There is mounting interest in services to strengthen families and, if possible, to keep them together, preventing unnecessary and costly out-of-home placements. Unfortunately, although these programs are proliferating throughout the country, many are developing without the benefit of existing historical, conceptual, and scholarly data, information needed to make sound fiscal policy and programmatic decisions. This book fills this critical void, with a systematic examination of home-based services for abused, neglected, delinquent, and emotionally disturbed children and their families.

 

With the most authoritative research on the topic to date, this book will be of interest to practitioners, policymakers, and child advocates.

Ira M. Schwartz is dean and director at the Center for the Study of Youth Policy at the University of Pennsylvania, School of Social Work. He is the author of (In)Justice for Juveniles: Rethinking the Best Interest of the Child. Philip AuClaire is a senior planner and project director with the Hennepin County, Minnesota Children and Family Services Department.

“This book addresses a topic that is ‘hot’. . . alternatives to current child welfare models, policies, and practices. . . . The chapters are written by experts, each in his or her own aspect of the topic of home-based services.”—James Garbarino, author of Children in Danger: Coping with the Consequences of Community Violence