The information in this program outline is provided by the program representative and edited by the CEBC staff. The Child Welfare Organizing Project - Parent Leadership Curriculum (CWOP) program has been reviewed by the CEBC in the area of: Parent Partner Programs for Families Involved in the Child Welfare System, but lacks the necessary research evidence to be given either a Scientific Rating or a Child Welfare Relevance Rating.

• Child Welfare Outcomes: Not Specified
• Types of Maltreatment: Does not target any specific kind of maltreatment
• Target Population: Parents involved with the public child welfare system.

Since 1999, CWOP has delivered 13 cycles of the six-month, peer-led child welfare Parent Leadership Curriculum in East Harlem, the South Bronx, and North and Central Brooklyn. These are New York City communities characterized by high rates of child maltreatment reports and foster care placements. Co-designed and co-led by parents and professionals, the CWOP Parent Leadership Curriculum is intended to orient parents involved with the public child welfare system to their rights and responsibilities, laws and regulations governing local practice, and the contractual obligations of service provider agencies. Another goal of the curriculum is to prepare parents for paraprofessional roles as peer organizers and advocates. The CWOP Parent Leadership Curriculum consists of both classroom sessions and experiential learning and leadership opportunities. Over 120 people have completed the curriculum and more than half of them have secured employment as parent advocates in foster care, preventive, and legal services agencies. Over 70% of the participants who had children in foster care at the point of enrollment had regained custody by completion of the curriculum.