Public Child Welfare

Public Child Welfare: A Casebook for Learning and Teaching provides social work students and practicing social workers with 20 real-world cases gathered from four California county child welfare agencies. Readers are exposed to the stories of social workers and families involved in child welfare services. The rich and varied content captures the daily complexities, challenges, and successes that social workers experience in the field.

Framed within the context of relevant national and state policy and practices, the cases address a variety of child welfare issues including neglect and abuse, substance abuse, domestic violence, criminal justice involvement, mental health, reunification and adoption, and more. Case-based learning relates to family dynamics, initial risks and harms, finding the right home for the child, court proceedings, and the trajectory of these complex cases over time.

Public Child Welfare challenges social work students and practitioners to critically examine documented, real-world cases to inform and strengthen their own practices. The casebook is an ideal resource for social work courses, child welfare seminars, and agency-based training programs.

Sarah Carnochan is the research director of the Mack Center on Nonprofit and Public Sector Management in the Human Services.

Michael J. Austin is a professor of nonprofit management at the University of California, Berkeley, and the director of the Mack Center on Nonprofit and Pubic Sector Management in the Human Services.

Lisa Botzler is a child welfare consultant with Shared Vision Consultants with many years of experience helping families and developing working relationships with community partners.

Lisa Molinar is the president of Shared Vision Consultants, Inc., a human services consulting agency that specializes in child welfare organizations.

Joanne Brown is a consultant with Shared Vision Consultants and a faculty member at the Center for Human Services at the University of California, Davis.

Karen Gunderson is a consultant with Shared Vision Consultants. She has more than 30 years of experience in child welfare, including eight years of direct service and 22 in policy and program development.

Colleen Henry is an assistant professor at the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College at the City University of New York.