April 2008 Children, Youth, and Families Interest Group Newsletter

UNI VE RS ITY Of

CHILDREN, YOU TH I NTEREST GROUP u •tHRSITY or lllCH I GU SCH OOL o r SO CIAL IORl 10 8 0 S . U•I H RSITY AH .

ANN ARB OR. Ill 4 8109 - 110 6

The Children, Youth, and Families Interest Group Newsletter CY&F Feature: Upcoming Collaboratory on April I I On April 11, 2008, from 9 a.m.

P HONE : 734 - 76 4 - 3 309 FAX : 734 - 936 - 196 1

LET US KNOW WHA T YO U

to 12 p.m., the Children, Youth, and Families (CY&F) Interest

its second collaboratory,

Group will sponsor a collaboratory

which took place at the

at the Guidance Center in South-

Detroit Center.

gate, Michigan, titled " Barriers to

THE CY&f llWCYF@UHICH . EDU WOULD YOU l AGENCY LllE TO PARTIC IP ATE IN A

COLL ABOlA TOlY?

Sean Joe spoke on the rise

Diverse C hildren and Families:

of black youth suicide in

How Integration of Services Can

the late 1980s, which nar-

Help." Presenters will be Michael

rowed the gap between black and

Spencer, PhD, associate professor

white suicide rates. An increase in

at the University of Michigan's

firearm-related suicides accounts

School of Social Work, and Deb-

for this ri se. Dr. Joe provided pos-

orah Willis, PhD, director of pro-

sible explanations for the new

grams at the Guidance Center.

trends, including the weakening of

knowledge about the vulnerability

C Y&F Upcoming

CY&F Previo us Collaboratory ...

CY&F Recruitment and Retentio n Program .......

2

Doctoral Students' Biographies . . . . .

community institutions.

U-M Photo Services: Paul Jaronski

Above: Assistant Professor Sean Joe; Roberta Sanders, CEO of New Center Community Mental Health Services; and George Winn, COO of the Children's Center of Detroit, present at the May 2007 collaboratory on black suicide.

Two suicide survivors gave their

to mental health problems, re-

unique perspective on how they

sponses to these problems, and

found difficulties in navigating the

barriers to client help-seeking rrom

mental health community and re-

professionals, particularly for di-

ceiving the support they needed.

verse communities. A second goal

Collaboratory ...

Assistant Professor

Mental Health Service Use by

T hi s collaboratory will describe

Inside This Issue:

On May 10, 2007, the CY &F Interest Group held

Next, Margaret Keyes-Howard

is to discuss o ne agency's response

of the Detroit-Wayne County Com-

to these barriers by endeavors to

munity Mental Health Agency

develop services integration, a

facilitated a panel with Roberta

central ized intake for children and

Sanders, CEO of New Center Com-

families, and an electronic case

munity Mental Health Services,

record. Third, it will provide the

and George Winn, COO of the

client perspective from individuals

Children's Center of Detroit. They

who have faced barriers and chal-

discussed the need to start preven-

lenges to diverse populations and

tion efforts at an earlier age and to

arrive at one product that can be an

educate adults whom youth trust

outcome of this collaboratory.

and will come in contact with.

SAVE THE DATE: CY&FCOLLABORATORY APRIL 11, 2008 9 A.M . TO 12 P.M. THE GUIDANCE CENTER 13111 ALLEN ROAD SOUTHGATE, MI 48195

Bottom l eft: Professor Michael Spencer Bottom Right: Dr. Deborah Willis

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Stttngthcn1Dg famtUn. Ch:i1nglng lton:.

University of Michigan School of Social Work Recruitment and Retention of Child Welfare Professionals Program The University of Michigan School of Social Work is a recipient of a 5-year grant from the Children's Bureau, entitled Recruitment & Retention of Child Welfare Professionals Program. Although a primary purpose of thi s program is to develop a training curriculum designed to sustain a reli able workforce, it has been an opportunity to advance knowledge about Michigan's child welfare workforce, within the Department of Human Services (OHS) and in private agencies who have contracts with OHS. A particuJar emphasis of our program is focused on the racial composition of the workforce and its impact on the overrepresentation of children of color in the child welfare system. In this article, we summarize the training curricula and the research on the Michigan Child Welfare workforce.

CURRICULA The primary audience of the training curricula is child welfare workers in the southeast region of Michigan. This region, which includes Wayne County, has over half of the child welfare clientele and workforce. Training curricula developed as part of this program were derived from several sources, including a review of the literature, needs assessments, 12 focus groups with child welfare workers, supervisors, and managers, data collected from exit interviews with public child welfare workers, and a longitudinal study of incoming public and private agency child welfare workers.

Training in Cultural Humility The child welfare population is culturally diverse, so diverse that it is not possible for chi ld welfare staff to be culturally competent in all of the populations they encounter. In our one-day training module, we encourage child welfare workers to demonstrate the highest level of competence about their work but demonstrate "humility" when it comes to understanding famil y culture. The concept of "cultural humility" is introduced, which challenges child welfare staff to learn from the diverse people with whom they work, reserve judgment, and bridge the cultural divide between perspectives in order to develop and maintain mutual respect and a collaborative working relationship. Another key concept in the training is intersectionality, which is des igned to increase awareness and respect for the multiple social identities that make each person unique. Issues of power, the role of history (or herstory), privilege, and social (in)justice are also brought to worker consciousness in their interactions and work with the families on their caseload. To date, we have conducted 23 training sessions to approximately 391 child welfare staff. Evaluations have been very positive and follow-up contact indicates that child welfare staff employ the concepts and skills in their work.

Contact person: Robert M. Ortega; email rmortega@umich.edu Supervising for Retention Public child welfare supervisors often receive training in agency policy, but not in skills to use in s upervising staff. We have developed a full-day curriculum that draws upon the human services management literature and our past experience training child welfare supervisors. The training is delivered by Professor John Tropman of the Schoo l of Social Work and the Business Schoo l, and Teresa Marshall, a Department of Human Services Program Manager in Wayne County. To date, we have conducted five halfday basic trainings for child welfare s upervisors to approx imately 150 chi ld welfare supervisors. The evaluations of the training by partic ipants were quite positive.

Contact person: John Tropman; email tropman@umich.edu

C laudette Grinnell-Davis, Maria Hayes, and Kathleen Coulbom Faller meet to discuss the program.

Advanced Legal Training The ful l-day legal training we provide is a case-based, interactive training curriculum that utilizes adult learning methodologies.

In the first segment of this training, participants will work through a case si mulation exercise that incorporates a serious examination of how culture and cultural humility impact upon the child welfare practice of child welfare workers and its potenti al for deli beration by lawyers. In the second segment of this training, a case-based simulation serves as a tool for comparing and contrasting legal and soc ial work ethics with a particular focus on how legal ethics may contribute to child welfare worker job frustration, dissatisfaction, and burnout. The final segment of the training addresses practical issues of child welfare practice, including report writing, preparing fo r court hearings and trials, and testifying in court. A ltogether, I00 child welfare workers and 6 lawyers have been trained. In addition, two half-day sess ions on the legal ethics portion of the training were provided to 60 child welfare workers in Oakland County. All legal training sessions have received positive evaluations.

Contact person: Frank Vandervort; email vort@umich.edu Indian Child Welfare Act Training Nearl y 30 years ago, the U.S. Congress enacted the Indian Child Welfare Act (JCWA), which mandates certain procedures fo r handling child welfare cases in state courts that involve Indian children. The JCWA training is a day-long, case-based collaboratively designed training curriculum that utilizes adult learning methodologies to illustrate the interaction of the ICWA, other Federal statutes, and agency policy with practical implementation issues. Participants in designing and deve loping the workshop incl uded several Nati ve Americans from Michigan tribes, Indian Legal Services, and project staff. Trainees who are both state child welfare workers and tribal caseworkers are given a case-based problem and assigned to a small group (6-8 trainees) to consider a number of specific questions raised by the facts of the problem.

After a brief period of t ime to work through the questions as a small group, the entire group (35-50) reconvenes and shares their small group responses with the larger group. These large group discussions are facilitated by lawyers with experience in fCWA cases and a director of tribal social services. This basic process is repeated for in-home/preventive services, preliminary hearing stage of a proceeding, pre-trial, trial/disposition and permanency planning/termination of parental rights. The first ICWA took place May 4, 2007. It was conducted by Professor Vandervort, Bill Memberto, social services director for the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, and James Keedie, director of Michigan Indian Legal Services. Four additional advanced ICWA trainings will be conducted during March and April 2008.

Contact person: Frank Vandervort; email vort@umich.edu

DATA COLLECTION Longitudinal Survey of Entering Workers For the most part, information on the child welfare workforce is cross sectiona l or point-in-time. We are conducting a longitudinal survey of all new ch ild welfare workers to better understand issues of recruitment and retention, beginning when they are hired or when they trans fer into CPS or foster care, and every 6 months fo r a period o f 18 months. Questions included in the survey focus on a number of ~ork adjustment areas such as role ambiguity, role conflict, j ob mastery, job-re lated rewards, co-worker re lations, worksetting discrimination, job opportunities, burnout, j ob satisfaction, changes in mental health, emotional support, resource support, and so on. All survey participants are vo luntary. We have collected data from 652 new workers and lateral trans fers, who are attending entry training sessions. Lateral transfers are persons trans ferrin g into child protective services or foster care from some other part o f the agency. We have collected s ix-month data on 297 of these child wel fare workers, one-year data on 156, and 18-month data on 90 workers. Find ings have in fo rmed our training curricula for child welfare staff, and we are engaging in analysis o f the data for publication purposes.

Contact person: Siri Jayaratne; email sirijay@umich.edu Realistic Job Preview The Michigan Department of Human Services is participating in an Anne E. Casey initiative that provides applicants to state child welfare positions an opportunity to view a DVD portraying

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Exit Interviews We are collecting telephone interview data from workers who have ex ited DHS, beginning with empl oyees who left in January 2004. To date, we have conducted 141 ex it interviews. Data from the interviews are transcribed and coded using a qua litati ve analys is program. Results from the first 69 departed workers suggest a compl ex mix o f reasons with a particular focus on working conditi ons that do not allow them to serve children and families well, problems in supervi sion, high caseloads, agency behaviors, and agency climate. These results parallel the findings from other studies; however, the data co llection strategy for this project is unique in that it draws on information directl y from form er workers.

Contact person: Kathleen Coulborn Faller; email kcfaller@umich. edu Continued on back page

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Doctoral Student Profiles Tova Neugut My name is Tova and I am a firstyear doctoral student in social work and clinical science. My interests lie within the integration of theory, practice, po licy, and research relating to disadvantaged children and families, and particularly to those whose lives are touched by family vio lence.

Working with children affected by famil y vio lence, I have observed the varied and devastating impact of trauma on children's psychological, soc ial, behavioral, and academic development. This experience inspires my research interest in trends related to interpersonal victimization in the home, the dynamics o f fam ily vio lence, trauma's effects on ch ild and adult victims, and the relationship between ch ildren's learning and behavior problems at schoo l and their experiences o f trauma. My long-term professional goal is to engage in applied research to develop and improve school- and community-based interventions to provide protective, supporti ve, and ameliorative experiences to ch ildren who have endured physical threat and harm , emotional maltreatment, neg lect, abandonment, and loss.

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the ro le of a state child welfare worker. In the s ix-month questionnaire in the longitudinal survey, we added several specific questions to assess the impact of the DVD on workers' understanding o f the realities o f the public child welfare job. We are currently conducting analyses to assess whether or not view ing the video had an impact on the workers' decision to accept child welfare employment, their understanding of the nature o f the work, and their ability to cope with the challenges of the work.

Contact person: Kathleen Coulborn Faller; email kcfaller@umich. edu

Claudette Grinnell-Davis I am a first-year student in the Joint Doctoral Program in Social Work and Social Science at the Un iversity of Michigan.

My focus is within child welfare. I am interested in how child welfare po licy and admin istration affects servi ce provision and

- - - - - --.. successful outcomes. My interest in administration led to my involvement with the Recruitment and Retention of Child Welfare Workers project through the Univers ity of Michigan's School of Social Work.

I am also interested in the relationship between child we lfare referrals and personality di sorders in parents- particularly in relationship to parents who are identifi ed as "failing to protect" their children from sex ual abuse. I hope to explore building healthy communities as a prevention measure against child welfare invo lvement and developing resilience in children in volved with the fos ter care system.

Betsy Harbison I am a first-year student in the Joint Doctoral Program in Social Work and Sociology. I am very invo lved with the Home less Children's Playtim e Proj ect (HCPP), a non-profit vo lunteer group that provides a nurturing play environment for homeless children in Washington, D.C. Within the Joint Doctora l Program, I hope to pursue my interest in the well-being o f children and low-income families. Recently, I have become interested in the ex periences of children di agnosed with mental health disorders. I plan to conduct research that educates the public about the experiences o f disadvantaged populations, informs po licy, and promotes social change.

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University of Michigan

University of Michigan School of Social Work

Children, Youth

Ann Arbor, Ml 48109- 1 I 06

I 080 South University Ave.

& Families Interest Group School of Social Work

Phone: 734-764-3309 Fax: 734-936-196 1 sswcyf@umich.edu

Bringing academic researc h and community practice together

The Regents of the Un.i versity: Julia ~onovan Darlow, Laurence B. Deitch, Olivia P. Maynard, Rebecca McGowan, Andrea Fischer Newman, Andrew C. Richner, S. Martin Taylor, Katherine E. White, Mary Sue Coleman (ex officio) The Univers ity o f Michigan is a non-discriminatory, affirmati ve action empl oyer.

Continuedji·om page 3 PRODUCTS In 2008 the fo ur training curricula will be placed on a University of Michigan Recruitment and Retention of Child Welfare Workers website. ln addition, us ing our various data and information sources, we are engaged in writing to inform the child welfare community and for publication. To date, we have completed the fo ll owi ng products: I . AFRICAN AMERICAN AN D WHITE CH ILD WE LFARE

WOR KERS' ATTITUDES TOWARDS POLI C IES INVOLVING RACE AND SEXUAL ORlENTATION, by Srini ka Jayaratne, Kathleen Coulbom Faller, Robert M. Ortega, and Frank Vandervort, accepted for publication in Children and

Youth Services Review.

2. EX IT INTERVI EWS WTTH DEPARTED CHILD W ELFA R E WO RKERS, by Robbin Pott Gonzalez, Kathleen Coulbom Fa ller, Robert M. Ortega, and John Tropman, under review with

The Journal ofPublic Child Welfare.

3. LEGA L ETH ICS AND HIGH CHILD WELFARE WORKER TUR NOVER: AN UNEXPLORED CONNECTION, by Frank E. Vandervort, Robb in Pott Gonzales, & Kathleen Coulbom Faller, in press- Children and Youth Services Re view.

4. DESCRJPTI VE STATI STICS ON NEW CHI LD W ELFAR E WORKERS, by John Tropman, Kathleen Coulbom Fall er, Marguerite Grabarek, and C laudette Grinnell-Davis, under review with Journal of Public Child Welfare.

5. PUBLIC AND PRJVATE FOSTER CARE WORKERS: A COMPARISON OF DEG REES OF COMMITMENT TO C HlLD WELFARE, by Srinika Jayaratne and Kathl een

Coulbom Faller, under review with Journal ofSocial Services

Research.

6. RACE MATCHING IN SERVI CE DELIV ERY: JS THERE AN ELEPHANT IN TH E LIVIN G ROOM?, by Srinika Jayaratne, Robert M. Ortega, Kathleen Coulbom Faller, and Frank Vandervort. Paper presented at the I 51h lnrernational Consortium on Social Development, Hong Kong Po lytechni c University, Hong Kong, China, July 17, 2007.

7. TRAINING C HILD WELFARE WORKERS FROM A CULTURAL HUMILITY PERS PECT IVE, by Robert M. Ortega and Kathleen Coulbom Faller Web address: www.ssw.umich.edu/public/currentProjects/rrcwp E mail address: r&r@ umich.edu The support for this program is from the U.S. DHHS Adm inistration on Children, Youth, and Families, Discretionary Programs, Child Welfare Train ing Grant, Award # 90CT I 15.

Principal Investigator: Kathleen Coulbom Faller, PhD, ACSW. Co- Principal Investigators: Frank Vandervort, JD (Law School); Robert Ortega, MSW, PhD; John Tropman, MSW. PhD Consultants: S iri Jayaratne, MSW, PhD; Delores Bigfoot, PhD (U ni vers ity of Oklahoma Hea lth Sciences Center, Center on Child Abuse and Neglect).

Research Associates: Melnee D. McPherson, MSW, MA, PhD (Institute for Research on Women and Gender); Robbin Pott Gonzalez, MPP, JD (Institute for Social Research); Marguerite Grabarek, MSW, PhD Cand idate; Claudette Grinnell-Dav is (Joint Program in Social Work and Social Science).

Project Coordinator: Maria Hayes, BS.