SOP Toolkit Posts

Each installment explores specific components of the Safety Organized Practice (SOP) Toolkit and details how they might be used by both child welfare leaders and social workers in their unique roles. 

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Recent Articles

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From Lived Experience to Lasting Change: Inside the 2025 California Safety Organized Practice Conference

  • by Jason M Borucki
UC Davis Human Services’ Northern Academy hosted the California Safety Organized Practice Conference May 28–29, 2025, drawing 200+ child welfare professionals to reconnect with SOP’s relationship-centered core. Under the theme “Connecting to the Heart of SOP,” attendees heard powerful keynotes from Lisa Maaca Bartlette and Irving Chavez, previewed the new “Robert’s Story” video series, and joined a dozen-plus workshops focused on trauma-informed, strengths-based practice. The event amplified lived experience, sparked fresh collaboration across roles, and reaffirmed a shared commitment to family-led solutions.
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Growing and Sharing in Safety Organized Practice

  • by Jason M Borucki
The power of SOP has always been that it is grassroots–developed and enhanced by the people who use it in practice. One of the key goals of the SOP Toolkit is to create a collaborative space in which this grassroots movement can continue to grow as practices and circumstances continue to evolve.

SOP Toolkit: Harm and Danger Statements; Safety Goals

  • by Jason M Borucki
Sharing New Tools and Celebrating Successful Safety Organized Practice

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.

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SOP Toolkit: Collaborative Engagement for Prevention

  • by Jason M Borucki
Introducing new guidance on SOP & Family First Prevention Services integration, and reflecting upon the 2023 SOP Conference

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.

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The SOP Toolkit: Safety Over Service Compliance

A foundational principle informing Safety Organized Practice is that services and safety are not the same thing. Service completion, on its own, does not promise child safety. Behavior change, on the other hand—demonstrated and sustained over time—is a far more promising sign of safety.
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The SOP Toolkit: Hearing and Helping Our Kids

Integrating a child’s perspective is so important to the work of child welfare. Safety Organized Practice (SOP) provides a series of strategies, specifically the utilization of the Three Houses and Safety House information gathering tools, which allow children, in a developmentally appropriate way, to meaningfully contribute to both risk assessment and safety planning.

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

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The SOP Toolkit: Back to the Basics

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.