Eight Child Welfare Jurisdictions Selected to Participate in QIC-WD Institute
The Quality Improvement Center for Workforce Development (QIC-WD) works with public child welfare agencies to build knowledge to strengthen the child welfare workforce. In December 2019 we announced that we were accepting applications for participation in a short-term Child Welfare Workforce Analytics Institute (the Institute) to further the work of the QIC-WD. The Institute will help agencies build partnerships between child welfare and human resources (HR) professionals and begin conversations about how to leverage data necessary to examine and address child welfare workforce challenges that are persistent within many child welfare agencies. The QIC-WD received applications from across the country that were thoroughly reviewed by our team. After careful consideration, the following eight jurisdictions were selected to participate in The Institute:
- Georgia Division of Family and Children Services
- Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services
- Maine Department of Health and Human Services: Office of Child and Family Services
- Michigan Department of Health and Human Services: Children’s Services Agency
- Missouri Department of Social Services Children’s Division
- New Mexico Children, Youth, and Families Department
- Santa Clara County Department of Family and Children Services
- York County Office of Children, Youth, and Families
Child welfare staff from these eight agencies and their HR partners will participate in a community of learning to better understand how to effectively use their workforce data. The participants will convene virtually and in-person to:
- Build or strengthen the partnership between child welfare and HR
- Discuss their agency’s workforce challenges and explore what workforce data are available or could be collected to understand and address those challenges
- Learn about a variety of workforce metrics and analytics and how they can be effectively communicated to key stakeholders to make more informed workforce decisions and monitor impact of those decisions
- Assess their agency’s readiness, strengths, and needs related to leveraging workforce data
- Develop and begin to implement an action plan to increase the use of workforce data in assessing and addressing workforce challenges
- Engage with other agencies to share common and unique challenges, successes, and ideas
The QIC-WD is grateful for the many jurisdictions that applied to be part of The Institute and is excited to work closely with representatives of these eight agencies to use data to strengthen their child welfare workforce.