Louisiana State University School of Social Work (LSU), in partnership with the State of Louisiana Department of Social Services Office of Community Services, (DSS/OCS) and the Louisiana University Child Welfare Training Partnership proposes to establish the Louisiana Child Welfare Comprehensive Workforce Project (LCWCWP) (Priority Area II) with funding from the Children’s Bureau.   The purpose of this project is to improve safety, permanency, and well-being outcomes for children and youth by building the capacity of Louisiana’s child welfare professionals and by improving the systems in the State that recruit, train, supervise, manage, and retain them. 

Families in Focus Seminar
Spring 2010 Registration

Wednesday ~ February 24, 2010

First Year Program Report for LCWCWP

First Year Evaluation Report for LCWCWP


Summary of Findings
from the OCS Statewide Training System Assessment
June, 2009



Teleconference Series on: The Child Welfare Workforce: Issues and Strategies for Recruitment, Selection, and Retention


Child Welfare Workforce and Training Resources
The Child Welfare Information Gateway maintains a page devoted to workforce issues and resources. Major headings are:
  • About the Child Welfare Workforce
  • Strategies to Prepare, Recruit, and Hire Staff
  • Strategies to Retain Staff
  • Children's Bureau Conference Videos
  • Education and Training Organizations
  • Curriculum and Other Training Materials

Developing Models of Effective Child Welfare Staff Recruitment and Retention Training In 2003 the Children's Bureau funded eight five-year projects to explore this issue. Information is now being posted on grantee websites:

Webcast

  • Child Welfare Workforce Development and Workplace Enhancement Institute
    Held on October 24-26, 2005, this Children's Bureau Institute highlighted informed strategies for recruiting and retaining a stable and highly skilled child welfare workforce. View three plenary sessions and two workshops, including:
    • Success in the Workplace: Connecting and Agency's Vision, Mission, and Values to the Workforce and the Impact/Influence this has on the Organizational Culture
    • Promising Approaches to Recruiting and Retaining Quality Child Welfare Workers
    • Child and Family Services Reviews (CFSR) Workforce Related Findings – Focused on Training
    • Designing, Implementing and Evaluating a Research Driven Model in New York State Public Child Welfare Organizations
    • The Role of Leadership and Decision Makers in Improving Workforce Practices


Resources
  • Factors Influencing Retention of Child Welfare Staff: A Systematic Review of Research
    This study, undertaken in collaboration by the Institute for the Advancement of Social Work Research and the University of Maryland School of Social Work, examined the personal and organizational conditions and strategies that impact retention. Also available at this site are three issue briefs:
    • Retaining Competent Child Welfare Workers: Lessons from Research
    • Professional Education for Child Welfare Practice: Improving Retention in Public Child Welfare Agencies
    • Understanding Retention in Child Welfare: Suggestions for Further Research and Evaluation

  • Professional Development
    This issue of The Evaluation Exchange from the Harvard Family Research Project focuses on evaluating professional development across a range of fields, including after school and youth development, education, child care, and child welfare. The issue features innovative methods in professional development, conceptual frameworks and practical tools for evaluating professional development, links between professional development and program quality, and the role of organizational contexts in supporting professional development and positive outcomes.

  • Improving Social Service Program, Training, and Technical Assistance Information Would Help Address Long-standing Service-Level and Workforce Challenges
    In response to a survey by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, states identified three primary challenges as most important to resolve to improve outcomes for children under their supervision: providing an adequate level of services for children and families, recruiting and retaining caseworkers, and finding appropriate homes for certain children. State officials also identified three challenges of increasing concern over the next 5 years: children's growing exposure to illegal drugs, increased demand to provide services for children with special needs, and changing demographic trends or cultural sensitivities in providing services for some groups of children in the states' child welfare systems. This report includes GAO recommendations for meeting those challenges.

  • Improving the Child Welfare Workforce: Lessons Learned from Class Action Litigation
    This report describes a study of efforts to improve the child welfare workforce in the context of class action litigation in 12 states and localities across the natio. The study was conducted by Children's Rights in partnership with the National Center for Youth Law (NCYL),

  • Workload Studies
    American Humane has completed workload studies in a number of jurisdictions. Access the reports from their website.

  • Workforce Planning Portal
    This site from Cornerstones for Kids provides hands-on tools and resources for human services agencies looking for solutions to workforce challenges. It is a comprehensive model agencies can use to address these challenges.

  • Child Welfare League of America Workforce Development Initiative
    Since 1999, the Walker Trieschman Center has led CWLA's efforts to seek solutions for the workforce shortage in the child welfare field, and currently houses the organization's Workforce Development Initiative. This initiative is guided and supported by a National Advisory Committee and is building the field's capacity to comprehensively address immediate and long-term workforce issues. These efforts have included linking all of the program areas and other CWLA initiatives that directly or indirectly involve the workforce.

  • Cornerstone For Kids
    C4K was formed in 2004 to house and manage the Human Services Workforce Initiative (HSWI). The premise of HSWI is that human services can positively impact the lives of vulnerable children and families, but that we cannot produce better outcomes for these individuals without addressing the workforce charged with helping them. In partnership with key national and state organizations in the fields of child welfare, juvenile justice, child care, youth development and employment service, C4K is identifying the challenges facing this workforce, highlighting best practices, and working towards policy solutions. HSWI is funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

  • Promoting Child Welfare Workforce Improvements Through Federal Policy Changes
    This series of reports from Children's Defense Fund and Children's Rights, Inc. is the result of discussions among key child welfare organizations designed to examine the workforce challenges that impede efforts to meet critical child welfare outcomes, and to develop a set of federal policy recommendations to support workforce improvements.

  • Workload and Workforce Issues in Child Welfare
    Fostering Results and the Institute for the Advancement of Social Work Research are working in partnership to promote evidence-based strategies to develop and retain a competent workforce.

  • National Association of Social Workers
    This section of the NASW website focuses on research addressing the recruitment and retention of professional social workers in child welfare work. It provides research and resource information that supports the importance of professional education for child welfare practice.

Bibliographies

 


What's Happening

IN THE NEWS
Louisiana's Schools of Social Work Target Child Welfare

Tips for Developing and Retaining Family-Centered Staff. North Carolina Division of Social Services.
2009
Online learning modules on EBP and cultural competence in child welfare

A Toolkit for Building Research Partnerships

IASWR Child Welfare Research Update

Building a Model and Framework for Child Welfare Supervision

FACT SHEET


 

 
 
Visits Since November 2008
 
 
DHHS/ACF Children's Bureau
This website was made possible through a cooperative agreement between the Louisiana State University School of Social Work and US DHHS/ACF Children's Bureau Grant Number 90CT0147 Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the  Children's Bureau.
 
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