Reference no: EM133207595

Social Problem: Child abuse is a global epidemic. Although there are laws to protect children, child abuse continues to remain a major problem in the United States. In the United States the practice of the foster care system has always been to remove the children from the unsafe environment and place them in what is assumed to be a much safer one.  Children in foster care often experience such consequences due to family disruption and placement in multiple foster homes, which leads to experiences of separation and loss, inducing further mental health complications (Bartlett & Rushovich, 2018). A significant mental health concern among foster youth is post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); researchers have reported that 20 percent of abused children in foster care experienced symptoms of PTSD versus the 11 percent that remained in their original home (Bartlett & Rushovich, 2018).  Children who undergo unstable placement, in addition to prior abuse and neglect, are twice as likely to cultivate behavior problems versus foster youth who attain stable foster care placements (Dorsey, Burns, Southerland, Cox, Wagner, & Farmer, 2012). Throughout the recent years there has been more focus on kinship foster care, where the children would be placed with immediate family members to adopt them later or to give the biological parents time to get help and re-gain custody of their children. According to research, young people within the child welfare system do best in families, in a safe and stable environment that supports their long-term well-being. We need more states and welfare agencies to adopt the kinship foster care ideal to help these children live stable happy lives.

The specific action you aim to pursue/policy change you hope to achieve.Our aim will focus on convincing all 50 states to re-evaluate and replace their current child welfare practices and focus on putting kinship care first and out of home/ family placement second. Mandating all states apply for funding from the Family First Act is what will help us accomplish this. Our goal is to have all child welfare agencies use evidenced based programs that emphasize trauma informed support, ??support preventions services, provides support for kinship (relative) caregivers, establish requirements for placement in residential treatment programs and improves quality and oversight of services & improve services to older youth.

Why would we need to engage these specific stakeholders in our advocacy efforts? Explain each in details and use references and in text citation. Stakeholders: Federal government Training programs, state governments that have passed the legislation, department of children and families, kinship foster parents, schools ,foster youth. 

Also explain why group homes and tax payers might oppose to the act.