Child Welfare

On Nov. 7 and Dec.

As we surge into 2024 with a host of new and exciting changes, we’re happy to announce the release of a new and improved SOP Quick Guide and to feature a look back at one of many 2023 SOP Champions we'll be celebrating throughout 2024.

What is alloparenting? A December 2023 article from NPR highlights recent study and other research that illustrate the benefits of providing parents with more social supports and hands-on help with the care of infants and young children.

Our vision is that every child finds solace and safety within the loving embrace of their family, especially during times of separation from their parents. The Center for Excellence is dedicated to ensuring that children remain unified with their families, communities, and Tribes.

With the 2023 California Safety Organized Practice Conference recently wrapped up, we couldn’t think of a more inspiring time to tackle the topic of SOP and Family First Prevention Services (FFPS) integration. The theme for this year’s SOP conference, collaborative engagement for prevention, said much about the monumental, infrastructure-wide shift underway toward prevention-focused services. The SOP Toolkit has some new tools to help with that.

Hosted by the Northern Academy at UC Davis Human Services on the Davis campus June 21-22, the 2023 California Safety Organized Practice (SOP) conference proved a reinvigorating return to its traditional form after the 2021 conference was hosted as a virtual event due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Presented each spring by the Northern Academy at UC Davis Human Services, the Sarah Duncan Champion for Children and Families Award honors one of Northern California’s outstanding social workers and seeks to highlight additional child welfare line social workers who reflect Duncan’s passion, skill and tireless commitment to working to improve outcomes for children and families. This is the second year the award has been presented. 

For those who submitted a nomination, thank you so much for taking the time to recognize one of your valued colleagues. If you didn’t get a chance to nominate this year: Don’t worry! We are already taking submissions for next year’s award.

The Resource Center for Family-Focused Practice at UC Davis Human Services is please to share a new resource for parent partners.

Child welfare work often feels like a thankless job. We can get so caught up in the day-to-day deluge of work that we don’t always pause to recognize good work when it is happening. There’s just so much work, and so many challenges, that taking the time to reflect on how much good is actually done, every single day, can seem impossible.

Looking for some quick tips and strategies to break down these important tools?

Safety Organized Practice has become so embedded in child welfare best practice that its acronym (SOP) can be tossed around loosely in the field. Many new social workers may not yet fully understand what SOP is, and many more may lack an understanding of its full history. Even seasoned SOP Champions may need a refresher from time to time.

Over the past two years, human services professionals have gone from experiencing pandemic stress, to pandemic fatigue, to finding a “new normal” as they regain their footing in daily work life. On May 24, 2022, the Northern Academy at UC Davis Human Services hosted a free, full-day virtual event devoted to discussing the challenges of work and life stresses and how to find workable solutions to mitigate this stress.

The field of Human Services is as wide and complex as its moniker might suggest. For larger agencies, an overlap in services is almost inevitable, but this doesn’t mean it should be shrugged off. For services that deal with vulnerable and/or traumatized children and families—such as CalWORKS and Child Welfare Services—each contact with children and families has the potential to cause additional trauma. The need to prevent inefficient, repetitive, and/or otherwise overlapping communications becomes paramount.

On March 23-24, 2022, UC Davis Human Services hosted the 5th annual CQI Statewide Conference for Child Welfare and Probation: A Pathway to Partnerships. On the opening day, keynote speakers Gregory Rose and Marcela Ruiz from the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) highlighted how the pursuit of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is crucial to building lasting partnerships with children, families and stakeholders in their safety and stability.

We’d like to thank everyone who participated in National Social Worker Month this March! While the month may be over, we’ll never stop looking for new ways to express our gratitude for those who have made it their life’s work to support vulnerable children and families. To that end, we are thrilled to kick off April by announcing the winner of the inaugural Sarah Duncan Champion for Children and Families Award!

In memory of one of California's outstanding social workers, Sarah Duncan, Human Services at UC Davis Continuing and Professional Education is seeking your assistance in recognizing and honoring Northern California child welfare social workers who reflect passion, skill and tireless commitment to working to improve outcomes for children and families. This is an excellent opportunity to focus on and to celebrate the hard work that goes into this vital profession, and to cherish those who have made it their life's work to improve the lives of others.

Nearly 550 child welfare professionals from across the state participated in a two-day event aimed at improving the safety and well-being of tens of thousands of vulnerable children and families. Hosted by the Northern Academy at UC Davis Human Services, the California Safety Organized Practice Conference took place on June 15-16, 2021, as a free virtual event.

Let’s keep the celebration going! Last week, we featured seven outstanding Northern California child welfare social workers. This week, we are bringing you nine more to cap off our participation in and support of National Child Welfare Workforce Institute's Child Welfare Workforce Recognition Month. 

In 2019, California Governor Gavin Newson appointed pediatrician Nadine Burke Harris as California’s first-ever Surgeon General. A UC Davis School of Medicine graduate in 2001, Burke Harris is well known for her role in spreading awareness to all healthcare providers about Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and toxic stress.

UC Davis Human Services’ Resource Center for Family-Focused Practice team was proud to partner with the California Department of Social Services and many contributing partners on the development of this timely and relevant Playbook, Flexible Foster Care Rated During COVID-19: A Playbook for Supporting Child and Youth Permanency through a Wraparound-Informed Approach Operationalizing All County Letter 20-44.

In this relevant (and relatable) news story, CBS News' Jericka Duncan shares the accounts of some child welfare workers who recorded video diaries of the lengths they must go to meet with children and families while observing health precautions during the COVID-19 health crisis.

Watch the video and consider sharing it with your colleagues—there maybe a variety of ways to use this video with your staff and community.

Designed for resource parents who are caring for school-aged children and youth, this webinar provides a timely discussion with a panel of experts on topics, including:

Drs. John Lyons and April Fernando recently recorded a webinar on the use of the CANS and ANSA in non-face-to-face modalities (e.g., telephone). Texas was kind enough to let the Praed Foundation share it with us. Download the webinar for free at the link below:

In an effort to provide guidance on how to continue our work during this time of physical distancing, the NCCD Children’s Research Center has published a number of resource materials. Below you’ll find links to these documents, which include comprehensive, step-by-step tools and information that we hope social workers and supervisors will find valuable:

By Susan Brooks, Director of Human Services, UC Davis Continuing and Professional Education

As we celebrate Reaching Out's 15th year of production, we couldn't help but fall into a little reflection. 

Over these many but quickly moving years, each issue of Reaching Out has traditionally highlighted one central topic area. As we searched for one common thread across our many issues, we kept coming back to one that is still a large, important, and very tricky topic to this day: implementation.

By Renée Boothroyd, Scientist and Senior Implementation Specialist, Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Getting to outcomes is not as simple as selecting an effective practice model or strategy (“the WHAT”). The process of supporting use of any practice model or strategy (“the HOW”) is just as, if not more important, for creating supportive systems and improving outcomes. 

Safety organized practice (SOP) implementation in California began in the northern region in 2008. Over the past decade, this partnership-based approach to engaging children and families and their networks of support has been adopted by many counties across the state, with counties currently at various stages of implementation.

Webinar recorded on January 22, 2020