Article

On the Front Lines: The Voices and Experiences of Racialized Child Welfare Workers in Toronto, Canada

Authors:
To read the full-text of this research, you can request a copy directly from the authors.

Abstract

Drawing on focus group data highlighting the perceptions and experiences of racialized child protection workers in the Greater Toronto Area, this article explores the ways in which race operates in the Ontario child welfare system. Most study participants experienced the agencies in which they worked as White-normed environments characterized by systemic racial discrimination in promotion and advancement as well as ongoing instances of racial microaggression—common, everyday practices that denigrate people of color. Several participants spoke of having to contend with White-normed and middle-class-oriented policies, tools, and practices that often prevented them from meeting the unique needs of racialized service users. The article concludes with participants' recommendations for creating a more equitable child welfare system.

No full-text available

Request Full-text Paper PDF

To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.

... Canada's child welfare system was built on Eurocentric ideologies, which can pose challenges for children that are raised within alternate cultural perspectives Gosine and Pon 2011;Herbert 2007), particularly during disclosures of abuse. The Canadian child welfare system comprises government agencies aimed at preventing and addressing child maltreatment, which they define as neglect, exposure to intimate partner violence, emotional maltreatment, physical abuse, and sexual abuse of a minor (Government of Canada 2019). ...
... She continued with how decisions are therefore framed by systemic structures; all shaped by core values and principles that often influence and guide professional judgement. Gosine and Pon (2011) consulted with child protection workers in the Ontario's welfare system where many identified how their workplace environment was characterized by dominant norms regarding attitudes, policies, tools, and practices. Such prevailing ideologies constructed within a system would have direct implications for the clients it serves, easily creating situations where unique needs or situations may not be fully understood. ...
... This latter example demonstrates the importance for understanding how certain concepts, such as neglect, will impact diverse cases when invariably defined under a specific cultural lens. Many researchers and experts in the area of child welfare have continually expressed how dominant influences in service delivery can prevent the unique needs of minority population service users from being met (Blackstock et al. 2007;Gosine and Pon 2011;Herbert 2007;Hughes et al. 2016;Swift and Callahan 2016). Even though the development of specific classification systems and tools have helped shaped universal definitions for detecting such concepts as neglect, the interpretations often rely on child protection service workers (Dubowitz et al. 2005). ...
Article
Full-text available
What are cultural considerations for Indigenous children involved within the Canadian child welfare system and what challenges do they pose during disclosures of abuse within child abuse investigations? A literature search was used to find resources relevant to the research question; this was obtained through Google Scholar and the University of British Columbia (UBC) library. A review of the literature was summarized to reveal themes regarding cultural considerations for Indigenous children during disclosures of abuse. Culture is a very deeply rooted phenomenon with multiple layers. We know from research that culture is a factor that can have an influence on children’s disclosures of abuse during investigations. Involved professionals who work with children from a different culture than their own, need to ensure culturally aware and safe practices. Especially when cultures have traumatic histories, such as with Indigenous Peoples in Canada. But what does this really mean during investigations of child abuse? And how does one know if a culturally safe practice is being achieved? The Eurocentric origins of the Canadian child welfare system needs to be acknowledged in order to understand how it continues to be visible in practice today. Even though Canadian provinces have recognized the need for reconciliation and culturally safe practices with Indigenous communities, literature is still lacking on specific knowledge about Indigenous children’s needs and safe approaches during their disclosures of abuse within investigations. Directly involving Indigenous communities to understand specific cultural factors and collaboration with multidisciplinary work within Child Advocacy Centres is a step in the right direction and another step toward reconciliation. It may hold the key to creating an understanding for what Indigenous children need during disclosures of abuse.
... Canadian qualitative studies also reveal that factors such as lack of cultural understanding, differential treatment, poverty, mental health, inadequate support system, and lack of diversity among workers place Black youths, mothers, and families at increased risk of child welfare involvement (Adjei & Minka, 2018;Cénat et al., 2021;Cénat, Noorishad, Czechowski, McIntee, & Mukunzi, 2020;Clarke, 2011Clarke, , 2012. Gosine and Pon (2011) also found that workplace discrimination inhibited Black child welfare workers from making decisions that could have better served racial minorities. A systematic review conducted by similarly affirmed Black children's overrepresentation at various stages of the child welfare system. ...
... In addition to qualitative studies, some quantitative studies have revealed that race is a significant factor in child welfare decision-making, even after controlling for poverty and risk factors (Dettlaff et al., 2011;Rivaux et al., 2008). Apart from individual biases, institutional racism could also be found in child welfare organizations where policies and practices are based on the dominant Eurocentric norms that use the same measure to treat everyone Adjei & Minka, 2018;Cénat et al., 2021;Clarke, 2011Clarke, , 2012Gosine & Pon, 2011;Miller et al., 2013). Such policies and practices could result in Black children's overrepresentation as their differences and strengths in their community may not be taken into consideration in assessments and decision-making Adjei & Minka, 2018;Clarke, 2011Clarke, , 2012Gosine & Pon, 2011;Miller et al., 2013). ...
... Apart from individual biases, institutional racism could also be found in child welfare organizations where policies and practices are based on the dominant Eurocentric norms that use the same measure to treat everyone Adjei & Minka, 2018;Cénat et al., 2021;Clarke, 2011Clarke, , 2012Gosine & Pon, 2011;Miller et al., 2013). Such policies and practices could result in Black children's overrepresentation as their differences and strengths in their community may not be taken into consideration in assessments and decision-making Adjei & Minka, 2018;Clarke, 2011Clarke, , 2012Gosine & Pon, 2011;Miller et al., 2013). Black families may also experience overrepresentation where child welfare organizations do not encourage policies and practices that promote workforce diversity (Cénat et al., 2021;Dettlaff & Rycraft, 2010) and enhance their relationship with the Black community (Dettlaff & Rycraft, 2008). ...
Article
Background The overrepresentation Black children experience in the child welfare system is well documented in the United States, but such studies are now emerging in Canada. In Ontario, there are few studies that address this issue concerning Black families. Objective This study is to explore the insights of child welfare workers and community service providers on how to potentially address Black children's overrepresentation in Ontario's child welfare system. Participants and setting Twenty-one child welfare workers from two child welfare organizations in Ontario that serves many Black families and thirteen community service providers in Toronto participated in the study. Methods Six focus groups were conducted with thirty-four participants. Audio recording from each of the focus groups was manually transcribed verbatim. We utilized constant comparison analysis to analyse the transcribed data. Results Potential solutions to overrepresentation that emerged from the focus group discussions included viewing Black families as experts of their own lives; increasing workforce diversity; educating referral sources and Black families on child welfare practices; subjecting referral sources to detailed questioning; stopping harmful record keeping on families; providing cultural sensitivity training and education; partnering with community organizations; and providing mentorship opportunities. Conclusions The findings from this study emphasize the need for changes related to child welfare assessment tools, workforce development, and shifts in system orientation to address systemic racism and Black children's overrepresentation in the child welfare system.
... Despite these efforts, workplace discrimination and group differences in experiencing workplace discrimination persist (U.S. EEOC, 2020). Moreover, relatively little attention has been given to experiences of workplace discrimination among BIPOC groups in child welfare professional organizations in particular (Badwall, 2014;Gosine & Pon, 2011). ...
... In one of the few studies exploring workplace experiences of BIPOC staff members in child welfare, Gosine and Pon (2011) discussed the salience of examining workplace discrimination given that child welfare staff members work in a system that is historically biased against nonwhite families and mostly provides services to families of color living in poverty (Merritt, 2021). Participants in their study reported experiences that sustained a "racialized glass ceiling" (Gosine & Pon, 2011, p. 143), whereby BIPOC staff members felt excluded from social networks that supported opportunities for promotion and experienced differential receipt of organizational supports for professional development. ...
... Findings from the present study contribute to a greater understanding of everyday workplace discrimination and its link to the psychological well-being of child welfare caseworkers. Although previous research has demonstrated that race and ethnicity matter in the workplace, including in the child welfare profession (Gosine & Pon, 2011;Plaut et al., 2014), this study highlighted differential experiences of workplace discrimination based on race and ethnicity and examined the relationship with workers' well-being. Findings are congruent with existing literature in other professions (Fekedulegn et al., 2019;Plaut et al., 2014) in that BIPOC child welfare caseworkers in our study reported greater perceptions of workplace discrimination than did their white colleagues. ...
... Studies suggest that the disparities Black families experience in the child welfare system start at the investigation stage (Antwi-Boasiako et al., 2020;Boatswain-Kyte et al., 2020;King et al., 2017;Lavergne et al., 2008). The referrals consequently create the potential for structural biases in using the standardized decision-making tools to make decisions and without acknowledging Black families' cultural norms and the structural inequities they experience in society (Adjei & Minka, 2018;Clarke, 2011;Gosine & Pon, 2011). ...
... For example, the rate of physical abuse investigations involving Black families tripled significantly between 1998 and 2003, while exposure to intimate partner violence investigations dramatically and significantly increased 29 times for Black families during the same period. The Ontario Risk Assessment Model may have played a significant role in the overrepresentation of Black children between 1998 and 2003 because the tools are based on the dominant White middle-class standards and do not consider cultural differences (Clarke, 2011;Gosine & Pon, 2011). The tools could therefore be used to assess Black families' parenting and discipline practices without taking their cultural perspectives and strengths in their community into account Adjei & Minka, 2018;Clarke, 2011;Gosine & Pon, 2011). ...
... The Ontario Risk Assessment Model may have played a significant role in the overrepresentation of Black children between 1998 and 2003 because the tools are based on the dominant White middle-class standards and do not consider cultural differences (Clarke, 2011;Gosine & Pon, 2011). The tools could therefore be used to assess Black families' parenting and discipline practices without taking their cultural perspectives and strengths in their community into account Adjei & Minka, 2018;Clarke, 2011;Gosine & Pon, 2011). The standardized decision-making tools focus on personal failings, such as exposing children to intimate partner violence, and attend to the larger structural issues that affect Black families and may place them at risk at the individual level for child welfare involvement (Mohamud et al., 2021). ...
Article
In examining 20 years of data using the first five cycles of the Ontario Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (OIS-1993 to OIS-2013), Antwi-Boasiako, King, Fallon, Trocmé, Fluke, et al. (2020) found that the incidence of child welfare investigations in the province doubled for White families between 1998 and 2003; the incidence of child welfare investigations for Black families quadrupled for the same period. This paper continues to examine the overrepresentation of Black families in Ontario by focusing on the implementation of standardized decision-making tools, specifically the Ontario Risk Assessment Model. The results from this study suggest that reports of physical abuse and exposure to intimate partner violence may be key factors for the overrepresentation of Black children in Ontario’s child welfare system over time and they may be potential explanations for the quadrupling of the number of Black children investigated by Ontario’s child welfare system. The rate of physical abuse investigations involving Black families tripled significantly between 1998 and 2003, from a rate of 11.25 per 1,000 Black children in 1998 to 34.68 per 1,000 Black children in 2003. Exposure to intimate partner violence investigations dramatically and significantly increased 29 times for Black families, from 0.57 per 1,000 Black children in 1998 to 16.16 per 1,000 Black children in 2003. The use of the Ontario eligibility spectrum and the lowering of risk threshold have likely contributed to a greater proportion of Black families investigated by the Ontario child welfare system. Key recommendations include the involvement of the Black community in the development of decision-making tools so that the tools can account for both risk and culturally-based protective factors in the Black community. Both public and private sector institutions also have a role to play in addressing the cultural and structural issues that may be the root cause of the challenges Black families face.
... However, there has been scant literature on racism in social work (Corely & Young, 2018). Moreover, with the exception of a few studies spanning over 45 years (e.g., Bennett, 2015;Brockmann et al., 2001;Chukwuemeka, 2013;Davis & Gelsomino, 1994;Goldstein, 2002;Gosine & Pon, 2011;Mbarushimana & Robbins, 2015;Sanders, 1972) there has been even less literature on racism experienced by racialized practitioners rather than service users. In two of the authors' research studies, for racialized social workers, incidents of racism were rife. ...
... By racialized, we are referring to social processes by which an individual is perceived to be nonwhite (Gosine & Pon, 2011). No designation for this population seems totally adequate. ...
... For instance, ethno-cultural matching in adoption was identified as problematic. Gosine and Pon (2011), also addressed this problem. White workers may not have a similar sensitivity to or belief in the risks for racialized children being placed in white homes, a situation that racialized workers consistently identified. ...
Article
Rather than racism targeted toward service users, this paper adds to the sparse corpus of articles that reports on racism and microaggressions experienced by racialized social work practitioners. Based on two qualitative exploratory research studies in Canada, the findings suggest that racism continues to be a significant problem for racialized social workers. In addition to the oft-mentioned category of individual racism, four other “modern” forms of racism are explored: cultural racism, institutional racism, epistemological racism, and aversive racism. The importance of broadening the categories of racism is that these other forms are less familiar and thus are more likely to be unnoticed yet have profound effects on practitioners.
... At the same time, most participants in my research experienced a degree of alienation from what they perceived to be an Anglo/White-normed and -dominated society that, in most realms, excludes and marginalizes Black people (Gosine, 2008; see also Feagin & Sikes, 1994;Lacy, 2004). While such individuals are shielded to some or maybe even a significant degree by their class position or aspirations, social scientists have employed the term "microaggression" to describe the subtle, covert, often unconscious everyday forms of racism that middle-class Blacks experience in White-dominated workplaces (Gosine & Pon, 2011;Sue et al, 2007). ...
... Common examples of racial microaggression include conveying (often implicitly) stereotypical assumptions or making condescending allusions about members of a given racialized group (e.g., "all Black people are lazy," or "my Black colleague must have been an affirmative action hire") (Gosine & Pon, 2011). Microaggressions, observed Sue et al (2007), "are detrimental to persons of color because they impair performance in a multitude of settings by sapping the psychic and spiritual energy of recipients and by creating inequalities" (p. ...
... There is a growing realization that in part, issues of disproportionality and disparity for Black families in state sanctioned systems are symptoms of entrenched anti-Black roots within the specific history and cultural context of Canada's relationship to Black communities (Clarke, 2011;Cole, 2020;Maynard, 2017;Mohamud et al., 2021; One Vision One Voice [OVOV], 2016;Phillips & Pon, 2018). Community-based researchers and advocates also highlight how experiences of Black families and Black child welfare workers in Ontario are characterized by anti-Black racism (Clarke, 2011(Clarke, , 2012Edwards et al., 2022;Gosine & Pon, 2011;Hasford, 2015;Mohamud et al., 2021). Some academics assert that the disproportionate involvement of Black young people 1 in the child protection system is intrinsically connected to a history of racism (Akuoku-Barfi et al., 2021;Edwards et al., 2023;Gosine & Pon, 2011;Mohamud et al., 2021;Thobani, 2007) and that the child welfare system has participated in its perpetuation (African Canadian Legal Clinic, 2012). ...
... Community-based researchers and advocates also highlight how experiences of Black families and Black child welfare workers in Ontario are characterized by anti-Black racism (Clarke, 2011(Clarke, , 2012Edwards et al., 2022;Gosine & Pon, 2011;Hasford, 2015;Mohamud et al., 2021). Some academics assert that the disproportionate involvement of Black young people 1 in the child protection system is intrinsically connected to a history of racism (Akuoku-Barfi et al., 2021;Edwards et al., 2023;Gosine & Pon, 2011;Mohamud et al., 2021;Thobani, 2007) and that the child welfare system has participated in its perpetuation (African Canadian Legal Clinic, 2012). ...
Preprint
p>Background: The research pertaining to racial disparities for Black families in child welfare is relatively limited in Canada. Recent research reveals that the overrepresentation of Black families in Canadian child welfare systems typically begins at the reporting or investigation stage and continues throughout the child welfare service and decision-making continuum. This research is occurring against the backdrop of increasing public acknowledgement of Canada’s historic anti-Black policy-making and institutional relationships to Black communities. Though there is increased awareness about anti-Black racism, there has been limited exploration of the connection between anti-Black racism in child welfare legislation and how this policy generates disparities for Black families in both child welfare involvement and outcomes – this paper seeks to fill this gap in knowledge. Objective: The objective of this paper is to explore the entrenchment of anti-Black racism within the child welfare system by critically assessing the language and absence of language within the guiding legislative and implementation policies. Methods: Utilizing a critical race discourse analysis method, this study explores the entrenchment of anti-Black racism within the Ontario child welfare system by critically assessing the language and absence of language within the guiding legislative policies that shape practice for Black children, youth, and families. Results: The findings revealed that though the legislation does not explicitly address anti-Black racism, there were instances where the legislation indicated that race and culture may be considered in responding to children and families. The lack of specificity, particularly in the Duty to Report, has the potential to contribute to disparate reporting and decision-making for Black families. Conclusions: Policy makers should acknowledge the history of anti-Black racism that informed the development of the legislation in Ontario and move towards tackling systemic injustices that disproportionately affect Black families. More explicit language will shape future policies and practices to ensure that the impact of anti-Black racism is considered across the child welfare continuum. </p
... There is a growing realization that in part, issues of disproportionality and disparity for Black families in state sanctioned systems are symptoms of entrenched anti-Black roots within the specific history and cultural context of Canada's relationship to Black communities (Clarke, 2011;Cole, 2020;Maynard, 2017;Mohamud et al., 2021; One Vision One Voice [OVOV], 2016;Phillips & Pon, 2018). Community-based researchers and advocates also highlight how experiences of Black families and Black child welfare workers in Ontario are characterized by anti-Black racism (Clarke, 2011(Clarke, , 2012Edwards et al., 2022;Gosine & Pon, 2011;Hasford, 2015;Mohamud et al., 2021). Some academics assert that the disproportionate involvement of Black young people 1 in the child protection system is intrinsically connected to a history of racism (Akuoku-Barfi et al., 2021;Edwards et al., 2023;Gosine & Pon, 2011;Mohamud et al., 2021;Thobani, 2007) and that the child welfare system has participated in its perpetuation (African Canadian Legal Clinic, 2012). ...
... Community-based researchers and advocates also highlight how experiences of Black families and Black child welfare workers in Ontario are characterized by anti-Black racism (Clarke, 2011(Clarke, , 2012Edwards et al., 2022;Gosine & Pon, 2011;Hasford, 2015;Mohamud et al., 2021). Some academics assert that the disproportionate involvement of Black young people 1 in the child protection system is intrinsically connected to a history of racism (Akuoku-Barfi et al., 2021;Edwards et al., 2023;Gosine & Pon, 2011;Mohamud et al., 2021;Thobani, 2007) and that the child welfare system has participated in its perpetuation (African Canadian Legal Clinic, 2012). ...
Article
Background The research pertaining to racial disparities for Black families in child welfare is relatively limited in Canada. Recent research reveals that the overrepresentation of Black families in Canadian child welfare systems typically begins at the reporting or investigation stage and continues throughout the child welfare service and decision-making continuum. This research is occurring against the backdrop of increasing public acknowledgement of Canada's historic anti-Black policy-making and institutional relationships to Black communities. Though there is increased awareness about anti-Black racism, there has been limited exploration of the connection between anti-Black racism in child welfare legislation and how this policy generates disparities for Black families in both child welfare involvement and outcomes – this paper seeks to fill this gap in knowledge. Objective The objective of this paper is to explore the entrenchment of anti-Black racism within the child welfare system by critically assessing the language and absence of language within the guiding legislative and implementation policies. Methods Utilizing a critical race discourse analysis method, this study explores the entrenchment of anti-Black racism within the Ontario child welfare system by critically assessing the language and absence of language within the guiding legislative policies that shape practice for Black children, youth, and families. Results The findings revealed that though the legislation does not explicitly address anti-Black racism, there were instances where the legislation indicated that race and culture may be considered in responding to children and families. The lack of specificity, particularly in the Duty to Report, has the potential to contribute to disparate reporting and decision-making for Black families. Conclusions Policy makers should acknowledge the history of anti-Black racism that informed the development of the legislation in Ontario and move towards tackling systemic injustices that disproportionately affect Black families. More explicit language will shape future policies and practices to ensure that the impact of anti-Black racism is considered across the child welfare continuum.
... I will be referencing the accounts of racialised practitioners. By racialised, I am referring to the social processes by which individuals are labelled as non-white (Gosine and Pon 2011). No term to refer to non-whites is adequate and the use of the word 'non-white' itself keeps whites centred in language. ...
... Racism affects everyone, both oppressor and oppressed (Bonilla-Silva 2010;Diangelo 2018;Essed 1991;Feagin 2013;Fine 2004;Harvey 2007;Mills 1997;Winant 2004). It misrepresents what is taken as truth for racialised service users, racialised practitioners, and for whites as well (Adjei and Minka 2018;Brockmann, Butt, and Fisher 2001;Chukwuemeka 2013;Douglas and Walsh 2013;Goraya 2015;Gosine and Pon 2011;Henry and Tator 2006;Mbarushimana and Robbins 2015;Miller and Garran 2017;Turner 2016;TRC 2015). Harvey (2007) maintains that when lives are lived with domination and subjugation as components, our humanity is distorted. ...
Article
Full-text available
This paper explores racism specifically as an ethical concern in the field of social work and queries why it has been insufficiently emphasized in the discursive frames on ethics. The minimization of racism as an ethical issue is illustrated utilizing two research studies with racialized practitioners who highlighted experiences of racism. Epistemologies of ignorance by dominant groups contribute to norms that maintain dominance. These epistemological failings, as exemplified in social work, are delineated. Additionally, the utilization of codes of ethics, based on the work of Kant, who was also an architect of a hierarchy of races, is considered. An exploration of this historical connection, and the traditional approach to ethics used in social work that followed, illuminates a difficulty with universal principles as they are interpreted in the Global North for primary guidance in social work ethics. The outcome of these problems results in testimonial and hermeneutic injustice for those affected by racism, causing significant harm.
... Increasing workforce diversity by focusing on recruitment and retention has become increasingly important to the field of child welfare. One reason for that is the long-standing recognition that systemic racial discrimination in promotions and career advancement, as well as other ongoing challenges caused by implicit bias and microaggressions, are common experiences of workers of Color in a White-dominated work environment (Gosine & Pon, 2011). It is no surprise, therefore, that the concentration of power is often in the hands of a primarily White management (Gosine & Pon, 2011). ...
... One reason for that is the long-standing recognition that systemic racial discrimination in promotions and career advancement, as well as other ongoing challenges caused by implicit bias and microaggressions, are common experiences of workers of Color in a White-dominated work environment (Gosine & Pon, 2011). It is no surprise, therefore, that the concentration of power is often in the hands of a primarily White management (Gosine & Pon, 2011). ...
Article
Full-text available
This study explores racial diversity and inclusive representation in child welfare organizations, including demographic differences between White workers (WW) and workers of Color (WOC), representation of WOC across all levels of the agency, and influence of racial identity on intentions to remain employed. WW and WOC have many demographic and perceptual similarities regarding their work, yet WOC were significantly more likely to be in caseworker positions, and WW were more likely to be supervisors and managers (p = .015). At the same time, WOC significantly lower burnout scores suggest they are more resilient, although less likely to intend to stay.
... Th ere was no consideration of the bias those subjective judgments created nor how the individuals that established those rules constructed a system resulting in punitive responses to families of color within it (Roberts, 2012). Research has consistently indicated that the policies and practices of child welfare systems fail to consider the intersection of issues that impact the lives of Black families (Edwards, 2016;Gosine & Pon, 2011;Miller et al., 2012). ...
Chapter
The child welfare system is plagued with an overrepresentation of families and children of color who experience longer and more significant system involvement than their White counterparts. A fundamental goal of implementation science is to integrate research and practice experience to improve the outcomes of those being served. Equitable implementation occurs when equity frameworks are integrated into the strategies of the overall effort. Moving equity into action requires attention to who is involved in deciding what to measure and how to measure it. In such an environment, implementation is anchored by stakeholders, community members, their culture, values, history, and desired outcomes rather than from a singular agency leadership perspective. Equity-anchored implementation requires a participatory approach that includes qualitative and quantitative methods designed to drive continuous quality improvement cycles targeting equity goals and strategies. Th ese cycles promote mutual consultations among community and agency stakeholders to ensure that diverse lived experiences, different forms of knowledge, and different ways of knowing are integrated into planning and strategies. Through this approach, community stakeholders and agency staff partner with organizational leadership to develop and enhance the capacity to assess and use data for equity-based decision-making through modeling, instruction, and coaching. Successful capacity building includes attention to all types of capacity (psychological, behavioral, and structural) at all levels (individual, organization, and community). Th is chapter targets the key considerations, opportunities, and strategies to address racial equity and diversity by applying fundamental tenets of implementation science to child welfare through equity-anchored implementation frameworks.
... Theoretical framework: Adultification and Anti-Black Racism theory Understanding the impacts of anti-Black racism is imperative for any investigation of the collective experiences of Black people across North America and the globe. Anti-Black racism is an unique form of violence that occurs both globally and regionally and is aimed at Black communities and their resistance to that violence (Cole, 2020;Gosine & Pon, 2011). It is a complex phenomenon that materializes in nuanced and concrete ways. ...
Preprint
p>Black youth have consistently reported that when they are transitioning from out-of-home care (OOHC) into independence, they are not supported or included in decision-making, and they feel isolated and vulnerable as they face an uncertain future. Previous research has documented the ways in which Black youths’ experiences in care are characterized by unpredictability and loss, but then care ends—and they continue to struggle. For Black youth in care, this transition can be exceptionally difficult as they are contending with the additional strain of doing so within the child welfare system and larger social context characterized by a loss of community and the persistence of anti-Black racism. Presently, there are no empirical studies in Ontario that investigate Black youth’s narratives transitioning from OOHC; this manuscript seeks to fill this gap in knowledge. Employing Adultification and Anti-Black Racism Theory as theoretical frameworks, this qualitative study investigated the narratives of 27 Black youth with lived experiences navigating OOHC in Ontario’s child welfare system. This study utilized narrative inquiry as a methodological approach. Three main narratives were identified: (1) the need for finances and a financial literacy; (2) narratives of aging out and (3) the challenges of navigating funding. To better support Black youth in their transition out of care and in independent living, recommendations for policy and practice include earlier transitional support, ensuring youth have a practical understanding of financial literacy, and educating youth about resources and their rights.</p
... Understanding the impacts of anti-Black racism is imperative for any investigation of the collective experiences of Black people across North America and the globe. Anti-Black racism is an unique form of violence that occurs both globally and regionally and is aimed at Black communities and their resistance to that violence (Cole, 2020;Gosine & Pon, 2011). It is a complex phenomenon that materializes in nuanced and concrete ways. ...
Preprint
Full-text available
p>Black youth have consistently reported that when they are transitioning from out-of-home care (OOHC) into independence, they are not supported or included in decision-making, and they feel isolated and vulnerable as they face an uncertain future. Previous research has documented the ways in which Black youths’ experiences in care are characterized by unpredictability and loss, but then care ends—and they continue to struggle. For Black youth in care, this transition can be exceptionally difficult as they are contending with the additional strain of doing so within the child welfare system and larger social context characterized by a loss of community and the persistence of anti-Black racism. Presently, there are no empirical studies in Ontario that investigate Black youth’s narratives transitioning from OOHC; this manuscript seeks to fill this gap in knowledge. Employing Adultification and Anti-Black Racism Theory as theoretical frameworks, this qualitative study investigated the narratives of 27 Black youth with lived experiences navigating OOHC in Ontario’s child welfare system. This study utilized narrative inquiry as a methodological approach. Three main narratives were identified: (1) the need for finances and a financial literacy; (2) narratives of aging out and (3) the challenges of navigating funding. To better support Black youth in their transition out of care and in independent living, recommendations for policy and practice include earlier transitional support, ensuring youth have a practical understanding of financial literacy, and educating youth about resources and their rights.</p
... Moreover, when Black people do get hired, they are assigned to do only specific roles in a practice known as ethno-racial matching. Ethno-racial matching is when workers are assigned to work with families who share their ethno-cultural and racial background with the belief that these workers can better understand and relate to the needs of the families and youths with the same ethno-racial and cultural identity (Gosine & Pon, 2011). Moreover, it seems that the Black people who break the glass ceiling and enter the profession are only hired to do a specific job -to work with other Black people as "specialist workers" which excludes Black people from working in other departments (Dominelli, 2017) ...
... Theoretical framework: Adultification and Anti-Black Racism theory Understanding the impacts of anti-Black racism is imperative for any investigation of the collective experiences of Black people across North America and the globe. Anti-Black racism is an unique form of violence that occurs both globally and regionally and is aimed at Black communities and their resistance to that violence (Cole, 2020;Gosine & Pon, 2011). It is a complex phenomenon that materializes in nuanced and concrete ways. ...
Article
Black youth have consistently reported that when they are transitioning from out-of-home care (OOHC) into independence, they are not supported or included in decision-making, and they feel isolated and vulnerable as they face an uncertain future. Previous research has documented the ways in which Black youths’ experiences in care are characterized by unpredictability and loss, but then care ends—and they continue to struggle. For Black youth in care, this transition can be exceptionally difficult as they are contending with the additional strain of doing so within the child welfare system and larger social context characterized by a loss of community and the persistence of anti-Black racism. Presently, there are no empirical studies in Ontario that investigate Black youth’s narratives transitioning from OOHC; this manuscript seeks to fill this gap in knowledge. Employing Adultification and Anti-Black Racism Theory as theoretical frameworks, this qualitative study investigated the narratives of 27 Black youth with lived experiences navigating OOHC in Ontario’s child welfare system. This study utilized narrative inquiry as a methodological approach. Three main narratives were identified: (1) the need for finances and a financial literacy; (2) narratives of aging out and (3) the challenges of navigating funding. To better support Black youth in their transition out of care and in independent living, recommendations for policy and practice include earlier transitional support, ensuring youth have a practical understanding of financial literacy, and educating youth about resources and their rights.
... Winant's observation can be extended to the social work profession, where Whiteness has taken total control of the profession (Sakamoto 2007). Although race-based statistics on social workers in Canada does not exist, many scholars have argued that the majority of social workers in Canada are Whites (Baines 2004(Baines , 2011Gosine and Pon 2011;Jeffrey 2005;Mullings 2012;Pon, Gosine, and Philip 2011;Yee, Wong, and Janczur 2006). Likewise, despite the absence of racebased statistics on enrolment populations across social work programs in Canada, a visit to many social work programs will reveal that White students dominate the enrolment population (Lum 2004). ...
... Given the ongoing disparities in foster care placement for children of color, multi-level strategies are needed to address internalized, interpersonal, institutional, and structural biases that permeate the system (David, Petalio, & Crouch, 2019). This could include training to recognize and address implicit biases that may impact the decision-making process among caseworkers (Harris & Hackett, 2008;Johnson et al., 2009); engaging families of color in the decision-making process (Coakley, 2008); targeted recruitment of a racially, ethnically, and culturally diverse workforce (Miller et al., 2012;Pryce et al., 2019); critically assessing white-centered policies, practices, and tools (Gosine & Pon, 2011), and advocating for larger, systemic changes (Dettlaff et al., 2020). Training could also include professionals involved in the initial referral and investigation, and research has found disparities to begin with initial reports (Beniwal, 2017). ...
Article
Full-text available
Positive permanency, or leaving foster care to a permanent family setting, is a priority for children in care. Yet, there are barriers to achieving permanency, particularly among children of color. This study examined child and state factors that impacted permanency outcomes, with a particular focus on racial disparities. The researchers utilized a sample of n = 208,742 children who entered care in 2016 from the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS). A series of multi-level survival analyses were conducted to examine child and state system factors associated with positive permanency, with a focus on child race/ethnicity and state disparity indexes. Results confirmed ongoing disparities for Black, American Indian, Hispanic, Pacific Islander, and Multi-Racial children in care. Implications for practice, policy, and future research are explored.
... This is outlined in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report (TRC 2015a) as well as other inquiries such as the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC 2018). The racism is also experienced by racialized child welfare workers rendering it difficult to bring a cultural lens into their work (Gosine and Pon 2011). The TRC (2015a) shows the linkage between child welfare involvement with Indigenous families and, as they frame it, cultural genocide from colonization and assimilation efforts, such as the Indian Residential Schools (IRS) and the Sixties Scoop. ...
Article
Full-text available
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has called upon Canada to engage in a process of reconciliation with the Indigenous peoples of Canada. Child Welfare is a specific focus of their Calls to Action. In this article, we look at the methods in which discontinuing colonization means challenging legal precedents as well as the types of evidence presented. A prime example is the ongoing deference to the Supreme Court of Canada decision in Racine v Woods which imposes Euro-centric understandings of attachment theory, which is further entrenched through the neurobiological view of raising children. There are competing forces observed in the Ontario decision on the Sixties Scoop, Brown v Canada, which has detailed the harm inflicted when colonial focused assimilation is at the heart of child welfare practice. The carillon of change is also heard in a series of decisions from the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal in response to complaints from the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada and the Assembly of First Nations regarding systemic bias in child welfare services for First Nations children living on reserves. Canadian federal legislation Bill C-92, “An Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families”, brings in other possible avenues of change. We offer thoughts on manners decolonization might be approached while emphasizing that there is no pan-Indigenous solution. This article has implications for other former colonial countries and their child protection systems.
... Typically, families served by children's aids tend to be female headed households. The role of fathers has at times been ignored in child protection work (Ferguson & Hogan, 2004;Gosine & Pon, 2011). ...
Article
This paper reports a study that aims to increase the understanding of the relationship between workers and their child protection clients through the development of a client engagement model. A conceptual exploratory structural equation model (SEM) of caseworker skills, engagement and client outcomes is presented. Results indicate that including parents in the planning, not ignoring problems parent identify as important, not asking them to do something they would not find helpful, and locating appropriate services, leads to higher client engagement. Although not directly related, having workers return clients phone calls acted as mediator between other worker casework skills and client engagement. Client engagement was also influenced by satisfaction with the case outcome. Worker engagement was also influenced by whether they included parents in the planning, which in turn was influenced by worker experience. Workers who were kind and considerate were more likely to be engaged. Worker engagement predicted satisfaction with the case outcome and whether workers' believed families would contact the agency in the future. Lastly, client engagement predicted worker engagement although it is our belief that this is an iterative reciprocal process.
... Various studies in Canada, the Netherlands, and Britain show that racialized and immigrant social/welfare workers run the risk of experiencing ethnic discrimination within social services (Badwall, 2014;Gosine & Pon, 2011;Hendriks, van Doorn & van Ewijk, 2015;Mbarushimana & Robbins, 2015). Social workers with immigrant backgrounds in Sweden share similar experiences. ...
Article
Drawing on 22 qualitative interviews with social workers in Sweden, this article analyzes how social workers conceive immigrant integration and racism and tackle racism within their institutions and the wider Swedish society. The majority of the white social workers framed integration in relation to cultural differences and denied or minimized the role of racism in structuring their services and the ethnic relations in Sweden. In contrast, social workers with immigrant backgrounds were less compromising in discussing racism and assumed it as a problem both for themselves as institutional actors and as immigrants in everyday life and institutional settings. Social institutions in Sweden have been important actors in endorsing equality and accommodating differences. However, it is of paramount importance for social justice-minded social workers to identify and unsettle those structures and discourses that enable racist and discriminatory policies and practices against those groups who are not viewed as “core” members of the Swedish society. The absence of anti-racist social work within Swedish social work is primarily related to the idea of color-blind welfare universalism that is assumed to transcend the particularity of the needs, experiences, and perspectives of different groups in Sweden. While integration is envisioned and framed as a political project of inclusion of non-white immigrants, it tends to become a political device through which hierarchies of belonging are constructed. Following such conception of integration, cultural/religious differences and equality are framed as conflicting where cultural conformity underpinned by assimilationist discourses becomes a requirement for political, social, and economic equality.
... The concept of microaggressions is gaining increasing prominence in mental health and the social work literature (Cappiche, Cahdha, Muh, & Snyder, 2012;Gosine & Pon, 2011;Owen et al., 2011;Rasmussen & Salhani, 2010;Sue, 2010;Wong, Derthick, David, Saw, & Okzaki, 2014). This concept is particularly useful for social work because many social work clients have experienced microaggressions, often with deleterious consequences (Berzoff, 2011(Berzoff, , 2012Ross-Sheriff, 2012). ...
Article
Although the concept of microaggressions is highly useful for social work, current discussions of this concept have failed to adequately address some of the complex clinical issues associated with the recipient's experience of microaggressions. The complexity of these issues is especially noteworthy in work with clients who have mental illness, and/or have experienced trauma. Our understanding of microaggressions and the assessment and treatment process can be enriched by applying a psychoanalytic lens, and in particular, an ego psychological framework.
Article
Drawing on historical constructions of Indigenous peoples, this paper analyses the continued impact of settler discourses of Indigenous families, parenting, and children on child welfare policy in Canada today. Findings In this work, two provincial children's Advocate reports on the deaths of Indigenous children in care, Tina Fontaine and Alex Gervais, are critically assessed in order to explore the processes through which these colonial constructions operate to create adverse outcomes for Indigenous people. Through this analysis, a number of contemporary colonial narratives are made visible, including the belief that Indigenous parents are inherently incapable of caring for their children, and the gendered construction of Indigenous men and boys as criminal and deviant and Indigenous girls as sexually exploitable. Application These findings suggest that greater critical reflection is needed when working with Indigenous peoples, including greater awareness of the ongoing impact of settler colonialism and the necessity of engaging in anti-colonial work.
Preprint
p>The child welfare system has a responsibility for maintaining young people’s safety and permanency when they are taken from their guardians. Many young people living in out-of-home care (OOHC) experience placement instability, which can negatively impact their development. The overrepresentation of Black families in the child welfare system has also been a longstanding issue across North America, where Black families are more likely to be involved with the child welfare system, receive poorer quality of placements, remain in care longer, and are less likely to reunify with their families. Given the known negative impacts of placement instability and the disparities experienced by Black families, these concerns may be more urgent for Black youth in care. This article shares the findings from a qualitative narrative analysis conducted on 27 interviews with Black Caribbean youth who have lived experiences navigating OOHC in Ontario’s child welfare system. Utilizing Critical Race Theory and Anti-Black Racism Theory as theoretical frameworks, three main narratives were identified: (1) difficult behaviors during placement transitions; (2) disposability; and (3) a pursuit of safety and belonging. These narratives capture the phenomenon of Black youth navigating placement instability in OOHC. Implications for policy, practice, and research are discussed.</p
Preprint
p>Racial disparities in child welfare involvement between Black and White children have been well-documented in the United States, but research in this area is relatively underexplored in Canada. Emerging evidence from Canadian studies indicates that Black families are far more likely to be reported for maltreatment concerns, and that these initial disparities persist as families move deeper into the system. Scholars have begun to identify the factors associated with those disparities in Canada, but there is a need for understanding the larger structural and historical context that shapes the opportunities and constraints for Black families living in Ontario. This analysis will situate child welfare in a nexus of anti-Black policy and structure with respect to immigration restrictions, income disparities, residential segregation, and the functioning of linked institutions such as the mental health, education, and legal systems. The cumulative burden of navigating and contending with these larger systemic forces leave Black families vulnerable to a relatively low threshold for reporting maltreatment concerns and risk of harm to Ontario child welfare agencies. This paper documents the alignment between the circumstances created by anti-Black racism at institutional, provincial, and federal levels and the seemingly race-neutral eligibility criteria embedded within Ontario child welfare, which results in disproportionate reporting of Black families. </p
Article
Background Recent studies have confirmed the overrepresentation of Black youth in child protection services (CPS) in Ontario, Canada. Anti-Black racism has been raised as an issue contributing to the overrepresentation. Based on Critical Race Theory (CRT) and the social-ecological model, this article examines how different levels of racism influence the overrepresentation of Black youth in CPS from the perspectives of CPS caseworkers (CW) and community facilitators (CF). Methods We conducted four focus groups with CW and CF (N = 24) in Ontario. CF are members of community organizations that assist families in navigating CPS and act as liaisons between families and caseworkers. We used thematic analysis to examine the data in NVivo. Results Participants reported three levels of racism contributing to the overrepresentation of Black youth in CPS: systemic racism, institutional racism, and interpersonal racism. Within systemic racism, participants highlighted the ongoing impacts of Canadian policies, cumulative risk factors among Black families involved with CPS, and inadequate access to information among Black communities. Racist policies and practices in CPS and personal factors among caseworkers that impact the provision of services were discussed within institutional racism. Racist beliefs and behaviors among society were raised as contributing to disproportionate reporting of cases concerning Black families (i. e., interpersonal racism). Conclusion Our findings suggest that anti-Black racism at different societal levels intertwine and lead to the overrepresentation of Black youth in CPS. Racism cannot be addressed without identifying its sources and its processes.
Preprint
p>This article reports on narrative interviews conducted as part of the Rights for Children and Youth Partnership Project exploring the experiences of 25 Black Caribbean youth (ages 16-26) who have navigated the child protection system in Ontario, Canada. An introduction to transracial fostering in Ontario is provided, and participants’ reflections on the significance of caregiver’s race in their experiences of out-of-home care are presented. Critical Race Theory and AntiBlack Racism are used as theoretical frameworks to guide the discussion. Themes discussed include adapting to White environments and community visibility; appropriate haircare, skincare, and food in placements; navigating whiteness and anti-Black racism; and sense of connection with caregivers. </p
Preprint
Full-text available
p>This article reports on narrative interviews conducted as part of the Rights for Children and Youth Partnership Project exploring the experiences of 25 Black Caribbean youth (ages 16-26) who have navigated the child protection system in Ontario, Canada. An introduction to transracial fostering in Ontario is provided, and participants’ reflections on the significance of caregiver’s race in their experiences of out-of-home care are presented. Critical Race Theory and AntiBlack Racism are used as theoretical frameworks to guide the discussion. Themes discussed include adapting to White environments and community visibility; appropriate haircare, skincare, and food in placements; navigating whiteness and anti-Black racism; and sense of connection with caregivers. </p
Article
Full-text available
The social inequities highlighted by the racial injustice protests of 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic challenge the social work profession to respond to the past and present social consequences that disproportionately impact Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). We argue that social work's commitment to social justice has not taken up an explicit anti-racism mission to eradicate white supremacy, racism, and coloniality in the profession. We further argue that although social service agencies often include a commitment to cultural competence/humility, practices continue to be rooted in color-blind approaches to service and treatment. Social work's failure to address racism poses challenges for those from racialized backgrounds experiencing psychological distress due to racism and other inequities. Building upon the theoretical foundations of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Anti-Colonialism, we provide a conceptual framework for practice and service delivery with BIPOC clients through social work praxis. This conceptual framework offers three overarching directives that include integrated critical race and anti-colonial theoretical concepts for social work practice and service delivery. We discuss the implications for application of this conceptual framework in practice and service delivery.
Article
Retaining staff remains a challenge for public and private child welfare organizations, and current research does not explain the underrepresentation of workers of Color in leadership and supervisory positions. This study used data from a multi-site survey of child welfare staff to compare factors associated with intention to remain employed between caseworkers of Color and White caseworkers using path analysis. Factors associated with job satisfaction, the strongest predictor of intention to remain employed for both groups in our path analysis, differed slightly between workers of Color and White workers. Age and job stress were significantly more influential for workers of Color, while work related burnout was more more influential for White workers. For workers of Color, perception of leadership was significantly more influential on workers’ of Color intention to remain employed, compared to White workers, and having an MSW was a significant predictor of intent to remain employed for White workers, but not for workers of Color. Implications for agency practice and policy, including suggested strategies to address retention of workers at the caseworker level, are discussed.
Article
There is much discussion in the literature regarding the role public child welfare has played in disproportionately intervening with children and families of color, and debate regarding how this has impacted their wellbeing and the role systemic racism has played. The voice of individuals serving as regional and state-level administrators of public child welfare agencies regarding this topic and how to address existing inequities has been missing in this dialogue. This paper reports on semi-structured interviews conducted with sixteen such administrators regarding where they have observed these issues in their agencies and a wide array of strategies they believe have the best likelihood of promoting racial equity and antiracist practice in the child welfare system, with some describing approaches currently being implemented. Participants discussed what they need from community and university partners to support this work.
Article
The child welfare system has a responsibility for maintaining young people’s safety and permanency when they are taken from their guardians. Many young people living in out-of-home care (OOHC) experience placement instability, which can negatively impact their development. The overrepresentation of Black families in the child welfare system has also been a longstanding issue across North America, where Black families are more likely to be involved with the child welfare system, receive poorer quality of placements, remain in care longer, and are less likely to reunify with their families. Given the known negative impacts of placement instability and the disparities experienced by Black families, these concerns may be more urgent for Black youth in care. This article shares the findings from a qualitative narrative analysis conducted on 27 interviews with Black Caribbean youth who have lived experiences navigating OOHC in Ontario’s child welfare system. Utilizing Critical Race Theory and Anti-Black Racism Theory as theoretical frameworks, three main narratives were identified: (1) difficult behaviors during placement transitions; (2) disposability; and (3) a pursuit of safety and belonging. These narratives capture the phenomenon of Black youth navigating placement instability in OOHC. Implications for policy, practice, and research are discussed.
Article
Background The overrepresentation of Black children in the child welfare system is a social problem that has received longstanding attention in the United States, but has recently received increasing attention in Canada. Objective This qualitative study explores the findings of two quantitative studies (Antwi-Boasiako et al., 2020, 2021) in order to interpret them through the perspectives of child welfare workers and community service providers. The aim is to gain a deeper understanding on the potential factors that contribute to the overrepresentation of Black children in Ontario's child welfare system. Participants and setting The study involved twenty-one child welfare workers from two child welfare organizations in Ontario serving lots of Black families and thirteen community service providers in Toronto. Methods Six focus groups were completed with thirty-four participants. Each of the focus groups was audio recorded and manually transcribed verbatim. Constant comparison analysis was used to analyze the transcribed data. Results Themes that emerged from the study include the following concerns: racism and bias from referral sources; racism and bias from child welfare workers; lack of cultural sensitivity; lack of workforce diversity/training; lack of culturally appropriate resources; assessment tools; duty to report; fear of liability; lack of collaboration; and poverty. Conclusions The results from this study reinforce the need to shift practice that acknowledges Black families as valuable stakeholders and experts of their own lives and involves them in the development and implementation of policies and practices that affect them.
Article
Full-text available
The perspective of key players such as caseworkers and community facilitators on the reasons for the overrepresentation of Black youth in child welfare is little known. This study explores the reasons why Black youth are overrepresented in child welfare in Ontario (Canada) through the perspectives of caseworkers and community facilitators. We analyzed four focus groups: two with child welfare caseworkers from a Children’s Aid Society (CAS) and two with community facilitators. We used a general inductive method for the content analysis of the focus groups with N-Vivo, without being guided by prior assumptions or hypotheses. This study highlighted seven reasons why Black youth are overrepresented in child welfare, according to CAS caseworkers and community facilitators: lack of diversity among CAS caseworkers, disciplinary practices, mental health, insufficient community support networks, poverty, racism, and culture. These findings support implications for policies and practices to reduce and eliminate the overrepresentation of Black children in child welfare.
Article
This article reports on narrative interviews conducted as part of the Rights for Children and Youth Partnership Project exploring the experiences of 25 Black Caribbean youth (ages 16–26) who have navigated the child protection system in Ontario, Canada. An introduction to transracial fostering in Ontario is provided, and participants’ reflections on the significance of caregivers’ race in their experiences of out-of-home care are presented. Critical Race Theory and Anti-Black Racism are used as theoretical frameworks to guide the discussion. Themes discussed include adapting to White environments and community visibility; appropriate haircare, skincare, and food in placements; navigating Whiteness and anti-Black racism; and sense of connection with caregivers.
Article
The field of Child and Youth Care continues to expand and the foundational theories that have been central to the development of the field continue to de adapted. However, the increasing diversity of Canada's populations requires the inclusion of multiple theoretical frameworks that can address the needs of the children, youth and families that we encounter. This paper examines the ways in which anti-oppression and anti-racism perspectives can be included as an aspect of CYC thought and practice, with particular relevance to service provision for African Canadian families.
Article
Racial disparities in child welfare involvement between Black and White children have been well-documented in the United States, but research in this area is relatively underexplored in Canada. Emerging evidence from Canadian studies indicates that Black families are far more likely to be reported for maltreatment concerns, and that these initial disparities persist as families move deeper into the system. Scholars have begun to identify the factors associated with those disparities in Canada, but there is a need for understanding the larger structural and historical context that shapes the opportunities and constraints for Black families living in Ontario. This analysis will situate child welfare in a nexus of anti-Black policy and structure with respect to immigration restrictions, income disparities, residential segregation, and the functioning of linked institutions such as the mental health, education, and legal systems. The cumulative burden of navigating and contending with these larger systemic forces leave Black families vulnerable to a relatively low threshold for reporting maltreatment concerns and risk of harm to Ontario child welfare agencies. This paper documents the alignment between the circumstances created by anti-Black racism at institutional, provincial, and federal levels and the seemingly race-neutral eligibility criteria embedded within Ontario child welfare, which results in disproportionate reporting of Black families.
Article
Full-text available
Background: The overrepresentation of Black families in child welfare systems across the various geographical locations (e.g. America, Canada, United Kingdom) is a growing concern. There are competing explanations for the causes of overrepresentation and recommendations for eliminating racial disproportionalities and disparities in child welfare system. This systemic scoping review will provide a succinct synthesis of the current literature on Black disproportionality and disparity in child welfare. Methods/Design: This systemic scoping review will employ Arksey and O’Malley’s (2005) five stage framework. This will direct our search of the seven academic databases (EBSCO: Criminal Justice Abstracts OVID: Social Work Abstracts Pro Quest: PsychINFO, ERIC, Sociological Abstracts, International Bibliography of Social Sciences and Web of Science Core Collections). These seven databases have been chosen due to their interdisciplinary resources on the issue of overrepresentation of Black families in the child welfare sector. The thematic findings will be systemically synthesized using qualitative analysis and presented visually through a chart. Eligible articles for this scoping review include literature that speaks directly to the experiences of Black families involved with the child welfare system. The results of this scoping review will increase the understanding of how racial disproportionalities and disparities emerge, common outcomes and ways to begin tackling this phenomenon for Black families. Discussion: In order to tackle this gap in knowledge regarding the overrepresentation of Black families in the child welfare system, this comprehensive scoping review will systematically organize the literature in order to understand how this issue manifests and to fill this gap in research. This methodological approach will allow for the development of practical and intentional methods to move forward in mitigating this issue.
Article
Background Despite continuous reports showing the overrepresentation of Black children in the child welfare system in Ontario, Canada’s most populous and ethnically diverse province, knowledge in the factors contributing to this issue remain scarce. Objective This study aimed to explore questions relating to caseworker’s training on ethnocultural diversity in connection with racial disparities and overrepresentation of Black children in child welfare services. Participants and settings This two-fold mixed-methods study included (1) a qualitative methodology based on four focus groups with child welfare caseworkers from a Children’s Aid Society (CAS) in Ontario and community facilitators (N = 24), and (2) an analysis of academic curriculums from all 36 Ontarian colleges and universities offering social work programs. Methods We used an innovative and complementary mixed-method design based on grounded theory. Results Results from categorical content analyses with NVivo revealed that community facilitators perceived a lack of ethnocultural competency amongst CAS caseworkers. Similarly, CAS caseworkers reported inadequate training on ethnocultural diversity during and following their post-secondary education (college or university). Corroborating these findings, results from documentary analyses of Ontarian university and college curriculums in social work revealed that barely one in two programs had a mandatory course on cultural issues. Conclusions This study reveals a need for additional efforts to provide adequate training to child welfare caseworkers on ethnocultural diversity, starting with undergraduate training programs, in order to understand and tackle the overrepresentation of Black children in child welfare services. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.
Article
Background Black-White disparities in child welfare involvement have been well-documented in the United States, but there is a significant knowledge gap in Ontario about how and when these disparities emerge. Objective This paper compares incidence data on Black and White families investigated by Ontario’s child welfare system over a 20-year period. Methods Data from the first five cycles of the Ontario Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (OIS) (1993–2013) were used to examine trends in child maltreatment investigations involving Black and White families. Incidence rates were calculated. T-tests were conducted to assess statistically significant differences between and within cycles. Population and decision-based enumeration approaches were also used to examine child welfare disparities. Results The incidence of investigations involving White families almost doubled between 1998 and 2003, but for Black families the incidence increased almost fourfold during the same period. These increases and the difference between Black and White families in 2003 were statistically significant. The results further indicate that Black families experience disparate representation in Ontario’s child welfare system over time for most service dispositions. Conclusions Several possible explanations are offered for the study’s outcome, including changes in risk related to social safety net, the threshold for risk of harm, and bias and racist institutional policies and practices. This study invites policy-makers and child welfare authorities to rethink service delivery in addressing the disparate representation of Black families in the child welfare system.
Article
Full-text available
Bu çalışma; SHÇEK ve ASPB dönemi çocuk refahı çalışanlarının deneyimlerini nasıl algıladıklarının tanımlanması amacıyla fenomenolojik araştırma yöntemiyle yapılmıştır. Amaçlı örneklem yöntemi ile her iki dönemde çalışma deneyimine sahip sekiz çocuk refahı çalışanı ile yüz yüze derinlemesine görüşmeler yürütülmüştür. Çocuk refahı çalışanları ile yapılan görüşmelerden elde edilen verilerin analizi sonucunda çalışanların deneyimlerinden; kalıcı çözüm geliştirmede sorunlarla karşılaşıldığı; etkin hizmet sunumu ve sosyal politika alanlarında gelişimin devam etmesinin gerekliliği ortaya çıkmıştır. Çocuk refahı hizmetlerinde etkin hizmet sunumu için katılımcılar; bu alanda çalışanların eğitimi, niteliği ve çalışan sayılarının arttırılması, liyakata dayalı istihdam koşullarının yaratılması ve çalışanlarda tükenmişliğin azaltılması gerektiğini belirtmişlerdir. Sosyal politika açısından ise katılımcılar işsizlik ve yoksulluğun azaltılması, hizmet sunumunda işbirliği, farkındalık arttırıcı eğitimler ve koruyucu / önleyici hizmetlerin gerekliliğine dikkat çekmişlerdir.
Article
Background and purpose Despite the increasing number of evidence-based practices (EBPs) for children and families in child welfare, child welfare agencies continue to encounter barriers to implementation, including a lack of utilization that may be caused by a lack of caseworker referrals to EBPs. However, further research is needed to determine additional factors that impact caseworker referrals. Objective This study examined whether caseworker demographic factors, attitudes towards EBPs and organizational factors predict caseworker referrals. Relying upon tenets of the Theory of Planned Behavior, this study also examined whether intention to refer predicts caseworker referrals to an EBP. Participants and setting A convenience sample of 130 caseworkers and support staff was selected from two community-based agencies that provide child welfare services and were implementing an EBP, the Positive Parenting Program (Triple P). Methods Researchers used survey data from participants and caseworker referral data collected three to six months after survey completion. Binary logistic regression was used to measure the relationship between predictor variables and caseworker referrals. Results Results showed that agency of employment (OR = 3.31), age (OR = 0.12), race/ethnicity (OR = −4.303), and openness to EBPs (OR = 1.77) significantly (p < .05) predicted whether or not a caseworker made a referral to Triple P. Conclusions Intention to refer did not predict referral behavior, possibly due to intervening events that took precedence over parenting needs. Providing support to caseworkers in navigating well-being needs amidst emergent crises may mitigate this barrier. Findings underscore the need to explore organizational differences that may facilitate caseworker referrals including the impact of locating Triple P providers the same location as caseworkers and of differing agency referral norms.
Chapter
The disproportionality and disparity faced by Black children and youth in the child welfare system are now well-documented and visible in public discourse, along with explanations for these phenomena (Clarke, Children and Youth Services Review, 33, 2, 2011, Journal of Progressive Human Services, 23, 3, 2012; Dunbar & Barth, 2007; Fallon et al., 2015; Gosine & Pon, Journal of Progressive Human Services, 22, 2, 2010; Hill, 2006, 2007; Pon, Gosine, & Phillips, International Journal of Child, Youth and Family Studies, 3 & 4, 2011; Roberts, Shattered bonds: The color of child welfare. New York, NY: Civitas Books, 2002; Stahmer et al., 2005; Teklu, Canada’s forgotten children: Written submissions to the committee on the rights of the child on the third and fourth reports of Canada. Toronto, ON: African Canadian Legal Clinic, 2012). This chapter explores the factors that are hidden behind the disproportionate numbers and considers the mental health impact of child removal on Black children, youth, and families in Ontario. It draws on the literature and our professional experiences to explore the impact of removal on Black children, youth, and families in Ontario’s child welfare system.
Article
Full-text available
In the fragility of goodness, Nussbaum recounts an ethical dilemma of King Agamemnon to decide either to sacrifice his daughter to save his army or to watch his army perish. Nussbaum (1986) asks, how does one measure ‘goodness’ when all ethical choices lead to evil outcomes? In the essay, we employ Nussbaum’s ‘fragility of goodness,’ Critical Race Theory, and data from SSHRC funded study — in which we critically examine the parenting experiences of black families in Toronto, Winnipeg, and St John’s — to answer these questions. Our findings suggest that Black parenting is unique and has become what Spivak Gayatri describes as the unavoidable usefulness of something that is equally dangerous. We also noted how racist ideas in Canada function as “colour-blind” laws and policies that affect and shape the everyday lives of Black people including their parenting practices. We also noted a high level of apprehension and placement into care of Black children among Black families resulting in a growing mistrust and distrust of Child Welfare Services (CWS) workers in Black communities. Our study calls on CWS in Canada to develop a comprehensive understanding of Black parenting practices, perhaps enabling more Black children to remain home safely.
Article
Despite the substantial body of literature on racial disparities in child welfare involvement in the Unites States, there is relatively little research on such differences for Canadian children and families. This study begins to address this gap by examining decision-making among workers investigating Black and White families investigated for child protection concerns in Ontario, Canada. Using provincially representative data, the study assessed whether Black children were more likely than White children to be investigated by child welfare, if there was disparate decision-making by race throughout the investigation, and how the characteristics of Black and White children contribute to the decision to transfer to ongoing services. The results indicate that Black children were more likely to be investigated than White children, but there was little evidence to suggest that workers in Ontario child welfare agencies made the decision to substantiate, transfer to ongoing services, or place the child in out-of-home care based on race alone. Black and White children differed significantly with respect to child characteristics, characteristics of the investigation, caregiver risk factors, and socioeconomic circumstances. When adjusting for these characteristics, Black families had 33% greater odds (OR=1.33; 95% CI: 1.26, 1.40; p=<0.001) of being transferred to ongoing services compared to White families. Among Black families, the assessed quality of the parent-child relationship and severe economic hardship were the most significant and substantial contributors to the decision to provide child welfare services. Implications for practice, policy, and research are discussed.
Article
This article presents data from a study of an intergroup dialogue (IGD) 5 course in an urban Midwest MSW program guided by Derald Wing Sue’s multicultural education model. IGD was used as an innovative pedagogy to meet the Council on Social Work Education mandate for cultural competence and social justice education. Results showed significant gains in student aware-ness of self as a member of social identity groups, knowledge about 10 structural group inequality, motivation to bridge, differences, and action to do so. Segregation by race and social contact did not predict change in confidence and frequency to take social justice action. Prior knowledge about racial inequality and motivation to bridge difference did predict change in action. IGD is a promising cultural competence pedagogy.
Article
Full-text available
While shame has historically been neglected in emotion research, there is now a large body of research evidence by which to understand the concept and the phenomenology, which suggests shame can have a pervasive and negative effect on individuals’ lives and relationships. It can be considered to be an emotion that relates to a belief that the self is flawed and that one is not worthy of acceptance and belonging. This paper reports on a scoping review of shame experienced by social workers, identifying the nature and extent of the research evidence. Shame was operationalised through a working model provided by the seminal work of Lewis (1971). The search strategy sought to identify qualitative studies relating to social workers’ personal experiences of practice. Data were extracted that met the criteria in the working model for shame and a thematic analysis applied to the extracted data. The results suggest that while shame was unacknowledged in the research, it is a common experience for many social workers with indications that it influences practitioners’ job satisfaction, staff retention and an ability to practice ethically. Areas for future research are identified.
Article
Full-text available
Structural social work approaches provide a useful theoretical lens for examining child protection work in terms of understanding the context in which parents and children are situated. However, the focus of analysis on broad systems can sometimes seem removed from the daily realities of practice, so that the social worker can feel paralysed, unable to imagine ethical strategies for intervention. A post-structural theory provides space for the local experiences and specific needs of the individual within this particularly complex area of social work. Four analytical concepts from post-structuralism—uncertainty, deconstruction, power, and bodily knowledge—have particular practical implications in child protection work.
Article
Full-text available
Anti-oppression emerged in the 1990s as a perspective for challenging inequalities and accommodating diversity within the field of social work, including child welfare in Canada. Using the concepts of white supremacy, anti-Black, and anti-Native racism in conjunction with the notion of the exalted national subject (Thobani, 2007), we contend that any understanding of the overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Black children in the care of child welfare services must be located within the wider narrative of white supremacy that has underpinned the formation of the post-war welfare state. This overrepresentation highlights the need to shift from anti-oppression to critical race feminism and anti-colonialism perspectives in order to address more effectively anti-Black and anti-Native racism and the economy of child welfare.
Article
Full-text available
The abstract for this document is available on CSA Illumina.To view the Abstract, click the Abstract button above the document title.
Article
Full-text available
Two key issues-globalization & antioppression-common to Canada & the US, particularly in the wake of the terrorist attacks of 9/11, & their implications for social work education & practice are explored. The imperative to incorporate these issues into international social work curriculum & professional training is discussed, highlighting the need to sensitize students to systemic forms of oppression & power relations, the unique needs & contributions of social work students of color, & work with client populations from other cultures. References.
Article
Full-text available
The implementation of an anti-oppression approach in feminist agencies must deal with contradictory tensions within the model. Feminists imagine anti-oppression as a model of practice that deals with all structures of oppression. At the same time, feminist members of marginalized communities perceive that their particular form of oppression is not attended to in the model. The authors contend that one must understand anti-oppression practice within the historical and social conditions that create inequity and offer implications for practice.
Article
Full-text available
This study compares child welfare services provided to Aboriginal (Indian) and Caucasian children in Canada. The findings suggest that child welfare reports involving Aboriginal children are more likely to be classified as suspected or substantiated than reports for Caucasian children. Aboriginal children also are twice as likely to be placed in foster care. This overrepresentation in out-of-home placement is explained statistically by socioeco-nomic, child, parent, and maltreatment characteristics. In addition, these variables play a significant role in accounting for higher rates of case substantiation among Aboriginal children. These factors may reflect the multiple disadvantages experienced by Aboriginal families.
Article
Full-text available
Many human service fields have employed the term Anti-Oppressive Practice but it has yet to be named in music therapy. This article provides a brief overview of the history, applications and role of the integration of Anti-Oppressive Practice theory to music therapy. The historical roots of Anti-Oppressive Practices in music therapy are described with the intent of opening discussion on Anti-Oppressive Practices in music therapy.
Article
Full-text available
Research has suggested that minority children experience more negative consequences as a result of abuse than maltreated children from the dominant culture (Cohen, Deblinger, Mannarino, & de Arellano, 2001). Furthermore, if families come in contact with the child welfare system, minority and poor children are often treated differently than their White counterparts as they move through the system (Courtney et al., 1996; Hogan & Siu, 1988). members of minority groups are often also immigrants from countries with different customs and prac-tices, and research on the experience of immigrants confirms that the process of migration is associated with considerable stress. In view of research that associates multiple stressors with child maltreatment, it is important for child welfare workers to have an in-depth understanding of the experience of families who are both immigrants and members of minority groups. Child maltreatment includes neglect; physical, emotional, and sexual abuse; and exposure to parental abuse. It is an issue that touches people from all parts of society. Maiter, Alaggia, and Trocmé (2004) reminded us that in all cultures, parental discipline methods range from useful and appropriate to abusive and 1 The terms "child welfare services" and "child protection services" are often used interchangeably in the literature. For the sake of consistency, we have used the term "child welfare services" throughout this paper. ABSTRACT Wide recognition that families in the child welfare system experience multiple stressors has resulted in the
Article
This article explores structural determinants as possible causes of the homelessness of Aboriginal youth in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It includes a brief literature review and provides some of the findings of a recent research project, which implemented an Aboriginal research methodology with homeless youth in Toronto. These findings point to a strong link between Aboriginal children growing up in poverty and involvement in child welfare and becoming homeless as a youth. Suggestions for positive change at the policy-level are offered in order to prevent the next generation of Aboriginal children growing up to become homeless youth.
Book
This latest edition of Case Critical applies decolonized, critical analysis to highlight what is often hidden from view for most Canadians: the personal trauma and communal devastation inflicted on Indigenous people by past and present colonialism and the ways in which neoliberal tax cuts, austerity, and privatization create more inequality, homelessness, and despair among both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. Social service providers, the authors argue, should become social activists, working in solidarity with progressive grassroots social movements in order to de-legitimatize colonial and neoliberal policies.
Book
Questions of national identity, indigenous rights, citizenship, and migration have acquired unprecedented relevance in this age of globalization. In Exalted Subjects, noted feministscholar Sunera Thobani examines the meanings and complexities of these questions in a Canadian context. Based in the theoretical traditions of political economy and cultural / post-colonial studies, this book examines how the national subject has been conceptualized in Canada at particular historical junctures, and how state policies and popular practices have exalted certain subjects over others.Foregrounding the concept of ‘race’ as a critical relation of power, Thobani examines how processes of racialization contribute to sustaining and replenishing the politics of nation formation and national subjectivity. She challenges the popular notion that the significance of racialized practices in Canada has declined in the post Second World War period, and traces key continuities and discontinuities in these practices from Confederation into the present. Drawing on historical sociology and discursive analyses, Thobani examines how the stateseeks to ‘fix’ and ‘stabilize’ its subjects in relation to the nation's ‘others.’ A controversial, ground-breaking study, Exalted Subjects makes a major contribution to our understanding of the racialized and gendered underpinnings of both nation and subject formation. © University of Toronto Press Incorporated 2007 All rights reserved.
Book
From both a theoretical and practical standpoint, racism is one of the most important topics that has engaged the attention of social scientists in North America in recent years. As societies become more ethnically diverse, people from different cultures are increasingly coming into contact with each other, resulting in ever greater opportunities for racism to manifest itself. In this work, Edith Samuel examines the educational experiences of South Asian students and faculty members from the perspective of ‘integrative antiracism’ - the study of how the dynamics of social difference are mediated in people’s daily lives. Specifically, she analyses perceptions of and responses to racism in four critical areas: faculty-student relationships, peer group interactions, curriculum, and the psychosocial dimension. Antiracism scholars maintain that racism is widespread on Canadian university campuses. Drawing on the available literature and extensive interviews with students and faculty, Samuel looks at both overt and covert forms of racism, as well as structural racism, that results in discrimination in admissions and employment. She also looks at race, class, gender, history, and culture and how these interlocking systems produce unique experiences of racism for South Asians in academe. Through the exploration of the intricate patterns of South Asians’ assimilation into university life, Integrative Antiracism identifies the numerous barriers racial minorities encounter and suggests a variety of approaches to fostering a more equitable education system.
Article
This article explores how social work as a discipline has helped to negotiate professional agency in decision-making within the restructured child protection system. The narratives of child protection workers affirm that a restrictive climate does exist in child protection agencies and that it indeed shapes the way they make their decisions. This study uses institutional ethnography as the methodology for exploring the decision-making practices of child protection workers. Three forms of data collection were used: experience as data, documentation reviews and in-depth interviews.
Article
The abstract for this document is available on CSA Illumina.To view the Abstract, click the Abstract button above the document title.
Article
The need for social justice in social work practice is particularly apparent in work with indigenous populations. In spite of the social work profession's commitment to social justice, social workers have often done significant harm in their work with indigenous peoples. Social work educators are ideally positioned to close this gap between social work values and practice by teaching how principles of social justice can be applied with indigenous peoples. This article provides social work educators with background knowledge and specific tools for teaching about indigenous populations from a social justice perspective.
Article
In this article, I critically review North American education-related literature on identity construction among Black youth. I integrate this body of scholarship to reveal an implicit two-pronged model for examining identity among racialized persons. The first level of analysis involves unveiling collective strivings for a coherent racial identity in the face of a racist society. The second level concerns the underlying complexity, rupture, and ambivalence that such collective quests for identity tend to mask. Multicultural and antiracism education fail to adequately consider the second level of identity, resulting in both approaches presenting an oversimplifie d and unsatisfactory view of racial and cultural diversity.
Article
Shattered Bonds is a stirring account of a worsening American social crisis--the disproportionate representation of black children in the U.S. foster care system and its effects on black communities and the country as a whole. Tying the origins and impact of this disparity to racial injustice, Dorothy Roberts contends that child-welfare policy reflects a political choice to address startling rates of black child poverty by punishing parents instead of tackling poverty's societal roots. Using conversations with mothers battling the Chicago child-welfare system for custody of their children, along with national data, Roberts levels a powerful indictment of racial disparities in foster care and tells a moving story of the women and children who earn our respect in their fight to keep their families intact.
Article
The present study empirically examined the relationship between therapist-client ethnic match and the therapists' evaluations of overall client functioning based on the Global Assessment Scale. The sample consisted of thousands of African American, Asian American, Mexican American, and White American outpatient clients in the Los Angeles County mental health system. Findings indicated that ethnically matched therapists judged clients to have higher mental health functioning than did mismatched therapists. After controlling for other variables (e.g., age, gender, marital status, and referral source), this effect persisted for African American and Asian American clients. For both groups, ethnic match significantly predicted ratings of higher client functioning when combining all diagnoses. Within diagnostic category, ethnic match significantly predicted ratings of higher client functioning for African American, Asian American, and Mexican American clients to varying degrees. Implications of these findings are discussed.
Article
This article explores structural determinants as possible causes of the homelessness of Aboriginal youth in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It includes a brief literature review and provides some of the findings of a recent research project, which implemented an Aboriginal research methodology with homeless youth in To- ronto. These findings point to a strong link between Aboriginal children growing up in poverty and involvement in child welfare and becoming homeless as youth. Suggestions for positive change at the policy level are offered in order to prevent the next generation of Aboriginal children growing up to become home- less youth. a
Book
Discusses anti-oppressive practice from both a conceptual and a fields of social work practice perspective. Much of the book can be found on Google Books.
Article
Informed by the experiential-racism theoretical approach, which maintains that racism must be analyzed as a process that is manifested in multiple relations and situations in everyday life, interviews with 50 male and female black police officers in a southern state are drawn upon to analyze the impact race has on policing. Accounts demonstrate in considerable detail a shared perception of the continuing attitudinal and institutional dimensions of racism that impedes full participation in law enforcement agencies. Training, evaluation, discipline, assignment and promotion are discussed as processes within police agencies felt to be impacted by race. The conclusion is promoted that racism is persistent in agencies to the extent that white officers disproportionately occupy positions of authority with unfettered subjective discretion and to the extent there are few black officers relative to white officers. As an exploratory examination of the shared experiences and perceptions of black officers, findings should be further tested empirically.
Article
Traces the historical treatment of minority children in the child welfare system, reviews recent child welfare statistics and research studies, and examines issues in policy and service provision. Discusses proposed roles for social work profession in making the child welfare system more responsive to needs of minority children. (Author)
Article
This article argues that cultural competency promotes an obsolete view of culture and is a form of new racism. Cultural competency resembles new racism both by otherizing non-whites and by deploying modernist and absolutist views of culture while not using racialist language. Drawing on child welfare, cultural competence is shown to repeat what Lowe (1993) calls an ontology of forgetting Canada's history of colonialism and racism. A recommendation is made for jettisoning cultural competency and emphasizing instead a self-reflexive grappling with racism and colonialism.
Article
outline the history of interviewing [and discuss its] academic uses / discuss the major types of interviewing—structured, group, and unstructured—as well as other ways to conduct interviews / address in detail the various elements of qualitative interviewing / discuss some problems of gender as it relates to interviewing, as well as issues of interpretation and reporting / broach some considerations related to ethical issues (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Article
Elusive Culture: Schooling, Race, and Identity in Global Times. Daniel A. Yon. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2000. ix. 175 pp., notes, bibliography, index.
Article
This paper considers the controversial area of child protection with Black families. It begins by addressing the question of why the issue of child protection and ethnicity is important to social work. It then goes on to consider the current and related research in this field, and supports the arguments that Black families are likely to be over-represented in the child protection system. The reasons for this over-representation are explored in-depth as themes: these include issues around language and interpreting services; child-rearing differences; poverty; and social work assessments. Racism and discrimination are central concepts that underpin each theme. The final section looks at ways forward for social workers and their agencies with regard to working sensitively and appropriately with Black families.
Article
There is a growing and robust child welfare literature on service users' perspectives. However, little attention is paid to the experiences of Afro-Caribbean mothers and youth as service users. The author argues that this lack of attention is problematic given that the literature consistently shows an overrepresentation of Black children in the child welfare system. This article reports on some of the findings of a study that was conducted in Toronto with Afro-Caribbean service users about their experiences in the child welfare system. Findings reveal themes that are common to both groups of service users: mothers and youth, though some themes are unique to each group. Themes generated from interviews with service users show the challenges of structural inequalities and the complexities of racism, classism, sexism and cultural differences on child welfare involvement for Afro-Caribbean families in Toronto. Interviews with child welfare workers also revealed themes that supported service users' perspectives. The article concludes by arguing that research is needed to explicate the relationship between structural inequalities, including culturally different parenting practices on the experiences of Afro-Caribbean services users in the child welfare system in Toronto. Such exploration has the potential to reduce the number of Afro-Caribbean children entering the child welfare system.