Child Welfare Workforce Development and Support Programs

The CWTTT is a training toolkit that is comprised of a Trainer's guide, a Slidekit (i.e., PowerPoint slides to be used in the training), a Participant Manual, Supplemental Handouts, Recommended Reading and Resources, and a Comprehensive Guide. The CWTTT is designed to teach knowledge, skills, and values about working with children in the child welfare system who have experienced trauma. The CWTTT teaches strategies that child welfare professionals can use to effectively address trauma among the families they serve and to enhance child, family, and provider resilience.

Children's Corps is designed to be a workforce capacity-building program that supports the frontline child welfare workforce and improves the retention rate. Children's Corps takes a holistic approach that addresses the many reasons for turnover among caseworkers by using a 3-pronged model: 1) Strategic Recruitment & Selection, 2) Comprehensive Preservice Training, and 3) On-going Support and Professional Development. Each component has several elements and can be adapted to fit any child welfare jurisdiction. The Children's Corps program includes a large recruitment component but only selects a certain number of participants based on the position needs of the local child welfare agencies (public or private). These agencies partner with the Children's Corps program and hire the selected Children's Corps members to fill frontline vacancies. It is understood that Children's Corps participants will commit a minimum of 2 years to the Children's Corps program and to the child welfare agency once they are hired, though the goal is to retain them longer since at least one study has shown that having more than one caseworker significantly lowers the chance of achieving permanency for the child.

During these two years, the Children's Corps offers ongoing support to its recruited members. The Children's Corps program stands outside of the local child welfare agency. Being operated separately is important for the support component to work more effectively for the Children's Corps members. The program works closely with the local child welfare agency, its culture and dynamics. It is hoped that Children's Corps alumni will continue to work at their agencies or other social service organizations, seek relevant graduate degrees, and/or continue to develop themselves as strong professionals in this field.

The Design Team model helps agencies improve their workplace and cope with change through interventions designed and implemented by a team representing all agency levels. The intervention aims to improve agency climate, culture, and workforce retention.

EQ2: Empowering Staff to Build Trauma-Informed Communities for Youth is a 6-module, workforce self-regulation and support program that integrates cognitive-behavioral skills, mindfulness approaches, and restorative practices including Circles to support the delivery of trauma-informed care. The program is designed to builds staff’s awareness of their triggers, build the self-regulation skills that underlie the capacity to co-regulate with youth, cultivate reparative relationships, and model self-regulation skills for youth. The program also increases staff knowledge of trauma, including its impact on brain structure, behavior, and the brain’s neurobiological capacity to heal through relationships with regulated adults. The content of EQ2 is primarily disseminated and processed through restorative-based Circles which reduce the hierarchical structure implicit in most trainings, amplify the transmission of relational knowledge that many direct care staff possess, increase feelings of belongingness, and provide an opportunity for staff’s experiences to be acknowledged and validated, thereby reducing the impact of secondary traumatic stress, burnout, and turnover. Mindfulness training builds staff’s capacity to identify triggers earlier in the stress-response cycle, while also building distress tolerance and acceptance skills shown to be associated with trauma-responsive behaviors.

The Enhanced MiTEAM Practice Model is an approach to case practice that incorporates the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services' vision, guiding principles, and the Key Caseworker Activities needed to implement the mission of leading Michigan in supporting the state's children, youth and families to reach their full potential. The model is a trauma-informed approach to child welfare practice based on the fundamental belief that all children deserve to be safe from harm, raised in loving, committed families, and provided the kinds of supports to build their well-being.

The Enhanced MiTEAM Practice Model provides practice guidance on how to implement the core competencies (Teaming, Engagement, Assessment and Mentoring) and additional resources to support implementation and sustainment. The model is a vehicle for unifying practices with private agencies, tribal partners, policies, training, and other organizational resources within social and health services departments.

Foundations of Pennsylvania Practice: Building Competency, Confidence, and Compassion (Foundations) is designed to provide child welfare professionals with the fundamental knowledge and skills they need to ensure the safety, permanency, and well-being of children and to achieve their direct service worker certification as required by Pennsylvania regulation. The entire Foundations series consists of 124 credit hours delivered entirely in a Team-Based Learning™ (TBL) format, including simulation sessions, and consists of 40 hours of online modules, many of which prepares the learner for 72 hours (8 modules) of in-person application sessions. Transfer of Learning activities are delivered through an additional 12 hours of field work whereby the learner works with an "advisor" at their county agency on structured assignments that includes discussion questions and practice scenarios.

The primary goal of the ESP is to better select child welfare employees that possess and demonstrate personal knowledge, skills, abilities, and values (KSAVs) considered as minimally essential at job entry, with the long-term goal of increasing retention rates for child welfare employees in Georgia. The complete ESP consists of a sequenced set of web- and site-based assessment processes and procedures for potential applicants. ESP is designed to help applicants and employers make informed decisions about the goodness of fit between the applicant and the demands of a career in child welfare.

ICWA: Working with Native American Families and Tribes is a full-day training curriculum (6 hours) and part of a suite of Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA)-related curricula designed to meet the diverse regional and cultural needs of American Indian communities throughout California. The program includes a 60- to 90-minute online eLearning ICWA introduction and a 60-minute Field Activity. The most critical aspects of this ICWA curriculum concern the historical significance of ICWA and the importance of building engagement skills for deepening relationships with Tribal people and communities. In addition to the historical, philosophical, and legal background of ICWA, the curriculum includes engagement strategies that encourage participation by local and regional Tribal representatives when training at the local level. This curriculum is required training for all state child welfare social workers through the California Common Core 3.0 and was developed by Tribal STAR, a program of the Academy for Professional Excellence.

The Learning Circle model creates change at the team level that then moves outward to the rest of the agency. Learning Circles are about change that starts at the unit level and flows up. The model is designed to develop a learning culture at the team level to improve practice and agency/team functioning. Teams engage in a problem-solving process informed by multiple sources that results in action plans that address the issues most important to them. Learning Circle topics are chosen by the team, but a specific process guides the Learning Circle model. Instead of decisions being made at the top and then handed down to teams for implementation, Learning Circles identify their own issues, make decisions about how to address those issues, and then implement changes.

The Child Welfare Academy (CWA) at the Institute for Innovation and Implementation represents a long-standing partnership between the University of Maryland, School of Social Work and the Maryland Department of Human Services, Social Services Administration. Through specialized training, education and support, the Child Welfare Academy prepares public child welfare professionals, resource parents, and kinship caregivers to effectively provide services and care for children, youth, and families in the Maryland public Child Welfare System. In order to prepare new workers to meet the complex needs of children and families, they are required to complete a comprehensive preservice training program focusing on core knowledge and competencies designed to improve safety, permanency, and well-being outcomes. Grounded in adult learning theory and best practices in training and staff development, preservice training incorporates classroom instruction, small and large group work, individual reflection, experiential activities, online assignments, and opportunities for hands-on skill building and practice in areas such as family engagement, interviewing, and court testimony. At the end of preservice training, participants are required to take and pass a competency exam.

Resilience Alliance is designed to mitigate secondary trauma symptoms experienced by child welfare staff, and secondary trauma's impact on unit and agency functioning. Participants are provided with information and tools to help them identify, better understand, and address the ways child welfare work affects them personally and professionally. The intervention has a strong focus on how secondary trauma influences organizational cohesion and functioning, which requires the participation of all levels of staff, including leadership.

Resilience Alliance is delivered in weekly group sessions, over a 24-week period. Each session includes a brief didactic lesson focusing on a particular resilience skill, an exercise that allows the group to practice implementing the skill, and a "take away" assignment that encourages participants to implement the skill in their daily work.

The Supervision Matters Training Series is designed to provide new(er) child welfare supervisors with foundational knowledge and skills required to successfully transition into the supervisory role and support the workforce in partnering with children, youth, and families to achieve desired safety, permanency, and well-being outcomes. Core components of the program include asynchronous prerequisite learning modules, synchronous virtual learning modules, and in-person simulation experiences to afford the opportunity to practice and apply learned skills in a safe and supportive environment. Built around a journey theme, the three virtual synchronous learning modules cover topics related to workplace culture/climate, effectively supporting the educational and professional development of frontline child welfare professionals, and promoting and maintaining high work standards. There are a total of seven synchronous virtual learning days and three in-person simulation days, as well as four prerequisite asynchronous assignments for participants to complete independently, with quizzes following each assignment to assess understanding and ensure completion. The content of the Supervision Matters Training Series reflects the roles, standards and expectations of the supervisor as set forth by the Maryland Department of Human Services, Social Services Administration.

The Coaching Toolkit for Child Welfare Practitioners is intended to provide human service professionals with information regarding the implementation of a coaching program in their agency. The Toolkit is designed to provide information regarding the value of coaching, a model for the integration of coaching in terms of implementation science, and a great deal of information about what coaching is and how to coach.

Coaching is defined as the process by which the coach creates structured, focused interaction and uses appropriate strategies, tools, and techniques to promote desirable and sustainable change for the benefit of the learner, in turn aiming to make a positive impact on the organization.

Tribal STAR is a training and technical assistance program that assists child welfare agencies and Native communities to improve outcomes for Native American youth in child welfare. Tribal STAR is designed to help create positive outcomes for Native American youth and families through a partnership that includes county/state child welfare, tribes, tribal social services, Native American urban services, courts, community partners, and families. This collaborative model is the main cornerstone for all training and technical assistance efforts.

Tribal STAR needs a Program Manager, Training & Curriculum Coordinator, Program Assistant, and Communication Specialist.