Arlene Bowers Andrews

The impact of a media campaign on public action to help maltreated children in addictive families

Developed because of the need to promote public understanding of the link between addictions and child maltreatment, a multimedia campaign helped to increase by 62% the average monthly number of people who called a telephone service for information about how to aid abused and neglected children. The campaign was supported by market research and professional experience that indicated the campaign should focus on easy action a citizen could take, avoid inducing fear or blame, and target third party helpers and younger families-at-risk. Campaign exposure was promoted through the support of corporate partners. A random household survey found that 61% of the general population had seen or heard the campaign slogan. The average monthly calls to the child maltreatment information service regarding alcohol and other drug abuse tripled and the requests regarding at-risk children almost doubled. An auxiliary project provided interprofessional education to increase the probability that people seeking help would get it when referrals were made. The project yielded several lessons for future public awareness campaigns: focus on helping action rather than the problem; use of client-based market research; a strategic plan to assure necessary exposure; reliance on public-private-nonprofit sector partnerships; preparation of the service system; promotion of personal ways of helping.

Building Evaluation Capacity in Community-Based Organizations

Abstract This article presents the challenges and successes of a university-based empowerment evaluation team as they promoted community-based organizational (CBO) self-evaluation skills through a large community capacity building effort funded by a community foundation. Using a reflective inquiry approach, the teams approach to empowerment evaluation is discussed, and the hows, the whys, and the outcomes of the teams efforts are presented. Lessons learned emphasize the significance of training, role clarity, management of power relations, participant readiness, adequate resources, technology, coaching skill, and mutual support through a coaching network and interagency networks. Perhaps most significantly, clear and consistent communication between grantee and grantmaker, mediated by evaluation coaches, promoted evaluations that address internal and external stakeholder needs. The ideology of empowerment guided this project, and participatory research did prevail, but grantee self-direction was harder to enable. Likewise, consumer participation was woefully limited.

Promoting Program Success and Fulfilling Accountability Requirements in a Statewide Community-Based Initiative: Challenges, Progress, and Lessons Learned.

Abstract Large community initiatives are a growing phenomenon both in the U.S. and worldwide. These initiatives address a wide variety of issues, including early childhood development, by integrating institutions such as schools, health agencies, and faith-based institutions that focus on separate but related aspects of community concern. A major challenge facing these initiatives is the competing demands of developing organizational capacity to promote effective programming while simultaneously delivering demonstrable results and accountability. Empowerment evaluation (Fetterman, Kaftarian, & Wandersman, 1996) is an approach to evaluation and organizational capacity building that equips participants at all levels of an organization to pursue programming quality and results. This article describes and presents lessons learned from the development and implementation of a system of tools and processes, grounded in the principles of empowerment evaluation, designed to promote quality in the planning, implementation, and evaluation of a statewide school readiness initiative. While these lessons are specifically applicable to community-based early childhood development initiatives, they are broadly applicable to initiatives fostering systems change through community development.

An exploratory study of political attitudes and acts among child and family services workers

This study explored the policy advocacy potential, regarded as the propensity to influence public policy, of a diverse group (n = 184) of child and family services workers in one state by assessing their political attitudes and actions through a survey questionnaire. The workers demonstrated typically high trust in the American system of government, moderately high levels of internal political efficacy, and low levels of trust in incumbent political officials. A large majority of respondents believe they can and should act politically on behalf of children and their families but do less than they could. Nine out of ten respondents did at least one political act during the year of the study; 75% acted through organizations or groups; about half took a public stand; half personally contacted an elected official; and only about 20% participated in political campaigns. Internal political efficacy was positively correlated with political activity level; associations between the other political attitudes and activity were not found. Respondent characteristics, including gender, race, age, parental status, education, employment auspices (government, non-government), job status (paid, volunteer), and residence near the state capital (or not), were studied with regard to various political acts. The test for significance indicated only education made a difference; the higher the education, the more activity. The study suggests the political action potential of child and family services workers is underdeveloped and that encouragement and training are needed to increase political participation rates.

Evidence-Based Principles for Choosing Programs To Serve Parents in the Child Welfare System

Summarized here as criteria and questions to ask when choosing a program, the research evidence about services to parents in the child welfare system reveals three core principles: the parenting program fits the child welfare system, demonstrates specific accountability, and supports parental efficacy through engagement, empowerment, and leadership.

The Rationale for Measuring and Monitoring Children’s Well-Being

This volume is entirely devoted to the subject of measuring and monitoring children’s1 well-being. It is not intended primarily to be an academic or research venture, but rather to provide a tool for practitioners, professionals, and, in fact, anyone who works with and for children. We believe that such a tool is essential for any meaningful effort to promote the well-being of children. Initially, some four years ago, a small group of children’s advocates—practitioners and researchers—asked themselves the following question: if measuring and monitoring children’s well-being is so obviously important and has such positive potential, why do we still face numerous problems in developing and implementing the use of these valuable tools? Moreover, where such tools do exist, the practice of actual and consistent monitoring is rare.

Building systems for safety in the family: The U.S. experience

Abstract Because of its global influence, its cultural emphasis on civil rights, and its heavy reliance on law enforcement strategies, the United States presents an especially interesting case in comparative studies of systems for control of family violence. The cultural emphasis on the legal system is found in the responses to both child maltreatment and intimate partner violence, and both protection systems continue to face serious challenges. Nonetheless, advocates concerned with these problems have often been in conflict. As concern has increased about children exposed to intimate partner violence, however, there has begun to be some ideological rapprochement between the two groups of advocates.

A Social Worker's Perspective on Pornography

As advocates for the oppressed and for personal freedom, social workers may find themselves torn by opposing views on pornography. Critical questions about pornography have gone unanswered. This article reviews fundamental issues in the debate about pornography as a step toward stimulating systematic research by social workers in response to these questions.

Addressing Child Maltreatment Through Mutual Support and Self-Help Among Parents

Parent-to-parent mutual support and self-help are core elements of any community system of family care. The challenge is to actualize capacity for all parents with due regard to culture, socioeconomic status, gender, place, and other critical factors. The sample programs reviewed here include crisis supports (e.g. helplines), peer-to-peer coaching, parent mutual support groups, support skills development, and neighborhood centers. In each, parent-to-parent relationships are reciprocal – everyone is seeking help and everyone gives help. But programs for self-help and mutual support are often regarded as supplemental to professional services. What if professional services were seen as supplemental to the family’s own efforts? This would require a social norms transformation throughout the social ecology – individual, family, neighborhood, organizational, and policy levels. To honor and support parental efforts as primary, not supplemental, could transform communities in ways that lead to safety, nurture, and stability for children.

Underlying Assumptions and Basic Guidelines for Measuring and Monitoring Children’s Well-Being

We began this volume by laying out our rationale for supporting efforts aimed at measuring and monitoring the well-being of children. We have also reviewed the efforts to date, addressing a wide variety of studies and reports, nationally and internationally, which reflect the very extensive agreement among governmental and nongovernmental organizations, scholars, and practitioners on the need to continue, and indeed to expand, these measuring and monitoring efforts. In this chapter, we provide an explanation of our basic assumptions, and explicate the general principles that have guided our research and recommendations.