
Welcome to the Practice Excellence Center. For 70 years, CWLA’s Standards of Excellence in Child Welfare Services have played a unique national role in shaping quality programs and practices across the country.
CWLA National Blueprint for Excellence in Child Welfare and CWLA’s programmatic Standards of Excellence set a framework for all children, youth and families to flourish. This framework encompasses all of the practice and policy work we do at CWLA.

- Early Childhood
- Family Support
- Gun Violence
- Housing and Homelessness
- Parenting
- Social Supports as (Primary) Maltreatment Prevention
- Post Permanency

- Behavioral Health
- Early Childhood/Child Care and Development
- Education
- Health Care
- Healthy Growth & Development in Child Welfare
- Trauma
- Youth Development and Transition

- Baby Abandonment
- Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention
- Child Protection/Alternative Response
- Child Rights
- Domestic Violence
- Family Strengthening and Stabilization
- Juvenile Justice and Child Welfare
- Serious and Fatal Child Maltreatment

- Adoption
- Family Foster Care
- Kinship Care/Guardianship
- Residential Group Care and Intervention
- Reunification

- Cultural Competence and Racial Equity
- Disparity and Disproportionality
- Indian Child Welfare
- International Child Welfare
- LGBTQ Issues in Child Welfare
- Rural Child Welfare

- Leadership
- Workforce Development
- Professional Development
- Performance Evaluation
- Positive Culture and Climate
- Workload
- Supervision
- Secondary Traumatic Stress and Burnout
HOT TOPICS
The Play’s the Thing: Disadvantaged Kids find their Onstage Voices
Recent article gives the details of the Manhattan-based Possibility Project (TPP), which uses theater to help disadvantaged teens confront their most pressing real world issues in hopes of transforming lives for the better. Through TPP, teenagers are given the opportunity to explore different behaviors and confront situations that differ from their own. Through their roles, individuals are able to deal with the negative forces and emotions in their lives.
Raising Better Parents: Advice from a 16-Year-Old
This article gives a brief personal account of the advice provided by the author’s 16 year old son about ways he could be a better parent.
Transforming Responsible Fatherhood Practice: Scalability, Sustainability and Measurability
Recent article highlights the challenges that are frequently associated with embracing low-income fathers as a valuable asset to their families, children, and greater communities. Often, community attitudes are neither appreciative nor supportive of the role that fathers play in contributing to overall well-being.
The Impact of Gun Violence on Children, Families, & Communities
Recent article on the impact of gun violence in the lives of children, families, and their communities. The authors highlight the need to focus the conversation on the victims of gun violence rather than focusing on keeping guns out of the hands of mentally ill individuals. conclusion, the article suggests the ways in which exposure to gun violence might be prevented: in collaborative effort.
CONTACT
Julie Collins, MSW, LCSW, Vice President, Practice Excellence
Phone: 202-688-4155
Email:jcollins@cwla.org
Donna Petras, PhD, MSW, Vice President, Models of Practice and Training
Phone: 202-590-8746
Email:dpetras@cwla.org
CWLA National Commission for Policy and Practice
CWLA is a leading voice for abused, neglected and otherwise vulnerable children and those who serve them.
Visit NEWS & MEDIA for CWLA press releases, statements, letters, op-eds, columns, and materials that provide perspectives on child welfare and issues that impact children who are vulnerable.
MEDIA CONTACTS
To receive copies of publications, reports, studies, additional information and data or to schedule an interview with CWLA’s primary spokesperson, please contact:
Christine James-Brown, President and CEO
Email: cjamesbrown@cwla.org
Margie Fowler, Executive Assistant
Email: mfowler@cwla.org