Introduction

Protecting children from maltreatment is an awesome responsibility. On one hand, Americans deeply believe in family privacy and in the rights of parents to raise their own children, free from excessive government intervention. On the other hand, we agree that our government has a responsibility to protect children from harm inflicted by their parents or other family members. Given the tension between these values, it is not surprising that the child welfare system is often criticized both for failing to take action to keep children safe and for being too intrusive in the lives of families. In 1991, Providence Children’s Museum initiated a partnership with the Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF). We believed that families in the child welfare system could benefit from the positive shared experiences offered by the Museum’s carefully designed environment. Since then, the Museum’s Families Together program has helped nearly a thousand families – families in which the children have been temporarily taken from their parents’ care because of abuse or neglect.

Families in which the children are neglected or abused are often affected by poverty, substance abuse, domestic violence, and/or mental illness. A network of government and private agencies provide services such as counseling, drug treatment programs, and access to housing, medical and financial assistance to help them improve their circumstances. While the children are being cared for by foster families or relatives or in group homes, the usual goal is for the family to be rehabilitated and the children returned to their parents. During these periods of separation, that can last for months or even years, it is critical that children and parents maintain some contact, accomplished through “visitation,” regularly scheduled family visits usually supervised by a social service worker. This is where Families Together comes in, as one part of the family’s comprehensive case plan.

The children, ages one to eleven, visit with their parents at the Children’s Museum where, under the guidance of the program’s family therapists, they play and learn together. There are few resources so purposefully and creatively designed to foster positive parent-child interactions as children’s museums. The Families Together program helps strengthen parenting skills and provides meaningful – even joyful – shared experiences for shattered families, experiences they can build on as they try to put their lives back together.

We hope that other children’s museums will be inspired to reach out to the families who need us the most by considering ways they can partner with child welfare agencies. This tool kit contains information on the child welfare system in the United States and a comprehensive description of Families Together to enable you to get started. Also available, a DVD of an excellent three-part program created by PBS’s "Frontline" that provides an in-depth look into the issues surrounding child protection and welfare.

In 2005, Providence Children’s Museum published Play With Your Kids! – A How-To, Why-To Guide For Parents, based on Families Together philosophy and practice. The booklet, also available, is distributed through the Families Together program and social service agencies as a resource for parents and family welfare professionals. Upon request, ACM member museums may reprint the booklet for distribution to the museums’ target audiences. For ACM member museums contemplating or initiating a partnership with child welfare agencies, Providence Children’s Museum will provide a limited number of telephone consultation hours with Heidi Brinig, Families Together’s director and originator. Additional telephone and/or on-site consulting is available for a reasonable fee.

To receive a copy of the "Frontline" DVD and a copy of Play With Your Kids! or to arrange for a consultation or Play With Your Kids! reprint permissions, please contact: Heidi Brinig, Director, Families Together Program, Providence Children’s Museum, 100 South Street, Providence, RI 02903, (401) 273-5437 ext. 13.

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The Child Welfare System

The child welfare system serves some of our most vulnerable and troubled children and families. It is designed to protect children who have suffered from abuse and neglect or who are at risk for maltreatment, support families in their role as primary caregivers, and improve the conditions of families. The system’s laws and programs are designed to serve the best interest of the child.

Child welfare services began largely as a function of private social service agencies and later developed as a responsibility of state and local governments. Federal laws and programs provide a common framework but states retain significant freedom in the design and delivery of child welfare services. Significant federal role in child welfare is a recent development. Child abuse and neglect are defined by both federal and state laws.

The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act of 1975 is the federal legislation that provides minimum standards for the definition of child abuse and neglect that states must incorporate in their definitions and policies that dictate when a child is removed from her parents’ care.

The Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 (ASFA) drives current child welfare practice on the federal, state and local level. ASFA policy mandates states to protect children, strengthen families, provide temporary or permanent nurturing and safe environments for children when necessary, and provide services to children and families to promote their safety and well-being.

The goals of ASFA are:

• Ensure children’s safety
  

• Decrease time children spend in out-of-home placement
  

• Promote adoption and other permanent living arrangements for children and youth
  

• Require the states’ accountability and enhance the states’ capacity to provide services

ASFA requires that each family have a rehabilitation plan, developed and monitored by the state child welfare agency and approved by the state court. ASFA also defines visitation as a right of all families. When children are removed from their parents’ home because of abuse or neglect, ASFA mandates that parents have up to 15 months to resolve the behavior or situation that caused the children to be removed.

After that time period, if the home situation has not improved sufficiently, the state court has the right to permanently remove the children from their parents’ care, referred to as termination of parental rights (TPR). TPR is the decision of last resort. Judges, caseworkers and others involved in the child welfare system are understandably extremely reluctant to permanently break up families. Instead of TPR, courts can chose to order the state agency to provide additional services and more time for rehabilitation. As undesirable an outcome as TPR is, the alternative is not much better.

No one wants children to spend years in foster care in a kind of child welfare limbo. ASFA requires that, if parental rights are not terminated after 15 months, a permanency plan must be developed by the state agency, approved by the court and carefully adhered to. While the requirements of ASFA must be followed in all states, implementation policies and procedures, as well as definitions of abuse and neglect, differ from state to state. The decision as to whether children will be
returned to their parents’ care or if parental rights will be terminated and the children made available for adoption rests with the state courts.

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Funding for Child Welfare Services

Federal Title IV-B funding of the Social Security Act provides grant monies for state and nonprofit agency programs that support families and children at risk of neglect or abuse and children who are placed in out of-home care. Title IV-B monies are granted to states based on population and number of families involved in the child welfare system. The Foster Care, Adoption Assistance and Independent Living Programs under Title IV-E of the Social Security Act specifically focus on child welfare services and funding. Several smaller discretionary programs, including the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) and the Adoption Opportunities Act also make contributions to the funding of child welfare services, particularly through the development of model innovative programs, training and technical assistance.

• ASFA requires states to enact laws and adopt procedures that focus on serving families in a timely manner
  in order to receive federal monies; states must comply with federal regulations to receive federal funding.

• State governments pay for the majority of services that assist families involved in the child welfare system,
  frequently contracting nonprofit agencies that provide social services such as counseling and therapy,
  housing assistance, and medical and education services.

• Private nonprofit agencies that provide child and family services are paid through contracts with government
  agencies, but these payments rarely cover all the associated costs. They must also raise funds from
  the private sector. Grants and gifts from individuals, corporations and foundations provide essential
  support for their work.

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Abused and Neglected Children: Facts and Figures

872,000 children in the United States were designated as victims of abuse or neglect and in the care of the child welfare system in 2005. Although this number is only 1 percent of the total US child population, even one abused or neglected child is too many. Frequently children who have been removed from their parents’ care are imagined as victims of rape or brutal beatings and, indeed, some of them are. But the majority are taken from their homes because of neglect, a wide-ranging finding that can include parents’ illegal drug use or alcoholism, violence directed at other family members witnessed by the children, failure to treat a child’s medical needs, and dangerous living conditions.

In 2005, children were taken into state care for the following reasons:

• Neglect and medical neglect – 64.5%
  

• Physical Abuse – 17.5%
  

• Sexual abuse – 9.7%
  

• Psychological and other maltreatment – 21.5%

does not equal 100% because there is often more than one reason for the child’s removal

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Foster Care

The foster care system, which includes foster families and institutional or group homes, provides temporary care for children who have been removed from their homes for their protection. In the United States, approximately 520,000 children are placed in foster care each year. Most young children are placed with a foster family, licensed by the state. Many states put a priority on placing children in the care of their relatives.

Foster parents are essential partners in maintaining connections between children in their care and the people who are important to them. They play a key role in preparing children for visiting with family members and supporting them afterwards. In some cases, foster parents are involved in the visit itself. Their role is to offer a stable and safe home for children while working with the state agency to prepare them to return to their parents, if that is possible. If returning to their parents’ care is not a safe option for the children, foster families serve as a temporary home for children awaiting adoption or, in some cases, apply to adopt the children themselves.

A child’s length of stay in foster placement varies from several days to a few years. Many children experience a number of foster homes during their time in state care. Each state child welfare agency licenses foster parents and sets its own policy and regulations for training, stipends and allowances, and support services. There is a chronic shortage of qualified foster families in most communities. Most states have a foster parent association that offers support, advocacy and training for licensed foster parents.

Foster Care Facts*

• The average length of time children spend in foster care is 32.6 months.
  

• More than one-third of fostered children experience a number of foster placements during their time in care; 61% have two or fewer placements.
  

• 55% of children who move out of the foster care system are reunited with their families and 18% are adopted. Of the other 27%, some are under the care of a legal guardian and many simply “age-out” of the system.
  

• 76% of the foster children who do return to their parents’ care are reunited within 12 months of their placement in foster care.
  

• Most foster children who are adopted wait longer than two years for permanent homes; only 32% of them are adopted with 24 months.
  

* Source: Children’s Defense Fund, 2003 figures

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One Museum’s Response: The Families Together Program

In the 1980s, mental health therapist Heidi Brinig found herself facing a dilemma. For most of a decade she had worked in the mental health department of a large teaching hospital in Pennsylvania, carrying a caseload of forty, mostly severely disturbed children in foster care. “We provided services for the kids,” she said, “but we weren’t teaching the parents anything. They were the ones who were going to have to care for these children and they were doomed to fail.” Her quest for a better way brought her to a children’s museum in Rhode Island. “I was looking for a program that supported adults as well as children, where families learn together in a fun way,” Heidi said, when an article about children’s museums, with their emphasis on learning by doing, caught her eye.

She contacted children’s museums throughout the northeast with her idea of making use of their playful learning environments to help troubled families. Janice O’Donnell, the executive director at Providence Children’s Museum, was intrigued. She knew that the museum promoted positive family interaction and that was perhaps the most important kind of learning that happened in the hands-on exhibits. She invited Heidi to Providence, eventually creating a yearlong internship in which Heidi would explore the possibilities for collaboration between the museum and child welfare agencies. She established a relationship between Providence Children’s Museum and the Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) and, with the advice and guidance of Department social workers and administrators, as well as other social service professionals, developed Families Together, a therapeutic visitation program for court separated families.

In February 1992, DCYF referred five families to a 12-week pilot program. The Children’s Museum was able to secure funding from private foundations and Families Together was launched that summer. Since then, this program has served more than 900 families from all over the state. Now federally-funded through DCYF, Families Together has developed into a comprehensive program offering education and support to families as well as guidance and training for DCYF staff.

Families Together provides positive visitation experiences for parents and children (ages 1–11) separated by court order due to abuse or neglect. The usual goal when children have been removed from the home and are living in foster care is for the family to be rehabilitated and the children returned to their parents.

Rebuilding damaged relationships is imperative for families hoping to live together once again. Children in these situations only see their parents during court ordered visits, usually for an hour every two weeks. Referred to Families Together by their DCYF caseworkers, parents and children make a series of visits to Providence Children’s Museum, during the museum’s regular public hours, over a period of several months. Carefully designed, warm and welcoming, children’s museums are wonderful environments for family learning. The nurturing environment contrasts sharply with institutional settings, DCYF offices or fast food restaurants where court separated families’ visits traditionally take place.

Guided by one of the four therapists on the Families Together staff, families engage in healthy play activities and communication necessary for successful reunification. To a skilled observer, visits reveal family dynamics and parenting abilities. Since the museum environment and activities are intrinsically engaging, the therapists can often step back and unobtrusively observe the family “in action.” Approximately 250 parents and children in 75 families participate in the program each year. Families Together therapists work closely with the caseworker and other team members to ensure the visitation strategies are an integral part of the comprehensive case plan.

Visitation is understood to be one of the most critical factors for families involved with a child welfare system and it is the quality of the visitation that is most informing with respect to the case plan goals and overall permanency planning for children and families. For this reason, DCYF recognizes Families Together as an important therapeutic and diagnostic resource. While the state system provides such services as counseling, parenting classes and foster care, Families Together is the only provider that sees the entire family interact for extended periods of time, thus providing a more complete picture of the family. Caseworkers rely on the objective viewpoint of the therapists to design a permanency plan for the child, required under the
Adoption and Safe Families Act.

The Families Together program is changing DCYF practice by helping social workers better understand and engage in experiential learning with parents during visitation. At least two days a week, Families Together therapists work in each of DCYF’s four Regional Offices to assist with visits and offer guidance to social workers and families. In addition, Families Together staff works with DCYF to provide formal training on experiential learning and family centered practice. Families Together helps social workers move from being passive observers to actively assisting parents gain a better understanding of their own role and responsibilities in meeting the needs of their children.

Families Together presents opportunities for parents to find their own answers to situations and circumstances involving their children that they may not have previously felt they could do. It gives them hands-on experience and immediate feedback as they master parenting skills. Often parents need to have a better sense of their own importance in the lives of their children. Meeting the challenges of parenthood through effective communication and nurturing behavior does change the dynamic in their relations with their children. A supportive learning environment for family visitation helps parents develop a sense of their own competence and gain skills in caring for and managing their children. Exit surveys show that nearly all (98%) of the parents who participated in Families Together concur that they “learned better ways to be with their children.”

The program is not only highly valued by the families it serves and Rhode Island child welfare workers and advocates, it has attracted national attention and praise. The Federal Child and Family Services Review has repeatedly cited Families Together as a model visitation program. In 2003 the program achieved finalist status in the prestigious Innovations in American Government Award competition. Patricia McGinnis, President and CEO of the Council for Excellence in Government, said, “There are more than 300 children’s museums in the United States. Families Together has created a wonderful model that can be replicated in every one of them.”

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Partnering with the Child Welfare System at Your Museum

Families Together can serve as a model for similar programs in other museums. Whether it is our stated goal or a valuable by-product, children’s museums help strengthen family relationships. Our exhibits are designed for adult-child interaction, our staff and environments are respectful and welcoming, and our museums are a meeting ground for families of every description. Children’s museums are wonderful environments for family learning and should be shared with parents and children in dire need of positive family experiences.

To that end, we offer some suggestions for developing such a program at your museum:

• Become familiar with the issues and needs of child welfare practitioners and clients. As a group, social service professionals are not aware of what our institutions have to offer their clients or their workers. When we asked staff at DCYF and other agencies what the museum could do for them, they simply didn’t know. Only after observing their programs, visiting DCYF’s visitation rooms, listening to caseworkers, supervisors and therapists talk about their caseloads and job frustrations and becoming familiar with their issues, could we envision a program that might meet their needs. When we shared our vision with the workers and administrators, they enthusiastically embraced it.
  

• Any program providing social services needs staff members who are trained and experienced in these areas. Families Together therapists have advanced degrees in counseling as well as social service, mental health and child development experience. Some children’s museums might find it more feasible to partner with a social service agency rather than have therapists or social workers on the museum staff. One small children’s museum developed a program that trains social workers to use the museum with families at risk. Nonetheless, the staff member who manages such a program should have a background in social services.
  

• State-run agencies are not your only possible partners. There are a myriad of private not-for-profit social service agencies whose size, style and flexibility may be more compatible with your museum.
  

• The population of families in need of special guidance is diverse. In addition to court-separated families, intact families at risk, teenage mothers, non-custodial divorced parents, parents with cognitive limitations, foster families or pre-adoptive or newly adoptive families could benefit from carefully designed museum visitation programs.
  

• You are probably serving this audience already. In planning Families Together, we discovered that social workers in some of the nearby agencies were occasionally bringing their clients to the museum although we weren’t aware of them. Families at risk or in need of special guidance don’t appear or act in ways that cause them to stand out from the general public we welcome every day.

• Educate your staff and board. Many museum people are concerned that bringing extremely dysfunctional families into the museum will be disruptive for the staff and other visitors, or that working with the child welfare system could put the museum at risk for law suits or other problems. You will need to anticipate and answer these concerns. At Providence Children’s Museum, staff and board see Families Together as perfectly aligned with our values and mission and enthusiastically support the program.
  

• There is funding for collaborative programs with social service agencies. Families Together receives Title IV-B federal funding through Rhode Island DCYF. This funding is targeted for family support and preservation services and community based programs. In its initial stage, the program received a “Critical Issues” grant from United Way as well funding from a private foundation for the pilot program.

• Such programs attract general museum support as well. As children’s museum fundraisers well know, we often have to battle the notion of the museum as a frill, not an essential service, not serving the “truly needy.” Mentioning our program for abused and neglected children and our contract with DCYF tends to turn this thinking around.

• Remember the most important reason for entering into a partnership with the child welfare system – children’s museums offer experiences which families “in the system” need. We can significantly affect the lives of children who have suffered from neglect and abuse and bring a new concept of parenting to troubled families; a concept of respecting and taking joy in their children.

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Families Together Resources

Families Together Staffing

At its inception, Families Together was staffed only by Heidi Brinig, the program’s director. Her background as a mental health clinician and family therapist working with a population similar to Families Together clients was integral to the development of a workable, responsive program. Staff was added as the program grew and more funding became available.

Currently Families Together employs five full-time and three part-time staff. Each semester, one or two college interns from social work graduate and undergraduate programs provide important assistance. In addition to the program director, the staff consists of four family therapists and three program assistants.

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Organizational chart

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Position Descriptions

Providence Children's Museum
Program Director, Families Together
Reports to: Executive Director
Supervises: Families Together Therapists, Program Assistants, Program Interns

The Director of the Families Together Program leads the Families Together staff in delivering high quality services to the RI Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) and the families in their care.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Hires and supervises family therapists who work directly with DCYF involved families and provide consultation services to DCYF caseworkers

• Hires and supervises program assistants who transport program participants to and from Museum visits

• Designs internships and supervises program interns

• Establishes program policies, goals and practices and ensures that these are in keeping with the Museum’s mission/goals/policies

• Works with DCYF administrators to promote and expand services that meet the needs of DCYF staff and the families they serve

• Designs training and educational programs for DCYF staff and oversees their implementation

• Projects and monitors annual program budget

• Participates in state and federal reviews of program design, practice, and implementation

• Assists in preparing funding proposals for program

• Works with museum managers and exhibit staff to ensure quality visits for program participants

• Remains current on child and family welfare and management theory and practices

• Facilitates visits for families at risk

• Provides reports to DCYF caseworkers and supervisors, family court attorneys and judges regarding family’s progress

• Coordinates with other social service providers working with program participants

• Advises DCYF caseworkers on best practice in family visitation

• As part of the Museum’s senior management team, participates in establishing Museum policies and procedures and plans and goals
  

Minimum Qualifications:
Master’s degree in social work, clinical psychology or related discipline; ten years clinical experience with clients affected by substance abuse, domestic violence, mental illness, sexual abuse; five years in a supervisory position; familiarity with child welfare policy and practice on state and federal level.

Download a PFD version of the Program Director job description

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Providence Children’s Museum
Position: Family Therapist
Reports to: Families Together Program Director

Families Together therapists facilitate family visitation for families involved with Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF). Therapists work closely with DCYF caseworkers.

Responsibilities:

• Facilitate parent-child visits of court separated families at Providence Children’s Museum, carrying a caseload of fifteen families

• Develop, in collaboration with the client family, a comprehensive plan to strengthen the family’s ability to care for their children, with specific attention to their individual needs.

• Work from a strengths based perspective to improve the overall functioning of the family members

• Assess family strengths and needs and document observations

• Assist DCYF caseworkers with visitation, case planning, developing visitation goals and permanency plans

• Prepare reports as requested by DCYF caseworkers and Family Court

• As part of the treatment team, therapists work closely with caseworkers, counselors, Family Court attorneys and Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) social workers and volunteers. They communicate with and, on occasion advise, foster parents, educators and day care providers.
  

Qualifications:
Five years experience in the field of human development or human/social services; BSW or related degree (Masters level preferred). We seek compassionate, flexible individuals with experience/knowledge of child welfare and juvenile justice systems, parent /child visitation, individual and family therapy, and familiarity with current practices in substance abuse, domestic violence and mental health, and familiar with cultural differences in childrearing. A background in play/recreation therapy with children/families at risk is extremely helpful. Bilingual English/Spanish preferred.

Download PFD version of the Family Therapist job description

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Providence Children’s Museum
Program Assistant, Families Together Program
Reports to: Families Together Program Director

Summary of Responsibilities:

• Transport children and parents (Families Together program clients) to and from the Museum for their scheduled visits

• Schedule and confirm visits with care providers and family members

• Map routes to foster or group homes, residential facilities, day care centers

• Coordinate pick-ups and drop-offs with care providers

• Reserve rental cars

• Record observations of family members seen during transports
  

Qualifications:
Background in human/social services, child development, or family studies. Must be 21 years of age. Excellent driving record. Bilingual English/Spanish preferred. Independent, compassionate, resourceful team player.

Download a PDF version of Program Assistant job description

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Providence Children’s Museum
Families Together Budget

As with any social service program, personnel expenses account for most of the costs of the Families Together program. An experienced masters level social worker or therapist commands a salary in the range of $35,000 to $60,000.

Another significant expense of the program is transportation. Families Together program assistants transport clients to and from their museum visits. Their wages are between $9 and $11 per hour. Because there are frequently several families visiting in one day or the parent lives in one direction and the children’s foster home or school is in another, more than one driver (and vehicle) is on the road at any given moment. Therefore, Providence Children’s Museum has found it more efficient to rent cars than to own or lease one. That way we have the number of cars we need when we need them.

Providence Children’s Museum provides museum memberships for client families when (and if) the children are returned to their parents care and in some cases to foster families, as well as membership cards that can be used by DCYF caseworkers and aides to bring clients to the museum free of charge. Office space, office supplies and equipment, support services such as accounting, and the resources of the museum’s public space are covered by the 15% “administration and overhead” expense in the budget.

Books Hess, P., and Proch, K. Family Visiting in Out-of-Home Care: A Guide to Practice Washington, DC: CWLA Press, 1988 Wright, L., Toolbox No.1 Using Visitation to Support Permanency Washington, DC: CWLA Press, 2001 Child Welfare League of America, Standards of Excellence, Revised Edition Washington, DC: CWLA Press, 2003 Edelman, M. W., Families in Peril: an Agenda for Social Change Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987 Schorr, L., Within Our Reach New York Doubleday, 1988

Articles

• Beyer, M. (1999a). Parent-child visits as an opportunity for change. Prevention Report,2-10.
  National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice.

• Beyer, M. (1999b). Parent-child visits as an opportunity for change: Visit principles.
  Prevention Report,11-12. National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice.

Web site addresses

• Child Welfare Information Gateway

• www.childwelfare.gov/systemwide/laws_policies/statutes/resources.pdf

• Administration for Children and Families; federal oversight of child welfare practice/policies

• Child Welfare League of America

• National Association of Social Workers

• The Children’s Bureau – division of Administration of Children and Families – standards for child welfare practice

• National Foster Parent Association

• Identifying Child Abuse and Neglect

• Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect

• National Center on Substance Abuse and Child Welfare

• National Resource Center for Family-centered Practice and Permanency Planning

• Children’s Defense Fund, provides links to child welfare information for each state