Family Perspectives on a Preventative Approach to Child Welfare

Background and Purpose: The U.S. child welfare system is charged with ensuring the safety, permanency, and well-being of children and youth. Although this is a worthy objective, the system often suffers from embedded inequities, disparate outcomes, and inadequate supports for families, with a larger share of the burden falling on families of color and families in poverty. Some of this damage has occurred because the child welfare system has historically focused funding on intervening after child maltreatment has occurred, with fewer resources allocated to prevention and support. However, research has found that families benefit from concrete supports, like financial payments, and when families are provided with these supports, child welfare involvement significantly declines. Less is known about the impact of preventative approaches, like community service navigation. Service navigation could act as a bridge between families and essential concrete supports and resources. However, it is imperative that the efficacy of such services is further researched, especially by incorporating family and youth perspective into decisions being made regarding program development and evaluation. The purpose of this study was to explore family perspectives regarding their involvement with preventative service navigation.

Methods: This study is part of a larger project to evaluate a federally-funded prevention grant, focused on innovating child welfare, utilizing evidence-based practices, and improving collaboration among community agencies. This study utilized a portion of the qualitative data from this project. The sample included 12 family members working with a community navigator at the time of data collection. Data were obtained through focus groups and interviews held in English, Spanish, and Arabic across two years of program evaluation. A thematic analysis guided the researchers in better understanding participants’ perspectives on service navigation.

Results: Results indicate that participants found preventative service navigation to be a humanizing, supportive experience that was beneficial in connecting them with concrete supports and other resources. Five themes were identified: (1) Normalizing the need for support; (2) Time as a limited resource for families; (3) Service navigation as empowering and humanizing for families; (4) Service navigation poses new challenges for families; and (5) Service navigation creates new opportunities for families.

Conclusions and Implications: This study is an important contribution to the literature as it centers family voice and illustrates how preventative service navigation can be a valuable resource for families. Results from this study suggest that service navigation may represent a more socially just intervention to ensure child safety and well-being, as it prioritizes partnering with families and providing them with the resources they need to be successful. Findings also highlight the importance of cultural awareness and responsiveness. Although much more research is needed in this area, service navigation, when paired with access to concrete supports, may be a promising approach to preventing child maltreatment.