Moving Child Welfare Forward
Achieving Positive Outcomes for Children, Youth and Families

Class Four: The Child Welfare Team

Topics

• Who are or should be members of the child welfare team? Why?
• Elements of collaboration at the case, service and organizational levels

Learning Objectives

When this class is complete the student should be able to:

• Identify key members of the child welfare team and their role is achieving positive outcomes for children, youth and families
• Implement effective collaboration models , strategies and tactics
• Understand the benefits of cross agency case planning and how to achieve them.

Suggested Assignments

• Student paper, 2 -4 double spaced pages. Describe the primary role and responsibilities of each of these stakeholders in assessing families’ needs and matching them to services:
• child(ren)
• caseworker
• families
• adoptive/foster parents
• community partners agencies, private organizations and groups)
• schools
• tribes
• health and mental health providers and
• various levels of government
• Go to www.ncai.org and identify the tribes in your state/county. Write a 2 page paper answering the question ‘If there are federally recognized tribes in a state, what does that mean for child welfare when implementing the Adoption and Safe Families Act and participating in the Child and Family Service Reviews?’

Suggested In-class Activities

• Small group activity: Child welfare agencies do their work in partnership with a wide range of stakeholders, all of whom should build a shared knowledge, language and values base. Discuss possible strategies and mechanisms a child welfare agency manager might use to assure that community partners are fully committed to a family centered approach to serving children, youth and families. What actions would s/he take to determine if the family centered approach is commonly understood and implemented by community partners? If gaps were uncovered, how could s/he resolve those issues?
• Small group activity: identify key members of the child welfare team and characteristics of successful cross agency case planning and management. Ask students to work in the small groups to answer questions such as :
• Who needs to be on the child protection team and why?
• Has the team changed since the implementation of ASFA?
• Is the team for children’s services different from the team for adolescent services?
• Thinking back to successful program level collaborative efforts in which you have participated, what characteristics made that collaboration work?
• Thinking back to successful case level collaborative efforts in which you have participated, what characteristics made that collaboration work?
• What obstacles impede successful cross agency case planning and management and how might you overcome such obstacles?
• Introduce ‘A Practice-based Planning Framework for Bringing the Child Welfare Team Together’ and explain its usefulness in linking effective practice and collaboration. (Source: Bringing Together the Child Welfare Team, pgs 4.33-4.34, Trainer’s Guide, September 27, 2002 . Available on the internet at: www.muskie.usm.maine.edu/asfa).
• Read Jan’s Story (Jan’s Story highlights the inter-relationship of domestic violence and child welfare. Source: Bringing Together the Child Welfare Team,pgs 3.19-3.20, September 27, 2002 . Available on the internet at: www.muskie.usm.maine.edu/asfa). Ask students to work in the small groups to answer the following questions:
• How would you summarize the key facts in this story?
• What practice issues are raised by Jan’s case?
• What are the hoped for outcomes for Jan and her children?
• With which individuals and agencies will you need to collaborate to support Jan in the achievement of those outcomes?

Process with the whole class.

Suggested Readings

• Bernstein, Nina. (2001). The Lost Children of Wilder: The Epic Struggle to Change Foster Care. New York : Random House. Part four.
• Hoel, James L. (1998). Cross-systems Collaboration: Tools that Work. Washington , D.C. : Child Welfare League of America . Presents a collection of effective principles for collaboration.

Supplemental Reference Material

Readings

• Cross, T.A., Earle, K.A., Simmons, D. (2000). Child Abuse and Neglect in Indian Country: Policy Issues. Families in Society, Vol. 81, No. 1, pp. 49-58.
• Fox. K.A. (2003). The Collection of Data on the Abuse and Neglect of American Indian Children. Child Welfare, 82, 707-726.

Video

• Video: Spaulding for Children. (1995). Understanding the Indian Child Welfare Act. Spaulding for Children, National Resource Center for Special Needs Adoption, 16250 Northland Dr. , Southfield , MI. #113, $95. This 17 minutes video presents a straight forward presentation that highlights the provisions of the Indian Child Welfare Act.

On-Line Resources

• www.aecf.org This is the website for the Annie E. Casey Foundation and presents information on its initiatives, publications and projects.
• www.futureofchildren.org This website provides information about The Future of Children publication and other resources.
• www .nicwa.org Provides information about the National Indian Child Welfare Association, its services and relevant publications.
• www.ncai.org/ This National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) site identifies tribes by state. Click on “Tribal Directory” and then “Indian Nationals in the U.S. ” This will provide a list of Bureau of Indian Affairs Regions. Choose your geographic area and you will get a list of tribes in your state and adjacent states.

Introduction

Objectives

Class 1 Content

Class 2 Content

Class 3 Content

Class 4 Content

Class 5 Content

Class 6 Content

Class 7 Content

Class 8 Content

Class 9 Content