NATIONAL RESOURCE CENTERS

The overarching goal of the ten NRCs described below is to help States, Tribes, and public child welfare agencies implement Federal legislation intended to ensure the safety, well-being, and permanent placement of children who enter the child welfare system. These Centers conduct needs assessments, provide on-site technical assistance, identify and disseminate best practices, and coordinate and collaborate with other national resource centers and agencies.

National Abandoned Infants Assistance Resource Center
http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~aiarc/

The Center provides training, technical assistance, research and resource development, and information to professionals to enhance the quality of social and health services offered to families and their children who are abandoned or at risk of abandonment due to perinatal substance abuse and/or HIV. The Center generates and disseminates training and information on a wide range of child welfare and HIV and drug issues, particularly as they relate to the safety, well-being, and permanence of children.

National Child Welfare Resource Center for Family-Centered Practice
http://www.cwresource.org/

The Center helps child welfare agencies and Tribes use family-centered practice to implement the tenets of the Adoption and Safe Families Act to ensure the safety and well-being of children while meeting the needs of families.

National Child Welfare Resource Center on Legal and Judicial Issues
http://www.abanet.org/child/rclji/aboutus.html

The Center provides expertise to agencies and courts on legal and judicial aspects of child welfare, including court improvement, agency and court collaboration, timely decisions on termination of parental rights, non-adversarial case resolution, reasonable efforts requirements, legal representation of children, permanent guardianship, confidentiality, and other emerging child welfare issues.

National Resource Center for Community-Based Family Resource and Support Programs (FRIENDS)
http://www.friendsnrc.org

FRIENDS provides training and technical assistance to lead agencies implementing the Community-Based Family Resource and Support (CBFRS) grant program in the following key areas: parent leadership training, family resource and support programs and services, services to diverse populations, establishment of respite care programs, and creation of funding strategies. Requests for services are initiated by CBFRS State lead agencies.

National Resource Center for Foster Care and Permanency Planning
http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/socwork/nrcfcpp

The Center supports the efforts of child welfare agencies to provide high-quality services to children in foster care and their families and to help them achieve permanency. In particular, this Center helps agencies respond to widespread changes in child welfare brought about by implementation of the Federal Adoption and Safe Families Act, Multi-Ethnic Placement Act, and Indian Child Welfare Act.

National Resource Center for Information Technology in Child Welfare
http://www.nrcitcw.org/

The Center helps State, local, and Tribal child welfare agencies, and family and juvenile courts use automated information systems to improve outcomes in the child welfare system.

National Resource Center for Organizational Improvement
http://www.muskie.usm.maine.edu/helpkids/

The Center helps agencies build and improve the organizational infrastructures they need to implement Federal legislation. The Center also helps agencies cope with the administrative, management, and human resource issues that have surfaced in the wake of widespread changes in the field.

National Resource Center for Special Needs Adoption
http://www.spaulding.org/

The Center works with States, Tribes, and agencies to increase the number of children with special needs who are adopted and to improve the effectiveness and quality of adoption and post-adoption services provided to them and their families.

National Resource Center for Youth Development
http://www.nrcys.ou.edu/nrcyd.htm

The Center focuses on increasing the capacity and resources of State, Tribal, and other publicly supported child welfare agencies to effectively meet the needs of youth who will be emancipated from the child welfare system. This will be accomplished by helping adolescents achieve the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 goals of safety, permanency, and well-being through the effective implementation of the John H. Chafee Foster Care Independence Act of 1999 and other related programs.

National Resource Center on Child Maltreatment
http://gocwi.org/nrccm

The Center helps States, local agencies, and Tribes develop effective and efficient child protective services (CPS) systems. Jointly operated by the Child Welfare Institute and ACTION for Child Protection, the Center responds to needs related to prevention, identification, intervention, and treatment of child abuse and neglect.