ANN ARBOR—The University of Michigan is collaborating with seven universities to offer training and resources through a new national institute to improve child welfare.

The U.S. Children’s Bureau (Administration for Children and Families, Department of Health and Human Services) awarded a five-year, $16.5 million grant to fund the National Child Welfare Workforce Institute.

The funding comes as many states attempt to improve a system that has struggled to have well-trained and enough social workers to handle cases. In the state of Michigan, the lack of foster care workers, their need for specialized training, and the failure of workers to follow agency policy have been related to several child deaths and injuries in recent years.

U-M researchers Kathleen Coulborn Faller and Robert Ortega?both professors at the School of Social Work?will work with colleagues at The University at Albany’s School of Social Welfare and its partners. The national partners include the National Indian Child Welfare Association, the Child Welfare League of America, and the Universities of North Carolina, Denver, Southern Maine, Iowa, Michigan State and Fordham.

U-M will receive $300,000 for two major efforts. Researchers will develop a national curriculum for child welfare supervisors and mid-managers on cultural competency, which Faller and Ortega have previously taught in Michigan, Maine, California and Washington D.C. This program?which is also called cultural humility?allows social workers, who are often white and female, to work more effectively with families of different races and ethnicities, Faller said.

“It’s a way of approaching people different from yourself, honoring their culture and understanding how they see the world,” Faller said, adding that Ortega will take the lead in this online training project.

U-M’s funding will also involve other web seminars on training programs, Faller said. U-M will consult with MSU on evaluating child welfare training efforts nationwide. MSU will allocate about nine grants.

The institute’s aim is to strengthen the child welfare workforce in public, private and tribal child welfare systems. Its mission is to implement sustainable systems change and institutionalize effective workforce and child welfare practices.

“The goal is to improve safety, permanency and well being outcomes for vulnerable children,” said Mary McCarthy, director of the Social Work Education Consortium at the University at Albany and the project’s principal investigator.

The institute will focus on building multiple levels of leadership, as well as expanding the skills and knowledge of those who serve in public, private and tribal child welfare systems.

Key activities include training, peer networking, administering grants to colleges and universities for child welfare professional education programs, cross-site evaluations to derive knowledge and lessons learned, and a national dissemination plan.

For more information on Faller, visit: http://www.ssw.umich.edu/about/profiles/profile-kcfaller.html

Ortega: http://www.ssw.umich.edu/about/profiles/profile-rmortega.html

School of Social Work: http://www.ssw.umich.edu/

FallerOrtegaSchool of Social Work