• Public and State controlled institutions of higher education

• Private institutions of higher education

The Administration on Children, Youth and Families (ACYF) is committed to facilitating healing and recovery and promoting the social and emotional well being of children who have experienced maltreatment, exposure to violence and/ or trauma. The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to fund a National Child Welfare Institute that will build the capacity of the child welfare workforce to effectively respond to the complex needs of the children and families in order to foster social and emotional well-being and promote healthy and positive functioning. This project will advance Federal priorities while supporting systems and workforce development initiatives at the State and National Levels to build the competencies and skills of the child welfare workforce. This targeted 5-year cooperative agreement will create a national center of excellence to address workforce development and leadership capacity building in service of systems change in child welfare agencies. The child welfare field faces an ongoing workforce crisis requiring creative and comprehensive organizational interventions as well as professional development opportunities for professionals serving at all levels in child welfare agencies. This initiative will build on research and evaluation findings from the last ten years of federal child welfare training funding to address the current pressing needs in workforce development of an integrated approach to improve safety, permanency, and well-being outcomes for children. This program will focus on building the leadership and change management skills in professionals and improving the systems that recruit, train, supervise, manage and retain them. The following key components will be included:

• BSW and MSW Traineeships
  
  
  
  • Child Welfare Scholars Programs
  
  
  • Organizational Intervention Component demonstrating a clear linkage between School of Social Work and public child welfare
  
  
  • Leadership, trauma-informed and evidence based practice curriculum provided to pre-service and inservice child welfare staff
  
  
  
  


• Leadership Academies  
  
  
  
  • Leadership Academy for Deans and Directors
  
  
  • Leadership Academy for State Child Welfare Agency Directors
  
  
  • Leadership Academy for Middle Managers
  
  
  • Leadership Academy for Supervisors
  
  
  
  


• Technical Assistance  on Best Practices in Child Welfare Workforce Recruitment, Selection, Retention, and Organizational Effectiveness to States, Voluntary Agencies and Tribes


• Development of Workforce Development Framework  and Identification of Core Competencies of Child Welfare Staff


• Knowledge Assessment, Knowledge Building and Knowledge Management of Best Practices in  Child Welfare Workforce Development


• National Expertise in Dissemination Strategies of these Best Practices


• Rigorous Evaluation of Training and Technical Assistance Effort