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C hildren and F amily

C hildren and F amily. Research Center. Foster Youth Seen and Heard: Indicator Development Using Personal Narratives from Foster Care Dayna Finet, Ph.D., Jesse Helton, M.A. and Wendy Haight, Ph.D. University of Illinois, Urbana/Champaign International Society of Child Indicators, Chicago

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C hildren and F amily

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  1. ChildrenandFamily Research Center Foster Youth Seen and Heard: Indicator Development Using Personal Narratives from Foster Care Dayna Finet, Ph.D., Jesse Helton, M.A. and Wendy Haight, Ph.D. University of Illinois, Urbana/Champaign International Society of Child Indicators, Chicago June 26—28, 2007 School of Social Work University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign TM

  2. Enter page title here! Child Welfare Indicators • Data Sources • National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS) • Adoption and Foster Care Reporting System (AFCARS) • National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well Being (NSCAW) • Illinois Child Well Being Survey • (National Youth in Transition Database) (NYTD)

  3. Child Welfare Indicators • Indicators Measured • Safety (Reported and substantiated maltreatment) • Stability (Number and duration of placements) • Continuity (Maintenance of kin and community ties) • Permanence (Reunification, adoption, guardianship) • Well Being (Health, education, and economic status)

  4. Youth Involvement: ProjectFYSH • Purposes • To bring perspective of foster children and youth into research and policy processes • To give foster children and youth a structured and supportive opportunity for self expression • Program Organization • Part time employment at CFRC • Weekly writing workshops, Fall 2006 and Spring 2007

  5. Case Study in Indicator Development • Research Participants • Four participants from local pregnant and/or parenting independent living program, all with children • Data Sources • FYSH participants’ written narratives • In-depth, semi-structured interviews • Three videotaped workshop sessions Analysis Initial analysis of written narratives, interview and video transcripts, with formal coding Summer 2007

  6. Case Study in Indicator Development • Focus on Foster Youth as Parents • Engagement in FYSH – mean number of workshops attended by FYSH mothers was 12, compared to mean workshop attendance of 4 for non-mothers • Parenting as emergent theme – not assigned in writing workshops or prompted during interviews, yet emerged as dominant central theme across data sources

  7. Parenting in Foster Care Illinois Child Well Being Study (Hartnett & Bruhn, 2006)

  8. Parenting in Foster Care Midwest Evaluation of Former Foster Youth (Illinois) (Courtney & Dworsky, 2006)

  9. IDCFS Pregnant and/or Parenting Program Purpose Provides supportive services and living maintenance to pregnant and/or parenting youth for whom IDCFS is legally responsible Services Counseling, health care, parent training, paternity outreach, respite, daycare Financial provisions Living maintenance, medical care, financial assistance

  10. Implications Early parenthood as risk factor but also source of joy, pride, and motivation “I felt like nothing…, but then I got pregnant. And it was hard, but I went to church and got into a lot of positive community support programs and all of a sudden my life got better and I was no more a failure and I was no more ignorant. I was me. I found myself and I let go of all the pain that I went through and I started to live my life. I was a woman and a human being all over again. … I had goals and dreams. For the first time in my life I felt like somebody.”

  11. Implications DCFS as protective factor but also source of humiliation and fear “…my number one thing that I am afraid of is my children being taken away from me. It scares me so much because me being taken from my mother, and I know how it feels to be bounced around from home to home and to not have a real mother figure in your life like your own. I don’t ever want my kids to feel that pain. Not only that, but having kids when you are already in the system, its like you are under a microscope. The world has the perception that because my mother did something wrong, that I will too. If my kids were taken from me, I’m not sure what’d do! My kids are my life and they are what I live for.”

  12. FYSH in Research and Practice Continuing FYSH Research Formal research agenda based on FYSH data archive Applications for Indicator Research Subjective experience, in narrative form, as methodology to inform indicator development Applications for Child Welfare Practice Focus on specific circumstances and needs of pregnant and/or parenting foster youth, as well as other subgroups transitioning from care

  13. Contact Information Dayna Finet ▪ dfinet@uiuc.edu ▪ 217.265.0192 Jesse Helton ▪ jhelton2@uiuc.edu ▪ 217.333.5837 Wendy Haight ▪ wlhaight@uiuc.edu ▪ 217.244.5212 Children and Family Research Center ▪ http://cfrcwww.social.uiuc.edu School of Social Work, University of Illinois ▪ http://www.socialwork.uiuc.edu/

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