Introduction: Child Welfare is Not Brain Surgery; It's Much for
Difficult
Part I: Tragedy and its Aftermath
Chapter 1: In an Ideal World
Chapter 2: In the Real World
Chapter 3: System Reform: Rounding up the Usual Suspects, Lawsuits,
and Policy Changes
Part II: Centers of Gravity
Chapter 4: Who Is The Client?
Chapter 5: Portals, Gates, and Decisions
Chapter 6: Follow The Money: The Perverse Incentive of Federal
Foster Care Funding
Chapter 7: Aging Out
Chapter 8: It Takes a Village...
Richard J. Gelles, PhD, Former Dean (2001-2014) and Joanne T. & Raymond H. Welsh Chair of Child Welfare and Family Violence, University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice; Co-Faculty Director, Field Center for Children's Policy, Practice, and Research; Founding Director, Evelyn Jacobs Ortner Center on Family Violence.
"Drawing on a depth of practical experience that few scholars bring
to the table, Richard Gelles offers a vivid account of the dismal
failures that have long plagued the American child welfare system
and a keen analysis of how to fix it. An impassioned plea for
fundamental reform based on a hard-nosed, data-driven blueprint for
change, this is a must-read for everyone concerned about the
protection and well-being of our most vulnerable children." -
Neil
Gilbert, PhD, Chernin Professor of Social Welfare and Co-Director
of the Center for Child and Youth Policy, University of California,
Berkeley
"A thoughtful, insightful, and incisive dissection of the
continuing failure of the Child Welfare System to protect our
children. Like the boy who cried 'the emperor has no clothes,'
Richard Gelles has pointed out that unless children are the central
focus of Child Welfare, it will continue to fail them."
- Richard D. Krugman, MD, Distinguished Professor, University of
Colorado School of Medicine
"Richard Gelles offers a compelling perspective on the need for
child welfare reform. Characterizing much of child welfare casework
as a series of consequential decisions, Gelles reframes the nature
of child protection efforts with important implications for staff
training. The foundation of his proposals - to put children at the
center of the child welfare system - will be seen as highly
controversial. But this book and the message it contains should
be
digested and debated if we hope to improve child welfare
services."
- Jill Duerr Berrick, PhD, MSW, Zellerbach Family Foundation
Professor, University of California, Berkeley
"Finally, a hard-nosed, no-ideological-agenda dissection of our
child protection system, by an expert with deep knowledge and
sophisticated understanding of the politics and laws that shape the
system. Richard Gelles reveals the weak links in the chain of
responsibility for children's welfare that breaks apart far too
often, and he advances new, effective, and politically realistic
solutions. With this book, a new conversation begins."
- James G. Dwyer, PhD, JD, Arthur B. Hanson Professor of Law,
William & Mary School of Law
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