Indian Child Welfare Program. Program Documentation.

The Indian Child Welfare Program (ICWP), sponsored by the Jewish Family and Children's Service of Phoenix and funded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, is the nation's first program to provide comprehensive child welfare services to Indian people both on and off the reservation. Beginning in 1973 as an Indian Adoption Project to prevent the extraction of Indian children away from their people and heritage, the program has since expanded to include foster care and casework services to children and families as well as to establish an urban residential group home for adolescent Indian women. The ICWP is committed to the assumption of responsibility for child welfare service by the local Indian community; through a number of training and consultation services it aims to define and strengthen the resources of the Indian people to assume self-determination. A comparison of the number of services to children and families during the years 1974 and 1979 shows a decrease in services that reflects both the goal of increased tribal self-determination as well as the corresponding development of on-reservation Indian foster homes. This document describes the management and operations of the ICWP as well as the types of services it offers. Appended are copies of forms used in the program's administration (inquiry sheets, adoption application, home study outlines, a family newsletter, etc.). (DS)