Recruitment & Retention of Child Welfare Professionals Program
Trainings
Advanced ICWA Training
Nearly 30 years ago, Congress enacted the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA),
which mandates certain procedures for handling child welfare cases in state
courts that involve Indian children. Despite having been a part of child welfare
practice for three decades, ICWA is not well understood among child welfare
workers and is often ignored or misapplied. The Advanced ICWA training is
a one-day, case-based training curriculum that utilizes adult learning
methodologies to illustrate the interaction of ICWA, other Federal statutes,
and agency policy with practical implementation issues.
State child welfare workers and tribal caseworker participants are given a case-based problem and assigned to a small group to consider a number of specific questions raised by case facts. After small group deliberations of specific questions, the entire group reconvenes to engage in collaborative discussion. This basic process is repeated for in-home/preventive services, preliminary hearing stage of a proceeding, pre-trial, trial/disposition and permanency planning/termination of parental rights. This training is delivered by Professor Vandervort, William Memberto (director of Family Services, Little River Band of Ottawa Indians), and James Keedy, (director, Michigan Indian Legal Services).
Child Welfare Cases Going to Court: Issues of Culture, Ethics and Practice
This legal training is a case-based, interactive training curriculum that
utilizes adult learning methodologies. Training includes participation in a case
simulation exercise, which addresses how knowledge of cultural differences and
cultural experiences enhance a greater appreciation for and understanding of
perceptions about and interactions between families, child welfare workers, child
advocates, and lawyers. In the second segment of this training, a case-based
simulation serves as a tool for comparing and contrasting legal and social work
ethics with a particular focus on how legal ethics may contribute to child
welfare worker job frustration, dissatisfaction, and burnout. The final segment
of the training addresses practical issues of child welfare practice, including
report writing, preparing for court hearings and trials, and testifying in court.
This training is delivered by Professor Vandervort, Professor Ortega, and Professor Faller.
Cultural Humility
The child welfare population is culturally diverse. Indeed, this population
is so diverse that it is not possible for child welfare staff to be culturally
competent in all of the populations they encounter. The concept of “cultural
humility” challenges child welfare staff to learn from the diverse people with
whom they work, reserve judgment, and bridge the cultural divide between perspectives
in order to develop and maintain mutual respect and a collaborative working relationship.
Another key concept in the training is intersectionality. Intersectionality (of social
identities) recognizes that human differences vary along important dimensions beyond
race or ethnicity and includes gender, gender identity, age, and ability, all
of which work together, interact, and lead to individual differences and perspectives
depending on the social context. A multiple case-based, self-reflective and interactive
training curriculum is delivered by Professor Faller and Professor Ortega.
Supervisory Skills: Retaining Child Welfare Workers
Public child welfare supervisors often receive training in agency policy,
but not in skills to use in supervising staff. Our research to date and that
from other studies indicate that the competence of supervisors plays a major
role in worker turnover and retention. We have developed a curriculum that draws
upon the human services management literature and our past experience training
child welfare supervisors. The training is delivered by Professor Tropman and Teresa
Marshall, program manager with the Wayne County Department of Human Services.