Team Decisionmaking: Involving the Family and Community in Child Welfare Decisions
About the Authors
The authors of this tool are Paul DeMuro and Patricia Rideout. Mr. DeMuro has more than twenty-nine years experience working on children, youth and family issues. In the mid-1970's he served as Pennsylvania's Commissioner of Children and Youth. In that capacity he supervised the county-delivered, state regulated, child welfare system. He was responsible for all child welfare regulations and statewide budget issues. As Commissioner, he helped to implement several child welfare funding and program reforms.
Currently Mr. DeMuro serves as a consultant to the Annie E. Casey Foundation. He has been involved in a number of the Foundation's child welfare and juvenile justice initiatives. Mr. DeMuro is also an experienced federal court monitor and has been appointed as a Federal Court Monitor in a major child welfare Federal Court case, the Terry D. case in Oklahoma. As federal Court Monitor, Mr. DeMuro mediates court-related disputes between the state's child welfare system and the attorneys for the plaintiffs. He also routinely consults to county child welfare agencies and private agencies who serve troubled children and families.
Patricia Rideout, J.D., has worked in the child welfare field for 22 years, both as a lawyer and a social work administrator. As a senior consultant to the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Family to Family initiative, she assists over 30 child protection agencies in the U.S. to implement this system reform effort, and serves at the site team leader for Michigan and Illinois. She also serves as the lead consultant on Team Decision Making, one of the four core strategies of Family to Family.
Ms. Rideout is the former Deputy Director for Direct Services at Cuyahoga County Department of Children & Family Services, and former director of Foster Care and Adoption at Bellefaire JCB in Shaker Heights, Ohio. She held a number of positions, including Program Director, during eight years at Lucas County Children Services. She has also been a Juvenile Court Magistrate in Toledo, and Director of the Guardian Ad Litem Clinic at the University of Toledo College of Law.
Ms. Rideout lives in the Cleveland area, and is a graduate of Northwestern University and Stanford University Law School.
Additional Reading
(Three other Family to Family Tools):
"Building Partnerships with Neighborhoods and Local Communities". Describes a successful strategy regarding for child welfare agencies developing working partnerships with neighborhoods and communities. Paul DeMuro, 973.746.9525.
"Walking Our Talk In the Neighborhoods". Provides information and useful examples regarding how professionals and "natural helpers" from neighborhoods can begin developing working partnerships to help families. Jill Kinney, 253.927.7547.
"People Helping People". Tells the story of a successful community partnership effort with the formal child welfare system in Tacoma, Washington, Jill Kinney, 253.927.7547.
Contact
Paul DeMuro
82 Essex Avenue
Montclair, New Jersey 07042
973.746.9525
fax: 973.783.0798
e-mail: PDeMuro@AOL.com
Patricia Rideout
Consultant in Child Welfare
3325 Norwood Road
Shaker Heights, OH 44122
phone/fax -216.283.2211
e-mail: patrideout@hotmail.com