This curriculum is designed to educate social workers about the experiences and needs of families involved with both public welfare and child welfare services so that they can provide high-quality case management services within a post-welfare reform environment. Based on research from a longitudinal, ethnographic study of families living in an urban environment, the curriculum includes: a review of child welfare outcomes in the welfare reform era; a description of welfare reform as implemented in one county, including examples from the client's perspective of managing within a welfare-to-work environment; a cost of living analysis of life on welfare; a set of case examples illustrating pathways from welfare to child welfare, with special attention to aspects of welfare reform which may play a role in child welfare outcomes; and a discussion of how to apply qualitative research methods toward improving child welfare practice, as well as an explanation of the research methods used for the study. (187 pages)Frame, L., Berrick, J. D., Sogar, C., Berzin, S. C., & Pearlman, J. (2001).

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Arthroscopic partial meniscectomy, or APM, is one of the most common surgeries for repairing knee damage – particularly for patients with meniscal tears. During the operation, surgeons often incidentally uncover additional damage to the surrounding cartilage in the form of chondral lesions. But despite the high prevalence of these lesions, their effects on postoperative outcomes aren’t clear. To better understand this relationship, a US-based research team has compared how patients with and without chondral lesions fare after APM. They’ve found that those going into surgery showing this damage have less successful recoveries. This conclusion was based on a fresh look at the results of a clinical trial known as the ChAMP trial. The trial had originally compared two methods for dealing with chondral lesions during APM: simple observation or debridement..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This curriculum explores the experiences and challenges of transracial adoptive families with the goal of improving the quality of services and supports provided to them. In addition, there is a growing subset of transracial adoptive families who choose to maintain contact with their child's birth family. Very little information exists to help these families or their child welfare workers understand the bumpy terrain of openness. This curriculum fills some of the many gaps in knowledge and practice. It includes summaries of transracial adoption literature, a theoretical discussion on normative development in transracial adoptive families, practice-oriented information including discussion questions and exercises, case vignettes, worker guidance, a self-assessment tool, and findings from the in-depth qualitative study of 12 transracial adoptive families in California conducted as part of this project. Findings themes include: the complicated factors involved in choosing transracial adoption; how the children and youth understand the meaning of their adoption; issues around the choice to maintain contact with the adopted child's birth family, the role of the contact, and the vulnerability of contact arrangements; the role of race in family life and development, negotiating different cultural worlds, and developmental changes; and the role of services and supports prior to and following adoption. (216 pages)Frasch, K., Brooks, D., Reich, J., & Wind, L. (2004).

This course is designed to provide students with a broad overview of the major theories on the relationship between ethnicity and politics. The course is divided into three sections. The first covers general theory and discusses the social construction of ethnicity as well as the limits of construction. The second section discusses ethnicity as a dependent variable. This section studies the forces that shape the development of ethnic identities and their motivating power. The third section addresses ethnicity as an independent variable. In other words, it focuses on how ethnicity operates to affect important political and economic outcomes.
This course is the first semester of a year-long sequence on ethnic politics. However, each semester is self-contained and students may take the course in either or both semesters. Ethnic Politics I aims for breadth over depth. It covers many works in the “canon” of texts on ethnic politics as well as addressing many major topics (modernization, entrepreneurship, prejudice, ethnic party formation, etc.) in one week sessions. Ethnic Politics II covers some of these topics in greater depth and also requires a major research paper.

This module explores the implementation, process, and outcomes of the Family Unity Meeting in San Diego County, which provides a case study for Family Group Decision Making. Module I covers factors that distinguish between families that accept or reject an invitation to a meeting, the meeting process, outcomes, family perspectives on family change, the use of social support, and family satisfaction with services. Module II includes a synopsis of Family Group Conferencing; legislation supportive of FGC; the history, definition, and philosophy of FGC; models of FGC; process of FGC; facilitator's role; trends and evaluation FGC; classroom exercises; videotape suggestions; and a bibliography. Module III is a proposed semester course syllabus that focuses on FGC and strength-based practice. Module IV is a handbook designed for field instructors and students who are engaged in FGC as part of the student's field practicum. (233 pages) Jones, L., & Daly, D. (2004).

This resource provides access to materials associated with the Fundamentals in Evidence-Based Decision-Making series at the Northern California Training Academy. To learn more about the series, please visit the Academy website at www.humanservices.ucdavis.edu/academy

This curriculum, which may be used in whole or in part, offers an overview of kinship care including a brief historical context for this resource, funding associated with kinship care, and some of the legal issues that have shaped kinship care policy. Characteristics of kinship care providers and children are presented, along with a thorough examination of outcomes associated with kinship care. In addition, data on the number of children in foster care, kinship care in the context of the larger out-of-home care population, outcomes associated with kinship care versus non-kin care, and the discrepancy between AFDC and AFDC-FC payments in California and the role these differential payment rates may play in kinship care outcomes are provided. Last, child welfare workers' views about the primary differences between kinship foster parents and foster family parents, and changes in policy and practice are considered. (188 pages)Berrick, J. D., Needell, B., & Barth, R. P. (1995).

This curriculum focuses on issues related to mental health service utilization and outcomes among children in the child welfare system. In spite of the documented need for mental health services for these children, there is a lack of information on children involved with both the child welfare and mental health systems. In order to improve our understanding of the issues and needs of this population, this curriculum focuses on five areas: (a) demographic and system-related characteristics of children involved in both the child welfare and mental health systems; (b) clinical need for services, service utilization patterns, and association between mental health service utilization and child welfare outcomes; (c) policies affecting mental health service utilization by children in the child welfare system; (d) collaboration between child welfare and mental health systems; and (e) resources for collaboration and service provision for children and youth in both the child welfare and mental health systems. The curriculum will provide research highlights, conceptual frameworks, tools, and experiential opportunities to strengthen understanding of a wide range of issues related to mental health service utilization among children in the public child welfare system. (165 pages)Hines, A. M., Lee, P. A., Osterling, K. L., Tweed, M. (2007).

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Undergoing a second operation to reconstruct a torn anterior cruciate ligament , or A-C-L, is difficult for anyone. But it could be particularly hard for those who don’t play sports after surgery. A new study shows that among patients undergoing a repeat ACL reconstruction, those who play one or more sports following their procedure report reduced knee symptoms, better knee function, and higher activity level than those who play no sports. These findings could help clinicians and patients build better pathways to recovery from ACL injury. Using a questionnaire, researchers followed up with more than 900 patients 2 years after revision ACL reconstruction. Slightly more than half of the patients were male, and patients’ average age was 26. In addition to questions regarding knee injury history and knee-specific outcomes, patients were asked whether they had participated in sports since undergoing surgery; and if so, which one—or ones..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Craniopharyngiomas are among the most common calcified tumors in the central nervous system. Although calcification is known to complicate tumor removal, especially in the delicate central nervous system, the underlying mechanism is poorly understood. A recent study examined the calcification of adamantinomatous craniopharyngiomas. Using cultured primary cells, the researchers induced calcification with the protein Bmp2. Calcified cells had elevated expression of the histone deacetylase HDAC3. Paradoxically, however, inhibiting HDAC3 activity increased calcification and differentiation into osteoblasts. Researchers discovered that this disconnect between HDAC3 expression and its activity came down to its cellular location. Bmp2, it turned out, was blocking HDAC3 from relocating to the nucleus. Bmp2 blocked relocation indirectly by increasing the expression of the microRNA miR-181b. miR-181b decreased the expression of the protein CBX4, which normally stabilizes the nuclear localization of HDAC3..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

Increasingly, public agencies are adopting models of self-assessment in which administrative data are used to guide and then continuously evaluate the implementation of programs and policies. In California, public child welfare agencies track performance outcomes spanning a range of child safety, permanency, and well-being domains, as dictated by federal and state mandates. This curriculum has been designed to provide Title IV-E and others students interested in public child welfare systems with an overview of the state’s Child Welfare Outcomes and Accountability System. Students will be provided with hands-on opportunities to become experienced and “statistically literate” users of aggregate, public child welfare data from the state’s administrative child welfare system, attending to the often missing link between data/research and practice. This curriculum is organized into five teaching modules, providing instructors with student learning activities, PowerPoint slide presentations, and other materials to support graduate IV-E students in the development of practical data analysis skills. Materials focus on publicly available data hosted through the Child Welfare Indicators Project at the University of California at Berkeley, a long-standing agency/university data partnership: http://cssr.berkeley.edu/ucb_childwelfare. CalSWEC funding for the development of this curriculum was provided to the Child Welfare Performance Indicators Project. Modules were developed to support instructors of both first- and second-year MSW research courses. Module objectives include: (a) to support student (and instructor) understanding of California's child welfare system performance goals and progress to date; (b) to develop students who have highly desirable (and practical) data analysis skills, including the ability to intelligibly distill and present numerical findings; and (c) to prepare a cohort of IV-E MSW students equipped to adopt leadership roles in county child welfare agencies, bringing with them an appreciation for how data can be used to improve practice and inform policies. Putnam-Hornstein, E., Needell, B., Lery, B., King, B., & Weigmann, W. (2013).