To serve families well, child welfare agencies must have a competent, skilled, and informed workforce guided by a capable and visionary leadership. These resources can help agencies build a stable and healthy workforce to help children, youth, and families thrive.

Learning Experience

(Available on CapLEARN; registration required)

• 2018 Child Welfare Virtual Expo: Fostering a Healthy Workforce explores how to develop agency capacity and programs that foster a healthy work environment for child welfare professionals.

Recorded Webinar

• Applying Safety Science Principles in Child Welfare presents a new framework for applying safety science to promote safety culture in child welfare agencies, and presents strategies from other industries for incorporating safety culture within child welfare agencies to improve outcomes for communities and staff.

Publications

• Coaching in Child Welfare brief (PDF - 234 KB) discusses coaching functions, effectiveness, models, and strategies, and presents considerations for developing and implementing coaching programs in child welfare agencies.
• The Child Welfare Worker Safety Guide (PDF - 981 KB) provides an overview of the issues related to the physical and emotional safety of child welfare workers.
• Championing the Role of Child Welfare Professionals factsheet (PDF - 362 KB) offers strategies for improving workforce satisfaction and retention by proactively championing the difference that child welfare professionals make in the lives of children and families
• Capacity Building for Innovation in Child Welfare brief (PDF - 1,611 KB) explores current research and the most effective ways to build organizational capacity for innovation in child welfare in five areas of capacity building: resources, infrastructure, knowledge and skills, culture and climate, and engagement and partnership.
• Inventory of Innovations: Workforce Development brief (PDF - 881 KB) provides an overview of recent research on child welfare workforce management and describes innovative programs that have implemented some of the suggestions discussed in the research
• Youth Engagement Blueprint Series: Having the Right People (PDF - 183 KB) describes the characteristics of the right people to engage youth and the results of their work with young people, and offers practical guidance for building organizational capacity for recruiting, hiring, and retaining these employees.
• Supporting Quality Contacts Through Supervisor–Worker Coaching tip sheet (PDF - 215 KB) suggests supports for workers before, during, and after a visit, along with questions to ask and potential “red flags” to address.

Peer Groups

The following peer groups can help connect child welfare professionals working on developing a healthy and stable child welfare workforce. Visit the Center’s Current Peer Groups page for more information or to sign up for a peer group.

Virtual Events

• Visit the Center’s Events page to learn about upcoming events focused on building a healthy and stable workforce.

The Center also offers tailored services to states and jurisdictions to help build agency capacity for developing a stable and healthy workforce. For more information, contact your State Liaison.