southgate, Michigan, titled "Barriers to Mental Health Services Use by Diverse Children and Families: How Integration of Services Can Help." Presenters included Michael Spencer, PhD, associate professor at the University of Michigan School of Social Work, and Deborah Willis, PhD, director of programs at the Guidance Center.

The collaboratory had three objectives: ( l) to describe knowledge about the vulnerability to mental health problems, response to these problems, and barriers to client help-seeking from professionals, particularly for diverse communities; (2) to discuss one agency's response to these barriers by endeavors to develop services integration, a centralized intake for children and families, and an electronic case record; and (3) to provide the client perspective from individuals who have faced barriers and challenges to diverse populations and arrived at one product that can be an outcome of this collaboratory.

Deb Willis and Michael Lott of the Guidance Center listen to Associate Professor Michael Spencer at the April 2008 collaboratory.

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Eight Schools of Social Work sign a $16.5 Million Cooperative Agreement with the USDHIIS Children's Bureau It is common knowledge that the nation's child welfare system is in crisis.

Child welfare workers are enormously challenged by their jobs, and turnover is very high. These challenges and turnover negatively impact the quality of services to children and families.

The University of Michigan School of Social Work is one of eight schools of social work who are recipients of a five-year cooperative agreement from the USDHHS Children's Bureau, which is intended to significantly impact the child welfare workforce. The other seven schools are Michigan State University, State University of New York at Albany, University of North Carolina, Fordham University, University of Iowa, University of Southern Maine, and University of Denver.

other institutions and endeavors attempting to enhance and improve the child welfare workforce. They will particularly focus on leadership training and support of child welfare midmanagers and supervisors and provide traineeships at the BSW and MSW levels for students whose career goal is to work in child welfare.

Kathleen C. Faller

Professor Kathleen Coulborn Faller is the principal investigator, and Professor Robert M. Ortega is the co-investigator on the University of Michigan's component of NCWWI. Their activities will include developing a distance learning training package for midmanagers and supervisors on "cultural humility" and evaluating the BSW and MSW traineeships and mid-manager training.

Robert M. Ortega

The National Child Welfare Worl<force Institute (NCWWI) will partner with

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Associate Professor Karen Staller Assists San Francisco Neighborhood The Haight-Ashbury neighborhood in San Francisco has long served as the symbolic epicenter of the 1960s counterculture. In 1967 it hosted the Summer of Love, a gathering of free spirits from across the country. That event also marks the birth date and place of Huckleberry House, the country's first runaway youth shelter. I have written about this historic link in my book, Runaways: How the Sixties Counterculture Shaped Today's Practices and Policies.

Nonetheless, I was surprised recently by an urgent plea from some Haight residents asking if

I would come help start a constructive conversation about runaways in a neighborhood increasingly hostile to them. In short, they were asking, What is an ever more gentrified neighborhood to do with its historic legacy as magnet for wandering youth?

I participated in a number of community meetings with residents and service providers in October 2008. The trip culminated in an event held at the Booksmith, an independent bookstore on Haight Street, entitled "A Community Forum: A Cmcial Conversation about

Runaway Youth," moderated by San Francisco Chronicle journalist C. W. Nevius. The large crowd included service providers, police officers, local business owners, students, and residents. The forum sparked a lively discussion and new crosspollination of ideas.

While the "problem" is far from solved, there was clear evidence of the beginning of a "constructive conversation."

- Karen Staller

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Karen Staller

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University of Michigan Children, Youth, & Families Interest Group University of Michigan School of Social Work 1080 S. University Ave. Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1106 Phone: 734-764-3309 Fax: 734-936-1961 sswcyf@umich.edu

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UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

School of Social Work University of Michigan School of Social Work Children, Youth, & Families Interest Group

If your agency is Interested in participating in a collaboratory, please email

Bringing academic research and community practice together

sswcyf@umlch.edu.

The Regents of the University: Julia Donovan Darlow, Laurence B. Deitch, Denise Bitch, Olivia P. Maynard, Andrea Fischer Newman, Andrew C. Richner, S. Martin Taylor, Katherine E. White, Mary Sue Coleman (ex officio) The University of Michigan is a non-discriminatory, affrrrnative action employer.