We are excited to announce that our 11th issue of CW360º, Culturally Responsive Child Welfare Practice, is now available online.
The intersection of culture and child welfare practice has been considered and conceptualized in a number of ways, from cultural competence and institutional racism to disparity and disproportionality. Most often the discussion around culture is framed as a struggle or challenge for our field to address; we believe it is critical that the field move beyond this to examine how culture can be used to make a difference in our work with all families.
Within this publication we use the term cultural responsiveness to reflect the idea that child welfare professionals need to identify and nurture the unique cultural strengths, beliefs, and practices of each family with whom we work and integrate that knowledge into the intervention approaches we employ. We believe that through culturally responsive practice, we will see true change in disparity and disproportionality. It is in this vein that CASCW staff, in partnership with the Center for Regional and Tribal Child Welfare Studies at the University of Minnesota–Duluth, developed the Winter 2015 issue of CW360º.
Articles in this issue include:
- An overview of racial disparities and disproportionality in child welfare, including numbers, definitions, frameworks, and potential solutions;
- Ways child welfare practitioners can work toward being culturally responsive and supporting the cultural identity of children and families;
- How counties, tribes, and other agencies developed practice models and strategies based on cultural traditions, values, and beliefs;
- A review of nationally recognized culturally responsive practice strategies, including Family Group Decision Making and Positive Indian Parenting; and
- Birth parent, adoptee, and foster youth perspectives on the importance of culture and the impact of bias in child welfare practice.