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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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Learn how we can help your agency build the capacity to thrive.

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Showing 16 - 30 of 191 resources
Infographic

Browse the themes and key takeaways from the How We Partner With the Community to Improve Service Options podcast series.

Video

Learn about the importance of successful collaboration and engagement for implementing prevention-focused systems.

Video

Buzzwords: Moving to Behavioral Descriptors doodle video is a short, animated video that follows a child involved in a child welfare investigation. The video describes what buzzwords are and illustrates the impact they can have on children and families. It also demonstrates how to recognize buzzwords and offers strategies for transforming buzzwords into objective, behavior-based descriptors.

PDF

This publication looks at buzzwords in the context of words or phrases commonly used in child welfare reporting and documentation that can be subjective or carry negative connotations, and offers strategies to minimize their negative impact.

Video

Learn about Catherine’s journey recovering from trauma and addiction to be successfully reunified with her daughter.

PDF

See how workforce satisfaction and retention are improved by emphasizing the positive differences that are made in the lives of children and families.

Video

Reviews the final tasks of assessing agency readiness: analyzing results and determining next steps. This video explores how teams analyze assessment results, what conditions or connections help determine next steps, and why teams should reassess over time and at multiple points in the process.

Video

Examines the second task of team building: identifying team members to ensure diverse representation across all levels and positions within the organization. This module also provides information on how to define the team structure to clarify roles and responsibilities and encourage collaboration among team members.

Video

Presents the fifth task, documenting assumptions and rationale, and provides examples of how to apply strategies. A clear, concise narrative can help to engage stakeholders, decision makers and potential funders in future steps to address the root cause and problems identified.

Video

Presents the third task of team building: developing the team’s charter to set a foundation for teamwork by clarifying how the team will operate, divide responsibilities, and share in decision-making.

Video

Watch the Change and Implementation in Practice: Overview video to learn how key steps, tasks, and concepts fit together to support your agency’s change initiatives. 

Video

Presents the fifth task, documenting assumptions and rationale, and provides examples of how to apply strategies. A clear, concise narrative can help to engage stakeholders, decision makers and potential funders in future steps to address the root cause and problems identified.

Video

Introduces the fourth task of team building: developing a team communication plan and external communication strategy. This module helps teams clarify protocols for the flow and methods of communication and to define roles and responsibilities in the communication structure.

Video

Examines why teams should understand the factors influencing readiness, use a structured approach to develop and conduct readiness assessments, and analyze results. This video helps teams understand what needs to be in place before assessing readiness and sets up teams for success as part of a change and implementation process at a child welfare agency.

Video

Explores the fifth task of team building: guiding the change process by creating a detailed, comprehensive work plan based on the team charter that organizes the work through each step of the change and implementation process.