Blake Jones

The value and role of Citizen Review Panels in child welfare: perceptions of citizens review panel members and child protection workers

. . . although citizens sporadically become engaged with, not to say infuriated at, child welfare agencies, in the last decades there has been remarkably little regular week-to-week engagement by lay people. . . Perhaps child welfare administrators or the officials to whom they report are too busy or too defensive to engage lay people in a true partnership. It is a mistake. Lay people need to be drawn in—given authority and candid information—if child welfare is not to be isolated in the face of what is coming (p. 130).

Using concept mapping as a planning tool: Child welfare citizen review panels

Citizen Review Panels (CRPs) are groups of citizen volunteers authorized by U.S. federal law to examine state child welfare agencies. These groups inspect policies and practices related to child protection responsibilities and are tasked with making recommendations for systemic improvement. Despite the federal mandate for each state to develop a CRP and the potential of these groups to positively impact child welfare practices, there is a dearth in the literature related to CRPs. Consequently, planning and evaluation processes of these groups vary widely. This study reports on the use of concept mapping (CM) to outline a framework for planning and subsequently evaluating the CRP in one southeastern state. CM is a mixed-method research approach that uses multi-dimensional scaling and hierarchical cluster analyses to explore an area of study. Through these analyses, the method creates visual depictions of conceptual relationships between ideas. Data yielded a seven cluster concept map that CRP members (N=36) utilized for planning processes, and subsequently for developing an internal evaluation tool. Results from this study offer a unifying framework by which CRPs, and similar groups in other areas can utilize for planning and evaluation purposes. After a review of pertinent literature on CRPs, this article explicates CM processes utilized in this study, describes results, discusses lessons learned, and outlines apposite areas for future CRP research.

What do we know about strategies for involving citizens in public child welfare : a review of recent literature and implications for policy, practice, and future research.

Citizens are increasingly being called upon to participate in public child welfare programs. This participation—through such federally mandated programs as Foster Care Review Boards, Court Appointed Special Advocates, and Citizen Review Panels—can potentially promote authentic community involvement or leave angry agencies and panel members in its wake. These disparate outcomes are dependent upon numerous factors both within the child welfare agency and the broader civic domain. This article reviews the current literature on citizen participation in public child welfare with special emphasis on the programs mentioned above. Additionally, strategies are offered for using citizens to support positive change within public child welfare agencies.

Exploring member perspectives on participation on child welfare Citizen Review Panels: A national study

The year 2016 marked the 20th anniversary of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) amendments (P.L. 104-235) that mandated Citizen Review Panels (CRPs). CRPs are citizen volunteer groups authorized by United States (U.S.) federal law to examine policies and procedures of state child welfare agencies. Despite the potential of CRPs to positively impact child welfare systems outcomes associated with child abuse and neglect, and the millions of dollars in resources allocated to these groups, there remains a dearth in the literature about CRPs. This exploratory study examined CRP member perceptions from across the United States. Researchers collected scaled survey data to examine member knowledge, engagement and assessment of panel influence and impact, membership composition, and meeting structure. Results revealed that panel members lack some knowledge related to the federal mandate guiding their work, and data suggest the need for panels to more adroitly recruit and retain members representative of the communities in which the panels are formed. After a brief review of background literature, this paper will explicate key results, discuss these findings, and identify salient practice, policy and research implications derived from the study.