This article presents propensity score matching as a method to implement randomized conditions to analyze service effects using nonexperimental data. Most social work research is challenged to implement randomized clinical trials, whereas administrative and survey data are often available and can provide valuable information about services…

Describes several innovative types of shared family-care arrangements that demonstrate promise in the protection of children and the promotion of family well-being. Emphasizes the shared-family foster-care model, whereby children and parents are placed with host families rather than separating them. Notes key elements of the model: funding and…

Shared family care has been defined as the planned provision of out-of-home care to parents and their children so that the parents, supported by the host caregiver, cares for the child and works toward independent in-house care; this approach is an alternative to the trauma of separation and lack of continuity inherent to foster care placement.…