WORKFORCE CORE

The redevelopment of Workforce Core (formerly Regional Core Training) brought together resources from across The Alliance and DCYF to build a new foundational training for new social service specialists.

Workforce Core was piloted as a 13-week training from Jan. 1 to March 29. The training is divided into four blocks: Foundation, Engagement, Assessment, and Case Planning & Service Delivery. Each block builds on previous blocks. 

Pilot revisions began in Q4. Revisions for the Foundation Block were completed and have been shared for feedback. The Alliance is partnering with the DCYF Practice and Programs team to identify the priority learning for Workforce Core participants. As these priorities are identified, additional revisions will be completed. Regional Core Training will continue to support new social service specialists until the formal rollout of Workforce Core, with RCT undergoing some revisions in the interim to ensure the content is up-to-date with regard to law and policy.

CAREGIVER CORE TRAINING

Caregiver Core Training is in the early stages of its redesign.  The Alliance development team has identified individuals with lived experience as a caregiver, former foster youth and parent to participate in the Partners in Development Team for this project.  

This redesign will consolidate information into six online trainings, instead of the current eight, and ensure that caregivers are provided with information to navigate the current landscape of child welfare in Washington State.  This project is anticipated to be complete in Q4 of FY 2025.  

HB1227 SUPPORT

The Alliance supported two trainings this year in response to HB1227: Shelter Care Simulation and Foundations of Practice.

Shelter Care Simulation was launched in collaboration with DCYF HQ Program Managers and to complement their Foundations of Practice trainings developed to support the field.

The Foundations of Practice modules were adapted by the Alliance to deepen new case worker knowledge following the completion of Regional Core Training. There are four modules: Removal Standards – Defining Imminent Physical Harm Using our Safety Framework; Harm of Removal; Kinship Caregivers – Identify, Locate, Inform and Evaluate; and Preparing for Shelter Care.

Both trainings were offered in multiple offices across the state with strong involvement of judicial officers and AAGs. DCYF regional QPS staff offered pre-learning on the new standards for shelter care hearings prior to the simulation training offered by Alliance.

COACHING

This year, nine Alliance staff went through the Training of the Trainer for Foundations of MI Practice in Child Welfare and were coded to fidelity by the Centre for Collaboration, Motivation & Innovation (CCMI) using the Motivational Interviewing Competency Assessment (MICA).

Foundations of MI Practice in Child Welfare is 16 hours long and includes practice and application of skills. It will be followed by Advanced MI Training and Simulations, which is in development and 12 hours long.

The Alliance will continue to partner with the FFPSA group on scheduling and offering Facilitated Cohort Learning, as well as coaching and coding learners to fidelity.

CONFERENCES

The Alliance conference program this year was composed of these four events:

• Supervisors Conference
• Administrative Professionals Conference
• Area Administrators Summit
• Program Managers Conference

Each conference is guided by a planning committee of DCYF from within the respective audience.

Highlights from this year’s program included:

• Mark Anthony Garrett, who as a youth experienced foster care and juvenile rehabilitation, shared his story about influential people he has met along his journey and the impact teachers, counselors, foster parents, case workers and volunteers made on him.
• National changemaker and advocate Sixto Cancel, founder of Think of Us, shared a moving personal story tied into a look at the role of data in positive outcomes.  
• Attendees were given the opportunity to break down silos with “Silo Demo,” a session where they broke into small groups and led through conversation prompts with seven individuals they had not worked with. The goal was a look at work happening across DCYF and building new relationships.
• Sessions included a strong focus on diversity and inclusion topics such as supporting LGBTQIA+ youth in care, understanding gender, and language. 

CAREGIVER SUPPORT

The Alliance brought forward innovative ways this year to address caregiver community challenges.

In November, the CaRES direct service program hosted an online information session on opioids, fentanyl and Narcan. This session was created at the request of caregivers and was one of CaRES’ most highly attended events this year, with 48 attendees, and 15 views of the video online after the session.

The organization also piloted a new approach to Caregiver Core Training support by offering learners the chance to participate in group sessions in lieu of individual support.

The group support took over the “While You Wait” training, an existing CaRES resource that helped families awaiting licensure or first placement to consider some of the needs in the fostering community and how they are suited to meet them.

This move aimed to create an automatic “moving sidewalk” from CCT into CaRES support and Alliance trainings so that new caregivers are aware of and plugged into all the available resources from the beginning.

INDIAN CHILD WELFARE POLICY TRAINING

The new “Indian Child Welfare Policy Training” rolled out across the state in April.

This course launch was the result of months of collaboration between Alliance curriculum developers, the Inclusive Practice team, and DCYF subject matter experts and stakeholders. The curriculum is a mix of an eLearning/prelearning and in-person group session.

The “Indian Child Welfare (ICW) Policy Rollout” eLearning introduces upcoming ICWA policy updates and changes and provides a brief history of the federal Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) and the Washington State ICWA and shares some definitional terms.

The in-person portion of the training provides key information incorporating changes necessary to comply with Washington State Supreme Court decisions and introduces content that sets the stage for applying the revisions to the Indian Child Welfare policies and procedures throughout practice in Washington State.

OPEN SESSIONS

In Q4, The Alliance launched a new series of monthly gatherings called “Open Sessions,” which are open invitations to all staff.

These meetings are unfacilitated opportunities for staff to gather and make intentional space to acknowledge what’s going on in the world and the impacts on their various roles. As an organization that is anti-racist, trauma-informed, and values learning, the goal of coming together is to process, share, listen, and support.

The goal is to help staff develop skills as they encounter diverse opinions and views around global moments. The idea for “Open Session” is part of the Strategic Plan Goal 1: Offer a drop-in group to discuss world events for both relationship building and so facilitators are prepared for discussions.

The Quality Assurance team expanded this year with the hiring of a Quality Improvement Supervisor, supporting the development of a strategic vision for managing QA/CQI processes across the organization.

Excellence Lead positions manage the curriculum development and facilitation portions of this work, and focused on bringing forward standards around their respective disciplines that formalize how The Alliance develops, reviews, releases and executes its product. The Excellence in Curriculum Development Lead continued to provide cohort-based internal training opportunities for skill development and also created a checklist for developers, while the Excellence in Facilitation Lead focused on development of facilitation standards to help trainers understand what factors play into evaluation and created materials to help improve facilitator onboarding.

The Quality Assurance team also devoted resources to revising the Curriculum Life Cycle, which tracks the milestones a piece of curriculum goes through from request and ideation to review and sunsetting, as well as the new facilitator standards that DCYF adopted at the end of FY24.