Child Welfare Supervisor Learning Collaborative

The Northern Academy’s twice-annual Supervisor Learning Collaborative Series is designed to elevate leadership, strengthen teams and transform child welfare practice. Topics are drawn directly from supervisor feedback in a regional survey, ensuring each session is timely, relevant and grounded in the real-world needs of supervisors.

Upcoming Sessions

Building a Culture of Appreciation

Virtual: Oct. 22, 2025, 9–11 a.m.

This session explores practical ways to create a culture of appreciation—identified as a top priority by supervisors across the region. Together we will examine strategies that boost engagement, build trust and foster environments where staff feel valued every day.

Who Should Attend:

Child welfare supervisors seeking to:

Increase staff engagement and satisfaction
Foster recognition and trust
Strengthen team resilience and reduce turnover
Connect with peers in a supportive, collaborative space

What You’ll Gain:

Approaches for recognizing staff contributions
Insights into effective reward and motivation systems
Tools to strengthen retention, morale and team-building
Adaptable strategies for diverse supervisory settings

Let’s build workplaces where appreciation is felt, celebrated and woven into daily practice.

Sharpening Our Lens: Critical Thinking for Child Welfare Practice

Virtual: Spring 2026, Date & Time

This session focuses on cultivating critical thinking in high-pressure environments. Participants will learn to strengthen assessments, reduce bias and support reflective decision-making, all while fostering sustainable leadership practices.

Who Should Attend:

Child welfare supervisors aiming to:

Strengthen assessment and decision-making skills
Support staff well-being and reflective practice
Build resilience and improve retention

What You’ll Gain:

Tools to apply critical thinking in fast-paced settings
Strategies to reduce bias and empower staff
Insights to build confidence, competence and sustainability

Let's Sharpen Our Lens Together

Together, these upcoming sessions create a supportive space for supervisors to grow as leaders, strengthen their teams and drive meaningful change in child welfare practice. We hope to see you there!

Academic Units

CEUs

0.2

Section Number

252SSA514

Instruction Method

Online class

Enroll Now

Section Schedule

Wed., Oct 22nd, 2025, 9:00am to 11:00am

Instructors

Nicole Bradford

Nicole Bradford, M.S.W., has spent over a decade working with vulnerable children and families as a child welfare social worker and supervisor in one of the few frontier counties in California. She has expertise in child abuse prevention and differential response, referral intake and emergency response investigations, and Resource Family Approval. Bradford has significant experience working in child abuse investigations, forensic interviewing of abuse victims and critical incidents related to child death investigations. She extends this trauma-informed lens administratively in her work to recruit, retain and build a competent child welfare workforce.

Kate Bedwell

Kate Bedwell is a social worker, trainer, and a certified Gallup Strengths Coach with more than 20 years of practice and leadership success. Her professional career has spanned the realms of public child welfare, juvenile justice, family self-sufficiency and workforce development. As a supervising practice coach within public child welfare for more than seven years, she developed mastery of coaching, training, and simulation facilitation to support implementation of best practices across all levels of the workforce in public child welfare. She specializes in facilitating safe, challenging, dynamic and interactive learning processes which vitalize, inspire, and motivate teams and individuals. Deeply inspired by her work training and coaching within child welfare, Bedwell strongly believes training and coaching of the child welfare workforce is fundamental to the implementation of evidenced based child welfare practice.