Child and family
services is a government and/or non-profit organisation designed to better the
well being of individuals who come from unfortunate situations, environmental
or biological. People who seek or are sought after to participate in these
services, usually do not have stable homes and no other resource to turn to.
Children might come from abusive or neglectful homes, or live in very poor and
dangerous communities. There are also agencies that cater to people who have
biological deficiencies. Families that are trying to live in stable lives come
to non-profit organisations for hope of a better future. Child and Family
services cater to many different types of people who are all in different
situations. These services might be mandated through the courts via a
governmental child protection agency or they might be voluntary. Child andfamily services may be mandated if:
There is domestic violence in the home
There is abuse or neglect in the home
Constant negativity amongst family members
which could lead to violent behavior
Physical abuse
Emotional abuse
Sexual abuse
Historical overview
The history of the
nation’s response to child abuse and neglect has been marked by a tension
between two missions:
an emphasis on rescuing children from abusive
or neglectful families on the one hand
and efforts to support and preserve their
families on the other.
18th and 19th centuries
The legal basis for
efforts to protect needy children in colonial times rested on the English Poor
Law of 1601. This placed the public responsibility for the poor in the hands of
local townspeople. Parents were not held accountable for their children, which
lead parent’s to tend to neglect their children and their duties as a parent. The
attention of community leaders, philanthropists, and social reformers who were
concerned about child abuse and neglect focused primarily on the children of
the poorest families and on those who were orphaned, abandoned, or
unsupervised.
20th century
During most of the 19th
century, destitute children were sent to institutions operated by private
charitable organizations. Many poor or abandoned children were sent to live in
almshouses—facilities established in the 19th century in many large cities to
house the very poor of all ages. Almshouses provided minimal standard of care
to orphaned or needy children and to impoverished, insane, or diseased adults.
The almshouses caused the children greater hardships because they were subject
to disease and chaos.
The second half of the
20th century saw increasing criticism of the impacts the unsanitary, chaotic
almshouses had on children, especially the very young, who suffered high
mortality rates there. Due to this, private charities and religious groups
began to establish orphanages or children’s asylums to separate needy children
from adults and protect them from disease, maltreatment, and such. Many parents
were losing custody of their children because the private organizations were
able to prove they would be able to take care of the children in need better
than their parents could. Children began to feel disconnected from their
parents because they had been placed to grow up with other families.
Evolution
Child and family
services have significantly evolved over the last few centuries. Many different
forms of help for children and families in need were offered throughout the
community. Today we have many different agencies to help with the welfare and
survival of many children and their families. However, years ago, many people
relied on their community and religion to get them through tougher times. The
community’s investment in the wellbeing of its children is reflected in the
cultural mores and social norms, and in legal frameworks that permit
intervention in individual families when children are abused or neglected.
In the United States,
independence, privacy, and parental rights are highly prized. The legal system
supports the right of families to rear their children according to their own
values, and requires evidence of danger or harm before the state may invade the
sanctity of the home to protect the children. Although parents can raise their
children with specific values that they feel are important, too often, children
are emotionally abused by their parent’s persistence to establish their
parents’ identity. Parents need to better themselves and their children without
causing physical and emotional harm to them. This is very tough for parents to
do without adequate resources and education. Since parents usually pass down
their values and morals from generation to generation, it is very hard for
parents to tell what is right and what is wrong when they are repeating what
that have seen over the years; the problem is, times do change and what was
acceptable in the early 20th century is no longer acceptable today in the 21st
century.
The formal system
through which society responds to child abuse and neglect is now largely a
governmental one. Today, primary responsibility for child protection is vested
in public child protective services (CPS) agencies, which receive, investigate,
and respond to reports of child abuse and neglect. These agencies are usually
linked to child welfare departments with broader responsibilities which include
foster care and adoption. Usually at this point, the parents lose their right
to take care of their children because they are seen to be unfit parents.
Today, it is against the law to not report child abuse if evident. Many parents
do not realize that they are candidates for the potential loss their children
to government agencies. Many parents do not realize this because of their own
issues, such as poverty, mental illness, or neglect that they do in fact cause
child abuse.
Types of services
Progression
The demands that
urbanization, industrialization, and immigration placed on poor and
working-class families in the late 19th century left many children unattended.
Rural states relied on family placements to care for their own homeless or
dependent children. This was a precursor for today’s foster care system.
As a general progressive
agenda of social reform was adapted in the early years if the 20th century, the
approach of assisting parents to care for their children was more widely
endorsed. A new policy was issued stating: “No child should be removed from the
home unless it is impossible to construct family conditions or to build and
supplement family resources as to make the home safe for the child…”
There is still evidence
from the 19th century of abandoned children. A 137-year-old foundation for
children called New York Foundling Asylum has recently discovered letters from
the parents who had abandoned their children in front of the agency because
they were unable to care for them. New York Foundling Asylum was a family
service agency that cared for thousands of children who had no homes and needed
help, otherwise they would have been left on the cold street. This foundation
saved thousands of lives and set a tone for other private organizations to
contribute as well.
Child Care Debate
Why are the middle and
upper classes getting so much financial help with child care assistance, when
the lower class needs the help? Over the last 15 years, federal child care
assistance has more than doubled. Poor and low income families, however, have
not benefited from this increased spending. Because the most significant child
care subsidies are provided through the tax code and not through spending
programs, these increases have largely benefited middle- and upper-class
families. Lower income families do not benefit because they hardly pay taxes in
the first place. One would think that the low income families would need the
support the most for their children and it should make it easier to receive
help than for the middle to upper class.
Although middle- and
upper-class families are at an advantage, the total federal and state funding
for child welfare and working families has increased dramatically since the
welfare reform, from $2.8 billion in 1995 to $8 billion in 2000. Although it is
being made easier now for low income families to benefit from the welfare
reform, they are less likely to be enrolled in high quality programs due to
uneven access to high quality options in their neighborhoods. Less than one
quarter of all eligible families use child care subsidies, and usage varies
widely across states and local areas reflecting various barriers to access and
scarcity of quality center-based care.
One could also argue
that the middle and upper classes are the ones that are paying for the welfare
programs through taxes, while the poor are not. Child welfare and income
assistance programs serve low income populations. Income assistance is targeted
specifically at low income families, and the strong association between poverty
and reported child maltreatment means that child welfare agencies deal
primarily with low income clientele. However they are not the clientele that
are receiving the most funding.
The problem is these
funds go increasingly to the least needy among us. A shocking proportion of
these funds go to middle and upper income families: Nearly half go to families
with incomes above the median. In 1985, less than 1% went to families with
adjusted gross incomes below $10,000, and only 13% of adjusted gross incomes
below $15,000. So few lower income families can benefit from the credit and
less than half of all working mothers claim it.
Since the lower class
endures financial strain, this leads to child maltreatment. Parents are giving
their children the bare minimum for survival in hope that the government won’t
take their children out of the home. The welfare agencies would rather take the
children out of their homes and put them in foster agencies which costs almost
triple the amount that the parents would need for their children to be healthy
and happy if they were just cut a check every month.
Perhaps child care
should be universally-available to all families, regardless of their
income—like public schools. But that is a long run question, as the proper role
of the federal government is establishing such a system, which would call for
an enormous increase of public spending. U.S. citizens do not want to pay more
taxes, and the middle to upper classes would in tern be paying for universal
child care…which they previously were receiving money for anyway.
Problems and solutions
There are many families
in the United States and in other countries who are in need of child and family
services to guide them towards building a better future. These children and
their families, more often than not, have the desire to create and live better
lives, unfortunately they do not have the resources or education on how to do
so. Social Welfare is important in the United States to guarantee safety,
health, equal opportunity, and social justice.
The Office of Family
Assistance (OFA) is located in the United States Department of Health and Human
Services, Administration for Children and Families and oversees the Temporary
Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Program which was created by the Welfare
Reform Law of 1996. TANF became effective July 1, 1997, and replaced what was
then commonly known as welfare: Aid to Families with Dependent Children(AFDC)
and the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training (JOBS) programs. TANF was
reauthorized in February 2006 under the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. Temporary
Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) provides assistance and work opportunities
to needy families by granting states the federal funds and wide flexibility to
develop and implement their own welfare programs. Citizens may apply for
assistance at their local TANF agency.
Veerapagupathy,
Chothavilai Beach,
Thengamputhoor,
Kanyakumari.
Contact Number:
Ph: 04652-221337
Mob; 8220099080
Email:aveholidayhome@gmail.com
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