Supreme Court
Commission on Children's Justice

Statewide Links
Office of the State Courts Administrator
Missouri Department of Social Services
MO DSS - Children's Division
MO DSS - Missouri Children Available for Adoption
MO DSS - Division of Youth Services
Missouri Department of Mental Health
Missouri Department of Economic Development
Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
Missouri State Highway Patrol
Missouri Children's Trust Fund
The Missouri Bar
Citizens for Missouri's Children
ParentLink
Community Connection
Office of Child Advocate
Missouri Kids First
Office of Social & Economic Data Analysis
Circle of Hope
Missouri Youth Services Institute
Missouri Restorative Justice Coalition

National Links
2009 KIDS COUNT Data Book
A project of the Annie E. Casey Foundation

Kids Hope United

National Adoption Month (Nov 1, 2004)

National Juvenile Court Services Association

National Juvenile Justice Network

Reclaiming Futures Blog
Reclaiming Futures Every Day is a professionally-staffed blog that aims to keep people informed of the latest happenings in juvenile justice and substance abuse treatment. Reclaiming Futures is an initiative created by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) that offers a new approach to helping teenagers caught in the cycle of drugs, alcohol and crime. The national office of Reclaiming Futures is housed in the Regional Research Institute of the Graduate School of Social Work at Portland State University. For more information, please visit reclaimingfutures.org.

Center For Court Innovation
Located in New York, the Center for Court Innovation is a unique public-private partnership that is dedicated to enhancing the performance of courts and those whose work intersects with the courts in performing this work. The Center's goals are to reduce crime, aid victims, strengthen communities and promote public trust in justice.

National Center for Juvenile Justice
In spite of the magnitude and growth of child and family caseloads, there are limited resources, public and private, devoted exclusively to understanding these problems and working toward their prevention and control. We are the only national, private research organization that has this subject matter.

Child Welfare League of America
Child Welfare League of America (CWLA) is the nations oldest and largest organization devoted entirely to the well-being of America's vulnerable children and their families.

Children's Defense Fund
The mission of the Children's Defense Fund is to leave no child behind and to ensure every child...a healthy start; a head start; a fair start; a safe start; a moral start...in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities.

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
To provide national leadership, coordination, and resources to prevent and respond to juvenile delinquency and victimization. OJJDP accomplishes this by supporting States and local communities in their efforts to develop and implement effective and coordinated prevention and intervention programs and improve the juvenile justice system so that it protects the public safety, holds offenders accountable, and provides treatment and rehabilitative services tailored to the needs of families and each individual juvenile.

National Center for Missing and Exploited Children

ABA Center on Children and the Law
Improving children's lives through advances in law, justice, knowledge, practice and public policy.

Center for Sex Offender Management
Established in June 1997, the Center for Sex Offender Management's (CSOM) goal is to enhance public safety by preventing further victimization through improving the management of adult and juvenile sex offenders who are in the community. The Center for Sex Offender Management is sponsored by the Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, in collaboration with the National Institute of Corrections, State Justice Institute, and the American Probation and Parole Association. CSOM is administered through a cooperative agreement between OJP and the Center for Effective Public Policy

National Council on Crime and Delinquency
The National Council on Crime and Delinquency, founded in 1907, is a nonprofit organization which promotes effective, humane, fair and economically sound solutions to family, community and justice problems. NCCD conducts research, promotes reform initiatives, and seeks to work with individuals, public and private organizations and the media to prevent and reduce crime and delinquency.

National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges
The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges is dedicated to serving the nation's children and families by improving the courts of juvenile and family jurisdictions. Our mission is to better the justice system through education and applied research and improve the standards, practices and effectiveness of the juvenile court system.

National Criminal Justice Reference Service

National Juvenile Detention Association
The NJDA exists exclusively to advance the science, processes and art of juvenile detention service through the overall improvement of the juvenile justice profession.

National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice

Drug Endangered Children

Youth Suicide Prevention School-Based Guide
This tool provides a framework for schools to assess their existing or proposed suicide prevention efforts (through a series of checklists) and provides resources and information that school administrators can use to enhance or add to their existing program. The Guide will help to provide information to schools to assist them in the development of a framework to work in partnership with community resources and families.
Publication date: February 2004 ; Source: University Of Florida Institute For Child Health Policy

VIDEOS:
Below is information on recent films on foster care, adoption, court improvement and related subjects with contact and ordering information. (Many of the videos are free of charge.)

1. The following videos are available from the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption at no charge. They can be ordered from this site:
http://www.davethomasfoundation.org/aspcart45/resources/display.asp?page=307

Finding Forever Families
In the United States and Canada, thousands of children legally freed for adoption are living in foster homes, group homes and residential treatment centers. These children are often considered "unadoptable" because of their age, race, physical or emotional handicap or desire to be placed with siblings. The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption created a video, Finding Forever Families: Making the Case for Child Specific Recruitment to dispel the myth that any child is unadoptable, regardless of their situation. The video provides real-life tips and encouragement on how to recruit families for children based on the child's desires and needs - this is known as Child-Specific Recruitment. The video is available free of charge if ordering five or less. Length: 35 minutes.

Creative Strategies for Permanency
Created with child welfare providers in mind, this training video presents an overview of ASFA and demonstrates successful and innovative programs around the country that help to expedite permanency.
Target audience: Agency personnel; social workers; caseworkers; adoption and foster care workers; service providers; community groups; educational institutions; and collaborative community groups Length: 25 minutes

Fast Track to Permanency
An introductory video presenting the general concepts and congressional intent of ASFA with an emphasis on permanency and adoption.
Target audience: Child advocacy groups; civic groups; federal, state, and local legislators and administrators; foster and adoptive parents; and judges Length: 10 minutes

How Judges Can Make It Happen
An educational video explaining the intent of ASFA and emphasizing the need for swifter decisions based on the best interests of children. This video also highlights alternative dispute resolution strategies as techniques to expedite cases.
Target audience: Judges; court personnel; court improvement project groups; Court Appointed Special Advocates; guardians ad litem; and attorneys Length: 23 minutes

New Pathways to Permanency
The Foundation's most recently released video providing a general overview and introduction to the effective permanency planning techniques of successful mediation programs.
Target audience: Agency personnel; adoption and foster care workers; adoption and foster families; service providers; community groups; and educational institutions Length: 30 minutes

The Essential Voice of Child Advocates
A great tool to inform audiences about ASFA and inspire new and continuing work in child advocacy - presenting the voices of waiting children as well as those who speak for them.
Target audience: Child and family advocates; CASA volunteers; guardians ad litem; foster and adoptive parent groups; community groups; churches; foundations; attorneys; judges; and decision-makers Length: 25 minutes

Through the Eyes of the Child
An introductory video presenting the issues related to the foster care system and special needs adoption with an emphasis from the perspective of the children within that system.
Target audience: Individuals and groups focused on permanency for children waiting in the foster care system Length: 20 minutes

Why Legislators Must Make It Happen
A motivational video presenting a comprehensive overview of the intent of ASFA with emphasis on implementing complementary laws and policies at state and local levels to encourage more rapid permanency solutions.
Target audience: State and local legislators and administrators; legislative staff; community groups; and activists wanting to affect change Length: 19 minutes

2. The following videos are available at no charge through Judge Leonard Edwards: ledwards@sct.co.santa-clara.ca.us

Wraparound Services
Produced for the Superior Court of California/Packard Foundation.
Illustrates innovative program that keeps children with mental health needs in family environment vs. institutional care. Length: 31 and 18 minute versions.

Legal Innovations: Dependency Drug Treatment Court Produced for the Superior Court of California/Packard Foundation.
Illustrates comprehensive drug court in dependency cases with community services, mentor moms, and aftercare services. Length: 32 and 13 minute versions.

3. Legal Videos available from the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges:

National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges
P.O. Box 8970
Reno, NV 89507
(775) 784-6012 Fax: (775) 784-6628
admin@ncjfcj.org

Community & Cultural Considerations in Child Abuse & Neglect Cases Length: 13 minutes.

Judicial Leadership & Ethics Length: 17 minutes.

Court Agency and Community Collaboration Length: 12 minutes

Cultural Differences, Common Goals Length: 12 minutes

Experiences of Foster Care: Youth Remember Length: 90 minutes, 2 hr., 10 min. versions

4. The following videos are available for purchase from Courter Films & Associates:
http://www.courterfilms.com/childrenssocial.html
352/795-2156

Permanency Toolkit: Family Group Decision Making An in-depth look at Family Group Making, or Family Unity Meetings.
These interventions are generally organized by social service departments, often used very early in cases, and empower families to make decisions about their children's care, protection, and permanency - sometimes even before the system becomes deeply involved. Among decision-making and case planning models, Family Group Conferencing is unique because it employs private family time to enable family members to create plans based on family strengths. The video captures much of the powerful emotions families experience in finding solutions to their problems, and answers many questions case workers and community members have about this progressive process, including who is invited, how meetings are structured, how difficult issues like confidentiality and previous family violence are handled, and benefits often not found in more traditional approaches. 25 min

Permanency Toolkit: Dependency Mediation An exploration of how mediation empowers parents and other parties in a child protection case to find solutions that are in the best interest of the children.
The video shows how the process of mediation is often organized through the court system, useful at many stages of cases, and especially applicable to issues that would otherwise be litigated. The viewer sees how resolving child protection and dependency cases through mediation allows parents and other interested parties to discuss and settle cases in ways that support families to find solutions that are in the best interest of their children. Various models of mediation are shown and discussed, while common issues including who will be included in the mediation, how confidentiality issues may be handled, potential savings in court time and costs, how the cases are resolved and endorsed by the bench, and ongoing compliance issues are illustrated. 30 min

Permanency Toolkit: Concurrent Case Planning A persuasive look at how caseworkers, parents, and foster/adoptive families use this child-focused strategy to ensure timely permanency for children in out-of-home care.
The video shows how the process of permanency planning, or concurrent planning (CP) can transform the family court and social service system to focus on not just protecting children from harm, but implementing planning for the child's ultimate permanency right from the beginning of the case, with the additional potential advantage of reducing the child's time in the system, lowering caseloads, reducing the numbers of children in foster homes, and lowering the human and fiscal costs associated with the child welfare system.
Topics included are: the child development principles and prevention of attachment disorders associated with CP, how courts and social services should work in tandem to implement this practice, the issue of using CP in every new case, the special differences and many issues surrounding traditional foster care/adoption families versus the fost/adopt or "permanency planning" families, the concept of full disclosure and how fost/adopt families may work with birth families for potential reunification or possible relinquishment, permanency planning family recruitment issues, and much more. 25 min

A Plan for Joseph: An Actual Family Group Conference
This video is an edit from an actual four-hour Family Group Conference held in Santa Clara County, California including private family time. An extended family returns for a follow-up conference about Joseph, who had been placed with relatives when his mother went to prison for drug abuse. Now released and in recovery, Joseph's mother is frustrated at the resistance of his caregivers to allow her, or even other members of the family, to have regular visitation. Joseph is acting out and is very angry and confused. His relative caregivers believe that it is in his best interest to withhold visits when he misbehaves. Family members have come from hundreds of miles away to try to resolve these complex issues in a volatile, emotional, and heartfelt session. The conference has been shortened to 75 minutes and a brief narration has been added to clarify the situation. It may be viewed as a whole, or started and stopped to promote discussion among professionals interested in the subject, especially those who are training to run family group decision meetings. 75 min

5. The following video is are available for purchase from The American Humane Association:
http://www.americanhumane.org/site/DocServer/nwicf_order.pdf?docID=192

Family Voices
Co-developed by American Humane and the International Institute for Restorative Practices, this compelling video sings the hope and pride of families -- revealing a voice that has long been described as absent in child welfare. The video highlights incredibly powerful stories, in which families tell how they were embraced as partners in child safety, and how FGDM impacted their families, children, and themselves. Their journeys give reason to celebrate as they recognize and harness their strengths, vitality, and wholeness in creating safety for and connection with their children. 17. minutes

6. The following video is also available from the American Humane Association or

The Northwest Institute for Children and Families University of Washington - School of Social Work
4101 - 15th Ave NE
Seattle, WA 98105-6299
206-543-1517 fax: 206-685-1330

Let Us Put Our Minds Together: The Power of Family Group Conf. In Washington State 12 Minutes

7. The following video is also available from the North American Council on Adoptable Children (NACAC):
http://www.nacac.org/mn_kids/profresources.html

We CAN for Kids: Finding Foster & Adoptive Families in Minnesota 18 min.

8. The following video is also available from the American Public Human Services Association
810 First Street, N.E. Suite 500
Washington, DC 20002
Phone: (202) 682-0100 Fax: (202) 289-6555

Multiethnic Placement Act of 1994 1 hr. 20 min.