Publications and Resource Materials

Foster care:

• Troubled water: Foster care youth and college – Educational challenges for foster care and youth aging out of care, Spring 2004
  Funded by MSU Families and Communities Together

  Identifies obstacles to the achievement of an education for foster care youth in care and aging out of care and makes recommendations for public policy and further research.

  Download File (1,498 KB, PDF)

• Aging out of the foster care system: Challenges and opportunities for the State of Michigan, September 2003
  Funded by MSU Applied Public Policy Research Program

  Reports the status of foster care transition support for young people who age out of foster care in the state of Michigan. Includes an overview of the challenges facing youth and a number of considerations for public policy.

  Download File (1,463 KB, PDF)

Adoption and Kinship Care:

• American Indian grandparents parenting their grandchildren in Michigan: A qualitative study report, March 2005
  Funded by Pearl J Aldrich Endowment in Gerontology, MSU Families and Communities Together, MSU School of Social Work

  Presents major findings from data collected regarding demographics, needs and concerns of American Indian grandparents raising their grandchildren. Topics include parent and/or relative visitation, services accessed, impact of Indian boarding schools, training and service needs, and social work with American Indian communities.

  Download File (992 KB, PDF)

• You are not alone: A caregiver's guide to raising relative children in Michigan, December 2002
  Funded by Michigan Office of Services to the Aging

  Includes legal terms and resources, financial resource, food and nutrition programs, health care programs, mental health services, and educational resources

  Download File (440 KB, PDF)

Child Welfare:

• Child welfare worker recruitment and retention: Resilient child welfare worker interviews, 2006
  Funded by the federal DHHS Administration for Children, Youth and Families Child Welfare Worker Recruitment and Retention Project

  Exploratory study to learn about factors related to worker and supervisor resiliency that could be translated into training curriculum and recruitment and retention strategies. Includes the process and responses, and lessons learned.

  Download File (229 KB, PDF)

• Permanency planning mediation pilot program: Evaluation final report, June 2004
  Funded by federal Children's Justice Act and State Court Improvement funds
  Prepared for Michigan State court Administrative Office

  Early exploratory descriptive program evaluation of child protection mediation in seven pilot program sites. Includes evaluation questions, findings and methodology, context for the evaluation, lessons learned, and recommendations for further study

  Download File (831 KB, PDF)

Other:

• Supervision in Child & Family Services Certificate Series: summary of Participant Evaluations, September 2008
  Funded by MSU School of Social Work

  This report summarizes the participant evaluations completed by those who attended the Supervision in Child and Family Services Certificate Series provided by the School, in partnership with the Michigan Federation for Children and Families, as part of its continuing education program. The certificate is designed to promote retention of child and family services workers by increasing the skill sets of current and aspiring trask and program supervisors and agency leaders.

  Download File (84 KB, PDF)

• Veterinary Social Work Services: Survey Results, October 2008
  Funded by MSU College of Social Science Faculty Research Initiative and MSU School of Social Work

  This research study was designed to provide evidence to: (1) support the development and recognition of veterinary social work services as a viable, appropriate field of practice; (2) to evaluate interest in the need for access to professional social workers by community-based veterinarians and veterinary practices; and (3) to evaluate the delivery of on-site social work services to clients served at the MSU College of Veterinary Medicine teaching hospitals since January 2006.

  Download File (337 KB, PDF)