The entire world is experiencing a transition and child welfare agencies are seeing it from several different perspectives. Throughout the global pandemic, social services professionals have continued to provide support to families and children, even as we undergo a massive shift in all areas of the workforce and our communities.
This transition is significant and it is impacting new professionals, tenured professionals, supervisors, managers, and the families we serve, as our world navigates through what the future holds. As Brené Brown mentioned in a recent podcast episode, “we will never be the same again after what we’ve experienced over the past couple of years, and it’s time we talk about how we’re going to rebuild moving forward.”
Investing in yourself and your development allows you to focus on the reason you pursued child welfare – to make a difference in the lives of children and families. Changes in what children and families’ need, increased workloads, and staffing may be creating additional stressors and challenges.
CWDS Practice Coaches are here to support child welfare staff and supervisors with conversations on these topics and more in individual coaching sessions, group coaching sessions with teams, drop-in style coaching and self-care best practice sessions. Our coaching team’s primary goal is to collaborate with child welfare professionals for the purpose of enhancing skills or personal development in their practice. Some of the areas they can focus on with their coach are Structured Decision Making, Safety Organized Practice, transition/change, managing relationships inside & outside the walls, interviewing families, trauma-informed care and much more. As change happens, the attention to these topics and the needs of our families change with them.
Research on workforce development and retention in the field of child welfare suggests that self-efficacy, peer support, supervision, and organizational support were key predictors of an employee’s intent to stay with their agency. Coaching acts as a support system to both build self-efficacy and deepen practice through one on one teaming and peer supported group coaching sessions.
Seeking coaching during times of transition is just one way that your Practice Coach can serve as a resource! Whether you are new or tenured in the field of child welfare, reach out to your county’s coaching team to see what types of coaching they are offering, or suggest a topic that would help you or your team strengthen confidence in your practice.
By Kimberly Kampen, MS, Practice Coach
Anna de Guzman, Tabitha Carver-Roberts, Robin Leake & Shauna Rienks (2020) Retention of child welfare workers: staying strategies and supports, Journal of Public Child Welfare, 14:1, 60-79, DOI: 10.1080/15548732.2019.1683121
