>Projects> Frontline
Connections >Grantees Ujima
Frontline Connections: A Quality
Improvement Center to Improve Child Protection Services
in the Northwest.
Frontline
Connections Grantees:
One
Church One Child of Washington, doing business as UJIMA Community
Services and the Office for African American Children's Services
(OAACS) (within Region 4, Division of Children and Family
Services, State of Washington, Department of Social and Health
Services.)
"Culturally Competent Professional Practice Project"
Seattle, WA
Project
Contact: C2P2@aol.com
Executive
Summary: (click
here for MS word format)
African
American children's presence in the child welfare system, nationally,
increased over 130% between 1967 and 1999 (from 27% to 64%).
Their presence in the child welfare population is approaching
three times their representation in the U.S. child population.
African American children are retained in the system longer,
in excess of twice that of whites with stays exceeding 18 months
and they are twice as likely as whites to be placed in out-of-home
care. Similar social indicators have been reported for African
American children in Seattle's King County (the site of this
project) who constitute 5.4% of the state's child population,
however, a 1998 Black Child Development Institute-Seattle report
asserted they comprise 39% of the children in out-of-home placement,
one third of whom have been in foster care for more than three
years, and many of whom have experienced multiple placements.
Thomas Morton's analysis of five national databases at the Child Welfare Institute
of America in 1999 found no significant difference in neglect between races
using any standard measure, nor was there any significant differences by race
of the number of problems families present, or the incidence of maltreatment
by poverty level or income level, or the structure of families (one parent
versus two parent, female head of household, etc.). What then accounts for
the disproportionality? The C2P2 Project hypothesizes that frontline worker
decision bias is a contributing factor to the over representation of African
American children in the state's child welfare system.
The
Culturally Competent Professional Practice (C2P2) Project
is a collaborative effort between the grantee, One Church
One Child of Washington, doing business as UJIMA Community
Services, a non-profit, non-sectarian licensed African
American child placing agency and the Office for African
American Children's Services (OAACS) within Region 4, Division
of Children and Family Services, State of Washington, Department
of Social and Health Services.
UJIMA Community Services has an outstanding record of recruiting
kinship placements for African American children, as well
as a proven track record in the African
American community that has enabled their recruitment of more than 2,000 African
American placement resources over the past 13 years. UJIMA staff will provide
the Project's project direction, fiscal management, leadership to the codification
of OAACS' professional practice model, particularly the decision making process,
briefing and coaching resources and project evaluation
The Office for African American Children's Services' (OAACS) engagement model
was developed in 1999 through a collaborative community process to reduce the
over-representation of African American children in the state's child welfare
system. In the three and one-half years OAACS has been in operation, the Office
has demonstrated improved engagement outcomes for African American children
and families. During the year 2001, 61% of the children placed in out-of-home
care in OAACS were placed with relatives. OAACS maintains the highest percentage
of relative placements in the state of Washington, and 93.8% of children placed
in care during 2001 (and through the first two quarters of 2002) were returned
home within 12 months of the date of placement. The next closest Region 4 office
is at 66% and the Federal standard for this indicator is approximately 76%.
(Data extracted from the Children's Administration Interactive Spreadsheet).
Keeping children with their families or if placed in out of home care, returning
them to their families, as quickly as possible, or placing them with kin is
OAACS' central goal.
OAACS' frontline engagement model (investigation, assessment
and staffings) has resulted in the above outstanding results.
The research question that underpins
this project is: What accounts for the outstanding frontline engagement outcomes
of the Office for African American Children's Services? Are these engagement
outcomes a function of OAACS' decision-making process? Does the use of these
decision making processes mitigate worker decision bias traditionally resulting
in overrepresentation of African American children in the child welfare system?
The examination of these questions will require an explication of the decision-making
routines that underlie components of OAACS' professional practice model of
interest in this project. These decision-making routines will be codified,
and a decision-making model delineated and used to brief workers thereby ensuring:
(a) consistent professional decision making practices across all workers in
the Section (b) replication of OAACS' outstanding results by new workers coming
into the Section beginning January 2003, (c) a more comprehensive understanding
of the decision making process necessary to achieve positive frontline engagement
outcomes for African American children and their families, (d) contribution
to the professional practice literature, and (e) dissemination of the decision
making model to others in the profession.
The characteristics of the model to be delineated and empirically
validated include: (a) professional decision making skills,
behaviors and competencies
versus individual worker assumptions, attitudes or beliefs, (b) the enhancement
of skill development supported by trained coaches, and (c) the systematic evaluation
of case level outcomes and the extent to which they evidence a reduction of
the disproportional representation of African American children and families
served by OAACS.
The planned expansion of OAACS, as a function of its outstanding
past engagement results, in early 2003 presents both an opportunity
and a challenge. Maintaining
current engagement outcomes with new workers coming into OAACS provides one
major incentive for OAACS' participation in this Project. By examining OAACS'
practice model and more specifically the underlying decision making process,
codifying the process, and briefing new and tenured workers to ensure its use,
the goal is to maintain the gains of the past three and one-half years and
build upon them. The challenge is to optimize the short timeframe available,
if the process is to be ready for use by mid 2003.
The C2P2 Project's major objectives over the next 3 and one-half
years include:
1. Codifying the decision-making underlying OAACS' outstanding
performance through a careful delineation of the decision-making
process (set of steps)
used to ameliorate any institutionalized decision bias inherent in the CPS
system,
2. Incorporate briefings on the decision making process into OAACS new worker
orientation,
3. Worker implementation of the model with the assistance of coaching and management
supervision,
4. Systematic measurement of case level engagement outcomes including:
a. More accurate assessment process resulting in less inappropriate entry into
the system, less out-of-home placements and fewer dependency filings;
b. Improved family group conferencing and prognostic staffing (using OAACS'
family decision making model) resulting in shorter length of stay, expedient
reuniting with family/kin and fewer re-referrals for neglect; and
c. The appropriate identification of in home services resulting in a more involved
community; and more effective coordination and utilization of public and community
services.
5. Dissemination of project learning and practice models that are replicable
by others in the field.
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