This comprehensive professional development program is designed to provide support, skill building and networking opportunities for new and experienced supervisors in child welfare. It builds on the research, development and implementation model of the federally funded research study implemented in the southern U.S. over a five-year period. Central to the program are the best-practice approaches that have proven to support supervisors in child welfare.
Training takes place in one- or two-day "learning lab" sessions offered monthly throughout the year. In addition, a field trainer will be assigned to each supervisor and serve as a mentor/coach to help supervisors apply what they've learned. After each learning lab, a field trainer will visit each supervisor's site to review and reinforce new skills, answer questions and brainstorm specific implementation strategies for each supervisor's county.
As a result of this program, the combination of solution-focused strategic development and mentoring assistance will enable supervisors to:
- Increase caseworker retention
- Improve children and family outcomes
- Enable best practices for caseworkers in assessment and intervention with families
- Improve partnering with the courts
- Meet system improvement plan requirements
To better understand what supervisors will learn in Tools for Supervisory Excellence, managers and administrators are invited to participate in portions of the program—separately and jointly—with supervisors as topics allow. Managers and administrators can expect to meet three to four times during the year.