An award-winning scholar exposes the foundational racism of the child welfare system and offers a a brilliant and impassioned call for abolition (Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow)

Many believe the child welfare system protects children from abuse. But as Torn Apart uncovers, this system is designed to punish Black families. Drawing on decades of research, legal scholar and sociologist Dorothy Roberts reveals that the child welfare system is better understood as a family policing system that collaborates with law enforcement and prisons to oppress Black communities. Child protection investigations ensnare a majority of Black children, putting their families under intense state surveillance and regulation. Black children are disproportionately likely to be torn from their families and placed in foster care, driving many to juvenile detention and imprisonment.

The only way to stop the destruction caused by family policing, Torn Apart argues, is to abolish the child welfare system and liberate Black communities.

Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Current Interest

Told through the stories of eight former foster youth, a jolting exploration of a broken system from an award-winning journalist

Through the stories of eight former foster kids, Claudia Rowe illustrates exactly where, when, and how the system is failing the children that it parents. With accounts from psychologists to advocates to judges to the former foster children themselves, Wards of the State paves a road to reform by pulling back the curtain on the heartbreaking realities faced by children in a system that fails its most vulnerable youth.

By the time Maryanne was 19 years old, she was on trial for murder. After having been in and out of the foster homes for nearly a decade, she was trafficked and assaulted, and ultimately pointed a gun at her assailant--and pulled the trigger. She fled, but with no family and no real friends, it didn't take long for the police to catch up with her.

In court, the defense blamed not the traffickers, nor Maryanne, but the state itself--or rather, the foster care system, which turns the state into the parent of hundreds of thousands of children. The state of Washington didn't listen, but Claudia Rowe did.

Wards of the State by journalist and author Claudia Rowe widens an eye-opening case from a true-crime lens to an exploration of the foster care-to-prison pipeline. The system is broken--hundreds of thousands of children every year leave America's $30 billion dollar foster care system and enter its prisons, where in some cases, 75 percent of inmates are former foster kids.

In New York City back in April of 1874, a most unusual event took place. A severely abused nine-year-old girl named Mary Ellen Wilson became the first child in America to be rescued from an abusive home. She had been beaten, burned, slashed with scissors, locked in a closet, and had never been outside of her tenement home in over 7 years. Thanks to the concern and dedication of a missionary named Etta Wheeler, the child was finally saved from her cruel captors. Henry Bergh's ASPCA -- yes, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals -- was instrumental in securing her rescue. When no other agencies would become involved, the ASPCA used its power and influence to not only save Mary Ellen, but to charter the first organization of its kind to prevent cruelty to children, the NYSPCC -- the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. This book remains the ONLY book that tells the dramatic story of Mary Ellen's life and rescue.

Featuring chapters written by leading scholars in the social work discipline, the second edition of Social Welfare Policy: Regulation and Resistance among People of Color examines how American social welfare policies, both historical and current, have sought to control the lives of marginalized populations. The chapters also explore how people of color have organized to critique and resist the racial control aspects of these policies.

Each of the book's four parts are devoted to the major groups of color in the United States: Native American or First Nation peoples; Hispanic or Latino/Latina Americans; Asian Pacific Americans; and African Americans. Contributors highlight how oppressive or racially regulatory social welfare policies have affected education systems, child protective services, spiritual and religious practices, immigration laws, incarceration rates, and foster care and adoption services. Readers learn how specific groups have countered these policies through collective resistance, advocacy for alternative policies, civil and political participation, and more.

The second edition of Social Welfare Policy includes new contributions that explore social welfare policies currently in play in the United States, as well as material that reflects the country's current political and social climate.

Jerome H. Schiele is a professor and chair of the Ph.D. Department in the School of Social Work at Morgan State University. He holds master's and doctoral degrees from Howard University. Dr. Schiele's research focuses on social policy analysis, racial oppression, and cultural diversity/competence. Dr. Schiele has published numerous scholarly articles, essays, and book chapters, and he is the author of Human Services and the Afrocentric Paradigm, editor of the first edition of Social Welfare Policy: Regulation and Resistance among People of Color, and coauthor with Phyllis Day of A New History of Social Welfare, 7th edition.

In A Nation of Takers: America's Entitlement Epidemic, one of our country's foremost demographers, Nicholas Eberstadt, details the exponential growth in entitlement spending over the past fifty years. As he notes, in 1960, entitlement payments accounted for well under a third of the federal government's total outlays. Today, entitlement spending accounts for a full two-thirds of the federal budget. Drawing on an impressive array of data and employing a range of easy-to-read, four-color charts, Eberstadt shows the unchecked spiral of spending on a range of entitlements, everything from Medicare to disability payments. But Eberstadt does not just chart the astonishing growth of entitlement spending, he also details the enormous economic and cultural costs of this epidemic. He powerfully argues that while this spending certainly drains our federal coffers, it also has a very real, long-lasting, negative impact on the character of our citizens. Also included in the book is a response from one of our leading political theorists, William Galston. In his incisive response, he questions Eberstadt's conclusions about the corrosive effect of entitlements on character and offers his own analysis of the impact of American entitlement growth.

The Black Panther Party represents Black Panther Party members' coordinated responses over the last four decades to the failure of city, state, and federal bureaucrats to address the basic needs of their respective communities. The Party pioneered free social service programs that are now in the mainstream of American life.

The Party's Sickle Cell Anemia Research Foundation, operated with Oakland's Children's Hospital, was among the nation's first such testing programs. Its Free Breakfast Program served as a model for national programs. Other initiatives included free clinics, grocery giveaways, school and education programs, senior programs, and legal aid programs.

Published here for the first time in book form, The Black Panther Party makes the case that the programs' methods are viable models for addressing the persistent, basic social injustices and economic problems of today's American cities and suburbs.

The story of foster care in the United States is the story of the failure of the social safety net to aid poor, largely black, parents in their attempt to make a home for their children.
Shattered Bonds tells this story as no other book has before -- from the perspective of a prominent black, female legal theoretician. The current state of the child-welfare system in America is a well-known tragedy. Thousands of children every year are removed from their parents' homes, often for little reason other than the endemic poverty that afflicts women and children more than any other group in the United States.
Dorothy Roberts, an acclaimed legal scholar and social critic, reveals the racial politics of child welfare in America through extensive legal research and original interviews with Chicago families in the foster care system. She describes the racial imbalance in foster care, the concentration of state intervention in certain neighborhoods, the alarming percentages of children in substitute care, the difficulty that poor and black families have in meeting state's standards for regaining custody of children placed in foster care, and the relationship between state supervision of families and continuing racial inequality.

It's an invaluable insider account of a pressing social issue. - Publishers Weekly

Joining the ranks of Evicted and The New Jim Crow, a former caseworker's searing, clear-eyed investigation of the child welfare system--from foster care to incarceration--that exposes the deep-rooted biases shaping the system, witnessed through the lives of several Black families.

Dr. Jessica Pryce knows the child welfare system firsthand and, in this long overdue book, breaks it down from the inside out, sharing her professional journey and offering the crucial perspectives of caseworkers and Black women impacted by the system. It is a groundbreaking and eye-opening confrontation of the inherent and systemic racism deeply entrenched within the child welfare system.

Pryce started her social work career with an internship where she was committed to helping keep children safe. In the book, she walks alongside her close friends and even her family as they navigate the system, while sharing her own reckoning with the requirements of her job and her role in the systemic harm. Through poignant narratives and introspection, readers witness the harrowing effects of a well-intentioned workforce that has lost its way, demonstrating how separations are often not in a child's best interests.

With a renewed commitment to strengthening families in her role as activist, Pryce invites the child welfare workforce to embark on a journey of self-reflection and radical growth. At once a framework for transforming child protective services and an intimate, stunning first-hand account of the system as it currently operates, Broken takes everyday scenarios as its focus rather than extreme child welfare cases, challenging readers to critically examine their own mindsets and biases in order to reimagine how we help families in need.

2024 Outstanding Academic Title, given by Choice Reviews

Features the stories of undocumented mothers who reunite with their children in the US years after fleeing violence at home

Facing escalating chaos and violence in their home countries, many Central American mothers have found that a desperate flight to the north was their only choice. Many left their children behind in order to spare them the hardships of the journey. If they made it across the border without getting locked up or deported, they entered a country increasingly unwilling to recognize claims of asylum.

This book features the stories of women who crossed the border without encountering immigration authorities, in some cases several times, and settled in the greater Washington, DC, area, living in the shadows for years. By centering on the voices of the women themselves, it offers an intimate look at what drove them from home and the challenges they face in reuniting years later with their children.

Forced Out traces the women's evolving attitudes toward the violence embedded in institutions and everyday life in their home countries, as well as their continued vulnerability and dependence in the US. It also highlights the challenges they face in parenting children adapting to American society and learning English while living with mothers who had left them years before and become strangers to them. Rather than sensationalizing their trauma or dwelling on their vulnerability, the stories reveal the women's rich, complex inner lives, their resilience in overcoming senseless violence, and their unswerving commitment to bettering their children's lives. Clear, vivid, and impactful, this is a humbling and humane look at the state of migration to America today.

Your Caring Heart is Dr. Jaiya John's warm companion for your compassionate servitude. In gentle clarity, lightness, and humor, Jaiya's soothing reflections flow straight into the tender truth of your caring nature and calling. Discover the promise of mutual care, harvesting story, and compassionate leadership for transforming you and your work tribe into your optimal giftedness for serving lives. These are words you will keep close, drinking from them for your renewal. Reinvigorate your wellspring of devotion. Heal your tenderness. Supercharge your system, and bless the ones you serve. Welcome, you Lovers, leaders, activists, agitators... You soul suns, deep drums, healers, hope dealers, sacred dancers. Here is a spa day for your inner peace, birthprint for your revival, as you give yourself to the ones who dearly need your healing touch. TOPICS: Personal and professional renewal. System rehabilitation and culture change. Mutual care and group harmony. Supercharge your practice models. Compassion fatigue and burnout. Nurture trauma and conflict. Wellness and deep caring. Empower staff and leadership. Tribal time and tribe building. Rekindle passion and purpose. Break generational cycles. Humanize workers, leaders, and community. Cure social illness inside your system. Honor cultures and communities. Compassionate leadership. Compassion and kindness. Use story to strengthen your tribe. Harness the psychology of change. Overcome fear and tame stress. The power of celebration. Healing and wholeness. Tap your superpowers. And so much more...

Contemporary Social Work Practice: Integrating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is designed to educate students about relevant terms and concepts related to racism, oppression, and cultural humility. It provides them with the knowledge and guidance they need to cultivate a social work practice grounded in cultural competency and social justice.

The text provides students with a brief history of marginalized groups, real-world examples that speak to the need for culturally responsive practice, and tools for successful assessment, intervention, and evaluation. Chapters and readings examine social work pioneers who have fought for inclusion, critical race theory, America's changing landscape, cultural humility, and theories of prejudice. Students learn how policy impacts practice, social class impacts service provision, and nuances for working with Native Americans, Africans across the diaspora, Latina/o families, and Asian Americans. The final chapter provides students with frameworks for social work rooted in social justice. Self-reflection activities throughout the text help readers better understand the ways in which their personal worldview can influence how they engage with others with different worldviews.

An illuminating and essential guide, Contemporary Social Work Practice is well suited for courses and programs in social work, especially those with focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Warm, compassionate, and brimming with wisdom and expert advice (Kate Washington, author of Already Toast), Stand By Me provides caregivers with new ways to juggle the responsibilities and emotional ups and downs of caregiving.

As the founder of the only devoted Caregivers Clinic in the country, clinical psychologist Dr. Allison Applebaum is no stranger to the intensity of being an unpaid, untrained family caregiver. She also understands that it is often the strength and well-being of these very caregivers--the parents, children, partners, siblings, and friends of patients--that are the true linchpin determining each patient's illness experience.

Stand By Me puts the practical tools and transformative support of the Caregiver Clinic in your hands, empowering you to provide your loved one with the best quality of life and care possible, while promoting your own well-being. The book covers crucial topics including:
-Getting the most from any healthcare system
-Productive advance care planning
-Navigating changing roles and relationship dynamics
-Finding meaning and purpose in the caregiving experience

Stand By Me draws on more than a decade of clinical and research experience as well as Dr. Applebaum's personal journey as the primary caregiver for her own father, legendary musician Stanley Applebaum, at the end of his life. Dr. Applebaum recognizes caregivers for who they truly are: invaluable healthcare team members. Offering critical insight and takeaways, Stand By Me is a rich resource of invaluable information and expert advice for caregivers (Dr. Kathleen M. Foley, Emeritus Professor of Neurology, Weill Cornell Medical College).

Child and Family Practice: A Relational Perspective, Second Edition presents important guidelines and principles for working with children, their families, and their service-providing organizations. It is grounded in the traditional social work theories of relationship with emphasis on three core concepts: relational connection, evidence-guided knowledge, and reflexivity. With this text students can connect theory to evidence-based practice and use realistic case studies for classroom role-play and engaging discussion. Cohen Konrad's goal is to help students connect science, theory, and the human qualities necessary to effect positive change and inspire hope in the lives of children and families.

Social Welfare Policy: Responding to a Changing World is a topical, comprehensive introduction to social welfare policy. It uses a contemporary framework that explicitly addresses three forces that have redefined the social policy arena: the growth of the information economy, the rise of globalization, and our current environmental crisis. This framework is applied to the six traditional arenas of policy--child and family services, health and mental health, poverty and inequality, housing and community development, crime and violence, and aging--and explores how to find solutions to both long-enduring and brand-new problems. John McNutt and Richard Hoefer's introductory text represents a move forward in social welfare policy thinking that is built on the latest scholarship and teaches students that the time to create social policies for the future is in the present.

From the outset, the ultimate goal of Research Methods for Social Workers has been to serve as a research text that students would be able to understand and read in full. This third edition features important additions and changes to the original text (while maintaining its accessible style). The order of chapters is re-arranged to improve the flow of introducing and developing concepts of the research process, and the authors have included some much-needed information to meet the changing and evolving standards of social work education. At its core, this book is designed to bring complex ideas down to a level that can be grasped by someone with little to no knowledge of research methods - it is an invaluable resource for social work students and anyone who wishes to have a comprehensive introduction to research methods.

The World's Medicine Chest details how America became the world's leader in biopharmaceutical innovation and reveals how new threats to this industry will have disastrous consequences for patients and the U.S. economy.

In the 1970s, Europe was the global hub for pharmaceutical innovation. European drug companies developed more than twice as many drugs in that decade as their U.S.-based counterparts. But times have changed. Today, nearly half of all new drugs come from the United States. Just 22 percent are of European origin. And U.S. patients get access to innovative medicines before anyone else in the world.

Drawing on her decades of experience as a health policy scholar, Sally Pipes details how America became the world's leader in biopharmaceutical innovation. She argues that efforts over the last few years by Democrats and Republicans alike to impose price controls on prescription drugs will have disastrous consequences for patients and for the U.S. Economy.

Written by authors who are themselves Deaf, this unique book illuminates the life and culture of Deaf people from the inside, through their everyday talk, their shared myths, their art and performances, and the lessons they teach one another. Carol Padden and Tom Humphries employ the capitalized Deaf to refer to deaf people who share a natural language--American Sign Language (ASL--and a complex culture, historically created and actively transmitted across generations.

Signed languages have traditionally been considered to be simply sets of gestures rather than natural languages. This mistaken belief, fostered by hearing people's cultural views, has had tragic consequences for the education of deaf children; generations of children have attended schools in which they were forbidden to use a signed language. For Deaf people, as Padden and Humphries make clear, their signed language is life-giving, and is at the center of a rich cultural heritage.

The tension between Deaf people's views of themselves and the way the hearing world views them finds its way into their stories, which include tales about their origins and the characteristics they consider necessary for their existence and survival. Deaf in America includes folktales, accounts of old home movies, jokes, reminiscences, and translations of signed poems and modern signed performances. The authors introduce new material that has never before been published and also offer translations that capture as closely as possible the richness of the original material in ASL.

Deaf in America will be of great interest to those interested in culture and language as well as to Deaf people and those who work with deaf children and Deaf people.

Child Protection Services have been involved with Billy and his mother for some time now. He has been happily settled in a kinship placement with his grandmother and enjoys his pet cat, interacting with neighbors and even taking piano lessons. As the story unfolds, Billy's grandmother has unexpectedly passed away and so the story of Billy Had To Move begins.

Unfortunately, Billy's mother cannot be located. Mr. Murphy, Billy's social worker, places him in the foster home of Amy, Tim, and their baby Colly. Billy experiences great loss resulting not only from his grandmother's death, but also the loss of the life he knew. Billy's inner journey therefore has also begun and with the help of Ms. Woods, a Play Therapist, there is hope.

Therapists' Acclaim for Billy Had To Move

This gem of a book gently frames the stages of a child's natural quest to make sense of his story. Fraser has created more than a teaching story: she generously offers a sacred space that compassionately holds and supports the multidimensional realities of our foster children and their birth families, our social workers and foster families, our teachers and child psychotherapists.
--Gisela Schubach De Domenico, PhD, MFT, R-PTS

Billy Had To Move is a profound story about the complex issues children in foster care often face. Fraser provides important lessons for caregivers. The book gracefully introduces the sandtray and provides insight into how powerful the experience can be when the child has an opportunity to explore their trauma in the sandtray.
--Mark E. Hulbert, MA, LLP

A wonderful addition to the bibliotherapy field. This is a much-needed book for foster care children to help them in adjusting to a new caregiver and placement. It offers a welcoming view of how children's worries and losses can be understood by a caring Play Therapist, in a warm and inviting setting.
--Athena A. Drewes, PsyD, RPT-S; Director of Clinical Training, The Astor Home for Children, Poughkeepsie, NY

In this engaging, warm-hearted story, Billy grieving the loss of his grandmother, finds a way to heal by expressing his thoughts and feelings in Play Therapy. Highly recommended
--Charles E. Schaefer, PhD, RPT-S Director Emeritus, The Association for Play Therapy

Learn More About This Book at www.TheresaFraser.com

From the Growing With Love series at Loving Healing Press www.LovingHealing.com

Juvenile Fiction: Family - Orphans & Foster Homes

Explores the ways welfare recipients lack adequate political representation

Who deserves public assistance from the government? This age-old question has been revived by policymakers, pundits, and activists following the massive economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Anne Whitesell takes up this timely debate, showing us how our welfare system, in its current state, fails the people it is designed to serve. From debates over stimulus check eligibility to the uncertain future of unemployment benefits, Living Off the Government? tackles it all.

Examining welfare rules across eight different states, as well as 19,000 state and local interest groups, Whitesell shows how we determine who is--and who isn't--deserving of government assistance. She explores racial and gender stereotypes surrounding welfare recipients, particularly Black women and mothers; how different groups take advantage of these harmful stereotypes to push their own political agendas; and how the interests and needs of welfare recipients are inadequately represented as a result.

Living Off the Government? highlights how harmful stereotypes about the race, gender, and class of welfare recipients filter into our highly polarized political arena to shape public policy. Whitesell calls out a system that she believes serves special interests and not the interests of low-income Americans.