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.

Read about the services available under two federal programs and how to use them to improve outcomes for pregnant or parenting youth in out-of-home care.

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

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

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

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 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.

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

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

Get practical guidance for building organizational capacity and for implementing flexible and innovate programs for youth engagement.

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.

Learn to facilitate a normalcy conversation and to promote normal and developmentally appropriate experiences for youth in foster care.

Brandon is a 21-year-old alumnus of the foster care system. He was in the foster care system for about 10 years and serves as a foster care advocate, working in State government for the last 3 years. He feels that normal activities for all youth in foster care should include getting a driver’s license, going on out-of-State and overnight trips, and participating in sports.