To be successful in delivering high-quality services to children and families, child welfare professionals need to feel that their safety and well-being are supported by organizational leadership. In addition, child welfare workers should make it a priority to maintain their own individual well-being and provide support to their peers in the child welfare workforce. Due to the scope and severity of their work, child welfare workers are at risk of experiencing burnout, compassion fatigue, and secondary traumatic stress. By building a strong and healthy workforce, child welfare organizations can help to combat these stressors, improve job satisfaction, retain workers, and reduce turnover. Use the resources in this section to learn about the safety of the workforce, job satisfaction, self-care, turnover, and improving retention.

Caring for Our Child Welfare Workforce: A Holistic Framework of Worker Well-Being (PDF - 1,471 KB)
Lizano, He, Leake (2021)
Human Service Organizations: Management, Leadership & Governance, 45(4)
Presents a framework of child welfare worker well-being that covers physical well-being, psychological well-being, and social well-being. The framework includes a discussion of topics such as secondary traumatic stress, workplace safety, job satisfaction, inclusion and equity, peer and supervisory support, and more.

Caring for the Workforce (PDF - 304 KB)
National Child Welfare Workforce Institute (2020)
Shares a collection of resources related to caring for the child welfare workforce and discusses topics such as work-life balance, resiliency and secondary traumatic stress, worker appreciation, self-care, managing workloads, and more.

Moral Injury and Healing in Child Welfare
University of Minnesota
Shares a course that helps participants develop an understanding of moral injury. This free, self-paced course is divided into five learning modules on moral injury and healing and is intended for mental health, addiction, social work, and child welfare professionals.

A Strong, Healthy Child Welfare Workforce to Achieve Better Outcomes
Child Welfare Capacity Building Collaborative
Offers resources related to the well-being of the child welfare workforce, including trainings, webinars, and publications.

Workforce Development Planning and Assessment Tool Kit: Facilitator’s Guide (PDF - 4,137 KB)
National Child Welfare Workforce Institute (NCWWI) (2018)
Guides facilitators through the implementation of NCWWI’s Workforce Development Planning and Assessment Tool Kit and their Workforce Development Framework (PDF - 860 KB). The framework was designed to facilitate workforce improvements and to help increase the well-being of the child welfare workforce.

Workforce Resource: One-Page Summary - A Holistic Framework for Child Welfare Worker Well-Being (PDF - 362 KB)
National Child Welfare Workforce Institute
Identifies three areas that make up professionals' well-being and how leaders within child welfare organizations can strategically and comprehensively support these areas to prioritize caseworker well-being.

(Back to Top)