Using Social Media in Child Welfare

Using social media techniques and innovations in child welfare practice is a relatively new approach for the field. While using social media as a practice tool offers opportunities to enhance, improve, and make work with children and families more effective, it also presents new challenges for the field.

These pages offer information and resources on how to capture opportunities to help improve outcomes and build supports for children and families using social media as a communication tool.

• For child welfare agencies
• Casework practice
• Social media safety

Research Summary: Innovative Technologies in Child Welfare Services (PDF - 1,470 KB)
Hughes (2018)
Southern Area Consortium of Human Services
Highlights the use of new and existing technologies, such as cloud-based services, mobile technologies, and social media, as tools for parent recruitment and retention efforts, predictive analytics, online resource portals for youth and families, and more. The section on social media use begins on page 17.

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