Broussard, C. Anne Page 1. Miami University FSW Services and Supports for Children, Youth and Families 3 credits

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1 Broussard, C. Anne Page 1 Miami University FSW Services and Supports for Children, Youth and Families 3 credits Course Description: FSW 191 provides an introduction to the interrelationships among various institutions that have impact upon the family in the United States society. We will examine family characteristics and strengths. We will discuss how institutional services/supports can work with families to maximize their strengths. Students will have the opportunity to examine institutional services/supports in place for children, youth and families in three kinds of organizations: Social service, educational and health. Families and children will be presented as having needs and strengths which allow them to participate in the service delivery process as partners. In addition, each student will "shadow" a professional in each of the three service settings. Special emphasis will be placed on the current move toward school-based service configurations. Course Objectives:!To provide the basis to understand the diverse conceptual frameworks of service providers and of families and children who are involved in service delivery systems.!to foster connections between information/data about children, youth and families and societal processes (emphasis on interdependence).!to foster understanding of the social, political and economic agendas that propose to support children and families.!to provide the opportunity to critically examine social, educational and health services to children and families.!to encourage idea exchange regarding service delivery systems to children and families.!to prepare students to be effective child, youth and family advocates.!to learn about preventive and educational supports for children, youth and families and to guide students in the development of proposals for newly configured delivery systems which will integrate disciplines, allow for interprofessional service delivery, and include families and children as partners in the service delivery process. 110

2 Broussard, C. Anne Page 2 Principles of Liberal Education FSW 191 is a pilot for a foundation in the Miami University Plan for Liberal Education. Throughout this course, the following four Liberal education principles are stressed. 1.Thinking Critically - Through readings, presentations, discussions and assignments, students will learn to question, analyze and examine traditional and new ways of thinking about the needs of and services for children, youth and families. 2.Understanding Contexts - Students will examine and question the contexts in which policy and service delivery decisions are developed. Students will also explore the contexts in which services are or are not received. The diverse family types who participate in social, educational and health services will be investigated. In addition, through mini-field placements in social, educational and health service providers as well as families, youth and children who receive those services. 3.Engaging with Other Learners - Progressive supports and services for children, youth and families involve collaboration among previously distinct professions and organizations. Through class discussions and active learning activities, students will learn to integrate other perspectives. The mini-field placements will enable students to share learning with service professionals, families, youth and children in a "real" setting. 4.Reflecting and Acting - Papers following the mini-field placement experiences and class discussions along with the final group project provide a structure for reflection and action. Course Requirements: A.Class participation: Students will be expected to attend class and participate in class discussions. Preparation for discussion includes reading and thinking about the assigned material prior to class. There will be extended class discussions following their mini-field experiences as well. On these occasions, students will present information about their experiences and attempt, along with other students, to integrate that experience with assigned readings. B.Mini-field experience participation: Students will spend two days in each of three settings: a social service setting, a health care setting and a school setting. Students will be assigned a professional to observe and interview in each of these settings. During each 111

3 Broussard, C. Anne Page 3 placement, students will interview two or more families and children (who have giver their permission to be interviewed). Through these experiences, students will gain information about the conceptual frameworks of the service providers and representative families and children. C.Papers: Following each of the three mini-field experiences, students will write papers which address the following issues: 1) description of the experience; 2) perceptions of the conceptual frameworks of the service providers; 3) perceptions of the conceptual frameworks of families and children interviewed; 4) analysis of how the services relate to the needs of families and children; and 5) analysis of the extent to which families and children are participants int he service delivery process. D.Final Project: Students will be assigned groups to complete the final project. It will consist of a presentation to the class and a paper. the project will include a description of a new service configuration to meet the needs of families and children through school or community based services, which integrates social, health and educational disciplines/professions/organizations. Course Evaluation: Class participation % Mini-field experience participation % Papers % Final Project % 112

4 Broussard, C. Anne Page 4 Outline FSW 201 Week One: Overview of needs of families and children: Conditions, Characteristics and Capabilities A.Defining families/family systems B.Societal values/family values C.Diversity in families D.Causes and Consequences of labeling 1. Government labeling 2. Strength versus Weakness-based services E.Inequality, poverty and culture Readings: Bath, H. I. & D. A. Haapala Intensive family preservation services with abused and neglected children: An examination of group differences. Child Abuse and Neglect 17(2): Children's Defense Fund The state of America's Children, Washington, DC: Children's Defense Fund. Selected pages TBA. Fine, M Families in the United States: Their current status and future prospects. Relations 41: Family Gustavsson, N. S. & E. A. Segal The juvenilization of poverty. Pp in Critical Issues in Child Welfare. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Gustavsson, N. S. & E. A. Segal The rights of children. Pp in Critical Issues in Child Welfare. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Williams, S. E. & D. F. Wright Empowerment: The strengths of black families revisited. Journal of Multicultural Social Work. 2(4):

5 Broussard, C. Anne Page 5 Questions for class discussion:!what is a family?!what are the diverse needs of families and children within community settings?!what individual and societal factors contribute to the needs of family and children? Where do values come in? Norms?!To what extent should these families meet their own needs and to what extent should society provide resources for those needs?!should resources be equal for all families and children, or should different families and children have different resources? What diverse needs of families and children should guide resource provision?!what is the difference between the provision of resources and access to resources? Should resources be provided or should access to resources be provided? Weeks Two and Three: Matching services to needs A.Overview of existing services B.Gaps in services C.Overlaps in services D.Limitations of professional boundaries E.New service configurations Readings: Bernard, L. D The dark side of family preservation. AFFILIA: Journal of Women and Social Work 7(2): Brock, G. W Ethical guidelines for the practice of family life education. Family Relations 42(2): Folse, K. A Child support services and non-welfare families. Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare 20(1): Morill, W. A Overview of service delivery to children. The Future of Children. Schorr, L. with D. Schorr Within Our Reach: Breaking the Cycle of Disadvantage. NY: Doubleday. selected pagers TBA. Tyack, D Health and social services in public schools: Historical perspectives. The Future of Children. 2(1):

6 Broussard, C. Anne Page 6 Questions for Class Discussion:!Are the services which exist for children and families adequate?!if resources are not adequate, how should decisions be made concerning who get which resources?!whose responsibility is it to ensure that resources are provided to individuals in society?!what are the philosophical orientations guiding service policies? are the orientations of social services policies, health care policies and education polices congruent with one another?!to what extent do policies direct service provision? What part does confidentiality play?!to what extent do family and individual differences influence policy decisions and to what extent should they?!what gaps exist in social, health and educational service provision? Weeks Four through Twelve: Traditional and Groundbreaking Services Weeks Four through Six: Traditional and groundbreaking social services to families and children. Weeks Seven through Nine: Traditional and groundbreaking educational programs for families and children Weeks Ten through Twelve: Traditional and groundbreaking health programs for families and children. Assignment (mini-field placements): During the next 8 weeks, each student will spend two days in a social service agency shadowing a social service professional as s(he) carries out his/her duties, two days in an educational setting shadowing an educator and two days in a health care setting shadowing a health care provider. Field placements will take the place of classes on designated days. 115

7 Broussard, C. Anne Page 7 Questions for discussion following mini-field placements:!what was the conceptual orientation of the professional whom you shadowed? Did s/he feel that all children and families require the same services or that services should be tailored to meet diverse needs of children and families?!what were the needs of children and families whom you encountered? What were the similarities and differences?!to what extent were the needs of the children and families you encountered being met by the services you witnessed being provided? To what extent were needs unmet?!discuss traditional and groundbreaking services you saw, differences between the two and the extent to which the two made a difference in the lives of children, youth and families who consumed those services.!what gaps do you see in services in each area (social, educational and health) and what gaps do you see between areas? Readings: American Association of University Women How Schools Shortchange Girls. Wellesley, MA: Wellesley College Center for Research on Women. Selected pages TBA. Anderson, M. L. & P. H. Collins (eds.) Race, Class, and Gender: An Anthology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Selected pages TBA. Ballantine, J. H The Sociology of Education: A Systematic Analysis. Englewood NJ: Prentice-Hall. Selected pages TBA. Belcher, J. R. & F. A. Diblasio Inner city poverty, racial exclusion, and jobs: a new on education is needed. School Social Work Journal 16(1): Cliffs, focus Chaskin, R. J. & H. A. Richman Concerns about school-linked services: Institution- based versus community-based models. The Future of Children. 2(1): Gerry, M. H. & N. J. Certo Current activity at the federal level and the need for integration. The Future of Children 2(1): service Broussard, C. Anne Page 8 116

8 Gustavsson, N. S. & E. A. Segal The Health of America's Children, Pp in Issues in Child Welfare. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Gustavsson, N. S. & E. A. Segal Children in Public Schools, Pp in Critical in Child Welfare. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Critical Issues Lincoln, Y. S. The delivery of special services in schools: Implications of systems theory. Pp in M. J. Fine & C. Carlson (eds.) The Handbook of Family-School Intervention. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Wexler, P Becoming Somebody: The Social Psychology of School. London: Taylor & Francis. Selected pages TBA. Weeks Thirteen through Fifteen: configurations: Putting it all together Development of new interprofessional service Readings: Beal, E. W. & L. S. Cherkov Family-school intervention: A family systems perspective, Pp in The Handbook of Family-School Intervention. M. J. Fine & C. Carlson (eds). Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Holley, W. G The positive resource team: An interdisciplinary perspective on pupil personnel. School Social Work Journal 16(1): Lappe, F. P. Martin The Quickening of America: Rebuilding Our Nation, Remaking Our Lives. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Selected pages TBA. Pennekamp, M Toward school-linked and school-based human services for children and families. Social Work in Education 14(2): Schorr, L. with D. Schorr Within Our Reach: Breaking the Cycle of Disadvantage. NY: Doubleday. Selected pages TBA. Simeonsson, R Risk, Resilience and Prevention: Promoting the Well-Being of All Children. Baltimore: Paul Brookes. Selected pages TBA. Wexler, P Becoming Somebody: The Social Psychology of School. London: Taylor & Francis. Selected pages TBA. 117