Resources Database

This paper reports on findings from an evaluation study of two institutions providing transition programmes to adolescent girls transitioning from institutional care in Zimbabwe. The study sought to understand how government-based and NGO-based institutions were delivering services to prepare adolescents for life outside care and whether these services complied with Standard Six of the National Residential Child Care Standards in Zimbabwe.

This resource provides guidance and considerations before undertaking a short-term mission trip.

increasing the use of research evidence in decision-making is critical to ensuring that agencies effectively serve families in producing intended outcomes, including the safe achievement of legal permanency through reunification, adoption, or guardianship. This document provides a catalog of strategies drawn from several fields (social work, public health, education) and research traditions (implementation science, utilization-focused evaluation, social research and development (R&D), and translational research).

A desk review was conducted to examine the current gaps in investment related to care and treatment for children living with or affected by HIV.There is a need for an investment case to clearly articulate and advocate for increased financial support for an HIV sensitive social service system that can adequately address and respond to the needs of vulnerable children.

This case study highlights aspects of a case management system and referral mechanism utilized by OVC programs within Mozambique that could be identified as a hub and spoke model of referral mechanism.

Deaf children involved with child welfare systems are often overlooked both in terms of tracking and service delivery. These systems frequently do not offer accessible and equitable services to deaf children. The current paper explores this in terms of the Social Work Grand Challenge: Healthy growth and development of all youth. Literature regarding child welfare services for deaf children is discussed.

To increase the evidence base on the benefits of early childhood development, a four-part series of global landscape analyses are being conducted to establish the size and scope of the challenges faced by the early childhood workforce, while also highlighting promising practices countries have adopted in response to these challenges. This second resource focuses on the training and professional development of this workforce.

Constructive and supportive social connections help buffer parents from stressors and support nurturing parenting behaviors that promote secure attachments in young children. Therefore, parents’ high quality social connections are beneficial to both the adults and the children. This action sheet offers strategies that may assist in engaging families in developing social connections.

To inform and guide the Early Childhood Workforce Initiative, this global landscape analysis aims to establish the size and scope of the challenges faced by the early childhood workforce, while also highlighting promising practices countries have adopted in response to these challenges. Covering a range of roles, this analysis aim to provide a comprehensive overview of the current status of the workforce worldwide. In this report, competences encompass the requirements and expectations for what early childhood professionals and paraprofessionals should know and be able to do.

This article presents research exploring the conceptualization and practice of supervision during social worker training in Burkina Faso and Côte d’Ivoire, Francophone West African countries whose social work education frameworks and processes are nearly absent in the academic literature.

The standards reflect shared thinking and common agreement among humanitarian and human rights practitioners.

Linkages between the social service system are especially relevant within OVC programming given that children and families affected by HIV and other adversities tend to have multiple vulnerabilities that require services and support provided by both sectors. This brief provides an overview of referral mechanisms and the importance of collaboration with other sectors.

This training presentation is aimed at child welfare administrators, managers and supervisors for understanding the potential role of coaching and considerations for its use to support their workforce.

One of the objectives of the May’khethele Programme is to build capacity across different levels of the social service workforce.

Refugee adolescents face increased vulnerability to child protection risks including abuse, neglect, violence, and exploitation. The aim of this qualitative study was to examine the nature of violence against adolescents in Kiziba Camp, Rwanda, using an ecological framework to analyze the factors that influence protection risks and abuse disclosure across multiple system levels.

This summary report is derived from key informant interviews and a desk review. It includes service providers' awareness of and engagement with potential VAC-HIV synergies and highlights existing practices to prevent and/or respond to cases of violence against children within services, as well as barriers and opportunities to making linkages.

Design Teams help agencies improve their workplace and cope with change through interventions designed and implemented by a team representing all agency levels. This
manual provides information about how to implement Design Teams, the rationale of and research about Design Teams, examples of various documents related to Design Teams, and a variety of resources to assist with implementation.

Using telephone interviews with a statewide sample of recently hired, frontline workers, this study applied a social capital framework to consider support functionality or capitalization. Findings highlight that, although nearly all workers recognized the importance of instrumental and expressive support, many workers did not capitalize on support.

Assessing a number of worker characteristics, an analysis of the Dalgleish Scale (an instrument designed to measure the perspectives of workers across the continuum of child safety versus family preservation beliefs) revealed that staff who have worked in child welfare longer are more likely to be oriented toward family preservation, whereas staff working in the field for a shorter time period or rating the shared vision among staff higher are more likely to be oriented toward child safety.

This is a presentation delivered at the 2015 International Conference on Innovations in Family Engagement that highlights the dynamics of child protection systems and the intersection and challenges of family preservation and child safety in child protection situations.