Child Welfare Information Gateway Podcast Series

This podcast series, produced on behalf of the Children's Bureau, presents a series of interviews and group conversations intended to provide beneficial information for busy child welfare and social work professionals. The podcasts cover a wide range of topics and provide perspectives from communities served by child welfare agencies along with tips and stories from professionals about implementing new services and programs, working across agencies, and improving practice.

The podcasts are available on Apple Podcasts, GooglePlay, Spotify, Stitcher, and SoundCloud. Subscribe to receive new episodes as they are released.

The views and opinions expressed within these podcasts do not necessarily reflect those of the Children's Bureau or the Administration for Children and Families.

Episode 28: Family Group Decision-Making: Becoming a Family-Centered Agency

Features the lessons learned and experiences gained through the YMCA Families United Family Group Conferencing Program, a recipient of a 2015 Children's Bureau grant within the Building the Evidence for Family Group Decision-Making in Child Welfare discretionary grant cluster.

Episode 27: Prevention: The Power of the Parents' Voice

Features a conversation with three members of the Parent Advisory Council who discuss how agencies can identify and engage parents to share their voice and experience, how to involve parents across the entire system to improve outcomes, and the biggest ‘a-ha’ moments practitioners have when hearing parent’s stories for the first time.

Episode 26: Prevention: Stabilizing Families Through TANF

Showcases the Oregon Department of Human Services' Family Support and Connections, a Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention program.

Episode 25: Prevention: Delivering Services Through Education

Presents how the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services manages its network of Family Support Centers through its Office of Child Development and Early Learning.

Episode 24: Workforce Part 4 – Creating Change at the Local Level

Shares how frontline child welfare professionals were empowered their staff to design solutions that improved office culture, partnerships, and outcomes for the children and families they serve.

Episode 23: Prevention: Reorganizing Community Collaboratives

Details how Washington D.C.’s CFSA reorganized the contracts and the services for the Healthy Families Thriving Communities Collaborative Network, which serves the city’s diverse wards.

Episode 22: Prevention: Connections Matter

Showcases how a specific training developed by Prevent Child Abuse Iowa serves as a community-based effort to promote and build understanding, trauma-informed communities by tailoring evidence-based training to the following community sectors: early education, education, health care, faith based, and workforce.

Episode 21: Workforce Part 3 – Child Welfare Scholars

Showcases a National Child Welfare Workforce Institute university-agency partnership between the University of North Dakota Department of Social Work and the North Dakota Department of Children and Family Services.

Episode 20: Workforce Part 2 – A State's Approach to Change

Shares an example of how one state changed its approach to staff development, as well as provides insight on the “must-haves” and lessons learned in moving away from isolated interventions and toward a targeted and cohesive strategy.

Episode 19: Workforce Part 1 – The Workforce Development Framework

Hear how addressing your workforce can impact worker turnover, enhance leadership skills, build staff capacity and other challenges facing child welfare agencies. The podcast also focuses on the essential elements and implementation of the Workforce Development Framework, which was developed by the National Child Welfare Workforce Institute.

Episode 18: Child Welfare Then and Now

Shares the perspective from a child welfare veteran with nearly three-decades serving children and families. Listen to what’s changed—and what’s remained consistent.

Episode 17: Family Group Decision-Making: Parent Advocates in New York City

Showcases how parent advocates, who have past experience with the child welfare system, are using their knowledge to help support families within Family Group Decision-Making (FGDM).

Episode 16: Family Group Decision-Making: Implementing the Family Group Conference

Gives listeners an overview of how Arizona Kinship Support Services implements the Family Group Conference model, developed by the Kempe Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse and Neglect.

Episode 15: Diligent Recruitment – Regional Resource Navigators

Provides details about the New Mexico Regional Resource Navigator program. This program assigns navigators to work exclusively with specific regions of the state to guide families through the assessment and licensing processes.

Episode 14: Diligent Recruitment – Intelligent Recruitment

Provides listeners greater detail into how Florida community-based care agencies, state agencies, and professional marketing teams partnered together. The conversation includes the approach to gathering target audience data, how agencies were provided marketing and outreach plans unique to their region, and a comparison of how the intelligent marketing approach has impacted the number of foster families.