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| ABSTRACT: Most child welfare experts agree that the key to competent provision of public child welfare services is the level of expertise and skill of the line supervisor. This is especially important when child welfare workers lack professional training, or even when professionally trained, but inexperienced social workers have not had specific preparation for public child welfare practice. Supervisors are the primary conduit for establishing and maintaining agency culture, maintaining practice standards, and ensuring that models of service delivery are implemented. In addition, supervisors tend to have longer tenure on the job than line workers, more focus and commitment to aggregate outcomes for families and children, and the potential to influence the practice of numerous practitioners. Investment in the development of supervisory resources is, therefore, one of the best investments for workforce development. The University of Maryland School of Social Work is designing, implementing, and evaluating an MSW professional education project with the purposes of (1) preparing 35 current public child welfare practitioners for future supervisory, leadership, and management roles in the public child welfare system; (2) providing a forum, process, and content (values, knowledge, skill competencies) resulting in the implementation of a competency-based public child welfare supervisory curriculum and field instruction program in the MSW program; and (3) providing child welfare supervisory strategies to improve child welfare outcomes. The Center for Families staff, as evaluators of the project, are implementing data collection of outcomes measures in an effort to assess the effectiveness of the specialized training received by the MSW students. PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Diane DePanfilis, PhD Co-Investigator: Clara Daining, PhD FUNDING SOURCE: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration on Children, Youth, and Families, Children’s Bureau AMOUNT OF FUNDING: $40,000 PROJECT DATES: 2004-2008
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