CONSULTATION
The Child Welfare League of America delivers creative, practical, management-focused and practice-oriented consultation and technical assistance to help child serving organizations and entities in the public and private sector achieve better outcomes for children.
CWLA’s consultation team works nationwide to help build stronger organizations and communities so that children are safer, have needed opportunities for healthy development and well-being, and so that they and their families – including parents, foster and adoptive families, relatives and other caregivers — have the services and supports they need to flourish.
Believing that improvements at the practice, program, organizational, and systems levels are best approached through a collaborative process; CWLA’s consultation and technical assistance services are based on the unique needs of individual organizations and communities. CWLA consultants work directly with an agency’s staff, administrators, board members, elected officials and the community to develop creative and effective approaches to practice improvement, service delivery, administration, and leadership.
Grounded in CWLA’s National Standards of Excellence in Child Welfare, our goal is to achieve positive outcomes for children, youth, and families, and for the organizations and communities that support them. Our project plans provide clearly-defined work processes that guide our work and drive specific services and products that deliver results.
AREAS OF SERVICE
CWLA’s consultants assist child welfare agencies, their partners, and others in communities in:
- Assessing the needs of children and families, and the systems and communities that serve them;
- Evaluating organizational capacities and defining specific plans for improvement;
- Developing effective program strategies, practice models, and related tools to support improvements;
- Defining management and operational needs along with related policy and budgetary requirements;
- Anticipating and addressing future challenges and opportunities for children, their families, and those who serve them; and
- Developing effective quality review and improvement systems.
REPORTS FROM SELECT CONSULTATION PROJECTS
Commonwealth of Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services – Quality Improvement Review, Staff Survey, and Progress Update
Our Kids, Miami-Dade, Florida – Child Fatality Review
City of Richmond, Virginia: Department of Social Services – Child Protection Program Review
Virginia Beach Virginia – Foster Care Child Fatality Review
CORE VALUES OF OUR WORK
CWLA values children, youth, families and communities. We believe in integrity, fairness, social justice, dignity, and honesty. Further, we value respect, innovation, service, inclusiveness, collaboration, trust, flexibility, competence, and humility.
CWLA EXPERTISE
CWLA’s consultants have extensive experience working in both public and private child-serving organizations. Their skills and knowledge have been developed through years of experience as direct-service social workers, administrators and CEOs, planners, and researchers. CWLA consultants are skilled at communication, group facilitation, planning, program administration, evaluation and assessment, and analysis. They regularly draw upon CWLA’s professional development and training, public policy, program, and research resources to stay abreast of evidence based and innovative practices, legislative changes, and promising program and management models.
CWLA can provide consultation in a number of different areas including:
- Agency Crisis Management
- Practice Evaluation and Improvement
- Child Fatality and Critical Incident Review
- Board Orientation and Development
- Community Engagement
- Continuous Quality Improvement
- Coping with Child Welfare Litigation
- Evaluation of Programs, Agencies, and Systems
- Program Redesign/ Practice Model Development
- Facilitation of Multisystem Collaboration
- Communications and Customer Service
- Strategic Planning