Describes and assesses the impact of the 1989 Children Act on the family support aspects of statutory child-care social work. Outlines ideological challenges to family support work and traces the main themes in relevant professional and research literature. Presents the family support clauses of the act and an account of the dominant concerns that…

Lists candidates for National Head Start Association (NHSA) elected positions and announces four new awards sponsored by the NHSA. Recognizes the Missouri State Highway Patrol for its work with Head Start children. Presents a draft report on the NHSA Quality Initiative, a system designed to promote quality in Head Start and to provide challenges…

Argues that home visiting and related services have been shaped and constrained by the tendency to use services as a substitute for adequate income and economic opportunity, by ambivalent attitudes toward poor people, and by a preoccupation with the effects of poverty on child rearing. Proposes basic principles of practice that should guide early…

Reviews recent studies of family preservation and related family-strengthening programs. Estimates the effect sizes of outcomes in studies with control or comparison conditions. Also identifies a set of core services that characterize innovative family preservation programs in child welfare, multisystemic family treatment in juvenile justice, and…

Evaluates an attempt to establish a support group for parents and relatives whose children were in the care of one health board, based on a qualitative study supplemented by individual interviews. Shows that this support group was successful. Suggests ways in which the therapeutic potential of such groups could be enhanced and more parents…

This study evaluates the effects of the Coping Power Program with at-risk preadolescent boys at the time of transition from elementary school to middle school. Aggressive boys were randomly assigned to receive only the Coping Power child component, the full Coping Power Program with parent and child components, or a control condition. Results…

There is currently movement internationally towards the integration of services for young children and their families, incorporating childcare, education, health and family support. Shifting service provision towards partnership between services, and between these services and families, has been the subject of policy formation at various levels.…

This report summarizes discussions from two round-table seminars exploring federal programs that affect children and families. Ideas presented in this report are organized around five topics: (1) symptoms of fragmented federal programs for children and families; (2) why coordinated services for children and families are so rare; (3) what Congress…

This document reports successes of San Antonio's private, nonprofit Avance program in promoting enrollment in classes by low-income Hispanic mothers of infants or young children. Also reported are outcomes of attempts to identify predictors of course-taking. The Avance Parent-Child Education Program is a 9-month, comprehensive, center-based…

Several conventional approaches to conceptualization and the measurement of objectives in publicly funded, long-term home care for the non-institutionalized elderly are reviewed critically. The formulation of objectives which focus on immediate, desired consequences of services, and lend themselves to behavioral measurement, is proposed. The…

Presents an overview of an evaluation of the effectiveness and impact of family-centered home-based services as implemented within the Child Welfare Division of Hennepin County, Minnesota Community Services Department, which worked with families of an adolescent who had been approved for out-of-home placement. (BB)

Evaluates two respite programs which offer families temporary relief from caring for elderly relatives: an institutional program for those needing constant nursing attention, and a residential plan for those requiring housekeeping and companion services. Benefits for clients, family, and community appear to be indisputable. (Author/ABB)

This book provides a detailed review of a National Institute on Drug Abuse-funded, long-term clinical trial of the Family Empowerment Intervention (FEI). FEI is a systems-oriented, low-cost intervention delivered in the home by trained nontherapists for high-risk youths who have been arrested and their families. The subjects were a group of over…

This study explored the potential of meta-analysis for assessing the efficacy of interventions designed for parents of young, environmentally at-risk children. Included in the sample were 232 evaluations of 282 parent-focused interventions implemented between 1965 and 1999; evaluations met 10 criteria, including the inclusion of a treatment and…

The Phoenix Early Head Start (EHS) program is a family-centered program intended to provide early, continuous, intensive, and comprehensive child development and family support services for first-time teen parents and their very young children. This report presents case studies of 12 families, all EHS participants, who agreed to be followed…