Research

Recent and Current Child Welfare Projects

Birth and Foster Parent Connections Program , a collaborative project between Catholic Community Services, the Washington State Department of Child and Family Services and the University of Washington School of Social Work, was established in 2001 with funding from the Stuart Foundation (Co-PI’s: Kemp and Marcenko). The project’s goal was to demonstrate a practice philosophy and methodology that blends birth families and foster families in an extended network for foster children – one that supports them while they are in care and after they return home. The UW partners were responsible for evaluation of the project and documentation of the intervention.

Foster Parents as Mentors, a collaboration between the University of Washington School of Social Work) and Washington State Divisions of Children and Family Services and Foster Care Licensed Resources, and Foster Parents Association, was funded by the Stuart Foundation and the Allen Foundation (PI: Marcenko, 2005-2007). The intervention is designed to successfully reunify families through mentorship of birth parents from specially trained foster parents in an intensive four-to-six-month program. The project goal is to increase the number of families reunified by helping families in the child welfare system strengthen their capacity to provide a permanent, safe, and nurturing environment for their children. The UW partner secured funding both for the intervention and the research. The research employs a treatment and waitlist comparison group design.