Assistance
The Child Welfare Policy and Practice Group offers technical assistance and consultation to organizations in the following areas:
Training in Family Team Conferencing: A three-day training in the preparation and facilitation process.
Coaching Family Team Conferencing Practitioners: Modeling of actual conferences and coaching of facilitators through co-facilitation and feedback.
Engagement Skills Training: A two-day or three-day training in engaging children and families and developing a partnership in planning.
Strength-Based Assessment and Individualized Case Planning Training: This two-day or three-day training is linked to engagement training and addresses identifying functional strengths and underlying needs to craft individualized child and family plans.
Making Visits Matter Training: A three-day training to improve the use of routine caseworker visits with children, their caregivers and families through clarification of purpose, engagement and assessment.
Advanced Family Team Conferencing: A two-day or three-day training in advanced facilitation skills with additional attention to domestic violence, substance abuse and mental health issues.
Strengthening Supervisors as Coaches and Mentors Training: A two-day training providing guidance in setting expectations, modeling skills, providing strength based feedback and coaching.
Safe Case Closure: A two-day training in identifying cases ready to move toward closure, addressing reengaging families, reaching agreement on a course of action, addressing remaining issues and connecting sustainable informal supports.
Core Pre-service and Advanced Practice Training: A multi-week training to develop essential practice skills of engagement, teaming, assessment, planning and intervention (training of trainers in delivering the curriculum can be included).
Qualitative Service Reviews: An intensive assessment of the outcome and system performance trends, based on actual case review interviews. Assistance is available in creating a baseline, targeting challenging populations and developing local capacity to employ the approach.
Recent technical assistance, evaluation, training and consultation:
Ongoing assistance to the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation Child Protection Reform Initiative and its four community sites in front-line practice change through training, technical assistance on policy development, leading a qualitative self-evaluation review of practice and addressing CPS culture change. A major feature of the skill building in the Clark sites is teaching staff to use Family Team Conferencing
Participation with Georgetown University in a 5 year study of the effects of managed behavioral health care on child welfare and children's mental health systems
Evaluation assistance to the federal court monitor in the Oklahoma Terry D. case
Curriculum design and training of the Oklahoma child welfare staff in engagement skills, strength-based assessment and case planning
Performance review, with the American Humane Association and The National Child Welfare Resource Center for Organizational Improvement of the Department of Children and Family Services in Cuyahoga County (Cleveland), Ohio
Review with the Center for the Study of Social Policy of the child protection assessment initiative in Iowa (variable response)
Court monitor in the David C. child welfare settlement agreement between the National Center for Youth Law and the Utah Division of Child and Family Services
Participation in a qualitative practice review of managed behavioral health care in Arizona
Design of basic competency curriculum for Utah child welfare staff, training of trainers in its use (engagement skills, assessment skills, teaming, case planning and implementation) and consultation/coaching for trainers and system staff
Membership, by Paul Vincent, on a five person federal court panel, overseeing and advising New York City’s implementation of a class action child welfare settlement agreement
Evaluation of practice quality and law enforcement child protection role in Arkansas
Engagement skills curriculum, training and training of trainers for Hawaii’s child mental health case managers
Engagement skills curriculum, training and training of trainers for Arizona’s child mental health case managers
Evaluation of frontline child welfare practice in the eight Washington, DC Neighborhood Collaboratives
Evaluation of child welfare practice, with The National Child Welfare Resource Center for Organizational Improvement, in Sonoma County, CA
Evaluation of frontline child welfare practice and training of system staff in the qualitative practice assessment process, Iowa Department of Human Services
Training and consultation for Alabama’s child welfare system
Training and coaching for Georgia’s child welfare staff in ASFA implementation, assessment and qualitative practice evaluation
Coordination of and provision of training for Georgia’s annual foster parent institutes
Case coaching and training for CPS staff in Fulton County (Atlanta) Georgia
Training of trainers in Florida’s child welfare Professional Development Centers related to Family Team Conferencing
Completion of an evaluation of the Georgia Training Academy
Completion of a qualitative practice review in Broward County Florida (District Ten)
Training of managed behavioral health care staff (Value Options) in Family Team Conferencing in Phoenix, AZ
Review, with the American Humane Association, of CPS practice in Iowa
Training of juvenile probation officers in Family Team Conferencing in St. Louis, MO
Frontline practice training for FLOC, a Washington, DC neighborhood collaborative
With the support of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, curriculum development assistance to the New York City Administration for Children’s services
Qualitative review of practice in seven of the districts of Florida’s Department of Children and Families
Training in Family Team Conferencing of child welfare trainers, supervisors and caseworkers in Maine
Participation by Paul Vincent on a Tennessee court ordered technical assistance committee, pursuant to a class action child welfare settlement agreement
Qualitative practice review in Dade County (Miami) Florida pursuant to the Rilya Wilson case
Participation by Paul Vincent as Chair of the Katie A. Advisory and Monitoring Panel in Los Angeles
Frontline practice training in Westchester County, NY
Provision of Family Team Conferencing training for District child welfare staff in Florida
Independent, third –party evaluation of child welfare privatization in Broward County, FL
Training and coaching in family engagement, family team conferencing, assessment, planning and strengthening case manager visiting practice for the New Jersey Child Welfare System
Assistance to the New Jersey child welfare system in developing the QSR process
Assistance to Indiana in developing and implementing the QSR process, developing and implementing new training curricula and training and coaching staff
Assistance to Wisconsin in developing and implementing the QSR process, developing and implementing new training curricula and training and coaching staff
Conducting a QSR for the Washington DC special education system
Providing coaching to in-home and out-of-home supervisors for the Child and Family Services Agency in Washington DC.
Coaching of Family Centered Practice in Florida
Assisting the Pennsylvania child welfare system in implementing the QSR