Workplace Supports to Improve Georgia's Child Protective Services

IV. Appendices (continued)

3. Additional Research Resources

   Annie E. Casey Foundation's "Family to Family" Initiative

   In 1992, the Annie E. Casey Foundation awarded grants to several state child welfare agencies to assist them in developing plans and implementing an initiative called Family to Family.  This initiative was developed by the Foundation to achieve innovative and systemic reforms in the nation's child welfare systems at the state and local level.  The initiative has now been field tested in communities across the country, including Alabama, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Maryland.  Los Angeles County has implemented the initiative and New York City has adopted the principles of Family to Family as an integral part of its mandated reform effort.  Other sites in the process of joining this initiative include Illinois, San Francisco, Oregon, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, Colorado and Santa Clara County, California.

   The four key strategies of Family to Family are:

   • Recruitment, training and support of resource families (foster and relative)
   • Building community partnerships in areas with high referral rates
   • Family team decision-making:  involving foster parents, caseworkers, birth families, and community members
   • Self-Evaluation:  using hard data linked to child and family outcomes to drive decision-making and show where change is needed and where progress has been made.

   
   To support and sustain these efforts, the Foundation and its grantees developed a set of 17  tools for rebuilding foster care. The tools were developed by teams of child welfare workers and are built upon the lessons learned working inside child welfare agencies and with community and political leaders.  The tools include sets specific to the retention of frontline caseworkers: The Resiliency Workshop: A Tool to Lessen Burnout in Child Welfare, and Safety First: Dealing with the Daily Challenges of Child Welfare.  The Foundation makes these tools available free online at their website: http://www.aecf.org/familytofamily/tools.htm. An independent evaluation of Family to Family was undertaken by the Health and Social Policy Division of the Research Triangle Institute and the Jordan Institute for Families, School of Social Work, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  The report of that evaluation was submitted to the Annie E. Casey Foundation and can be accessed at their website.

   "Child Welfare and Child Protection:  Current Research and Policy Implications

   Congressional Research Briefing, September 14, 2000, Washington DC

   The Joint Center for Poverty Research and leading members of the Subcommittee on Human Resources of the House Ways and Means Committee cosponsored a research briefing in the capitol that examined the state of child welfare and child protective services around the country.  Three prominent researchers provided an overview of the current state of knowledge about child abuse and neglect and the current state of child protective services and child welfare systems. This briefing may be accessed at: http://www.jcpr.org/conferences/childprotection.html.

   "Child Welfare:  Complex Needs Strain Capacity to Provide Services"

   Report by the US General Accounting Office (GAO), 09/26/95, No. HEHS-95-208

   GAO reviewed the foster care system and related child welfare services, focusing on trends in the characteristics of the foster care population; whether resources for foster care and child welfare services have kept pace with changing needs; and how states are responding to foster care and other service needs.  The report noted that resources have not kept pace with service needs and that constraints on resources included problems recruiting and retaining caseworkers. (Letter  :4)  Next to funding, states reported that staffing is the most serious issue facing their child welfare systems.  Over 90% of states responding to an American Public Welfare Association survey reported difficulty recruiting and retaining caseworkers.  State officials attributed these difficulties to several factors, including hiring freezes, low pay and poor working conditions.  These factors, in turn, led to staff shortages, high caseloads, and high burnout and turnover rates among caseworkers.  (Letter  :4.3)

   "Confronting the Workforce Crisis"

   Meeting of public and private sector child welfare administrators convened by the Child Welfare League of America (CWLA) in December 1999, Washington, DC, to identify problems and recommend practices and policies in the areas of recruitment, hiring, staff development, motivation and retention.

   A national taskforce has been formed, the CWLA Workforce Advisory Committee, to address these issues. One of the organizations represented on the Advisory Committee, American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), reports that at the Committee's meeting in September 2000, it was agreed that low wages is the biggest obstacle to recruiting and retaining a competent workforce.  However, other factors identified as contributing to the workforce problem were: failure to include frontline workers in decision-making, poor communication within agencies, insufficient emphasis on education and training staff and numbing paperwork and bureaucracy. (See http://www.afscme.org/publications/child/cww01101.htm.)

   CWLA has also undertaken a Workforce Survey to analyze and address emerging challenges in the child welfare workforce, in partnership with American Public Human Services Association (APHSA) and the Alliance for Children and Families.  CWLA's contact for this program is Alicia Drais, (202) 662-4281, adrais@cwla.org.  APHSA's contact is Gary Cyphers, Director of Research, (202) 682-0100, gcyphers@aphsa.org.

   Crossroads: Child Welfare

   American Public Human Services Association (APHSA)

   This online publication by APHSA addresses the many challenges facing the public child welfare system and offers proposals and recommendations for state and federal policy changes to improve outcomes for children and families.  On the subject of the child welfare workforce, APHSA states that workforce preparation, recruitment and retention are key for meeting best outcomes.  APHSA recommends amending Title IV-E to support comprehensive training that includes all aspects of child welfare--child protective services, private agency providers, court personnel (including judges, court-appointed special advocates, etc.), and health providers--and that is not allocated based on whether a child is Title IV-E eligible.  At present, a federal match for training funding is based in proportion to the number of children who are Title IV-E eligible.  However, ASPHA argues that workers must be trained to the same standards whether or not they are serving IV-E children and that federal funding be extended to train workers in provision of services and safety assessments for private as well as public agency workers.

   This publication may be accessed at http://www.aphsa.org/reauthor/cw.asp.

   Double Jeopardy: Caseworkers at Risk Helping At Risk Kids, A Report on the Working Conditions Facing Child Welfare Workers

   American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)

   The Public Policy Department of AFSCME surveyed the union's 29 affiliates in 10 states that represent professional child welfare workers.  The survey covers such issues as salaries and qualifications, caseloads, training and violence in the workplace.  In addition, the survey report highlights some of the creative solutions developed by AFSCME affiliates. More than 70 percent of the affiliates indicated that workers had been threatened or victimized because of their job duties.  Protections for workers included buddy systems, reassignment of cases, cellular phones, training for violent situations, and requirements for the client to meet with the worker in the agency offices.  The report can be accessed at http://www.afscme.org/pol-leg/dj01.htm.

   The Future of Children

   On-line journal published by the Center for The Future of Children, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation

   The Spring 1998 issue of the Packard Foundation's journal, The Future of Children, is devoted to the subject: "Protecting Children from Abuse and Neglect" (Volume 8, Number 1). The journal focuses on the efforts and problems of the CPS system.  In an article entitled "Rethinking the Paradigm for Child Protection, Jane Waldfogel reviews several proposals for reforming the CPS system and describes, in detail, the proposal of the Harvard Executive Session (see above).

   "Guidelines for a Model System of Protective Services for Abused and Neglected Children and Their Families"

   National Association of Public Child Welfare Administrators (NAPCWA), Washington, DC

   In 1999 the NAPCWA, in collaboration with the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, published its revised guidelines, which represent a significant revision from the original edition published in 1986.  Among the topics included are staff qualifications and performance standards and inter disciplinary teams.  Copies of the Guidelines can be obtained through NAPCWA staff, Gretchen Test or Angie Brown at (202) 692-0100 or via online order at http://www.aphsa.org/.

   Harvard Executive Session on New Paradigms for Child Protective Services

   Between 1994 and 1997 the Harvard Executive Session brought together child welfare administrators, practitioners, policymakers and experts to consider problems and reforms to CPS.  The session was funded by the Annie E. Casey and Edna McConnell Clark Foundations. One paper produced out of this effort is  "Building Community Partnerships for Child Protection; Getting From Here to There," Frank Farrow, Center for the Study of Social Policy, March 4, 1997 (http://www.cssp.org/kd20.htm). This paper addresses the efforts made as part of the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation's initiative, "Community Partnerships for Protecting Children," and conceptualizes the strategies needed to improve child protection services.

   National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) Child Welfare Project

   The NCSL's Child Welfare Project, in conjunction with the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation is conducting site visits for legislators to view state innovations in CPS.  The December 1999 issue of NCSL's magazine, State Legislatures, included an article entitled "A New Look at Child Protection" by Nina Williams-Mbengue and Kyle Ramirez-Fry.  This article reviewed the efforts of several states to find new, flexible ways to protect children.  Recognizing that CPS can no longer handle the rising volume of child abuse and neglect reports, these efforts emphasize the need for collaboration between public agencies and community resources.  Arizona's Family Builders program is cited as an innovative network of community and volunteer agencies that helps with less serious cases- thereby alleviating time and resource constraints on state CPS workers.  Arizona looked to programs in Missouri and Iowa in developing their own model.

   The contact for this program is Nina Williams-Mbengue or Kyle Ramirez-Fry, (303) 830-2200.  Also see http://www.ncsl.org/.

   "Supervising Child Protective Services Caseworkers"

   Morton, T. and Salus, M. (1994) Washington, DC; Published by the US Gov. Printing Office as part of the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect's (NCCAN) User Manual series designed to provide guidance to professionals involved in the child protective services system and to enhance community collaboration and the quality of services provided to children and families.

   This manual includes a section entitled "Increasing Job Satisfaction and Preventing Burnout" which delineates factors contributing to job satisfaction (i.e. achievement, recognition, challenging work, responsibility, growth and development) and reviews ways to recognize and prevent burnout.  Extensive notes provide bibliographic references to relevant research on these issues.  The manual can be accessed online at http://www.calib.com/nccanch/pubs/usermanuals/supercps/satisfy.htm.