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 a Scientific Rating.

• Types of Maltreatment: Does not target any specific kind of maltreatment
• Target Population: Anyone who has had personal experience with the child welfare system (could be as a parent, child, foster parent, etc.).

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.

Goals of the  CWOP Parent Leadership Curriculum are to:

• Orient parents to their rights and responsibilities within the child welfare system.
• Engage parents in policy analysis and systemic advocacy.
  

A curriculum co-designed and co-led by parents who have had personal experience with the NYC child welfare system. The classroom sessions consist of:

• Orientation
• Interpersonal communication skills
• History of the New York City Child Welfare System
• Navigation of the family court and foster care systems
• Basics of community organizing
• Local resources for preserving and reuniting families
• Resume writing and job readiness.

Examples of experiential learning and leadership opportunities including:

• Giving testimony at public hearings
• Participating in presentations at professional conferences and universities
• Meeting with elected officials
• Writing for publication.

Trainees are reimbursed for their expenses in connection with curriculum participation (e.g., carfare, child care, lunch, time off from work). All trainees participate in a weekly peer-led support group.

The training has three major components:

• Support Group
• Field Learning
• Classroom Learning
  

Child Welfare Organizing Project - Parent Leadership Curriculum (CWOP) was not designed with a child component.

Child Welfare Organizing Project - Parent Leadership Curriculum (CWOP) was designed with a parent/caregiver component that addresses the following presenting problems and symptoms:

• Personal involvement with the local public child welfare system: parents who have or have had children in foster care, are or have been clients of preventive service programs, have been investigated by child protective services, are or have been kinship foster or adoptive parents, or have spent some portion of their own childhood in foster care.

Child Welfare Organizing Project - Parent Leadership Curriculum (CWOP) was designed to be conducted in a group setting; but has not been tested for use in a group setting.

Recommended group size:

10-15

Recommended Intensity:

10 hours per week.

Recommended Duration:

6 months.

This program is typically conducted in a(n):

• Community Agency

Child Welfare Organizing Project - Parent Leadership Curriculum (CWOP) includes a homework component:

There is a homework component attached to some of the classroom sessions, such as researching local service programs for the "Resources for Preserving and Reuniting Families" session.

Child Welfare Organizing Project - Parent Leadership Curriculum (CWOP) has materials available in languages other than English:

Chinese, Spanish

For information on which materials are available in these languages, please check on the program's website or contact the program representative (contact information is listed at the bottom of this page).

The typical resources for implementing the program are:

• Personnel and space resources, including a room large enough to seat up to twenty people.

• Parent Organizers implementing the program must have a history of personal involvement with the New York City public child welfare system, and must have completed the curriculum themselves.
• Professional class co-leaders have typically included attorneys and social workers with Family Court experience, and community organizers.

There is a manual that describes how to implement this program, and there is training available for this program.

Training Contact:

• Michael Arsham, Executive Director
  mikearsham@aol.com
  phone: (212) 348-3000

Training is obtained:

According to the needs of those requesting the training.

Number of days/hours:

Varies based on needs.

This program has been reviewed and it was determined that this program lacks the type of published, peer-reviewed research that meets the CEBC criteria for a scientific rating of 1 – 5. Therefore, the program has been given the classification of "NR - Not able to be Rated." It was reviewed because it was identified by the topic expert as a program being used in the field, or it is being marketed and/or used in California with children receiving services from child welfare or related systems and their parents/caregivers. Some programs that are not rated may have published, peer-reviewed research that does not meet the above stated criteria or may have eligible studies that have not yet been published in the peer-reviewed literature. For more information on the "NR - Not able to be Rated" classification, please see the Scientific Rating Scale.

Child Welfare Outcomes: Not Specified

Currently, there are no published, peer-reviewed research studies for Child Welfare Organizing Project - Parent Leadership Curriculum (CWOP).