Empowering Social Workers Project
Here is a brief summary of the CASW project that I worked on from
January – November 2006. The final report has just been published.
Direct Link to the Executive Summary of the final report.
Empowering Social Workers Project
The project was sponsored by the Canadian Association of Social Workers (CASW) and represented Phase III of the Child Welfare Project. The Child Welfare Project was launched in 2000 with the goal of optimizing the contribution of social workers to the well-being of children, youth and families. For more information on the Child Welfare Project: “Creating Conditions for Good Practice”, go to www.casw-acts.ca.
The project entailed the development and implementation of a supportive training curriculum designed to empower child protection workers to achieve improved working conditions in their practice environment. Working collaboratively with a team of front line child protection workers, was critical to achieving the successful development and implementation of the innovative curriculum.
Through the project, the team of front line child and family services workers was challenged to acknowledge, accept and then attempt to change the impact of their environmental realities. The training curriculum was developed through a facilitated process that embraced the practical application of a Strength Based Approach (SBA). The SBA model, combined with capacity building principles, underpinned and informed every stage and every step in the project’s implementation.
In addition to creating an innovative and portable curriculum, the pilot project also demonstrated the potential value of an alternative approach to training. The curriculum can be used to enhance and better prepare new staff for working in the child welfare field and/or incorporated as ongoing competency-based training to advance the capacities of current child protection teams to adapt, cope and influence the environmental realities present in their respective workplaces.