Cultural competence, strengths-based practice, and understanding and working with a child within the larger family and community context are regarded as important principles in child welfare practice today. Implementing these principles, including having the knowledge and tools on hand to do so, has, of course, proved far more challenging for most child welfare practitioners. In this Fall 2007 Spotlight, BRYCS highlights the culturally competent approach of a national agency, Migration and Refugee Services of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (MRS/USCCB), specializing in child welfare services to refugees and immigrants for over 30 years, in addition to featuring models being implemented, tested, and disseminated by two major child welfare entities: The American Humane Association (AHA) and The Annie E. Casey Foundation (AECF). Although these three approaches may differ slightly, they have far more in common due to an emphasis on working together with family and community structures as strengths and resources. Most importantly, they offer practical tools and resources for practitioners to use when serving refugee and immigrant families who enter the public child welfare system. Promising practices and highlighted resources are included.
