Child welfare futures: toward more poverty responsive child welfare services

Child welfare service (CWS) agencies are responding to the critique that child welfare is an unacceptably adverse response to basic problems of poverty by developing innovative policies and strategies to help clients address concrete needs that promote successful parenting. Washinton State now requires that child welfare workers provide concrete goods to children, youth, parents, guardians, and suitable persons who meet certain conditions. Other states do not require such actions but are increasingly enabling their usage – even during the first days after a child abuse report while investigations are ongoing. This approach is consistent with public service history which included psychosocial and concrete services but requires a new commitment to poverty aware services. The effort seems promising for reducing child welfare inequities for poor families and offering child welfare workers additional tools to use to engage families in collaborative progress.