ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights some of the organizational requisites for family-centered child welfare services. Child welfare does not operate in isolation and is affected by unemployment rates and community infrastructure such as housing, police and fire protection, public transportation, and other community risk, protective, and infrastructure factors. Community levels of racism, sexism, ageism and other forms of discrimination also affect the ability of child welfare services to succeed in protecting children and strengthening families. Only a few child welfare agencies have been able to define and sustain their mission in ways that promote staff, client, and public understanding of what it is that they do. As child welfare agencies move to implement fully a family-centered approach, there is a greater emphasis on family empowerment and teaching families new skills for living. Some child welfare agencies are reformulating the agency mission in order to clarify and narrow intake criteria.
