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What’s Race Got To Do With It?

What’s Race Got To Do With It?. An Honest Conversation About the Impact of Racism on the Child Welfare System. The child welfare system is a community system. Defining the Problem.

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What’s Race Got To Do With It?

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  1. What’s Race Got To Do With It? An Honest Conversation About the Impact of Racism on the Child Welfare System

  2. The child welfare system is a community system

  3. Defining the Problem Children of color are disproportionately and often overrepresented within the child welfare system due to structural racism within systems.

  4. Defining the Problem Disproportionality Refers to the situation where a particular racial and/or ethnic group is represented within a social system at a rate or percentage that is not proportionate to their representation in the general population.

  5. Defining the Problem Overrepresentation Refers to the situation where a particular racial/and or ethnic group is represented within a social system at a higher rate or percentage than their representation in the general population

  6. Defining the Problem Disparate Treatment and Outcomes When comparing minority to non-minority, children of color are treated differently, resulting in poorer outcomes for families of color.

  7. Structural Racism Describes the complex combination of factors that generate and perpetuate racial and ethnic inequities in systems and institutions throughout America.

  8. Decision Points for the Child Welfare System • Referral • Investigation • Substantiation • Foster care • Adoption

  9. Child Welfare • Children of color enter foster care at a higher rate • They are removed more often, rather than receiving in-home services. • They stay in the system much longer. • Less likely to reunify with families or be adopted from foster care National Stats: Blocks for Youth (2005).

  10. Child Welfare In almost every state children of color are over-represented in the child welfare system: • African-American in 46 states • Native Americans in 24 states • Latino/Hispanic in 6 states • Occurs in 11 counties within Kentucky Casey-CSSP Alliance on Racial Equity: An Overview Presentation (2/24/06)

  11. Kentucky Statewide DataAfrican-Americans involved in theChild Welfare System

  12. Counties initially identified in late areas with disproportionality Cabinet for Health and Family Services Data from 2006-2007

  13. Kentucky’sDisparate Treatment • A case is opened more often for African American families. • African American children spend more time in foster care, have more moves, and are 20% less likely to be reunified with parents. • African American children more often have a goal of emancipation while White children have a goal of reunification. • African American children cost an additional $5.50 per day. Annual costs for these placements are estimated to be $3 million annually.

  14. Selected Disparities Source: Clinical Health Care Practice and Community Building: Addressing Racial Disparities in Healthy Child Development by Charles H. Bruner, Ph.D. and Edward L Schor, M.D.; Morehouse College of Medicine

  15. Children in single-parent families by race (Percent)

  16. Children living in families where no parent has full-time, year-round employment by race (Percent)

  17. Thinking Points • Three separate NIH studies found that African-Americans are no more abusive of neglectful than any other racial group • These same studies also showed that when you control for poverty, African-Americans are less abusive and neglectful than their White counterparts • So why do we have such disparities? Source: Synthesis of Research on Disproportionality in Child Welfare: An Update; Robert B. Hill, Ph.D., Senior Researcher, Westat

  18. What can you do? • Commit to equity and anti-racist practices/policies • Learn more about disproportionality • Collect and analyze data by race to determine if your agency has disproportionality issues • Review policies and procedures for unintended consequences • Change practice • Evaluate practice changes

  19. Recommended Reading and Viewing List • Courts Catalyzing Change http://www.ncjfcj.org/content/blogcategory/447/580/ • Casey Family Programs http://www.casey.org/OurWork/Disproportionality/ • Race Matters Consortium http://www.racemattersconsortium.org/index.htm • People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond (delivers Undoing Racism Workshops) http://www.pisab.org/ • Race: The Power of An Illusion Video Series http://www.pbs.org/race/000_General/000_00-Home.htm • Alliance for Racial Equity in Child Welfare http://www.cssp.org/major_initiatives/racialEquity.html

  20. Thank you for your time and attention Carol A. Taylor, MSW Co-Chair, Fayette Race Community and Child Welfare University of Kentucky College of Social Work Comprehensive Family Services Director Training Resource Center Carol.taylor@uky.edu Marion Gibson, MPA Co-Chair, Fayette Race Community and Child Welfare Kentucky State University SKY Families Program Director Marion.gibson@kysu.edu

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