Child Advocacy 360: 'news you can use' in strengthening communities for children & families

  • “Hope” Grows: an Intergenerational Community, 14 Years On

    Fourteen years ago, two researchers turned an abandoned air force base into a vibrant intergenerational community to strengthen foster families and turn seniors into active givers of supports. Now, as sites across the country replicate this approach, Hope Meadows is adapting to the new challenges that come with long-term success.
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  • Youth Advocacy Center teaches teens how to shoot for the stars

    We have written before about the work of New York's Youth Advocacy Center and were once again impressed with this one-to-one learning experience...
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  • The 4 M's of Quality: Quality Matters, is Measurable, Moveable and Malleable

    The 4M framework, developed by The Forum for Youth Investment, puts forth in a few concise paragraphs that "quality matters, quality is measurable, quality is moveable, and quality is malleable."
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“Kid-Powered”: Turning a County-Owned Farm into an Earth School

Earth School December 3—Concerned that young people were increasingly disconnected from the real (read: natural) world, actress and teacher Barbara Sarbin turned a county farm into a hands-on Earth School. Here’s a look at how she did it.
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Connect For Kids and CA 360 Form Content Partnership

We are very pleased to announce that Child Advocacy 360 and Connect for Kids have formed a newsletter and Web partnership in which we will share and expand upon news features of special interest to our respective audiences. There will be high focus on Who's Doing What That Works stories, as well as Voices & Views, all done in the essence journalism style that has characterized our work.

Combining content resources will enhance our joint abilities to track and report continuing progress on the initiatives we cover, and to receive anecdotal feedback from a much wider audience of professional and citizen advocates. At Child Advocacy 360 we feel privileged to be working closely with CFK and its parent organization, The Forum for Youth Investment.
-- Hershel Sarbin, editor and publisher

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> Child Advocacy 360 SmartBrief archives

Adoption and Foster Care

  • Major Child Welfare Law Signed; CFK PolicyWatch

    To borrow a tagline and flip it: what happens in Washington, doesn’t stay in Washington—far from it. Budget and policy decisions on Capitol Hill (and in state capitals across the country) have a big impact on even the smallest neighborhoods. Connectforkids.org looks at the new child welfare reform law, enacted in October 2008, and other policies to watch.

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  • Foster Care 2008: What We Know, Where We're Going (a Q&A)

    Connect for Kids spoke with Candice Douglass, communications director with Casey Family Programs, to get the latest on foster care and child well-being, and emerging trends we should all know about. We also got the scoop the Kinship Caregiver Support Act currently in Congress and an innovative approach to permanency for teens in a Q&A with Celeste Bodner, executive director of FosterClub, the national network for young people in foster care. Find out what’s new, what’s working, and how you can make a difference no matter how much time you’ve got to give.

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  • Scorecard: Children’s Rights & Hitting the MARC

    Tracking the reach and results of the work is a challenging task for many child and youth organizations. In our ongoing Scorecard series, CFK and Child Advocacy 360 highlight examples of organizations' efforts to measure impact and results. Here, Children's Rights, Inc., shares its follow-up to the groundbreaking Hitting the M.A.R.C. foster care reimbursement study.

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  • In Mississippi, a Sweeping Legal Victory for Kids

    Mississippi plans a serious overhaul of its child welfare system to do more to protect the approximately 3,400 abused and neglected children in its care. Last week, the state settled a class action lawsuit spearheaded by the advocacy group Children's Rights by enacting a truly comprehensive reform plan. Connect for Kids has the details -- and will track the progress of the reforms on our site.

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Lessons Learned from Tracking Brenda Eheart and Hope Meadows

When I launched Child Advocacy 360 Foundation and its news service in 2007, one of our first Who’s Doing What That Works stories was about Hope Meadows, the multi-generational community in Rantoul, Illinois created by Brenda Krause Eheart, Martha Bauman Power, Carolyn Casteel and a small group of like-minded friends.

Generations of Hope, the nonprofit that administers Hope Meadows, recently expanded its intergenerational approach to include helping single mothers leaving prison reunite with their children in a caring multi-generational support environment. It is a brave experiment with high promise.
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Issue and Insights:

  • Graduation for All: "At This Rate, We'll Lose Generations"

    Texas graduation rates haven't improved much in over 20 years. In fact, the newest Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA) study finds that Texas schools lose one high school student every four minutes—that's one-third of the state's students. So what would it take to get to a drop out rate of zero? IDRA's Grad4All looks at what can work, and how adults can get involved to make sure more students in Texas and across the country graduate on time and with the skills they need to succeed.

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  • "Hope" Grows: an Intergenerational Community, 14 Years On

    Fourteen years ago, an abandoned air force base was transformed into a vibrant intergenerational community, Hope Meadows, to help move children from foster care to adoption and turn seniors into active givers of supports and services. Now, as sites across the country replicate their approach, Hope Meadows is adapting to the new challenges that come with long-term success.

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  • For U.S. Children, Mixed End to 110th Congress

    October 22: Child advocates across the country are quietly cheering some recent successes in Congress—including significant reform to the child welfare system—while raising concerns about a setback that may leave many homeless children without services they need.

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Voices and Views:

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    Wanted: Youth Work Principles in Schools

    Karen Pittman recently sat down with the real experts on the "high school dropout crisis"—seven students from Des Moines, five of whom had dropped out and another who had come very close. In her latest Youth Today column, Karen shares what these young people had to say about why they left, what made them return to school and what they recommend for education.

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    Getting Beyond the Foster Care System: What Works for Teens

    Could you have made it entirely on your own at 18 or 21? Each year, roughly 25,000 young people “age out” of the foster care system, many without family or economic supports. Without connection to a caring adult and support to plan and prepare, these youth face steep challenges, including higher rates of unemployment, poor educational attainment, health issues, incarceration, and homelessness.

    But those are the problems, the statistics—what about the potential of these teens, and their desire to succeed? We spoke with Betsy Krebs, co-director of the New York City-based Youth Advocacy Center, about what works to help teens aging out of foster care succeed. There’s room for the whole community...

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