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Environmental Issues

Family and Children Services

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Family and Children Services

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Family and Children Services

Children and family service organizations can either be governmental or non-governmental, which is NGOs. These organizations offer help and services to children and adults. They are designed to help individuals encountering severe issues in their environmental setting as well as biological issues. Furthermore, they strengthen families get through a divorce, trauma, addiction, incarnation as well as healing children suffering from abusive families. Some families and children have nowhere to go to or no one to turn to; therefore, they resolve to join family and children organizations for their well-being. Abusive or neglecting homes make it uneasy for children to lead a good life; these causes emotional, physical, and mental abuse to them. Thus, these organizations help such children and address their biological and environmental deficiencies. Besides, families facing issues such as extreme poverty, disabilities, and other forms of social problems seek help from family and children organizations, with hopes for a better life and future in general. Since the organizations address social, economic, and environmental issues surrounding families and children, courts or government protection agencies are responsible for mandating the services.

History

The United States of America has effortlessly tried to respond to the issues of negligence and abuse to children among families and also offer support and preservation to families therein. Family and children services started way back in the 18th and 19th centuries when the 1601 English Poor Law was enacted. It was a legal policy, aimed at protecting the needy children and families during the colonial times. Through this policy, the public and the local townsmen were responsible for addressing issues of the poor. Thus, parents never took responsibility and account of their children; hence, there was child negligence as well as irresponsible parents during this time. Community leaders and philanthropists focused more on the children who were abused and neglected as well as extremely low-income families that needed help to lead their lives. The 19th century marked the progressive era where parents left their children un-attended due to the rise and growth of industrialization, urbanization, and immigration. Low-income families struggled to join employment forces in the industries to earn a living and hence, neglected their children while spouses fought from time to time due to employment and responsibility issues.

Such cases improved during the 20th century. Destitute children were held up in private organizations, which offered them charitable life. Abandoned children and families lived in Almshouses that were established way back in the 19th century to house children and the elderly as well as the needy of all ages. As much as the Almshouses provided shelter for the children and the families, these groups endured more hardships as a result of contiguous disease outbreaks and chaos. In the mid of the 20th century, criticism over the negative impacts of the Almshouses increased since children, especially the young ones, faced harsh conditions such as poor sanitation, chaos, and diseases, leading to increased mortality rates among the Almshouses’ children. Therefore, this led to the formation of orphanages (private entities), that helped in separating the needy children and adults in the Almshouse, and offer them extraordinary protection against the issues therein. Such a move gave many children a comfortable life that most of them learned and met other families hence creating a bond with them.

Development

Family and children services have evolved over the recent past with significant development. Families and children in need have been receiving help and support to live a healthy life. That is why today, there are a considerable number of agencies and charitable facilities offering advice to needy families and children, as well as welfare actions, to ensure that they are surviving under supervision or at a safe place. This is unlike in the past centuries, where people, especially the needy families and children, relied on the community and religious leaders for support. However, how the community and religious leaders helped these groups of people was directed by cultural norms and values, which is different from today’s interventions that are based on legal frameworks and formal systems stipulated specifically to intervene into matters related to abuse, negligence, violence and other forms of family/children issues.

Unlike in the past decades, today, family and children services are majorly government-sponsored entities alongside privately sponsored organizations. Furthermore, recently, there are issues such as tow-generational family strategies aimed at helping parents and children from low-income families. In the United States, half of the children’s population comes from the low class and incomer earner families. According to the sociological perspective, the well-being of a parent is directly connected to the emotional and physical growth of the child. It also determines the child’s performance in school, not forgetting his or her social behavior. Therefore, the two-generation family strategy aims at helping both the parent and the child from a low-income family to get support and lead a healthy life. Thus, the United States two-generational family strategy helps to stop the inter-generations poverty cycle among low-income class Americans, by elevating their status from instability to stable families by educating the children and families, training them (workforce) and offering them any other form of support service, aimed at enlightening and uplifting their economic status. Even though there are a variety of such programs, all they are interconnected and interrelated with a common goal which is; to provide quality early childhood education to the needy children, to offer education or job training support to the adult members of the family and/or to support the families through employment and other support services.

Parental education and job training is an effort made by the two-generational family strategy under the family and children services programs. Educating and training the parents for a particular job is essential because it enables the parent thereof to acquire employment, which is vital in supporting his or her family economically. Education and job training to the needy parents or families is crucial since it secures them and makes them stand a chance for employment opportunities, hence helping them to be economically stable in the long run. Furthermore, the program offers GED guidance that helps parents in developing their parental care and improves how they take care of their children. The job training focuses on a specific workforce targeted in industries hence better placing the trainee to acquire a vacancy in the long run. Quality childhood education and family support are vital in the two-general family strategy. Quality early childhood education is essential in preparing the child to have an excellent educational foundation, from pre-K through to collegiate level. Besides, family support is necessary for needy families who require food, clothing, and shelter for survival.

Thus, the 20th century welcomed the progressive era where social reforms came into effect. The changes were objectively enacted to help parents in taking care of their children, leading to the policies that ensured that no child was to be detached from his or her parent unless the conditions therein were unsuitable for family construction, safety, and well-being of the child.

Current Status of Family and Children Services

Today, the United States of America has a special division in the Health and Human service department, called the administration for families and children. It is focused on promoting the social and economic well-being of families and children across communities. Thus, it offers services like guidance, training, funding, and technical support, among other forms of support. Historically, the AFC was developed way back in1991 when three offices were merged. These offices were the office of Human Development, Family Support, and the Maternal and Child Health Block Grant Program. The AFC allows freedom of information and hence, allows anyone to access it through the federal government. The FOIA law enable American citizens to know more about their government. Moreover, since its mission is to support children, families, the community, and resilient individuals by giving them safe, healthy, and economically essential help, AFC offers jobs and contracts to the needy, as a form of support.

In America, AFC has been regarded as the largest administrative office dealing with human services. Since its re-organization, emphasis, and focus on family and children’s needs has been primary. Not only does the administrative office address and offer support to children and families, but it also advises the Health and Human service secretary on family, children, and youth issues all through. Thus, currently, this division works alongside the other 11 divisions in the HHS. Since its work is brilliant and successful, its budget allocation of $58 billion last year came in the second largest budgetary allocation in the United States. This budget is more significant than that allocated to the justice department, interior, and treasury. It’s a large department with over 1700 staff members working both at the central office and the regional office. It is also good to note that most of the programs administered by the AFC were created even before its division. For instance, the Children’s Bureau was formed way back in 1912, becoming the first bureau addressing child welfare in the entire world.  Through this administrative agency, many anti-poverty programs have been created throughout the 20th century, with the AFC providing them a home.

Policies Governing Family and Children Service Programs

There are federal policies designed to ensure improved child and parental well-being, as the parents strive to create a safe environment for their children. The United States of American has a history of investing more in family and children programs to promote positivity in families and reduce negativities towards children. Therefore, the federal government has put in place child/parent supportive policies, objectively focused on promoting positive outcomes such as the safety of children from harm, provide food for them so that they do not get hungry as well as reduction of parental related disparities like race, ethnicity, and income. That is why the amount of allocations leveled towards the AFC program is higher to ensure the policies and programs are working well. Efforts such as child passenger safety, safe to sleep campaign, and reduced smoking or drinking during pregnancy are some of the federal activities vital in supporting family and children services. Child passenger safety was enacted because of the increased cases of a motor vehicle collision, leading to high mortality rates among children. Some few decades ago, children were allowed to play while riding in vehicles without being restrained. This is not the case today because, through the child passenger safety policies, children are given the right sizes of seats and only drive when they are buckled. Advocacies from across every group of individuals have ensured that the right care seats are manufactured for babies, toddlers as well as children of all ages. In case a parent or a guardian is found to violet this directive, restraining orders can be leveled against the person thereof. Safe to sleep and reduction of smoking and drinking during pregnancy are efforts aimed at providing positive health outcomes to the parents and the children.

Thus, Universal and Near-Universal Policies and Investments policies (child-related provisions, support for health care), economic support for low-income families and children (nutrition assistance, income security, and housing) and child/parent educational investments have been the primary policies enacted under the United States’ government. Furthermore, there has been supporting for parents and children with special needs as well as those facing various adversities. All these policies are implemented to ensure the well-being of parents and children, especially those from low-income families and adversities. Much of the budgetary allocation for family and children service programs are delivered in the form of taxes such as the EITC and child tax credits.  The federal government has also invested more in the health care facilities to ensure that children and parents freely access health care provisions. Health care policies can benefit these groups of people directly through the ACA policy, enacted in 2010, to secure children and parents health-wise. Thus, through HHS, the federal government has allocated enough funds for educational programs for low-income families by managing the CCDF and the EHS.

Recommendations

Since the federal government is doing what it can to ensure that families and children are well, safe and secure, I would like the family and children services program to review its policies towards working-class parents, because they also need time for their children and the children also needs them as well. I would wish the United States government to review this issue in the same way the Finland government does. When a female gender gets pregnant in Finland, she is entitled to maternal care throughout the pregnancy period, and she will receive a baby box, with the entire essential required for a baby throughout up to a span of one year. Such a move is essential to help parents, regardless of their race, group, or ethnicity. I think the family and children’s service programs should adopt this. Besides, the federal government should review its policies in terms of parental leaves.

In conclusion, children and family service programs can be public entities or private like NGOs. They are meant to help children, adults, and families encountering both biological and environmental issues. Besides, these programs help families and children from low-income earning backgrounds to gain stability while others need emotional support to walk through abusive families, divorce, or incarnation. The U.S. government has enacted policies to guide these programs, with the leading program being the AFC. Through funding allocations, the government is trying what it can to ensure children and families lead a better life through housing policies, nutritional policies, security policies, and health care policies, among other policies.

 

 

References

Administration for Children and Families. (2015). Administration for Children and Families: Child Care Development Fund. Available: https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/olab/sec2c_ccdf_2015cj_complete.pdf [January 2016]

Burwell, S.M. (2016). The Department of Health and Human Services 2015 Annual Report on the Quality of Care for Children in Medicaid and CHIP. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

MacLeod, J., & Nelson, G. (2000). Programs for the promotion of family wellness and the prevention of child maltreatment: A meta-analytic review. Child abuse & neglect24(9), 1127-1149.

 

 

 

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