Child Welfare Information Gateway
Skip to main content
  • U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
  • Administration for Children & Families
  • Children's Bureau
Child Welfare Information Gateway
REPORT ABUSE OR
NEGLECT
FIND HELP WITH A
PERSONAL SITUATION   

Home Topics Publications Library State Resources More Tools & Resources News & Events
REPORT ABUSE OR
NEGLECT
FIND HELP WITH A
PERSONAL SITUATION   
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Chat
  • Free Subscriptions
  • Resources in Spanish
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Chat
  • Resources in Spanish
  • Shopping Cart
  • Home
  • Topics
    • Family-Centered Practice
      • Philosophy and Key Elements of Family-Centered Practice
      • Family-Centered Practice Across the Service Continuum
      • Engaging Families
      • Family-Centered Casework Practice
      • Family Group Decision-Making
      • Engaging Communities to Support Families
      • Creating a Family-Centered Agency Culture
    • Child Abuse & Neglect
      • Definitions of Child Abuse & Neglect
      • Identification of Child Abuse & Neglect
      • Risk Factors That Contribute to Child Abuse and Neglect
      • People Who Engage in Child Abuse or Neglect
      • Impact of Child Abuse & Neglect
      • Child Abuse & Neglect Fatalities
    • Preventing Child Abuse & Neglect
      • National Child Abuse Prevention Month
      • Overview: Preventing Child Abuse & Neglect
      • Promoting Child & Family Well-Being
      • Public Awareness & Creating Supportive Communities
      • Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Programs
      • Developing & Sustaining Prevention Programs
      • Evidence-Based Practice for Child Abuse Prevention
      • Evaluating Prevention Programs
    • Responding to Child Abuse & Neglect
      • Introduction to Responding to Child Abuse & Neglect
      • Reporting Child Abuse and Neglect
      • Assessment in Child Protection
      • Differential Response in Child Protective Services
      • Child Protection Casework Practice
      • Responding to Child Maltreatment Near Fatalities and Fatalities
      • Trauma-Informed Practice in Child Welfare
      • Collaborative Responses to Child Abuse & Neglect
    • Supporting & Preserving Families
      • Supporting Families With Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders
      • Introduction to Family Support and Preservation
      • In-Home Services Involved With Child Protection
      • Family Support Services
      • Resources for Managers of Family Support and Preservation Services
      • Family Preservation Services
    • Out-of-Home Care
      • National Foster Care Month
      • Overview: Out-of-Home Care
      • Foster Care
      • Group and Residential Care
      • Kinship Care
      • Casework Practice in Out-of-Home Care
      • Transition to Adulthood and Independent Living
      • Placement Decisions
      • Resources for Foster Families
    • Achieving & Maintaining Permanency
      • Overview: Achieving & Maintaining Permanency
      • Reunifying Families
      • Recruiting and Retaining Resource Families
      • Permanency With Relatives and Kin
      • Guardianship
      • Permanency for Specific Youth Populations
      • Legal and Court Issues in Permanency
      • Interjurisdictional Placements
      • Working With Children, Youth, and Families in Permanency Planning
      • Working With Children, Youth, and Families After Permanency
      • Resources for Administrators and Managers About Permanency
      • Resources for Families About Permanency
    • Adoption
      • National Adoption Month
      • All-In Foster Adoption Challenge
      • Children's Bureau Adoption Call to Action
      • Adoption and Guardianship Assistance by State
      • Introduction to Adoption
      • Ethical Issues in Adoption
      • For Adopted People
      • For Adoption Program Managers & Administrators
      • For Expectant Parents Considering Adoption and Birth Parents
      • How to Adopt
      • Laws Related to Adoption
      • Parenting After Adoption
      • Preplacement Adoption Casework Practice
      • Postplacement Adoption Casework Practice
      • Search & Reunion in Adoption
    • Management & Supervision
      • Administering & Managing Child Welfare Agencies & Programs
      • Child Welfare Practice Improvement
      • Disaster Preparedness & Response
      • Ethical Practice & Client Rights
      • Evaluating Program and Practice Effectiveness
      • Funding
      • Information Systems & Data
      • Supervising Child Welfare Services
      • System Reform
      • Training
      • Workforce
    • Systemwide
      • Assessment
      • Behavioral Health & Wellness
      • Courts
      • Cultural Responsiveness
      • Diverse Populations and Communities
      • Domestic Violence
      • Human Trafficking
      • Laws & Policies
      • Service Array
      • Statistics
      • Well-Being
      • Youth
  • Publications
    • Publications Series
    • Browse by Topic
    • Browse by Title
    • índice de Títulos en Español (Spanish Title Index)
  • Library
    • Library Services
    • Library Search Help
  • State Resources
    • State Statutes
    • National Foster Care & Adoption Directory
    • State Guides & Manuals Search
    • State-Related Organizations Lists
    • Adoption and Guardianship Assistance by State
  • More Tools & Resources
    • Related Organizations
    • Learning Center
    • Resources From the Children's Bureau
      • Children's Bureau Discretionary Grants
      • The Story of the Children's Bureau
      • Children's Bureau Video Series
    • Child Welfare Information Gateway Podcast Series
    • Multimedia
      • Videos
      • Webinars
    • Family Engagement Inventory
  • News & Events
    • Free Subscriptions
    • Adoption Triad
    • Children's Bureau Express (CBX)
    • The Grantee Connection
    • New on Information Gateway
    • New From the Children's Bureau
    • Event Calendar
  • Home
  • Topics
  • Management & Supervision
  • System Reform
  • Approaches to System Reform

Approaches to System Reform

Applying a theory-of-change framework to guide planning and evaluation can help set the stage for identifying goals, strategies, and milestones and promoting a more unified and systemic approach to reform. Additionally, demonstrating that services and programs are effective and worthy of continued funding has become key in approaching systems change. The following resources include theory-of-change approaches and how they can be used to improve child welfare practices, along with best practices models to improve safety, permanency, and well-being for children.

  • Theories
  • Child welfare practice models

Theories

Evaluating Systems Change: At a Glance [Infographic]
James Bell Associates, Inc. (2016)
Offers an infographic that outlines a systems change evaluation, including its phases and quick tips for launching an evaluation.

Evaluation Brief: Evaluating Systems and Organizational Change in Child Welfare Settings 
Ahonen & Graham (2016)
James Bell Associates, Inc.
Highlights strategies for evaluating child welfare systems change and organizational change in child welfare settings. Theory of change is discussed on pages 2 and 3.

The Theory of Change
Better Evaluation (2014)
Explains how and why a theory of change may be used when managing an evaluation and describes the planning process, what the theory of change should cover, the development process, identifying outcomes and impacts, and more.

The Treatment Outcome Package (TOP): A Multi-Dimensional Level of Care Matrix for Child Welfare (PDF - 448 KB)
Kraus, Baxter, Alexander, & Bentley (2015)
Children and Youth Services, 57
Discusses a conceptual framework for determining various dimensions of need, including psychology, medical, and academic needs.

Tribal TANF—Child Welfare Coordination: Theory of Change and Logic Models
Ahonen, Geary, & Keene (2019)
James Bell Associates, Inc.
Provides an overview of key concepts and strategies for creating a theory of change as well as a logic model to help explain how a program functions and how to improve outcomes. The guide discusses how to ensure outputs and outcomes are measurable as well as provides information on revisiting a logic model so it remains relevant throughout the life of a program.

(Back to Top)

Child welfare practice models

Blueprint for Practice: Chapin Hall’s Approach to Building and Sustaining a Practice Model
O’Brien, Small, & Lakshman (2020)
Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago 
Presents a four-stage process and toolkit for developing practice models for child welfare and nonprofit agencies. The process covers building the scope of work, design, development, and final implementation. 

The Importance of a Trauma-Informed Child Welfare System

Series Title
Issue Briefs
Author(s)
Child Welfare Information Gateway
Availability
View
Download (PDF - 412KB)
Order (Free)
Year Published
2020
Provides child welfare professionals an overview of the importance of a trauma-informed child welfare system, its components, and steps needed to transition to trauma-informed child welfare. This issue brief also includes examples of State and local programs incorporating trauma-informed care.

A Framework for Competent Child Welfare Practice
University of Minnesota, Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare (2018)
Presents the framework that guides child welfare practice in Minnesota. The guide is intended to provide practitioners across the country with an organizing structure from which they can refine their day-to-day child welfare practice. The competencies included in the framework showcase the values, knowledge, and skills needed to effectively practice child welfare.

A Framework to Design, Test, Spread, and Sustain Effective Practice in Child Welfare (PDF - 807 KB)
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Children's Bureau (2014)
Offers a framework designed for use by evaluators, funders, and child welfare professionals to promote better integration of evaluation into child welfare program and policy decision-making as well encourage stronger partnerships between stakeholders.

Video Series: A Framework to Design, Test, Spread, and Sustain Effective Practice in Child Welfare [Video series]
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Children's Bureau
Offers a series of animated videos that explain a framework for how to implement and evaluate child welfare interventions. Each video builds upon the topics presented in the previous videos. Taken together, they demonstrate how child welfare administrators, evaluators, and funders can use evaluation, the application of findings, and decision-making to improve program outcomes.

(Back to Top)

Spotlight On

Change and Implementation in Practice: Theory of Change

Child Welfare Capacity Building Collaborative

State Practice Models

State Guides and Manuals Search

Related Content

Supervising for Organizational Change

Children's Bureau - An office of the Administration for Children and Families

Child Welfare Information Gateway is a service of the

  • Children’s Bureau
  • Administration for Children and Families
  • U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
↑ Back to top
  • HOME
  • TOPICS
    • Family-Centered Practice
    • Child Abuse & Neglect
    • Preventing Child Abuse & Neglect
    • Responding to Child Abuse & Neglect
    • Supporting & Preserving Families
    • Out-of-Home Care
    • Achieving & Maintaining Permanency
    • Adoption
    • Management & Supervision
    • Systemwide
  • National Initiatives
    • National Adoption Month
    • National Child Abuse Prevention Month
    • National Foster Care Month
  • Publications
    • Publications Series
    • Browse by Title
    • Browse by Topic
    • Índice de Títulos en Español
  • Library
    • Search the Library
  • State Resources
    • State Statutes
    • National Foster Care & Adoption Directory
    • State Guides & Manuals
    • State Related Organizations Lists
    • Adoption Assistance by State
  • More Tools & Resources
    • Related Organizations
    • Learning Center
    • Children's Bureau Resources
    • Information Gateway Podcast
    • Multimedia
    • Family Engagement Inventory
  • NEWS AND EVENTS
    • New on Information Gateway
    • New From the Children's Bureau
    • Event Calendar
  • ABOUT US
    • How to Report Child Abuse or Neglect
    • Find Help With a Personal Situation
    • Frequently Asked Questions
    • Glossary
    • Search A to Z
  • Contact Us
    • 1-800-394-3366
    • info@childwelfare.gov
    • Subscribe to Free Updates
    • Chat With Us
  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on YouTube
  • POLICIES & HELPFUL LINKS
    • Disclaimer and Policies
    • Privacy Policy
    • Accessibility
    • FOIA requests
    • No FEAR Act data
    • Office of the Inspector General
    • Performance reports
    • Vulnerability Disclosure Policy
    • USA.gov
    • Download Acrobat Reader
  • ↑ Back to top