Vol. 9, No. 1• November 2004

The Connection to Worker Recruitment and Retention

Cynics sometimes say that children in foster care, especially teens, don’t really care about their social workers. The winners of the writing contest in this issue of Fostering Perspectives make it abundantly clear that the opposite is true. Individual social workers can make a huge difference and play a big part in kids’ lives—IF they are there to support children and stick by them over time.

Unfortunately, turnover among child welfare social workers in county departments of social services often makes this a very big “if.” According to the NC Child Advocacy Institute, in 2001-2002 DSS’s in North Carolina struggled with an average turnover rate of 30% among child welfare staff.

North Carolina is trying to address this problem. A prime example of this is a new federally-funded training project called “Child Welfare Staff Recruitment and Retention: An Evidence-Based Training Model.” Based out of the Jordan Institute for Families at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Social Work, this project aims to help child welfare agencies recruit, select, and retain a competent and committed child welfare workforce.

Over the next four years, staff from UNC will work with 16 participating counties to develop:

• A toolkit to help agencies recruit favorable candidates for child welfare positions
• A process to help agencies select the right applicants, and
• An evidence-based training course to help supervisors and managers improve the recruitment, selection, and retention of public child welfare staff.

The effectiveness of these interventions will be thoroughly and rigorously evaluated. In 2008, at the conclusion of this project, these recruitment and retention aids will be made available to child welfare agencies in North Carolina and throughout the country.

To learn more, contact the project’s principal investigator, Nancy Dickinson (t: 919/962-6407; [email protected]).

Intervention Counties
— — Buncombe — — Caldwell — — Duplin — — Edgecombe — — Franklin — — — Halifax	— — Madison — — McDowell — — Mitchell — — Nash — — New Hanover — — Polk	— — Rutherford — — Sampson — — Watauga — — Wayne — — — Wilson

 

Copyright � 2004 Jordan Institute for Families