An Assessment of child welfare: The value of training and family engagement

Child maltreatment in the United States continues to be one of the nation’s most serious social problems. Child welfare practice is intended to ensure the safety, permanency, and well-being of children and families. One of the ways child welfare systems can achieve positive outcomes for vulnerable children is to utilize the most current best practices in training, focused on family engagement and strengths-based empowerment. To this end, child welfare training programs that are family centered, culturally competent, and focused on preventing out of home placements, should be implemented nationwide to better prepare child welfare agencies to meet the needs of vulnerable families. As child welfare workers learn to successfully engage families using the core helping conditions of genuineness, empathy and respect, families will feel empowered to make needed changes in their lives that provide safety, permanency and well-being for their children. This research is a review of the literature on current best practices in training for child welfare agency staff, specifically training on engaging families, and the impact it has on child welfare outcomes