African-American Family Advocate

              From The Desk of The
Executive Director
In May, the African-American
Family Commission joined many
organizations in saluting individu-als
who provide safe, stable and
loving homes for children who are
unable to live with their parents.
Many of these individuals known
as “Foster Parents,” are ordinary
people who give unselfishly of
their time and resources to help
children in the child welfare sys-tem
heal the emotional and psy-chological
wounds of separation,
loss, abuse and neglect.
In the summer of 2001, Governor
George Ryan signed legislation
expanding the definition of family
to include “second cousin and god-parent.”
This insightful legislation was
introduced by Representative
Annazette R. Collins to preserve
foster children’s ties with their nat-ural
families and communities. The
Commission believes that this law
will help maintain children’s ties
with their families and increase the
pool of relatives as potential foster
parents. This legislation is a victory
for African-American parents,
grandparents, and other relative
caregivers who have worked hard
to change the child welfare system
to protect children and strengthen
families.
* * * * * * * * * *
Outcome-based Child
Welfare Practice 426
Federal Training Grant
The Children and Family Research
Center and the Office of the Illinois
Department of Children & Family
Services (DCFS) Research Director
received a federal training grant to
implement a training entitled,
“Outcome-based Child Welfare
Practice.” This training is intended
to enhance the outcome manage-ment
skills of child welfare man-agers,
supervisors, and case workers.
The training has three objectives:
1. Increasing staff focus on out-come
objectives
2. Strengthening child welfare
practice by integrating outcome
objectives into current practice
methods
3. Understanding and implement-ing
outcome-based child wel-fare
practice in conjunction
with DCFS performance con-tracting
and in anticipation of
Federal FY 2003 Child and
Family Services Reviews
The training will be provided to
four DCFS offices and four private
child welfare agencies in Illinois.
The final draft of the training will
become a part of the DCFS
Enhanced Training Core
Curriculum.
The computer-based training will
occur in four full-day sessions. The
first session was launched in
November of 2001 and the second
in April, 2002. Technical assistance
is provided to participants through-out
the training program, including
the time between each module.
TERRY A. SOLOMON
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Spring/Summer 2002 Vol. 1