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Community-partnered research presents unique opportunities for personal and professional development among social work practitioners, researchers, and students. It is a vehicle for promoting social work values, generating and sharing knowledge, and connecting research to practice. Findings from these types of partnerships can be instructive for those interested in pursuing community-partnered research to improve practice. In this article, we describe lessons learned from a Boston-based university and community agency research partnership. We include implications for partnership development, teaching, scholarship, and service to provide guidance for those interested in community-partnered research efforts. Although time intensive, community-partnered research exemplifies essential social work values and has the potential to benefit university and community partners.

The growing immigrant population in the United States consists of school-aged children who are in need of educational opportunities available through the country's existing educational system. Education, a basic human right, is mandated through compulsory education laws in the United States so that all children can learn, grow, and be prepared for the future. However, immigrant children and families face a challenge early on, with the enrollment process itself. Enrollment barriers include lack of proper documentation, medical clearance, absence of parents, and discrimination. This article includes a review of relevant policy, a discussion of the implications of enforcing standards on immigrant students, and provides recommendations for future educational policy, practice, and guidelines for immigrant children. There is a need to provide culturally and trauma-sensitive services to this population as they adapt to American schools academically, culturally, linguistically, and psychosocially. More professional education, policies, and research are needed to streamline enrollment processes.

Parental involvement in education has been associated with a number of positive outcomes for students. Using a mixed-methods approach, the authors examine how role construction and self-efficacy (psychological motivators), invitations (contextual motivators), and life contexts influence a parent's decision to become involved within the context of an urban high school serving primarily Latino, African American, and immigrant children. Data collection strategies included parent focus groups, teacher interviews, and parent and teacher surveys (N = 73). Findings highlight the importance of school invitations and considering family culture when engaging parents. The authors also compare involvement strategies and barriers as identified by parents and teachers.

This paper describes an innovative service delivery model to reduce the number of children entering the child welfare system. Point of Engagement (POE) is a collaborative family- and community-centered approach initiated in Compton, a regional office in Los Angeles County that serves south Los Angeles, a predominantly African American and Hispanic/Latino area. Over the past two years, the POE has been implemented in the Compton area by providing more thorough investigations, engaging families, and delivering needed services to children and families within their homes and communities. POE has demonstrated a reduction in the number of children removed from their families, an increase in the number of children returned to their families within one year, and an increase in the number of children finding legal permanency. (Contains 2 footnotes.)

Child welfare is not the only system in which disparities have been identified in U.S. foster care. According to the recent Children's Defense Fund's report "America's Cradle to Prison Pipeline," racial and economic disparities exist in many systems including child welfare, health care, mental health, education, and juvenile and criminal justice. It is clearly time to look at the multisystemic context of racial disparities in child welfare and to explore multisystemic solutions. In 2006, Representative Charlie Rangel of New York called for a U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) study to examine the experiences of African American children in foster care. According to the GAO, not only are African American children more likely than white children to be placed in foster care. In this article, the author discusses the impact of poverty, stress, discrimination, and incarceration to African American children's overrepresentation in child welfare. The author also provides recommendations for addressing these problems.

Accomplishments of a research development program (RDP) funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse in the University of Texas at Austin School of Social Work (UT-SSW) were far-reaching. Benefits included training for faculty and doctoral students on the federal grant proposal process, an increase in investigator-initiated research development and proposal submissions, and substantial research productivity on a broad range of topics that involve substance abuse treatment and prevention in underserved populations. Critical to this success were mentoring opportunities facilitated by the RDP that fostered UT-SSW investigators in developing their research agendas and cultivating interdisciplinary collaborations. The RDP also represented a culture shift for faculty who were accustomed to conducting agency-initiated program evaluation research that often requires a less extensive proposal process. Through mentoring from the RDP principal investigator, coinvestigator, and other National Institutes of Health-funded researchers, faculty and doctoral students learned important lessons about the need to expand their research agendas, conduct preliminary studies, establish research reputations, and gain experience on other federally funded projects before successfully competing for their own federal funding.

The Multiethnic Placement Act of 1994 and the Interethnic Adoption Provisions of 1996 (MEPA-IEP) require states to develop plans that "provide for the diligent recruitment of potential foster and adoptive families that reflect the ethnic and racial diversity of children in the state for whom foster and adoptive homes are needed." This paper explores the background of MEPA-IEP, describes the disparate outcomes for minority children in the child welfare system, and identifies agency challenges in finding permanent families for African American children. Tools are provided for successfully recruiting families while following MEPA-IEP and avoiding potentially discriminatory practices in placement decisionmaking.

The decision to search for birthparents is one that all adopted persons consider. The focus of this study is to describe, for a group of adopted adolescents, who chooses to search and who does not and to explore how search behavior is related to the functioning of the adolescents' adoptive families and adolescents' psychological adjustment. Participants in the study included 93 adolescents whose contact with birthparents ranged from no contact or information about birthparents to those who had some information but no direct contact with birthparents. Adolescents who indicated no desire to search for their birthparents and those who indicated a desire to search or had searched were included in the study. Older adolescents who experienced some openness in their adoption, were the least satisfied with that adoptive openness, and were preoccupied with their adoptive status were most likely to search. Search behavior was not related to family functioning or adolescent problem behavior.

Most of the research literature on attachment and adolescent transitions has addressed youth in family settings. This article explores these issues with a sample of 25 pregnant and parenting teens living in a transitional shelter. Using case records and interview data as well as results of standardized measures of depression, self-esteem, child abuse potential, and emotional autonomy, insights on relationships between adolescent mothers and their parents, romantic partners, staff, and children are explored, and implications are provided for agencies serving this population.

Maintains that transracial adoptions will not significantly reduce the number of African American children in the child welfare system. Asserts that recruitment of adoptive African American parents is hampered by child welfare practices and legislative initiatives. Argues that the transracial adoption debate diverts attention from the differential treatment received by African American families. Proposes examination of knowledge, attitudes, and values of all who influence child removal and placement decisions. (KB)

Examines relationship between intensity of adopted adolescents' thinking about their adoptions and their adoptive family relationships in 135 adopted adolescents. Adolescents with extremely high levels of preoccupation reported significantly higher levels of alienation and significantly lower levels of trust for their adoptive mothers and fathers. Discusses findings in terms of how they relate to the process of adoptive identity exploration. (Author/JDM)

Examined psychosocial engagement of adopted adolescents as a function of longitudinal patterns of stability and change in parents' perceptions of the child's compatibility within the family. Identified five patterns of stability and change in compatibility. Found that a sense of compatibility within the family is related to the emergence of psychosocial engagement. (Author/SD)

Explores interview excerpts of African-American adults adopted either transracially or interracially to discuss implications of color for special-needs adoptions. Finds that the issue of color extends beyond racial differences to include skin tone and that children are aware of and internalize color at an early age. Suggests that adoption agencies must guard against the preference of placing lighter skinned children ahead of others. (LBT)

Interviewed private adoption agency staff in 1987-89 and 1993 to examine the impact of open adoption on practices and services. Found that over time, agencies offered a greater range of openness options. Client demand, changes in agency philosophy, and competition from independent or private adoptions were among the most salient reasons for change. (Author)

Examined grief resolution issues for birthmothers who placed infants for adoption. Found that birthmothers in fully disclosed adoptions had better resolution than with confidential and time-limited mediated adoptions, and those in ongoing mediated had better resolution than with time-limited mediated adoptions. Findings pose implications for preplacement planning and pre- and post-adoption services. (Author)