The Center for Workforce Equity and Leadership provides tailored support in selected child welfare agencies. Each site will receive support in recruitment and retention, selecting from a mixture of services, which are highlighted below
How can your agency receive these services from CWEL? Fill out an interest form and our team will be in touch.
Educational pathways
Recruitment goal:
To encourage more college graduates to choose careers in child welfare, specifically in your jurisdiction.
At a glance:
- We work with agencies and universities to increase enrollment into Title IV-E stipend programs.
- We leverage financial support to expand the scope of those offered Title IV-E stipends.
- Selected sites receive support in building their organizational capacity for retaining graduates.
- Robust partnerships will be built with historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), Latinx-serving educational programs, and tribal colleges and universities (TCUs).
- Apprenticeship programs are available for community college graduates.
- Tailored support is available for people who have lived experience in foster care and first-generation college graduates.
Tribal relational leadership fellowships
Retention goal:
To ensure Indigenous child welfare leaders are supported in transforming child welfare within the context of a specific tribe’s culture, promoting tribal sovereignty and the cultural well-being of Indigenous children.
At a glance:
- Fellows will receive project-based learning opportunities and leadership development training, facilitated by Indigenous leaders.
- The program emphasizes healing among fellows, with facilitated peer support.
Coaching
Retention goal:
To develop the supervisors who people want to work for. This is all about retaining staff by giving supervisors the tools they need to lead healthy teams.
At a glance:
- We provide coaching support to cohorts of mid-level supervisors for 12-15 months, with tailored support depending on the agency’s coaching baseline.
- Sites receive self-paced learning opportunities on key foundations of building relational supervision practices, such as navigating positional power, creating growth opportunities for staff, and repairing relationships with your team.
- Participants receive one-on-one coaching as well as facilitate group learning sessions.
Pathways to clinical licensure
Retention goal:
To create pathways so that professionals pursuing their clinical social work licensure don’t have to head out your agency’s door. Right now, people wanting to pursue this licensure often have to leave their child welfare roles to do so. We will work with you to create ways for them to stay.
At a glance:
- Selected sites are introduced to a model recommended by CWEL based on their specific needs.
- We prepare agencies for change using a site-specific framework.
- We provide technical assistance along the way.
Leadership development fellowships
Retention goal:
To ensure Black, Indigenous, and Latinx leaders are supported in transforming child welfare systems, ultimately reducing disproportionate outcomes for children and families.
This fellowship addresses the lack of representation of Black, Latinx, and Indigenous professionals in decision-making roles within agencies. Additionally, when Black, Latinx, and Indigenous professionals step into child welfare roles, they face bias, micro-aggressions, and discrimination. This leads to moral injury and burnout.
At a glance:
- A 15-month fellowship that enhances race equity-focused leadership skills.
- An agency-based cohort of up to 10 emerging Black, Latinx, and Indigenous leaders.
- Fellows work with agency leaders through organizational change projects that address challenges within the workforce and within the communities being served. Individualized professional coaching and group discussions facilitated by Black, Latinx, and Indigenous leaders.
