A new rate structure for Home-Based Foster Care (HBFC) was necessitated with the passage of the Continuum of Care Reform (CCR). In response, a Level of Care (LOC) Protocol has been developed for use by county child welfare and probation placement workers. A LOC matrix using five domains (Physical, Behavioral/Emotional, Health, Educational and Permanency/Family Services Domain), separately scored, and designed to promote best practices in meeting the individual needs of children/youth in the foster care system.

This curriculum consists of five modules in PowerPoint format designed to be used by instructors in class sessions or assigned to students as web-based independent learning. Instructors may use and revise the presentations for their needs. Each module contains slides with narrative information and links to additional readings and relevant websites and will take 1-2 hours for students to complete. Modules typically include factual or reflection questions. Module I informs students about the history and current status of the issue of overrepresentation of African Americans in child welfare. Module II centers on theories to explain overrepresentation and explains the background, methods, results, and recommendations from a recent CalSWEC-funded study on worker factors in overrepresentation. Module III focuses on African American family strengths, values, and norms. It includes an important reading on strengths-based practice with African American families, links to websites that are African American-centered, and ends with linking students to the Harvard University site to take the Implicit Associations Test. Module IV focuses on cultural competency and antiracism theory and reflective exercises. Module V contains abbreviated material from each of the four preceding modules. Smith, L. A., & Shon, H. (2010).

This resource provides access to the Northern California Training Academy's Educational Advocacy course materials for child welfare social workers. If you would like to learn more about the Academy, please visit humanservices.ucdavis.edu/academy

This course offers family service workers a framework for working with internal and external partner agencies to meet the needs of the families they serve.

Developed for family service workers, this course will help participants understand what life skills are, how to assess a client’s life skills, and how to successfully work with clients to help them strengthen or acquire certain life skills.

This resource features required and supplemental readings attached to the Facilitated and Team-Based Learning (TBL) course for Northern California Training Academy and Center for Human Services instructors. In this workshop, attendees briefly review literature to understand key concepts of TBL and then use TBL to deepen their understanding of the concepts in order to apply them toward problem solving in a case example.

This curriculum focuses on factors that may lead to differential placement outcomes for children who have become dependents of the court, as the result of abuse and neglect, and have been placed with kin rather than in traditional foster homes. It is intended for use by child welfare faculty in California’s schools of social work or social welfare in both BSW and MSW programs and may be used in direct practice or Human Behavior and the Social Environment (HBSE) classes. In addition, the curriculum, or parts from it, may be used in workshops provided to line workers, supervisors, and/or managers by any of the public child welfare training academies in California or public child welfare agencies. The intent of this curriculum is to provide students and child welfare professionals with (a) background information on kinship care as an alternative to traditional foster care, (b) a brief review of the literature pertaining to the characteristics of dependent children in kinship care and their care providers, (c) opportunities to discuss beliefs about why kinship care is valuable (or not) and why it may or may not be successful, (d) demographic data pertaining to selected characteristics of children in kinship care and their care providers derived from a sample of California child welfare cases, (e) factors which may or may not be related to premature termination of kinship care placements, (f) caregiver perceptions of differential placement outcomes, (g) social worker perceptions of differential placement outcomes, and (h) opportunities to discuss how students and/or child welfare workers can decrease premature termination of kinship care placements. The curriculum is accompanied by a PowerPoint presentation containing key points from each module followed by one or more slides presenting an “active learning experience.” (78 pages) Chang, J., Liles, R., & Hoang, T. (2006).

This curriculum introduces the Family Group Decision Making (FGDM) model of working with families in child welfare and is based on a core belief that within families lies the wisdom to find solutions to protect their own children and resolve other issues of concern. The six modules cover the historical perspective of FGDM; models of FGDM; cultural competency; micro, mezzo, and macro level skills utilized in FGDM; practice; and outcome measures. In addition to lecture content, modules include instructional guides and suggestions, interactive exercises, topics for discussion, video and other resource suggestions, and a pre- and posttest instrument with answer sheet. An appendix of handouts, workshop evaluation form, references, and list of information sources and resources is included. (128 pages)Okamura, A., Quinnett, E. (2000).

This resource contains class materials for the Core Field Advisor and Field Guide Training, which is designed for prospective field advisors. California Child Welfare Common Core 3.0 (and 2.5) requires new social workers to engage in a specific set of field based activities that will enhance their learning of the in-class sessions. Each new social worker will be assigned a Field Advisor (most likely his or her supervisor) to work through these activities.

CalYOUTH is an evaluation of the impact of the California Fostering Connections to Success Act on outcomes during the transition to adulthood for foster youth. CalYOUTH includes collection and analysis of information from three sources: 1) transition-age youth, 2) child welfare workers, and 3) government program data. The study, led by Mark Courtney and conducted in collaboration with the California Department of Social Services and California County Welfare Directors Association, is being carried out over a 5-year period from 2012-2017.

The purpose of this curriculum is to heighten the awareness and increase knowledge of child welfare workers, foster care providers, and school staff regarding the educational needs of foster children and to develop specific skills to address those needs and smooth the transition to new school environments in order to avoid unnecessary absences from school caused by transferring to a new foster home. The process requires a three-way collaborative effort between the caseworker, foster care provider, and school staff, and this curriculum provides clear, concise, and practicable actions for all of the responsible professionals to enable them to operate effectively as part of a collaborative team. (209 pages)Berrick, J. D., Ayasse, R. H. (2005).

This module supports the guidelines of the Indian Child Welfare Act. It provides information on overcoming Indian families' fundamental mistrust and engaging families appropriately; how federal Indian policy affects Indian communities: Indian culture, traditions, family, and child rearing; the role of extended family systems and community networks for reservation and non-reservation Indians; the premise and guidelines of the ICWA and related federal and state laws that govern the implementation of the ICWA: the notion that the best interests of the Indian child are served by the tribes; collaborating with tribal workers; the role of cultural factors in risk assessment of Indian child welfare cases; community resources and skills in networking within the Indian community and within rural Indian community settings; skills in a variety of social work methods; and the differences between particular tribes. (236 pages)Becker, I., Daly, D., Gross, B., Robertson, G., Robinson, M., Casey, D., et al. (2000).

This page hosts training materials associated with the Northern Academy's Integrated Core Practice Model (ICPM) training. 

An implementation toolkit provides the resources or guidance needed to execute a new practice, program, or intervention. This Toolkit, developed by the California Social Work Education Center (CalSWEC), acts as an introduction to the concept of a toolkit and implementation science by explaining the structure, function and purpose of a toolkit's sections through the example of a toolkit itself. Its various subsections reference additional toolkits created by CalSWEC for public human service agencies and their stakeholders in California. If you are beginning a new intervention or program, these materials will assist in structuring your work so that you systematically define the intervention, communicate about it, and evaluate it. You can use the templates to create your own Implementation Toolkit.

Access to the Northern California Training Academy's Advanced SOP: R.E.D. Teams classroom materials, as well as supplemental content and trainer-specific materials for the course.

This book was written by MSW students as their final project for their Capstone class. Students were each assigned a chapter of the book to write to show that they had achieved competency as a Master’s level social worker. Chapters were assigned based on student interest and experience in certain areas of the field.

Basic Interviewing for Social Workers
FIRST CWS INVESTIGATIVE INTERVIEW: CRAIG PRICE
Possible Physical Abuse & Witnessing Family Violence Referral, 7 year old male
Length 10:26
Learning Objectives:
• Demonstrate developmental language comprehension check by SW prior to interview;
• Demonstrate checking the child’s suggestibility;
• Demonstrate engagement and rapport building;
• Demonstrate infusing trauma-informed practice points into the interview process;
• Demonstrate gathering information about trauma specific issues which may exist with this child, family, or environment.

This page provides resources related to Katie A. and the Katie A. Northern Collaborative, as well as useful information pertaining to collaborative learning and communities of practice.

This curriculum was developed as an empirical foundation for a practice model that facilitates collaboration toward providing the highest level of service for at-risk children and their families. It teaches collaboration in nine areas: legal issues, financial issues, health and mental health, education/school, family relationships, child management, support services, fair and equal treatment, and general satisfaction. It is organized around five competency areas: respecting the knowledge, skills, and experiences of others; building trust by meeting needs; facilitating communication; creating an atmosphere in which cultural tradition, values, and diversity are respected; and using negotiation skills. The curriculum is divided into five sections: Introduction to the Curriculum, Conducting the Training, Training Modules (two 3-hour modules for in-service training), Classroom Modules (for undergraduates and graduates), References and Annotated Bibliography. (345 pages)Pasztor, E. M., Goodman, C. C., Potts, M., Santana, M. I., & Runnels, R. A. (2002).