Cutler Institute for Health and Social Policy

Children, Youth and Families

NRCOI publishes child welfare practice model guide

To help families achieve positive outcomes, child welfare systems throughout the country are strengthening their approaches to practice. Many States choose to do this using a new or renewed child welfare practice model. Simply stated, practice models are the basic principles and approaches that guide an agency’s work and provide a framework for an organization’s overall approach to child welfare work—from vision through outcomes—and the specifics in between.

The National Child Welfare Resource Center for Organizational Improvement's Guide for Developing and Implementing Child Welfare Practice Models offers an overall framework for developing, implementing, and/or strengthening a child welfare practice model; cites specific examples from the field; and provides additional information to help child welfare agencies and their partners make informed choices in selecting their approaches to this important work. It provides guidance on developing a practice model, and details steps to take through each stage of implementation, including a discussion of 14 specific implementation drivers. The Guide includes worksheets to help agencies articulate practice model principles, identify frontline practice skills, and assess readiness, and lists resources for ongoing support.

"A practice model really defines how you do business every day; it defines core values that inform how you interact with children and families. It also gives you a common and accepted set of principles and goals as you work with providers and other outside partners." - Cheryl Williams, Foster Care Program Manager, Richmond, Virginia, Department of Social Services

Download the Guide here!

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Children, Youth and Families

Guide for Developing and Implementing Child Welfare Practice Models

Abstract:

The Guide for Developing and Implementing Child Welfare Practice Models, published by the National Child Welfare Resource Center for Organizational Improvement, offers an overall framework for developing, implementing, and/or strengthening a child welfare practice model; cites specific examples from the field; and provides additional information to help child welfare agencies and their partners make informed choices in selecting their approaches to this important work. It provides guidance on developing a practice model, and details steps to take through each stage of implementation, including a discussion of fourteen specific implementation drivers. The Guide includes worksheets to help agencies articulate practice model principles, identify frontline practice skills, and assess readiness, and lists resources for ongoing support.

For more information, or to request hard copies, contact Anne Comstock.

Suggested citation: McCarthy J. Guide for Developing and Implementing Child Welfare Practice Models. Portland, ME: National Child Welfare Resource Center for Organizational Improvement; October 2012.

Publish Date:

10-30-2012

Project:

National Child Welfare Resource Center for Organizational Improvement

URL:

http://muskie.usm.maine.edu/helpkids/practicemodel/PMguide.pdf

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Maine Roads to Quality Career Development Services

All of Maine's children will be in quality learning environments.

Maine Roads to Quality is the Early Care and Education Career Development Center for Maine. Established in 1999 by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, its purpose is to promote and support professionalism in the early care and education field.

In 2006, nearly 10,000 people in the state worked in the early care and education field, but only about 25 percent held a credential in early childhood education or a related field. Maine Roads to Quality works in partnership with Maine's Resource Development Centers as well as Maine's Higher Education System to promote professional development opportunities throughout the state.

The Maine Roads Scholarship Program improves access to higher education and removes financial barriers by providing scholarships to support child care and early education providers in Maine pursuing a Child Development Associate (CDA) credential, an Associate's degree, a Bachelor's degree, or a Master's degree (including Wheelock College, Portland site).

The Maine Roads Accreditation Facilitation Project provides information, support and technical assistance to early care and education sites seeking accreditation through the National Association for Family Child Care Providers, the National Association for the Education of Young Children (for center-based programs), or the Council on Accreditation (for school-age programs).

Project Goals

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Children, Youth and Families

Children at Risk in the Child Welfare System: Collaborations to Promote School Readiness

Meeting the developmental needs of young children in the child welfare system requires effective collaboration among the child welfare system, the early intervention system under Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and the early care and education system. This was a case study conducted in Colorado to determine the degree to which collaboration occurs at the county and local levels, to identify the barriers to effective collaboration and to share best practices. Research involved interviews with stakeholders and statewide surveys of foster parents and caseworkers. To determine the degree to which national data supports what we learned in Colorado, we analyzed data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well Being. We also identified collaboration models in other states in our final report and in a series of issue briefs based on our findings.

Project URL: http://muskie.usm.maine.edu/schoolreadiness/

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Children, Youth and Families

Northeast and Caribbean Implementation Center

The Northeast and Caribbean Implementation Center (NCIC) is one of five regionally-focused Child Welfare Implementation Centers currently in the Children’s Bureau Training & Technical Assistance Network. We engage with State and Tribal child welfare agencies in Regions 1 & 2 (New England States, New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands) to provide resources and support aimed at improving the quality and effectiveness of child welfare services for children, youth and families. The NCIC Team works with child welfare leaders and managers to:

enhance agency and tribal capacity to effectively implement and sustain systemic change;
facilitate communication and peer-to-peer networking;
contribute knowledge about effective implementation in the child welfare field; and
support intensive implementation projects.

Current NCIC State and Tribal Projects:

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Children, Youth and Families

First Jobs Academy Curriculum Development

This supported summer youth employment program provided first-time and transitional employment opportunities to youth in the foster care and juvenile justice systems, homeless youth, and youth with disabilities using the natural supports available in the workplace to ensure youth were successful in their jobs.

First Jobs piloted two training tracks to prepare stakeholders for their roles in the program - the Mentor Leadership training for employers and the Vocational and Life Skills training for youth. Muskie facilitated a curriculum development process for each of the training tracks in collaboration with a group of community stakeholders, and synthesized the workgroup's process into a written product. The Annie E. Casey Foundation, the project's major funder, would like to replicate this model of youth employment in other New England sites and documenting the training curriculum is an essential component to ensuring replication with fidelity to the model.

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Children, Youth and Families

Maine Marks

This project developed of a set of indicators to measure and track child, family, and community well-being over time. Primary activities included: 1) engagement with the multi-agency representatives of the Governor's Children's Cabinet to identify priority areas and indicators, 2) development of data to populate/update selected indicators, and 3) refinement and maintenance of a website to disseminate data and information about the indicators. The website provides a single point of entry for the public, scholars, and policymakers interested in data and information about key indicators of child well-being in Maine.

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Children, Youth and Families

Child Care Research and Data Capacity

Collaborating with the University of Maine in Orono, we investigated the impact of Child Care and Development Funds (CCDF) on helping low-income working parents maintain employment and achieve self-sufficiency, and improving the quality of care available and utilized by low-income working parents and at-risk families.

Completed Projects

Maine Child Care Research Partnership continued a series of evaluation and program monitoring projects in partnership with the Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) focusing on publicly-funded/subsidized child care services. Implementation of a quality rating system and performance monitoring of parent resource and referral services were two main goals of this project. In the second year we studied the differences in program quality between programs enrolled in the state DHHS Quality Rating System (QRS) and those not enrolled, the impact of federal Child Care and Development Funds on the quality of care available to and utilized by low-income working parents, and how programs assessing the developmental progress of infants and toddlers use that information for program improvement.

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Children, Youth and Families

Early StARTS

The Early stARTS project highlighted the importance of quality arts education for preschool age children and ensured an emphasis on arts education in early childhood programs in Maine. This program supported professional development of caregivers, parents, and educators by funding arts educators experienced in working with young children, to present a single workshop or a week-long residency at child care facilities in Maine.
Project URL: http://mainearts.maine.gov/program_artsineducation_starts.aspx

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Children, Youth and Families

Early Reading First

Muskie School staff, collaboratoring with Portland Public Schools, Head Start (PROP), St. Elizabeth's Child Development Center, and Preble Learning Center, created preschool centers of excellence by providing intensive professional development in early literacy to teachers of children at risk for reading failure. Part of "Good Start, Grow Smart," the preschool component of "No Child Left Behind," the project used an in-classroom coaching model to ensure the implementation of a scientifically-based early literacy curriculum. Every week early literacy coaches in the classroom modeled and provided feedback to teachers implementing this curriculum.
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