Readiness

Assessing readiness is critical to effective change efforts. It involves taking a close look at factors that contribute to an agency's overall ability to change, those that help the agency prepare for specific interventions, and the motivation of individuals involved with change.

Child welfare agency leaders, managers, change and implementation teams, continuous quality improvement teams, and other stakeholders can use the resources below to:

Explore factors that affect readiness for change and implementation
Learn to assess readiness and analyze findings to identify organizational strengths and areas for development
Access related tools

Access Readiness Resources

Need Detailed Information?

Read the Readiness brief to build an understanding of the concepts and steps related to assessing the three components of readiness (motivation, general capacity, and intervention-specific capacity).

Interested in a High-Level Overview?

Read Change and Implementation at a Glance: Readiness to explore key readiness tasks and discover how to get the most out of your process through an intentional focus on racial equity and integration of lived expertise.

Interested in a Readiness Assessment Tool?

A new Center for States Readiness Assessment Tool is available to help child welfare agencies assess their readiness for change and/or implementation of a program, practice, or other intervention.

See the Brief appendix for a list of other readiness assessment tools.

Looking to Apply What You've Learned?

Watch the Readiness videos to gain an overview of the key activities of assessing readiness as part of a change and implementation process. Use the integrated Readiness video workbook as you watch the videos to record your questions and ideas, which you can then apply to assessing readiness for a change initiative at your agency.

Access the Readiness archived webinar to learn out about lessons learned during readiness assessments at child welfare agencies. Use the accompanying Readiness discussion and activity guide to support knowledge and skill development, group discussion, and targeted action planning.