Howell-Moroney Michael
University of Memphis, Division of Public and Nonprofit Administration, USA.
J Health Hum Serv Adm. 2013 Fall;36(2):228-51.
Throughout the last several decades, there has been a chronic shortage of foster and adoptive families in the United States. Recruiting families to begin the licensure process to become foster and adoptive parents is already a difficult undertaking. But research shows that a very large proportion of families drop out of the licensure process early on due to frustration or a lack of support. This paper studies two faith-based partnerships that have arisen to create new capacity in the child welfare system. These programs recruit prospective families from churches and then provide training and ongoing support to those families throughout the licensure process. Using survey data collected from program participants, respondent perceptions of the licensure process are compared to a nationally representative sample of foster parents from the National Foster Care Adoptions Attitude Survey. Statistical results demonstrate that participants with the faith-based programs reported much higher levels of satisfaction with the process than the national sample. These findings provide evidence that these faith-based partnerships may provide an important additional source of capacity for an overburdened child welfare system.
在过去几十年里，美国一直长期缺乏寄养家庭和收养家庭。招募家庭开始获得成为寄养父母和收养父母的执照的程序，本身就是一项艰巨的任务。但研究表明，很大一部分家庭由于挫折感或缺乏支持，在执照获取程序的早期就退出了。本文研究了为在儿童福利系统中创造新能力而出现的两种基于信仰的合作关系。这些项目从教会招募潜在家庭，然后在整个执照获取过程中为这些家庭提供培训和持续支持。利用从项目参与者那里收集的调查数据，将受访者对执照获取过程的看法与来自全国寄养和收养态度调查的具有全国代表性的寄养父母样本进行比较。统计结果表明，参与基于信仰项目的人对该过程的满意度远高于全国样本。这些发现证明，这些基于信仰的合作关系可能为负担过重的儿童福利系统提供一个重要的额外能力来源。
