The schools of social work at the University of Georgia and Georgia State University and the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services are teaming up for the next four years in an initiative aimed at boosting the state’s capacity to provide high-quality child welfare services.
Their collaboration – one of eight proposals nationwide chosen by the National Child Welfare Workforce Institute (NCWWI) – will involve evaluating the agency and creating a leadership training program for its employees.
“This new initiative is exciting because it builds on our existing work and expands it into the area of leadership workforce development and data-driven change,” said Dr. Anna Scheyett, social work dean and professor at UGA.
UGA has partnered with DFCS for many years on multiple fronts, she said, including the Title IV-E program, work with DFCS boards, developing the agency’s employee selection protocol and student internships.
Dr. Brian Bride, director of GSU’s social work school – the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies – and a distinguished professor there, said the three entities “all kind of jumped on it and got together” in response to a call for proposals earlier this year to become a NCWWI Agency-University Partnership Workforce Excellence site.
“I’m really excited that we’re able to take part in this,” said Bride. “Child welfare is such a challenging field. It’s such an opportunity to receive funding to try to better that one aspect of social work.”
For years, GSU has provided ongoing training of the agency’s front-line workers, he said, and the new project will involve training supervisors the next level up.
