Friday, December 7, 2012

Christian Child and Family Services Association ? Blog Archive ...

Best Practices Committee Report
December 6, 2012

The Christian Child and Family Services Association (CCFSA) is a nationwide association affiliated with the Churches of Christ that has gathered together agencies serving vulnerable children and their families for the last 50 years. As a part of its current strategic plan, the CCFSA board has formed a ?Best Practices Committee? to help member agencies move forward in the changing world of child care in the United States.

The board selected Ron Bruner to chair this committee, and Devonne Carter and Ralph Richardson have agreed to serve with him in that effort (the appendix presents brief biographies of each committee member).

The mission of the Best Practices Committee is ?to empower CCFSA agencies to better care for children and their families.?

This committee has the following major functions:
- To serve as a vehicle that locates, evaluates, and filters scholarship and practice outside of the CCFSA circle to explore their potential for use in our various contexts.
- To cooperate with colleges and universities connected with our faith fellowship to encourage their partnership in locating and evaluating best practices in our fields of interest.
- To identify, encourage, and sustain scholarly efforts within our organizations that locate, test, and describe best practices with children and their families.
- To communicate internally what we are learning, specifically by cooperating with CCFSA conference coordinators, and producing other useful instructional media, including webinars and digital videos.

In the opinion of the committee, the second and third functions of this committee are best served by a strong connection with the Christian Scholars? Conference (CSC). The CSC provides regular and useful opportunities for rigorous conversation about best practices for scholar-practitioners working with CCFSA agencies and offers an ideal vehicle for engaging scholars at Christian colleges and universities in questions with immediate impact on the children and families served by CCFSA members.

The CSC and CCFSA conducted an initial trial of this cooperative arrangement last summer, resulting in two outstanding sessions with five papers from as many presenters. The content of these sessions was strong enough to result in four of these papers becoming full-length presentations at the 2013 CCFSA conference in Texas; one of these papers will receive some additional attention before becoming a part of the 2014 CCFSA conference in Cincinnati.

Consequently, the CCFSA Best Practices Committee has met, discussed the potential interaction with CSC this year, and has written the following calls for papers, which have been approved by the CSC.

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Best Practices for the Care of Vulnerable Children

Christian ministries and agencies serving children and families through adoption, foster care, and residential child care feel ethically bound to improve the quality of care for those they serve, even though this may, in some cases, require radical transformation of their business or operational models. We invite presentations of case studies, qualitative research, quantitative research, or meta analyses that describe best practices (and their resulting consequences) in serving vulnerable children and their families.

For consideration by a peer?review committee, please submit a 350 word abstract along with a brief bio to Ron Bruner at ron.bruner@oc.edu no later than February 1, 2013. All program participants must be registered at the conference. Participants will be notified by February 15, 2013 of the status of their submission.

Ethical Dilemmas in Placing Vulnerable Children

In years past Christian adoptive and foster care agencies transitioned through a period of ethical crisis when they moved from placing children exclusively with families within Churches of Christ to placing children with families who were Christian in a broader sense of the word. Since then the challenges have grown. The Chinese government, for example, currently restricts adoptions of Asian children to parents with a limited body mass index (weight-height ratio). Others have expressed concerns about placements with single-parent families. How should Christian agencies handle pressures to include or exclude families of certain demographics or forms in caring for vulnerable children? We invite papers that consider specific ethical dilemmas involved in adoptive and foster care for agencies grounded in a Christian context.

For consideration by a peer?review committee, please submit a 350 word abstract along with a brief bio to Ron Bruner at ron.bruner@oc.edu no later than February 1, 2013. All program participants must be registered at the conference. Participants will be notified by February 15, 2013 of the status of their submission.

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Appendix
Brief Biographies of Committee Members

Devonne Carter

Devonne Carter, MSW, LCSW completed her undergraduate degree in Psychology at Oklahoma Christian College. She obtained her Masters in Social Work at the University of Oklahoma and worked as a Caseworker, Placement Supervisor and Director for Colorado Christian Services from 1990 to 2000 when she became the Director and Placement Supervisor of the new agency, Christian Services of Oklahoma. She continued in that position until her retirement in December of 2008. Since that time she has built a private practice helping families through counseling. Devonne is wife to Jerry of the OSBI and mother to three active and healthy children. The Carter family worships and works as part of the Memorial Road Church of Christ. Devonne is active as a board member of their church camp, Camp Rock Creek, serves on the board of the Oklahoma Christian Women?s Association, and is a Girl Scout leader.

Ralph Richardson

Dr. Ralph Richardson is a licensed psychologist in the state of Oklahoma with a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from California School of Professional Psychology. He has a master?s degree in marriage, child, and family therapy from Pepperdine University, and bachelor?s degrees in art and ministry from Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas.

Dr. Richardson?s career has been focused on working with children, adolescents, and families whose lives have been affected by trauma. Prior to assuming the role of Executive Director of Hope Harbor Children?s Home & Family Ministries in Claremore, Oklahoma in 2004, he worked at hospitals in the Los Angeles area with children and teens facing life-threatening illnesses including cancer and blood diseases. During his doctoral studies, Dr. Richardson also worked for three years as a residential counselor in group home settings for severely emotionally disturbed adolescent boys and girls.

Dr. Richardson and his wife have five daughters, ranging from first grade to college. They have served as short-term emergency placement foster parents in Rogers County, and have adopted their youngest daughter.

Ron Bruner

Ron Bruner is a frequent presenter and convener at the Christian Scholars? Conference. He has a D.Min. from Abilene Christian University, as well as an M.A. in Ministry and a B.S. in Business from Oklahoma Christian University.

Since 1999, Bruner has served as the executive director of Westview Boys? Home in Hollis, Oklahoma. He is also co-director of the Intergenerational Faith Center at Oklahoma Christian and a principal investigator in its research efforts. As a former youth and family minister, he has presented and published scholarly work on the theology of children, intergenerational ministry, and spiritual formation. Bruner is a member of the Christian Child and Family Services Association, the American Association of Children?s Residential Centers, the National Council on Family Relations, the Oklahoma Council on Family Relations, and OKCare. He has served on the boards of several nonprofit organizations caring for children and families.

Tags: Best Practices Committee, CCFSA

Source: http://www.ccfsa.org/ccfsa-news/best-practices-committee-to-help-ccfsa-agencies/

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