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Despite the development of alternative forms of care, international and domestic pressures for change, and over 20 years of efforts at deinstitutionalization, the Czech Republic has one of the highest rates of institutionalization of children in Europe. The continuing reliance upon residential care for children by the child protection system, particularly for children who are disabled or of Roma descent, demonstrates a case of "path dependency" in which a solidification of the system’s response is rooted in its past. This article aims to provide an understanding of the historical…
This fact sheet summarizes a qualitative research study conducted by the National Adoption Coalition South Africa (NACSA) that explored child abandonment and adoption in the context of African ancestral beliefs in urban South Africa. The goal of this one-year study was to better understand the growing practice of child abandonment and declining adoption rates in South Africa. In-depth interviews were conducted with young women experiencing unplanned pregnancy, women who had been apprehended for abandoning their children, community members, police officers, nurses and social workers…
The February-March 2015 double edition of the ISS Monthly Review includes an article by Florence Martin, director of the Better Care Network, which provides a brief overview of the Tracking Progress project and potential implications for users of the tool. The article describes the history of, and reasoning behind, the development of this tracking tool which will allow national actors to monitor and assess the implementation of the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children in their own States. The tracking tool has been developed by an interagency initiative, which is co-facilitated by…
Meaningful discussion about intercountry adoption (the adoption of a child from one country by a family from another country) necessitates an understanding of a complex range of issues. These issues intersect at multiple levels and processes, span geographic and political boundaries, and emerge from radically different cultural beliefs and systems. The result is a myriad of benefits and costs that are both global and deeply personal in scope.
This edited volume introduces this complexity and gives voice to the many sides of the intercountry adoption debate – for, against, and the ranges in…
This study, produced by the Children’s Advocacy Institute at the San Diego School of Law, examines the activities of the federal government of the United States in regards to enacting and enforcing child welfare laws and ensuring that individual states are complying with minimum federal standards for child protection. The study has a particular focus on the ways in which the federal government is working to provide foster youth with a path to adulthood, and ensuring that states do the same. The report reviews all three branches of the federal government and singles out particular states to…
Abstract
This paper forms Part 2 of a two-part discussion paper. Part 1 outlined a short history of adoption in Canada, examined the impact of forced, closed, and external adoptions on Indigenous adoptees and families, and traced the move toward more open statutory adoptions and greater cultural continuity in adoptions. Having zeroed in on the entangled histories of adoption and colonization in Part 1, here we explore traditional and contemporary practices of Indigenous custom adoption and caretaking. We first recount Western understandings and impositions, then feature Indigenous…
The First Peoples Child & Family Review is published twice yearly by the First Nations Caring Society of Canada (FNCFCS). The First Peoples Child & Family Review proudly presents this Special Edition on Custom Adoptions in partnership with the Siem Smun’eem Indigenous Child Wellbeing Research Network at the University of Victoria. This edition contains research articles, agency experiences, cultural perspectives and personal stories that highlight custom adoption from a historical and contemporary perspective.
This special edition of First Peoples Child and Family Review…
Abstract
Following a historic meeting of staff with Alberta Children's Services and the Yellowhead Tribal Services Agency (YTSA) a pilot program, the YTSA Open Custom Adoption Program was developed. The agency initially researched existing adoption models in the Northwest Territories, British Columbia and the Cheyenne Nation in the United States. An advisory committee comprised of one Elder from each member First Nation community was struck to provide guidance and direction throughout the project. From 2000 to 2010 YTSA placed over a hundred children in adoptive homes and there were no…
Abstract
This paper forms Part 1 of a two-part discussion paper on Indigenous custom adoption. Zeroing in on the entangled histories of adoption and colonization, it outlines a short history of adoption in Canada, examines the impact of forced, closed, and external adoptions on Indigenous adoptees, and traces the move toward more open statutory adoptions and greater cultural connection and continuity in adoptions. This historical review sets the stage for Part 2 of our discussion paper, “Honouring Our Caretaking Traditions,” where we highlight the connections between customary laws…
“Lax kw’alaams is a Tsimshian community on British Columbia’s northwest coast. Since 2010, all 37 Lax kw’alaams children in care, including those who live outside the community, have been identified and supported by a group of Elders who call themselves the Na gan ts’i’stk Grandmothers. Among other forms of emotional support and cultural connection they offer (which the Grandmothers themselves describe in this article), the Grandmothers have invited the children and youth to learn traditional seaweed gathering and meet their extended families in Lax kw’alaams.”
The First Peoples Child and…