Becoming a Workforce of Everyday Scientists: Frontline Staff in Agencies and Tribes

How Do We Know What Works? Challenges and Opportunities for Building Evidence for Leaders and Decision Makers examines evidence-based practice from the point of view of leaders and managers, who must process information about what works or not, decide if it is credible and is having the intended effect, and assess the implications of their decision at every level of the organization. 

This session explores how research, evaluation, and continuous quality improvement (CQI) efforts can help you strengthen practice to achieve a common goal of all child welfare professionals: becoming more effective in your work and being better able to ensure that children are safe, in healthy and intact families, and thriving.

Explore tips and strategies to effectively engage and sustain the involvement of families and youth at the agency level. 

Learn about applications that can make information gathering more efficient, increase useful data, and help you better understand those you serve. 

Get guidance for completing the CQI self-assessment instrument, see suggested sources for local assessment data, and learn to rate assessment results.

Explore how having access to the right information at the right time can improve assessment and decision-making at the child/family level, and how aggregate data can be used to support system improvements. 

Desiree is an alumna of the foster care system. She lived with the same foster care family for 14 years. She entered foster care with three of her siblings, and wants to use her experiences growing up in foster care to make a difference for those still in the system.

Learn the characteristics and results that describe the right people to engage youth and get guidance for recruiting, hiring, and retaining these employees.

Learn about adolescent brain development, trauma-responsive care, and the importance of normalcy.

Get an overview of the issues related to the physical and emotional safety of child welfare workers.

Learn how to build capacity in each of four component areas to promote a culture and climate that encourages youth engagement at all levels of an organization.

Get the latest research on decision science and safety decision-making practices in child welfare to help improved safety outcomes.

Explore the four thematic pillars necessary for organizational capacity that supports engagement with young people currently and formerly in foster care.

Examine a five-step framework that helps organizations promote youth engagement in normalcy conversations about the youth’s own care.