In this Huffington Post Blog piece, Sidney Goldberg - founder of the Pathways to Development Program at the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services in Chicago - shares his views on needed reform of the child welfare system in the United States. The child welfare system in the US, Goldberg says, often offers parents superficial interventions which are supposed to improve conditions for both parents and children and keep children in families. These interventions, however, do not address deeper root causes of problematic parent-child relationships - primarily poverty and its effects. Parents, therefore, are often frustrated with these mandated services, to which they do not see a benefit and which may feel more intrusive and punitive than helpful. Previous child welfare reform efforts, says Goldberg, have all fallen short of addressing this important issue.
Goldberg argues the need for child welfare reform that alleviates the conditions of poverty that are often entwined with child maltreatment (both real and alleged) and reform that “helps parents begin to build more satisfying lives through education, vocational possibilities and cultural involvement.” This type of reform, says Goldberg, includes extensive re-training of child welfare personnel to help them learn how to engage and partner with parents for more successful intervention.