RESEARCH LIBRARY

The Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA) supports something child welfare agencies have wanted for years: IV-E funding flexibility to support and expand their preventative services. FFPSA also has guidelines and restrictions that are making states pause and evaluate the negative impact to current IV-E waiver-supported programs. We know you have questions, so we’ve rounded up several recent articles and resources to help you assess your options, plan for the best way to move forward, and navigate the impending change.

InnovateOhio, an initiative launched last year by Governor Mike DeWine and led by Lieutenant Governor Jon Husted, is another important step in Ohio’s journey toward citizen-centric services.

Wisconsin Counties magazine explores how the opioid epidemic is impacting the state's already fragile child welfare system, which one agency director referred to as a “sinking ship.” The article is a powerful reminder that frontline workers and supervisors need more support than ever before.

Child welfare is in an era of compliance-driven busywork, says The Chronicle of Social Change contributor Vivek Sankaran. Administrative work overshadows the human element of child welfare—the ability to really understand and empathize with each family and their unique situation.

New York’s “Raise the Age” legislation presents impactful changes to youth, their families, and agencies providing services. It also places an immediate and direct burden on frontline caseworkers tasked with developing tailored, comprehensive care plans that meet the rehabilitative needs of each youth. Critical to success is these workers’ ability to quickly assess, evaluate, and share specific information to coordinate the right supports and services.

Government Business Council’s poll on effective collaboration tools shows that agencies still have a long way to go to provide workers with the right technology to truly be efficient and effective in a modern, mobile world.

Approaching IT modernization from a business perspective is the key to successful digital government initiatives. GovLoop’s eBook explores this idea in depth, while summarizing key themes, initiatives, and takeaways from a recent round-table discussion on cloud content management and IT modernization.

The Children's Bureau's Child Welfare Capacity Building Collaborative has been building up its Change and Implementation in Practice series, a collection of resources that can help child welfare agencies manage change in a meaningful and impactful way.

It has become all too common that each new audit or report assessing a Child Welfare system simply reiterates the same findings and recommendations that were already published in previous years. Oregon Public Broadcasting's 3-part series, which was sparked by an audit into the state's system published in January, underscores this scenario and highlights several challenges that continue to plague Child Welfare workers across the country.

Human services and health care professionals can learn a lot from each other, especially when it comes to sharing valuable insight to the care and service of others. Forbes Technology Council’s predictions on the impact of technology in health care offer direct parallels to the impact of technology in Child Welfare.