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The Center for States designs products, services, and learning experiences to increase understanding and awareness, and build knowledge and skills. The Center focuses its attention on developing products and resources on several core organizational and practice topics.

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The Center for States provides research assistance and responds to information requests on building capacity in child welfare.

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Showing 106 - 120 of 282 resources
Video

This video raises key motivating factors for caregivers, including the need for strong family and community support networks.

Publication Year 2021
Video

Highlights some of the factors that motivate caregivers to work through challenges and to provide permanency to children in foster care. In this video, a foster parent discusses lessons learned from fostering over 50 children in her home.

Publication Year 2021
Video

Highlights motivating factors for caregivers serving children with therapeutic needs, including the value of caregiver support networks, continuous training, and a commitment to strengthen families within the caregiver’s community. This video shares a foster mother’s experiences collaborating with biological families toward positive outcomes for the children in her care.

Publication Year 2021
Video

Highlights the importance of recognizing the foster family as an extension of a child’s biological family and the role of effective communication between caregivers and biological family members. This video shares the experience of one caregiver who found that successful collaboration with biological family members, along with agency assistance to promote family engagement, proved effective for family reunification.

Publication Year 2021
Video

Explore how caseworkers, supervisors, and stakeholders can use data and feedback to improve child welfare practice. 

Publication Year 2021
Video

Explore how child welfare leaders and decision makers can communicate data effectively. 

Publication Year 2021
Video

Explore how child welfare leaders, managers, and supervisors can motivate their staff to use data and evidence in their everyday practice. 

Publication Year 2021
Video

Explore how frontline child welfare professionals can use data and evidence in their everyday practice. 

Publication Year 2021
Video

Explore the role of all staff as discerning consumers of evidence. Learn how data and information from children, youth, and families can be used to inform practice at every level of the organization. 

Publication Year 2021
Video

Explore how research, evaluation, and continuous quality improvement efforts help strengthen practice and increase effectiveness in child welfare. 

Publication Year 2021
Video

Describes strategies to change staff attitudes, engage families in developing their case plans, and keep children in foster care connected with their families and community. Rosa, the parent partner, shares how she joined the team, what she does in her role, and how the workgroup is helping the agency improve the support and services provided to families.

Publication Year 2021
Video

Uncovers staff attitudes and beliefs that stand in the way of becoming family focused. Francie, the agency's foster care program manager, has a conversation with two new caseworkers and discovers a disconnect between what the agency promotes through its vision and mission and what is actually happening in practice.

Publication Year 2021
Video

Reveals how advocating for youth makes a difference in system change and in the advocates’ own lives. The Director of Policy and Advocacy at NMCAN and a youth advocate talk about their shared experience in testifying as expert witnesses for state legislative committees and how it created a strong bond between them.

Publication Year 2021
Video

Highlights the advocacy work of state and regional youth leadership councils. Two paid regional and state youth specialists and the Texas Director for Transitional Living Services describe how including youth voice by providing them a “seat at the table” at the state capital enhances the child welfare system. All three discuss the rewards and personal impact of their work.

Publication Year 2021
Video

Underscores the importance of consistency and encouragement in trusting relationships. A Fostering Success peer mentor gave impactful advice to the youth she mentored: Stop listening to the people who don’t believe in you.

Publication Year 2021