The Institute for Child and Family Well-Being is a collaboration between Children’s Wisconsin and the Helen Bader School of Social Welfare at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The shared values and strengths of this academic-community partnership are reflected in the Institute’s three core service areas: Program Design and Implementation, Research and Evaluation, and Community Engagement and Systems Change.

In This Issue:

• Meet the ICFW
  • New MSW/MPH Interns
• Program Design and Implementation
  • Social Connectedness Toolkit
  • Building Brains with Relationships
• Research and Evaluation
  • Recent ICFW Publications
• Community Engagement and Systems Change
  • Introducing “Partnering for Systems that Work”
  • Learning-Focused Evaluation and Storytelling – Child Welfare Lessons Learned
  • ICFW at the Prevent Child Abuse America National Conference
  • Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities Announces Its Steering Committee
• Recent and Upcoming Events

Meet the ICFW

Georgia Ecclestone is a Master of Social Work student at Concordia University-Wisconsin. She joined the ICFW team for her final internship beginning in August 2025 and ending in April 2026. Georgia obtained her bachelor’s degree at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville in December 2021 where she studied forensic science and criminal justice. She is currently employed at the Lakeshore Regional Child Advocacy Center (LRCAC) as a family advocate and an Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) coordinator.

Georgia also holds a private detective license in the state of Wisconsin. Prior to her work at the LRCAC, she worked as a deputy medical examiner in Ozaukee County. Georgia is passionate about the child welfare system and providing trauma-informed care and advocacy to those who need it most. She is excited for the opportunity and experience the ICFW has to offer her. 

Chelsea Miller (she/her/hers) is an MSW/MPH student at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with a concentration in Community and Behavioral Health. Driven by an interest in primary prevention and early intervention for childhood trauma, she approaches her work through a macro-level lens on the social determinants of health – particularly how trauma both impacts and is shaped by systemic inequities. She is especially interested in advancing racial and economic equity as essential pathways to prevent trauma and foster healthier, more resilient communities.  

Program Design and Implementation

The Institute develops, implements and disseminates validated prevention and intervention strategies that are accessible in real-world settings.

The Social Connectedness Toolkit

By Meghan Christian

How is it that so many are isolated and disconnected if social connection is crucial to thriving? Social connectedness is incredibly place-based and personal. This creates challenges in replicating what may work in one place to another.

Social connectedness is a human need and benefits our financial, physical, and emotional health. Oppositely, isolation has been compared to smoking 15 cigarettes per day. Times with friends and companions has decreased by about 14 hours per month in the last 20 years. What’s happened and what can be done?

What might you need more of in order to connect?

The Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities’ (SFTCCC) Social Connectedness critical pathway group developed a customizable toolkit, Social Connectedness Toolkit: Life & Leisure for Well-Being that helps connect, inform and guide people who seek to decrease isolation and loneliness. The goal is for people and organizations to have a usable framework to promote conversations and actions meant to increase social connectedness. today to get access now!

Building Brains with Relationships

By Meghan Christian

For over a decade ICFW has been working on shifting practice, from focusing on symptoms to asking “what happened here?” and “how might we prevent what happened here?” ICFW also helps other organizations do the same thing: use strategic learning and guide best practices.

Oconto, Juneau, Rock, Racine and Milwaukee County home visitors, foster parents, family support workers and ongoing case managers came together in August to expand their knowledge of brain architecture and functioning, resilience and galvanize their belief in the power of prevention. They also have the chance to regroup soon virtually to best support adult learning.

Building Brains with Relationships is a full day, in-person interactive workshop offered by ICFW. The August workshop was hosted by Wisconsin Child Welfare Professional Development’s extension site in Glendale, WI as is the upcoming November 14^th workshop (9am-4pm). The price (FREE) and location, just minutes from beautiful Lake Michigan, make it a great day trip for individuals and teams.

Another custom-to-customer training is coming up at Sojourner Family Peace Center. This will be the 2^nd custom training of the year. This is a continuation of the last few years that we’ve been supporting Sojourner Family Peace Center implement strategic learning and scale academy-style trainings for new staff from all the partnering agencies.

Research and Evaluation

The Institute accelerates the process of translating knowledge into direct practices, programs and policies that promote health and well-being, and provides analytic, data management and grant-writing support.

Recent ICFW Publications

Janczewski, C. E., Mersky, J. P., & Kaiser, D. (2025). From foster care to incarceration: A prospective analysis of the National Youth in Transition Database. Child Abuse & Neglect, 164, 107469.

Background: Children in foster care often face significant adversity in adulthood, including a heightened risk of incarceration. Yet, it is uncertain whether adult incarceration rates differ between youth who age out of foster care, youth who are reunified with their families, and those adopted or placed with a legal guardian.

Objective: This prospective study investigates the prevalence of adult incarceration for youth in care at age 17 and examines whether the risk of incarceration varies by foster care exit type, both overall and among different racial/ethnic groups.

Read more about this publication.

Community Engagement & Systems Change

The Institute develops community-university partnerships to promote systems change that increases the accessibility of evidence-based and evidence-informed practices.

Introducing our New Services to Partner for Systems that Work

Partnering For Systems That Work

Complex challenges like neglect, poverty, and social isolation can’t be solved by one sector alone. At the Institute for Child and Family Well-Being (ICFW), we partner with communities to build prevention systems that last. We bring structure, learning, and strategy to help changemakers turn local energy into lasting solutions. Building prevention systems takes more than good ideas. It takes practical tools, strong partnerships, and the right support at the right time. That’s where we come in. Through technical assistance, evaluation, and network-building, we help changemakers turn learning into action and align their efforts for greater impact.

Our Technical Assistance Services

Community Systems Change Support

Systems don’t change because of a plan; they change when people work differently together. We help communities move from good ideas to shared action, building the local capacity to lead and sustain change. Helping cross-sector partners align around a shared vision to take action on the root causes.

Learning-Focused Evaluation & Storytelling

Turn learning and data into action. Use stories to drive change. We help communities use strategic learning to make better decisions, strengthen alignment, and tell the story of their impact. Our approach blends reflection, adaptation, and storytelling with evidence and research to support real-time improvement.

Network Building & Strategic Collaboration

Networks don’t just spread ideas, they build power. We help changemakers build shared language, trusted networks, and aligned strategies across places and systems. Through learning communities, roundtables, and field-level tools, we strengthen the infrastructure that enables collective impact.

Who We Work With

We partner with changemakers who are building better systems for families—those ready to lead change from within their communities. Community-based organizations, local governments, public agencies, coalitions, and national networks turn to ICFW to:

• Reimagine how systems show up for families
• Build lasting capacity for learning, adaptation, and coordination
• Break down silos to tackle complex challenges together
• Embed equity, trust, and community voice into their strategy

What Guides Us

We are grounded in tested systems change principles and practice-based evidence. At the heart of our approach is relationship building—trust, collaboration, and connection are the foundation for lasting systems change.

• Systems change happens when relationships shift, not just policies
• Lived experience belongs in leadership
• Equity is not an add-on—it’s foundational
• Learning drives progress
• Communities already hold the wisdom needed for change

What Success Looks Like

• Families are thriving—their needs are met earlier, and fewer are overloaded.
• Communities lead, guided by evidence, accelerated by relationships.
• Cross-system work aligns, accelerates, and strengthens local strategy.
• People closest to the challenge—practitioners, lived experience experts, and community leaders—drive the work.

Let’s Work Together

We help changemakers turn momentum into action and ideas into aligned strategy. We bring the tools, partnership, and perspective needed to build systems that truly support families. See our work in action:

Learning-Focused Evaluation and Storytelling – Child Welfare Lessons Learned

By Megan Frederick-Usoh

The Workforce Innovation & Inclusion Critical Pathway (WII) calls for innovation, inclusion and a commitment to workforce stability. As such, ICFW partnered with the Child Welfare team at Children’s Wisconsin to understand how they successfully reduced staff turnover since their employment crisis of 2021.

Over the last several months, we facilitated a reflective process rooted in storytelling and guided by Tamarack’s Most Significant Change method. Through a series of focus groups, and conversations with leadership, we listened to staff and supervisors share their perspective of the staffing crisis, what changed in the last four years and why it mattered.  Ultimately, this partnership sought to surface the lessons behind the progress, what compels staff to stay in challenging roles and what supports are still needed. Several themes emerged, but those most influential were, strong and consistent supervision, flexible work arrangements and culture of transparency and care. These themes were supported by direct quotes and personal stories from staff:

To supplement our focus group data, a follow up survey is currently underway. Once all data is collected, these insights and stories will inform hiring, recognition and retention strategies that reflect those doing the work to support overloaded families.

ICFW at the Prevent Child Abuse America (PCAA) National Conference

By Luke Waldo

Gabe McGaughey and I had the great honor to be part of in Portland, Oregon in August.

We presented two breakout sessions, “Transforming Neglect Prevention: A Systems Change Framework to Support Overloaded Families” and “Overloaded: Understanding Neglect – Transforming the Narrative through a Podcast Series” to over 250 attendees from all over the country. I also shared our work with the when I co-presented with PCAA leaders and Irmes Dagba-Craven and Claire Louge on “Shifting Mindsets: Innovative Projects to Transform Perspectives”.

I also co-hosted the conference’s podcast with , which produced powerful episodes with the keynote speakers , and along with conference presenters Samantha Mellerson and Tshaka Barrows of the and .

Gabe and I also hosted an exhibit table to unveil the exciting new developments with our new service lines that aspire to partner for systems that work. We are grateful to PCAA for creating an inspiring space for changemakers from across the country to share our transformative work and the power of prevention.

Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities Announces Its Steering Committee

The Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities’ (SFTCCC) network has grown nearly 300% since our first full year of the initiative to over two hundred members representing over thirty counties and all five Wisconsin regions. As our team at the ICFW serves as a field catalyst in this initiative, it is important that a steering committee that represents the initiative’s membership works closely with us to provide leadership and direction towards our objectives.

A kickoff meeting was held in July to build relationships and begin basic initiative governance tasks. The steering committee will engage throughout the year through Basecamp and bi-annual meetings.

We are grateful to the changemakers from policy and research, child welfare and prevention, to system leadership and lived expertise who have accepted this role and look forward to working with them to achieve our goal of reducing family separations for reasons of neglect.

Recent and Upcoming Events

The Institute provides training, consultation and technical assistance to help human service agencies implement and replicate best practices. If you are interested in training or technical assistance, please complete our speaker request form.

Upcoming Events

• September 26^th – – Community Collaboration Critical Pathway Virtual Network Convening
  • Presenters from the American Bar Association on the initiative.
• September 26^th – 2025 Conference on Child Welfare and the Courts
• October 1^st – SFTCCC Welcome and Onboarding Session
• October 6^th – – Economic Stability Critical Pathway Virtual Network Convening
  • Presenters from Wisconsin’s project
• October 8^th – – Social Connectedness Critical Pathway Virtual Network Convening  
• November 14^th – with .
  • Join the Building Brains with Relationships Community of Practice. Email mchristian@childrenswi.org for the link to join.

Recent Events

• August 12^th-14^th –
  • podcast co-hosted by Luke Waldo.

The post ICFW Newsletter, Summer 2025 appeared first on Institute for Child and Family Well-Being.

The Institute for Child and Family Well-Being is a collaboration between Children’s Wisconsin and the Helen Bader School of Social Welfare at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The shared values and strengths of this academic-community partnership are reflected in the Institute’s three core service areas: Program Design and Implementation, Research and Evaluation, and Community Engagement and Systems Change.

In This Issue:

• Meet the ICFW
  • Josh Mersky Awarded Prestigious 51���� Research Senior Faculty Award
• Research and Evaluation
  • ICFW Issue Brief Highlights the Hello Baby Program
  • Recent ICFW Publications
• Community Engagement and Systems Change
  • Building A Vision During Uncertainty
  • Housing and Its Impacts on Family Economic Stability
  • Global Loneliness Awareness Week
• Recent and Upcoming Events

Meet the ICFW

Josh Mersky Awarded Prestigious 51���� Research Senior Faculty Award

The 51���� Research Foundation, in collaboration with the Office of Research, has established the 51���� Research Foundation Senior Faculty Awards to recognize researchers who have a long history of significant contributions to their field of research.

ICFW Co-Director Dr. Josh Mersky has been awarded this prestigious award in 2025 for his contributions to research in our field of social work and child and family well-being. Congratulations, Dr. Mersky!

Learn more about the award.

Check out Dr. Mersky’s research.

Research and Evaluation

The Institute accelerates the process of translating knowledge into direct practices, programs and policies that promote health and well-being, and provides analytic, data management and grant-writing support.

New ICFW Issue Brief Highlights the Hello Baby Program

All families can benefit from some support after a baby is born. This issue brief (PDF) highlights Hello Baby, a postpartum nurse home visiting program that is widely available to families with a newborn baby in Racine and Walworth Counties. Services are offered to all families regardless of their socioeconomic background, though the level of support they receive varies. This approach ensures that services effectively address each family’s needs and that program resources are allocated efficiently.

Read more about this brief. (PDF)

Recent ICFW Publications

Janczewski, C. E., Mersky, J. P., & Kaiser, D. (2025). From foster care to incarceration: A prospective analysis of the National Youth in Transition Database. Child Abuse & Neglect, 164, 107469.

Background: Children in foster care often face significant adversity in adulthood, including a heightened risk of incarceration. Yet, it is uncertain whether adult incarceration rates differ between youth who age out of foster care, youth who are reunified with their families, and those adopted or placed with a legal guardian.

Objective: This prospective study investigates the prevalence of adult incarceration for youth in care at age 17 and examines whether the risk of incarceration varies by foster care exit type, both overall and among different racial/ethnic groups.

Read more about this publication.

Community Engagement & Systems Change

The Institute develops community-university partnerships to promote systems change that increases the accessibility of evidence-based and evidence-informed practices.

Building A Vision During Uncertainty

By Gabe McGaughey

With significant uncertainties related to federal funding for programs that are intended to support overloaded families, we in the field are often tasked with being observers to narratives about ‘waste’, ‘ineffectiveness’, and ‘inefficiencies’. Thankfully, there are many for programs, like Medicaid, that support child health, safety, and well-being. What’s clear in these times of uncertainty, is that new solutions for complex challenges related to health, housing, and poverty are going to be left to states and communities.

It’s easy, and understandable, to worry about how potential cuts could impact our lives not only of the families we serve, but also our community of practitioners, social workers, and changemakers in terms of our ability to support the families we serve, but also our own stability and well-being. This adds stress to an already stressful calling. But as those in positions of influence work to sustain critical funding, we also need to cultivate a new vision for the future. We shouldn’t fight for a broken system, but for the key infrastructure that we need to create a better one.

We are entrusted with the stories of the families we serve, we carry them with us, both good and bad, for the rest of our lives. While families may see us as being present in a specific moment, as we nurture and empower them, we must also honor their stories by creating a vision of a system that creates conditions where all families can thrive.  While we’re advocating for tools and critical funding, that has absolutely made a difference for families, we must also acknowledge the limitations of the status quo. Beyond acknowledgment, we must honor the family stories we’re entrusted with to learn from them, chart a new vision for how we support families overloaded by stress, and by acting together to make real change happen.

Housing and Its Impacts on Family Economic Stability

By Luke Waldo

Over the past two months, we have hosted virtual convenings focused on housing and its impacts on child and family well-being. Changemakers from Brown, Burnett, Dane, Milwaukee, Portage, Racine counties, and Illinois who represent the child welfare, child maltreatment prevention, domestic violence, housing, professional development, and community navigation and resources fields shared their personal motivation for joining the convening along with programs and resources that have shown promise in supporting overloaded families with housing.

I have kicked off each convening by sharing why the ICFW’s Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities initiative sees housing and economic stability as a critical pathway to its north star of reducing family separations for reasons of neglect.

Through data, research, and case studies on how housing instability intersects with child welfare and family economic stability in Wisconsin, we began our conversation about why we are motivated by this complex challenge.

Over these first two convenings, our growing network of diverse changemakers has identified some critical themes that we will continue to explore.

• Housing Instability’s Impact on Child Welfare Cases
  • Many participants noted how housing challenges directly affect child welfare cases, particularly affecting reunification timelines and case complexity.
• Systemic Disconnects in Housing Solutions
  • Participants highlighted inconsistencies in how housing assistance is approached across different stages of child welfare involvement.
• Housing as a Complex Resource Issue
  • Multiple participants described how difficult securing adequate housing can be, especially for vulnerable populations.
• Poverty vs. Child Safety Dilemma
  • Several participants addressed the complicated relationship between poverty, housing instability, and child safety concerns.
• Need for Cross-System Collaboration
  • The convening itself represented the goal of bringing different perspectives together to address housing issues.
• Promising Initiatives and Resources Exist
  • Multiple promising pilot programs underway (Family Keys, DV Housing First) using flexible funding to prevent family separations due to housing.

Join us to continue the conversation and action at our third convening on Housing and Its Impacts on Family Economic Stability at 2pm on June 2^nd, and

Advancing Social Connectedness

By Meghan Christian

In honor of the starting June 9^th, two new interactive tools will be shared in the next few weeks on social media and Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities forums. The tools will be available on our website in the coming months.

1. Social Connectedness Toolkit – Because social connectedness is incredibly place-based, the toolkit will have some space to customize to a location or agency. In addition to scalable tools, a brief education on the benefits and features of social connectedness will be included.
2. Social Connectedness Jeopardy – Created for people to learn about social connectedness and to elevate a lesson ICFW has long-since learned (games amp up learning), Social Connectedness Jeopardy is a free and fun way to open or wrap up a discussion.

If you were to observe Global Loneliness Awareness Week, what might you do? Need ideas? Here’s a few:

The Global Initiative on Loneliness and Connection is hosting a webinar on Poverty & Social Connection on June 10^th.

Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities will be having a live, virtual meeting on Social Connectedness on June 11^th at 12 CST. This meeting is great for people who want to un-silo their work, think creatively and experiment.

What would need to change for you to be more socially connected within the year?

Recent and Upcoming Events

The Institute provides training, consultation and technical assistance to help human service agencies implement and replicate best practices. If you are interested in training or technical assistance, please complete our speaker request form.

Upcoming Events

• May 30^th – – Community Collaboration Critical Pathway Virtual Network Convening
• June 2^nd – – Economic Stability Critical Pathway Virtual Network Convening
• June 11^th – – Social Connectedness Critical Pathway Virtual Network Convening  
• August 14^th – with .
  • Building Brains with Relationships Community of Practice. Email mchristian@childrenswi.org for the link to join.
• August 12^th-14^th –
  • ICFW’s Gabe McGaughey and Luke Waldo will be presenting.

Recent Events

• Season 3
• Unpacking Overloaded: A Podcast Discussion Series with Children’s Home Society of America
  • February 25^th – Episode 1: Why Now? The Urgent Call for a Family-Centered Systems Transformation
  • March 26^th – Episodes 4&5 – Unlocking the Power of Lived Experience
• Unpacking Overloaded: Expert Series – If you missed it, you can watch the recordings at the links below.
  • March 10^th – Episode 2 with Jennifer Jones – A Primary Prevention Ecosystem
  • March 14^th – Episode 3 with Blake Roberts Crall and Dr. Allison Thompson – Guaranteed Income
  • April 30^th – Episodes 7&8 with Bryan Samuels – Systems Transformation Through Community Leadership

The post ICFW Newsletter, Spring 2025 appeared first on Institute for Child and Family Well-Being.

The post Unpacking Overloaded: A Podcast Discussion with Bryan Samuels appeared first on Institute for Child and Family Well-Being.

The post Unpacking Overloaded: Experts Series – Guaranteed Income: Rethinking Poverty and Prevention with Blake Roberts Crall and Dr. Allison Thompson appeared first on Institute for Child and Family Well-Being.

The post Unpacking Overloaded: Experts Series – Prevent Child Abuse America’s Theory of Change for a Primary Prevention Ecosystem with Jennifer Jones appeared first on Institute for Child and Family Well-Being.

The Institute for Child and Family Well-Being is a collaboration between Children’s Wisconsin and the Helen Bader School of Social Welfare at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The shared values and strengths of this academic-community partnership are reflected in the Institute’s three core service areas: Program Design and Implementation, Research and Evaluation, and Community Engagement and Systems Change.

In This Issue:

• Meet the ICFW
• Program Design and Implementation
  • Building Brains with Relationships
• Research and Evaluation
  • Recent ICFW Publications – Maternal and Child Health
• Community Engagement and Systems Change
  • Workforce Inclusion and Innovation
  • Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities (SFTCCC) and Transformative Scenario Planning
  • Overloaded: Understanding Neglect Season 3 and Podcast Discussion Series
• Recent and Upcoming Events

Meet the ICFW

Meet Our New Predoctoral Fellow

The ICFW continues to support a predoctoral fellowship training program that provides mentorship and funding to doctoral students whose research can be applied to promote better and more equitable outcomes for children and families.

We are proud to announce our newest predoctoral fellow Yuanyuan Yang. Her research focuses on applying data science methods to advance economic and health equity for children and families in resource-limited settings. She is committed to developing innovative interventions that address child poverty and improve mental and behavioral health outcomes for vulnerable children and adolescents.

Yuanyuan holds a master’s degree in public policy from New York University and is currently pursuing her doctoral degree in social work at Washington University in St. Louis

Learn more about the ICFW Predoctoral Fellowship.

Program Design and Implementation

The Institute develops, implements and disseminates validated prevention and intervention strategies that are accessible in real-world settings.

Building Brains with Relationships

By Meghan Christian

Building Brains with Relationships is an in-person, interactive, skill-building day at the Wisconsin Child Welfare Professional Development System. The day starts with building a shared understanding about human brain development and then transitions into a game, the , to visualize the role of experiences on brain development: what promotes it, what derails it, and the larger impacts across a single lifespan. Then participants practice interaction skills that are shown to strengthen relationships and create partnerships because social connectedness has been shown to make the largest impact on resilience.

Register for the May 15^th or the August 14^th date at this link. The training runs from 9am-4pm.

Building Brains with Relationships Community of Practice takes place next on March 18th at noon. Email mchristian@childrenswi.org for the link to join.

Research and Evaluation

The Institute accelerates the process of translating knowledge into direct practices, programs and policies that promote health and well-being, and provides analytic, data management and grant-writing support.

Recent ICFW Publications

Addressing Maternal and Child Health Disparities Through Perinatal Home Visiting

Using data from an ongoing statewide evaluation of Wisconsin’s Family Foundations Home Visiting (FFHV) Program, ICFW recently published a study in the Wisconsin Medical Journal that shows the potential of the FFHV Program to promote maternal health equity. The paper was published by Drs. Joshua Mersky and Colleen Janczewski in collaboration with Davin Hami, a medical student and fellow in the  at UW-Madison. Get more information on the study.

Community Engagement & Systems Change

The Institute develops community-university partnerships to promote systems change that increases the accessibility of evidence-based and evidence-informed practices.

Workforce Inclusion and Innovation

By Megan Frederick-Usoh

Research has shown that a stable, well-supported workforce is more than just beneficial, it is the backbone of thriving communities! Without this foundation, families face instability, and critical relationships between case workers and families are disrupted. Furthermore, workforce turnover can undermine trust, delaying critical interventions and affect permanency outcomes.

In our Workforce Inclusion and Innovation Critical Pathway, we are laying the groundwork for transformative change. By partnering with the Children’s Home Society of America (CHSA) and Chapin Hall, we are simultaneously addressing community-based prevention and workforce gaps outlined in the National Research Agenda for a 21st Century Child and Family Well-Being System. This partnership is particularly unique and beneficial as it allows us to utilize Chapin Hall’s research, the Institute for Child and Family Well-Being’s (ICFW) transformational knowledge and strategies, and CHSA’s direct access to children and families to shift from research to action. Our proposal uses this relationship to integrate professional development, cultural training, and workforce retention strategies to operationalize the research, create a lasting impact.

As we look to the future, we acknowledge that our work in this space is far from over and that we need your input to help shape future conversations and strategies. By taking approximately 10-15 minutes of your time to complete the attached survey, you will directly influence our planning in this pathway, ensuring that our future activities reflect your opinions. Your voice matters, help us plan and move forward together!

Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities (SFTCCC) and Transformative Scenario Planning

By Gabe McGaughey

Transformative Scenario Planning: A Blueprint for Systems Change in SFTCCC

The Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities (SFTCCC) initiative is a collaborative effort to reimagine how communities prevent family separation due to child neglect. At its core, SFTCCC recognizes that child neglect is a complex problem, deeply tied to systemic issues such as economic instability, siloed responses to overloaded families, and social isolation. Addressing these challenges requires a fundamental shift in how we think about and respond to families overloaded by stress. This is why we have embraced Transformative Scenario Planning (TSP) as a guiding framework to drive systemic change.

Why Are We Focusing on Neglect?

Neglect is the most common reason families are referred to Child Protective Services (CPS). Nationally, 25% of all children will experience a neglect investigation before the age of 18. In Wisconsin, neglect accounted for 61% of all screened-in CPS reports in 2023. However, 87% of neglect investigations were unsubstantiated, underscoring a fundamental flaw in the system: over-reliance on investigations rather than support. Families facing neglect reports are often struggling with chronic poverty, inadequate housing, and a lack of community resources. Without addressing these root causes, we cannot meaningfully reduce neglect or prevent unnecessary family separation.

Neglect as a Complex Problem

Neglect is not simply a matter of parental failure—it is the outcome of multiple, interwoven systemic issues. Families who lack stable housing, childcare, or adequate wages are often overwhelmed by stress, making it difficult to provide consistent care. These challenges do not exist in isolation, and their solutions cannot be found in one sector alone. A cross-sector, systems-change approach is essential.

Why Systems Change?

Traditional child welfare responses focus on individual interventions or responding differently within the context of the Child Protection System (CPS), rather than addressing the broader conditions that push families into crisis. Our work in SFTCCC aims to shift the conversation from blame to support—ensuring that families receive the resources they need before neglect occurs and community members know how to connect families to resources they need. This requires collaboration across child welfare, housing, healthcare, education, law enforcement, and economic systems to create lasting, preventative solutions.

How Transformative Scenario Planning Aligns with SFTCCC

Transformative Scenario Planning (TSP) provides a structured yet adaptive way to address the complex and unstable nature of neglect. Developed by Adam Kahane, TSP is designed for situations where existing approaches have failed, and where collaboration among diverse stakeholders is needed to create meaningful change.

The process involves five key steps:

1. Convening a diverse group of stakeholders who are invested in addressing the issue.
2. Observing what is happening by gathering data and insights from different perspectives.
3. Constructing stories about what could happen—plausible future scenarios that explore how neglect might evolve under different conditions.
4. Identifying what we must do to create the best possible future and mitigate the worst-case scenarios.
5. Continuing to act and learn—implementing change strategies and adapting based on new insights.

Where We Are and Where We’re Headed

SFTCCC has focused on Steps 1 and 2 since its launch in 2022— building a diverse team and observing what is happening. Through roundtables, storytelling cafes, and data analysis, we have deepened our collective understanding of how neglect manifests across different communities. During these, and all of our activities, we work to build relationships with and between those participating and supporting the share energy of the community in learning communities (Mandated Reporting, Social Isolation), projects (Cost Analysis), and information sharing in our online Basecamp community. This year, we will continue to invite new perspectives in and collectively learn, while also transitioning into Step 3—constructing future scenarios. These scenarios will help us anticipate challenges, identify leverage points, and design solutions that align with the realities faced by families and service providers.

How You Can Get Involved

We invite you to join us in shaping the future of child welfare prevention. Whether you are a practitioner, policymaker, advocate, or community member, your insights and collaboration are invaluable.

• Engage in our online community discussions to contribute ideas and stay informed.
• Share your experiences and expertise by joining monthly discussions on issues like reimagining mandated reporting and addressing social isolation.

If you have questions or would like to get involved,.

Announcing Overloaded: Understanding Neglect Season 3 and Unpacking Overloaded: A Podcast Discussion Series

By Luke Waldo

Announcing season 3 of , a podcast series from the Institute for Child and Family Well-being.

In season 3 of Overloaded: Understanding Neglect, we confront the complex challenges of poverty, social isolation, and systemic failures where, too often, overloaded families are expected to beat the odds that have been stacked against them. In this season, we explore how we might change the conditions so that we improve the odds for children and families to thrive. 

Through conversations with national and local experts and changemakers, we dive into the innovative ideas that aspire to transform our systems through community leadership, build an aligned and comprehensive primary prevention ecosystem, and unlock the power of lived experience through true collaboration.

Through the first couple years of our Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities’ initiative, which included seasons 1 and 2 of this podcast series, we were able to align the insights and experiences of those who know these issues best with the evidence that has shown promise in advancing meaningful solutions. This collaborative effort identified four critical pathways – Economic Stability, Social Connectedness, Community Collaboration, and Workforce Inclusion and Innovation – that will shape the future of our initiative that aspires to reduce family separations for reasons of neglect.

Join me as I explore how we might transform systems and change the conditions for children and families with research and policy, practice, and lived experience experts Samantha Copus (Jefferson County Parents Supporting Parents), , , , , , and Allison Thompson (Center for Guaranteed Income Research at University of Pennsylvania).

We also have the honor this season of highlighting the many changemakers that presented at this year’s  hosted by Children’s Home Society of America and the Jordan Institute for Families at the University of North Carolina. Anthony Barrows (), Bryn Fortune (), and Sixto Cancel () present their powerful lived experience and frameworks to Unlock the Power of Lived Experience through True Collaboration.

We believe neglect is preventable. Subscribe and Listen to the season today wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Then join us at an upcoming Unpacking Overloaded: A Podcast Discussion Series for a guided and inspiring conversation with changemakers from across the country to reflect and act on questions and ideas presented in the Overloaded: Understanding Neglect podcast. See dates and registration information below in Upcoming Events.

Recent and Upcoming Events

The Institute provides training, consultation and technical assistance to help human service agencies implement and replicate best practices. If you are interested in training or technical assistance, please complete our speaker request form.

Upcoming Events

• Unpacking Overloaded: A Podcast Discussion Series with Children’s Home Society of America
  • February 25^th – Episode 1: Why Now? The Urgent Call for a Family-Centered Systems Transformation
  • March 26^th – Episodes 4&5 – Unlocking the Power of Lived Experience
  • April 30^th – Episodes 7&8 with Bryan Samuels – Systems Transformation Through Community Leadership
• Unpacking Overloaded: Expert Series
  • March 10^th – Episode 2 with Jennifer Jones – A Primary Prevention Ecosystem
  • March 14^th – Episode 3 with Blake Roberts Crall and Dr. Allison Thompson – Guaranteed Income
• March 13^th – Parents’ Game Night In: Social Connectedness and Health
  • Are you a 51���� Student and a parent? Join other Student Parents at 51����’s Children’s Learning Center on 3/13 at 5:30 for Parents’ Game Night In: Social Connectedness and Health. Eat a free, catered meal with your kids and then spend some time with other Student Parents while your kid(s) enjoy play in the CLC with exceptional supervision provided. Learn about the power of social connectedness in health outcomes, connect with new people, rest a little, take steps to be more connected and maybe even play a game or two. Register here.
• with

The post ICFW Newsletter, Winter 2025 appeared first on Institute for Child and Family Well-Being.

The post Addressing Maternal and Child Health Disparities Through Perinatal Home Visiting appeared first on Institute for Child and Family Well-Being.

The Institute for Child and Family Well-Being is a collaboration between Children’s Wisconsin and the Helen Bader School of Social Welfare at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The shared values and strengths of this academic-community partnership are reflected in the Institute’s three core service areas: Program Design and Implementation, Research and Evaluation, and Community Engagement and Systems Change.

In This Issue:

• Meet the ICFW
• Research and Evaluation
  • Recent ICFW Publications
• Community Engagement and Systems Change
  • Title IV-E Scholars and Community Partners Conference: Parental Substance Misuse in Child Welfare
  • Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities Initiative: Advancing Scenario Planning to Transform Mandated Reporting
  • Shifting the Child Welfare Narrative: Understanding the Costs of Unsubstantiated Neglect
  • Overloaded: Understanding Neglect Season 3
  • Milwaukee Independent Column
• Recent and Upcoming Events

Meet the ICFW

Meet Our New Research Assistants

Isa Hernández-White

Isa Hernández-White is a research assistant with the Institute for Child and Family Wellbeing. She is working on IV-E, Families and Children Thriving (FACT), and Strong and Stable Families.

Isa is a social work student pursuing clinical licensure and a trauma-informed certification at UW-Milwaukee. Her interests include mental health, healthcare systems, working with Spanish-speaking communities, and community-engaged program evaluation. In her undergrad, Isa worked as a research assistant for a relationship violence lab and guaranteed income project.

Isa holds a BA in Psychology and Chicano/a/e and Latino/a/e Studies from UW-Madison.

Yessra Sankari

Yessra Sankari is a research assistant with the Institute for Child and Family Wellbeing. She is working on the Family Foundations Home Visiting (FFHV) program, Nurturing Hope project, and the Strong and Stable Families (SSF) project.

Yessra is a doctoral student in Social Welfare at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. She graduated from Ripon College with a B.A. in Chemistry-Biology. Despite her love for the natural sciences, she found herself gravitating towards advocacy and community involvement. She moved on to receive her master’s in Public Administration (MPA) at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. During her MPA studies, she worked at the Oshkosh Area School District as a grant manager for programs targeting students with refugee backgrounds. The majority of her time was spent advocating for inclusion of the students, along with implementing programs that benefit the integration of the refugee students. Later, she worked for the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families (DCF) as a Refugee Program Coordinator, impacting a wider array of refugee community members throughout the state. Her initial interests lie in better understanding the trauma that refugee and immigrant families experience and how it can affect their integration.

Research and Evaluation

The Institute accelerates the process of translating knowledge into direct practices, programs and policies that promote health and well-being, and provides analytic, data management and grant-writing support.

The Institute for Child and Family Well-being is at the forefront of research that explores new frontiers related to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs).

Below are examples of seminal work that explores disparities in the experience and impact of life course adversity:

• Linking adverse experiences to pregnancy and birth outcomes: A life course analysis of racial and ethnic disparities among low-income women
• Adverse childhood experiences and sexual orientation: An intersectional analysis of nationally representative data
• Adverse adult experiences and health outcomes: Racial and ethnic differences in a low-income sample

Here are recent examples of ACE research that advances our understanding of intergenerational transmission:

• The long arm of maternal incarceration: Indirect associations with children’s social-emotional development
• Intergenerational transmission of child protective services involvement: Exploring the role of ACEs and domestic violence among families who receive home visiting services
• Intergenerational pathways linking mothers’ adverse childhood experiences and children’s social-emotional problems
• Intergenerational transmission of parental adverse childhood experiences and children’s outcomes: A scoping review

Community Engagement & Systems Change

The Institute develops community-university partnerships to promote systems change that increases the accessibility of evidence-based and evidence-informed practices.

Title IV-E Scholars and Community Partners Conference: Parental Substance Misuse in Child Welfare

On October 4, 2024, the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee Title IV-E Public Child Welfare Training Program hosted the Title IV-E Scholars & Community Partners Conference: Parental Substance Misuse in Child Welfare. A keynote address from Robyn Ellis and Judge Mary Triggiano and a community panel of child welfare professionals shared about efforts underway to address parental substance misuse in Southeastern Wisconsin, highlighting Family Drug Treatment Courts, drug affected infants, and the amazing work of our Title IV-E Scholars and community partners. More details and a recording of the event are available here.

Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities Initiative: Advancing Scenario Planning to Transform Mandated Reporting

By Gabe McGaughey

In our ongoing journey to reimagine mandated reporting within Wisconsin, the Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities (SFTCCC) Initiative is stepping towards a critical new phase—transformative scenario planning (TSP). This phase aims to envision and explore a variety of plausible futures for how mandated reporting could evolve, supporting a vision that better meets the needs of families while acknowledging the complex realities we face.

In our last update, we shared our commitment to rethink mandated reporting and highlighted the ways that systemic change can reduce unnecessary involvement in the child welfare system, ultimately improving family well-being. Since then, the SFTCCC Initiative has made strides in creating a foundation for transformative scenario planning—an approach originally used to navigate significant societal changes in post-apartheid South Africa and civil war-torn Colombia.

Transformative Scenario Planning: Building a Shared Vision

Transformative Scenario Planning (TSP) is a collaborative method that brings together stakeholders from various backgrounds, even those with differing viewpoints, to imagine and strategize for multiple future scenarios. This approach allows us to create a shared understanding of the possibilities that lie ahead, focusing on key challenges, drivers, and strategies to transform complex issues. Through recent stakeholder meetings, we’ve emphasized the importance of including a wide variety of perspectives in this process. Our team is actively building relationships with professionals across different fields—educators, healthcare providers, legal experts, law enforcement, child welfare abolitionists, and others—as well as those with lived experience in the child welfare system. Their insights are instrumental in envisioning futures that are equitable and responsive to community needs.

Leah Cerwin, one of our project team members, has been diligently curating resources and literature shared across our meetings. We’ve developed a thematic literature review capturing insights from Colorado, California, New York, and even the upEND movement in Texas, which challenges conventional child welfare frameworks. This knowledge base will support our scenario planning discussions, giving us a rich landscape of ideas and best practices from which to draw inspiration.

Expanding Inclusion: Diverse Voices at the Table

One of the foundational aspects of TSP is bringing together stakeholders who may not always see eye to eye—those who view mandated reporting in vastly different ways. Recent conversations have underscored the value of adding voices from law enforcement, legal representatives, and professionals resistant to change. These perspectives are crucial to understand both the opportunities for transformation and the potential resistance we may encounter. We’re also working to amplify the voices of those directly impacted by the child welfare system. Parent leaders and individuals with lived experience have been instrumental in shaping our understanding of the current system’s impact, and we are exploring ways to ensure their experiences are included in scenario planning. By involving these voices, we aim to build an inclusive and just approach to family support that moves beyond the “one-size-fits-all” method.

Looking Forward: Imagining Future Scenarios

The next few months are about creating the conditions to support meaningful scenario planning sessions—including developing partnerships, engaging in one-on-one conversations with new stakeholders, and expanding our collective understanding of what change might look like. Our hope is to convene an in-person event where these scenarios can be explored fully, with a diverse array of participants who bring both their expertise and their humanity to the process. We recognize that the current system of mandated reporting often serves to react rather than prevent. With TSP, we hope to move toward a more proactive, supportive framework that keeps children safe while empowering families with the resources they need before crisis strikes. Together, we’re building the scaffolding to reshape how we understand family well-being in Wisconsin—not just through policy, but through the relationships and shared vision we create as a community.

Stay Engaged

We’re committed to keeping you informed and involved as this work unfolds. If you’re interested in participating, contributing resources, or simply learning more, please reach out to us. Your voice is a vital part of shaping the future of child and family well-being. Keep an eye out for our next update, where we will share insights from our first round of scenario planning and the emerging visions for mandated reporting in Wisconsin.

FAQ: Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities Initiative

• What is SFTCCC?
• What is Transformative Scenario Planning (TSP)?
  • A collaborative process that gathers diverse stakeholders to envision multiple future scenarios and plan for change.
• Who is involved in the planning process?
  • Stakeholders including educators, healthcare providers, law enforcement, legal experts, those with lived experience, and child welfare reform advocates.
• Why focus on mandated reporting reform?
  • To move from a reactive to a proactive system that prevents crises by supporting families before issues escalate.
• What’s next for SFTCCC?
  • Preparing for in-person scenario planning by expanding partnerships and including more diverse perspectives.
• How can I get involved?
  • Participate, contribute resources, or stay informed. Reach out to the SFTCCC team to learn more.

Shifting the Child Welfare Narrative: Understanding the Costs of Unsubstantiated Neglect

By Gabe McGaughey

The Cost Analysis project, part of the Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities (SFTCCC) initiative, aims to explore the  use of resources allocated to unsubstantiated neglect investigations. Far too often, families in distress are subjected to investigations that yield no substantiated findings, leaving a lasting impact by eroding trust between communities and the systems meant to support them. In collaboration with our partner counties and 51����, this project aims to pilot a model to shed light on the financial toll these investigations take on our communities and generate questions about how we might better allocate resources to truly support overloaded families.

Why Focusing on the Cost of Unsubstantiated Neglect Is Important

Child Protective Services (CPS) investigations are incredibly common, more than a third of children will experience a CPS investigation before they turn 18, yet only a fraction of these investigations end in substantiated maltreatment. In Wisconsin neglect is the most common form of maltreatment investigated. Over the past five years there have been approximately 114,289 investigations into neglect allegations. Over that same period, those neglect substantiations have only been substantiated 13% of the time, leaving 99,158 cases that were ultimately unsubstantiated. These unsubstantiated cases require staff time and resources, often without leading to concrete outcomes for families. These repeated, unsubstantiated investigations not only consume limited resources but also contribute to a breakdown in trust between families and community supports that could be essential in supporting those same families.

By understanding the cost of the current state, we can better consider what a shift toward prevention and early support might look like. The Cost Analysis project seeks to create a model to quantify these expenses and to demonstrate the opportunities for more preventive, supportive interventions in the current approach.

The progress of the Cost Analysis project is driven by the commitment of our partners. Brown, Dane, Rock, and Waukesha counties have each stepped forward to play an essential role in piloting this work. Their contributions in co-designing this project will be critical to uncovering the cost of unsubstantiated neglect and identifying better ways to support families. Along with our ICFW 51���� research partner, this collaboration ensures that we are not only gathering data but also working collaboratively to build a system that is reflective of the needs and realities of the communities we serve. By partnering with these counties, we are laying the groundwork for meaningful change that will make a difference both locally and across the state. This data-driven approach will offer:

• Detailed Insights into the financial resources dedicated to unsubstantiated investigations;
• Strategic Resource Allocation to invest where our efforts will have the most impact;
• Evidence-Based Advocacy to strengthen our case for policy change and funding towards prevention;
• Practical insights from staff feedback on practice implications.

The Cost Analysis project began in the summer of 2024, with our partner counties stepping up to develop a comprehensive framework for understanding these costs. Together, we are building a data collection system that ensures effectiveness without overwhelming our staff on the ground. As we launch this pilot in January 2025, we anticipate uncovering insights that will inform not only our understanding of financial inefficiencies but also guide future strategies for more empathetic and effective responses to families’ needs.

Stay tuned as we share findings that we believe will provide a clearer path to reshaping child welfare—a path that prioritizes family well-being, reduces unnecessary investigations, and supports strong, resilient communities.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

• What is the Cost Analysis project? The Cost Analysis project is an initiative under the SFTCCC framework to understand the financial costs of unsubstantiated child neglect investigations and explore better resource allocation.
• Why is focusing on unsubstantiated neglect important? It helps identify inefficiencies and find ways to better support families before crises occur.
• How common are CPS investigations for neglect? More than a third of children experience a CPS investigation before 18; in Wisconsin, only 13% of 114,289 neglect investigations were substantiated.
• What role do community partners play? Dane, Rock, Waukesha, and Brown counties are piloting this project, helping with data collection and co-designing solutions.
• What outcomes are expected? Insights into financial costs, better resource allocation, and strengthened advocacy for preventive policies.
• How will this project contribute to child welfare reform? By providing data to support a shift from reactive measures to proactive, prevention-focused strategies.
• When does the pilot begin? The pilot phase will start in January 2025.
• How can I stay updated? Updates will be shared through newsletters and reports—stay tuned for insights and progress.

Milwaukee Independent Column Featuring Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities Initiative

By Luke Waldo

Beginning in January of this year, I was given the honor to share the work that we are doing in Milwaukee and across our state with our Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities initiative through a monthly column in the . Read below.

May’s column:

June’s column:

August column:

October column:

Overloaded: Understanding Neglect Season 3 Coming Soon!

������Luke Waldo

In season 3 of , we will be exploring how we might transform systems and change the conditions for overloaded families. Informed and inspired by our Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities’ initiative and the first two seasons of this podcast series, we now shift from the underlying root causes of neglect and the system challenges and failures that hold them in place to the systems transformation, primary prevention ecosystems, and integration of lived expertise to guide us towards meaningful and sustainable change in the conditions that overload families.  

Join me, Luke Waldo, as I explore how we might transform systems and change the conditions for children and families with research and policy, practice, and lived experience experts Samantha Copus (Jefferson County Parents Supporting Parents), , , , , , and Allison Thompson (Center for Guaranteed Income Research at University of Pennsylvania).

We also have the honor this season of highlighting the many changemakers that presented at this year’s hosted by Children’s Home Society of America and the Jordan Institute for Families at the University of North Carolina. Anthony Barrows (), Bryn Fortune (), and Sixto Cancel () present their powerful lived experience and frameworks to Unlock the Power of Lived Experience through True Collaboration.

We believe neglect is preventable. Take a journey with us through systems transformation and primary prevention ecosystems to discover some of the strategies that can help us change the conditions and make that belief a reality for our families and communities. The conversations begin on Wednesday, January 8th when we premiere the first episode of season 3 of wherever you listen to your podcasts. Then come back each week on Wednesday to listen to the rest of the series. And if you haven’t already, listen to seasons 1 and 2 to better understand neglect, its root causes, and the critical pathways to change the conditions for overloaded families.

Recent and Upcoming Events

The Institute provides training, consultation and technical assistance to help human service agencies implement and replicate best practices. If you are interested in training or technical assistance, please complete our speaker request form.

Upcoming Events

• with
• Season 3 – Coming January 2025!

Recent Events

• – September 4^th-6^th
• – September 17^th
• (PDF) – September 23^rd-25^th
• – October 1st
• Title IV-E Scholars & Community Partners Conference: Parental Substance Misuse in Child Welfare – October 4^th

The post ICFW Newsletter, Fall 2024 appeared first on Institute for Child and Family Well-Being.

The Institute for Child and Family Well-Being is a collaboration between Children’s Wisconsin and the Helen Bader School of Social Welfare at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The shared values and strengths of this academic-community partnership are reflected in the Institute’s three core service areas: Program Design and Implementation, Research and Evaluation, and Community Engagement and Systems Change.

In This Issue:

• Meet the ICFW
  • New Predoctoral Fellow
  • New MSW Interns
• Program Design and Implementation
  • Translational Design Workshop
• Research and Evaluation
  • Recent ICFW Publications
• Community Engagement and Systems Change
  • Reimagining Mandated Reporting
  • Milwaukee Independent Column
• Recent and Upcoming Events

Meet the ICFW

Meet Our New Predoctoral Fellow

The ICFW continues to support a predoctoral fellowship training program that provides mentorship and funding to doctoral students whose research can be applied to promote better and more equitable outcomes for children and families.

We are proud to announce our newest predoctoral fellow . Her research broadly focuses on identifying the risk and protective factors that influence vulnerability or resilience in children and mothers exposed to violence. Her overarching goal is to contribute to the development and implementation of culturally sensitive interventions that improve parenting, mental health, and child development outcomes.

Janie holds a master’s degree in Behavioral Health from Tulane University and is currently pursuing her doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology at the University of Notre Dame.

Meet our new MSW Interns

Ashley Ross is currently in the MSW program at UW- Milwaukee. Her areas of interest are in community-based social work and services related to children, families, and trauma informed care. She is excited to get involved with SFTCCC as well as the Overloaded: Understanding Neglect podcast hosted by the ICFW. Through her internship at ICFW, she hopes to learn more about the gaps in the community and initiatives that ICFW are working on to close these gaps.

Ashley also works part time at Rogers Behavioral Health where she has worked for the last 5 years. She has a BSW, and with her MSW she hopes to work in a macro setting to advocate for clients in her community who are in need of mental health services.

Jessica Thomas is currently studying for her MSW at Louisiana State University, Geaux Tigers! She has a mixed bag of experience through her previous studies, receiving her first degree, a BBA in Marketing from Boise State University, and later receiving her teaching license in elementary education.

Jessica is currently an academic interventionist whose interactions with her students sparked her interest in social work, specifically social-emotional development, mental health, and education reform. As a mother of a 10- and 14-year-old and a teacher for students who struggle academically, Jessica has witnessed and understands the importance of healthy and supportive environments for adequate child development. She is excited to be working with the ICFW on their initiatives to support Wisconsin’s families in overcoming adversity due to failing systems and policies, and is also most excited to be involved in their work that directly impacts the health and well-being of Wisconsin’s youth.

Annie Van Hoof is currently studying for her MSW at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee with a focus on macro level work. Her main areas of interest focus on advocacy for current and future social workers and investing in building the workforce to be able to provide better servicing to the community. Annie is also interested in helping to find preventative ways to alleviate families having ongoing involvement in the child welfare system who might not need it.

Annie currently works as an Options Counselor for Wraparound Milwaukee and has been in this role for just over 3 years. She previously attended UW-Milwaukee where she received her bachelor’s degree in Social Work. Since then she has been working in multiple direct service roles in juvenile justice, child welfare, and crisis stabilization. 

Program Design and Implementation

The Institute develops, implements and disseminates validated prevention and intervention strategies that are accessible in real-world settings.

Translational Design Workshop

By Megan Frederick-Usoh

Welcome to the Institute for Child and Family Well-being (ICFW) online Translational Design Workshop!

Do you have a longstanding problem facing the families in your community? Is your agency or organization seeking innovative ways to influence the narrative surrounding child welfare, poverty or other systemic issues in your community? If so, this workshop is for you!

This workshop will strengthen your ability to translate the latest science and evidence into innovative solutions, work across sectors to identify points of convergence and foster the community collaboration essential for widespread implementation. It will ultimately serve as a structured space to connect, ideate and tackle challenging problems together to produce solutions that will uplift families and your community.

Learning Environment:

The Translational Design workshop consists of two 3-week training periods and is structured to meet the needs of busy schedules. At your own pace, you will complete weekly activities and exercises that are focused on creating tangible opportunities for knowledge application. Each workshop is customized to meet the needs of the attendees, with relevant activities that promote thinking about your “big question” and help you prototype solutions.

Each weekly session will be supplemented with instructor-led practice sessions, where you can ask questions and build a community of practice with your peers. Teamwork is encouraged and teams can be as large as four people.

As a result of this workshops, innovators will be able to:

• Brainstorm and design solutions to longstanding challenges
• Engage content and context experts in the design and improvement processes
• Build a Community of Practice which can serve as a learning collaborative and supportive capacity-builder
• Identify and frame the challenges concerning complex issues that have been standing in the way of program-and client level success
• Move your program or current research more quickly into practice (a new program, service, curriculum, tool, etc.)

Registration fee: $400 for a team of up to four people. Scholarships available!

If you are interested in learning more about the workshop or registering for this upcoming cohort, contact Megan Frederick-Usoh at mfrederick-usoh@childrenswi.org or Luke Waldo at lwaldo@childrenswi.org.

Research and Evaluation

The Institute accelerates the process of translating knowledge into direct practices, programs and policies that promote health and well-being, and provides analytic, data management and grant-writing support.

Recent ICFW Publications

Romain Dagenhardt, D., Sharif, S., Belasco, E., & Topitzes, J. (2024). Examining the strengths and challenges of a Smart Reentry Program: Lessons learned. Journal of Social Service Research.

Community Engagement & Systems Change

The Institute develops community-university partnerships to promote systems change that increases the accessibility of evidence-based and evidence-informed practices.

Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities Initiative – Reimagining Mandated Reporting

By Leah Cerwin

The Institute for Child and Family Well-Being (ICFW) hosts learning sessions involving various invested parties to address the challenges of mandated reporting training and laws in meeting the needs of overloaded families. People from various counties across the state have come together to address how family separations resulting from neglect are frequently linked to poverty. The practice of mandated reporting can create surveillance and trauma for these families without offering the necessary support and resources.

The Mandated Reporting Reform workgroup, comprising members from Dane, Walworth, Waukesha, Rock, Brown, and Milwaukee Counties, has identified common themes in the experiences of mandated reporters. They have also highlighted opportunities for fostering connections to drive positive change.

Over the past many months, we have hosted presentations from medical social workers, school social workers, and child welfare trainers who have shared their lived experience with mandated reporting in medical and school settings as well as with systemic racism and bias.

In the coming months, we will be identifying the gaps in perspectives that exist within our network before transitioning into some initial scenario planning that may lead to new proposed actions and solutions to the challenges presented by mandated reporting’s current state. Now is a great time to consider joining the conversation and network to share your experience and learn from changemakers from across our state and systems.

If you are interested in joining us, please email Leah Cerwin at lcerwin@childrenswi.org or Luke Waldo at lwaldo@childrenswi.org.

Join our Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities’ .

Milwaukee Independent Column Featuring Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities Initiative

Recent and Upcoming Events

The Institute provides training, consultation and technical assistance to help human service agencies implement and replicate best practices. If you are interested in training or technical assistance, please complete our speaker request form.

Upcoming Event

• – September 17^th
• (PDF) – September 23^rd-25^th
• – October 1st
• Title IV-E Scholars & Community Partners Conference: Parental Substance Misuse in Child Welfare – October 4^th
• with
• Translational Design Workshop – New Cohort this Fall
• Season 3 – Coming this Fall!

Recent Events

• – September 4-6th

The post ICFW Newsletter, Summer 2024 appeared first on Institute for Child and Family Well-Being.

The Institute for Child and Family Well-Being is a collaboration between Children’s Wisconsin and the Helen Bader School of Social Welfare at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The shared values and strengths of this academic-community partnership are reflected in the Institute’s three core service areas: Program Design and Implementation, Research and Evaluation, and Community Engagement and Systems Change.

In This Issue:

• Program Design and Implementation
  • Translational Design Workshop – Spring 2024 Cohort
• Research and Evaluation
  • New Project Enhancing School-Centered Mental Health Services
• Community Engagement and Systems Change
  • Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities (SFTCCC) Initiative Progress and Updates
  • Reimagining Mandated Reporting
  • Moving Towards a More Inclusive and Innovative Workforce
  • Milwaukee Independent Column
• Recent and Upcoming Events

Program Design and Implementation

The Institute develops, implements and disseminates validated prevention and intervention strategies that are accessible in real-world settings.

Translational Design Workshop

By Megan Frederick-Usoh

The Institute for Child and Family Well-being warmly welcomes the April 2024 cohort of Translational Design (TD). This workshop brings together human-centered design and evidence-based practice to develop innovative, sustainable solutions that support children and families.

Our current cohort is a unique representation of the child and family servicing field, including participants from Healthy Start and family preservation programs as well as leadership in residential treatment for youth. By harnessing the strengths of human-centered design, translational research, and strategic co-creation, this diverse cohort is poised to make significant strides toward developing sustainable solutions that will empower our communities.

Translational Design Workshop at a glance

TD prioritizes human-centered, system-responsive solutions that foster resilience in our -communities. By bridging cutting-edge research with practical interventions, TD seeks to mitigate the unique challenges faced by children, families, and service providers. The design follows a three phase process:

1. Shared Understanding: Participants establish a unified perspective on the issues at hand. A common understanding of challenges creates a clear target for efficient solutions.
2. Co-Creation: By engaging both professionals and those with lived experiences, participants will design and test innovative solutions that can be effectively implemented within their systems.
3. Capacity-Building: The cohort will gain the tools and knowledge necessary for sustained implementation, including program materials, training, and coaching.

Stay tuned for the inspiring innovations that will emerge from this cohort. If you are interested in learning more about the TD workshop or registering for future cohorts, contact Megan Frederick-Usoh at mfrederick-usoh@childrenswi.org or Luke Waldo at lwaldo@childrenswi.org.

Research and Evaluation

The Institute accelerates the process of translating knowledge into direct practices, programs and policies that promote health and well-being, and provides analytic, data management and grant-writing support.

New Project Enhancing School-Centered Mental Health Services

By Allison Amphlett

This project is designed to strengthen and evaluate Lutheran Social Services (LSS) of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan’s School-Centered Mental Health (SCMH) model, which combines traditional school-based counseling with in-home support provided by a family coach. Through screening, referral, and service coordination, family coaches address social determinants of health and enhance family stability, reinforcing the impact of school-based clinical services on children’s mental health and well-being.

With funding from the Wisconsin Partnership Program at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, the ICFW 51���� and LSS teams will collaborate on a multi-method evaluation gathering data from students, families, and program staff to support continuous improvement and refinement of the program model in anticipation of future dissemination and implementation research.

Community Engagement & Systems Change

The Institute develops community-university partnerships to promote systems change that increases the accessibility of evidence-based and evidence-informed practices.

Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities (SFTCCC) Initiative Progress and Updates

By Gabe McGaughey

We began our Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities (SFTCCC) journey in 2022 with the belief that bringing people together, sharing ideas, and building relationships can drive systems and policy changes to prevent family separation due to neglect. The past six months have been especially energizing as we continue to connect with passionate changemakers, learning from many along the way. We’re building a shared understanding around key issues in our critical pathways, striving to strengthen local capacity, elevating local efforts, highlighting innovative ideas, and fostering strong relationships. Here are some highlights since our last newsletter:

Neglect is a Local Challenge

We convened roundtables across the state to understand how neglect manifests in different communities. Neglect is closely tied to local issues such as poverty, and the unique interests and resources in each community make it a distinctly local challenge. While common issues exist, challenges like ‘inadequate safe and affordable housing’ vary significantly from Milwaukee to Black River Falls.

Together for Children Conference

In April, during Strengthening Families Month, the Institute for Child and Family Well-Being (ICFW) facilitated a seminar at the Together for Children Conference titled “Empowering Communities: Innovative Strategies for Preventing and Responding to Child Neglect.” The seminar focused on collaborative and innovative approaches to address child neglect. It highlighted the critical role of partnerships, particularly with public organizations like Wisconsin’s Department of Children and Families (DCF) and local county programs, in fostering systemic changes and supporting stressed families. The event emphasized the importance of community engagement, shared learning, and co-designed solutions to prevent family separations due to neglect.

Mandated Reporting Shift

Ongoing discussions in our Basecamp forum and monthly Zoom meetings have focused on rethinking mandated reporting in our state. How can we encourage those making referrals to reconsider the role of Child Protection? Insights from medical social workers on reporting in their settings have been particularly valuable. Upcoming discussions will delve deeper into this topic. See Leah Cerwin’s article below for more information on this effort.

Season 2 of Our Podcast Wraps

Season 2 of has concluded, delving deeper into the systemic issues contributing to child neglect. The season explored the interplay between societal structures and individual circumstances, featuring experts, including social workers, policymakers, and families. The episodes discussed innovative strategies to prevent neglect and strengthen community support systems, emphasizing collaborative solutions and community engagement to create lasting change for vulnerable families.

The road to accomplishing our goal is long, and we understood this from the start. What keeps us optimistic is the positive response from people connecting around issues and efforts to move upstream. As we learn more about what works and what still needs to happen, we move closer to writing a new narrative about neglect prevention in Wisconsin. If you’re interested in joining the conversation, or through the QR code.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs): Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities (SFTCCC) Initiative

Q1: What is SFTCCC?

A1: The Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities (SFTCCC) initiative, launched in 2022, aims to prevent family separation due to neglect by fostering collaborations and building relationships across various sectors.

Q2: How does SFTCCC address child neglect?

A2: SFTCCC tackles child neglect by promoting partnerships, shared learning, and innovative strategies tailored to local community challenges, such as poverty and inadequate housing.

Q3: What are the recent updates from SFTCCC?

A3: Recent highlights include roundtables on local neglect challenges, a seminar at the Together for Children Conference, ongoing discussions about mandated reporting, and the conclusion of Season 2 of the podcast “Overloaded: Understanding Neglect.”

Q4: Why is child neglect a local challenge?

A4: Neglect is a local challenge because its causes and solutions vary widely between communities, requiring tailored, community-specific approaches.

Q5: What was discussed at the Together for Children Conference?

A5: The seminar focused on innovative strategies to prevent child neglect, emphasizing partnership, local dynamics, and storytelling to create conditions for change.

Q6: What are the discussions on mandated reporting about?

A6: The discussions aim to rethink when to refer to CPS, encouraging better support for families and more effective referral practices with community partners.

Q7: What themes were covered in Season 2 of the podcast?

A7: Season 2 explored systemic issues contributing to neglect, featuring experts discussing collaborative solutions and community engagement with policy, practice, and lived experience experts.

Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities Initiative: Reimagining Mandated Reporting in the Community Collaboration Pathway

By Leah Cerwin

The Institute for Child and Family Well-Being (ICFW) hosts learning sessions involving various invested parties to address the shortcomings and challenges of mandated reporting training and laws in meeting the needs of Milwaukee families.

Individuals from various counties across the state have come together to address how family separations resulting from neglect are frequently linked to poverty. The practice of mandated reporting can create surveillance and trauma for these families without offering the necessary support and resources.

The Reimagining Mandated Reporting workgroup, comprising members from Dane, Walworth, Waukesha, Rock, Brown, and Milwaukee counties, has identified common themes in the experiences of mandated reporters. They have also highlighted opportunities for fostering connections to drive positive change.

These themes have included improving mandated reporter training, collaborating across systems, addressing gaps in community resources, and incorporating parent voice.

The ICFW is currently hosting Inquiry Based Learning Sessions, in which guest speakers from identified sectors attend to discuss what mandated reporting looks like in their area of practice. April speakers included those in medical settings, and future topics and speakers are being identified by the group for subsequent sessions.

Join our Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities’

Join the Conversation: Moving Towards a More Inclusive and Innovative Workforce

By Megan Frederick-Usoh

In a political paradigm that is marked by rapid social and economic shifts, the conversation around workforce inclusion and innovation has never been more urgent. As such, we have asked ourselves, stakeholders and those with lived experience many challenging questions.

Most recently, in a conversation with our partners, we asked, “How might we leverage preexisting systems to diversify, support and expand our workforce?” This question is loaded with opportunity and offers many routes for advancement and points for exploration. As one of many actionable solutions, we conducted a deep dive into the role of paraprofessionals in the workforce and proposed the following innovation.

Support the expanded role of paraprofessionals in prevention efforts by prioritizing evidence-based interventions suitable for them in the IV-E Clearinghouse, offering technical assistance, disseminating best practices for their deployment, and providing training for adapting these interventions for paraprofessional delivery.

Lack of accessibility to child and family health interventions is ubiquitous. However, with the expansion of the paraprofessional workforce, we can at a minimum, increase opportunities for peer support, shorten waitlist for drug treatment and mitigate workforce shortages.

Paraprofessionals possess experiential knowledge that injects a sense of connectivity and specificity into the intervention, attributes that are often absent in the professional healthcare workforce. With over 40% of paraprofessionals identifying as nonwhite^[1], they bring essential racial and ethnic diversity to the field. This diversity enhances the workforce’s ability to implement interventions that are culturally and contextually appropriate, thereby bridging gaps in person centered service delivery to the families they serve.

Paraprofessionals as peer support are informed and empathetic, and uniquely positioned to form meaningful connections and foster supportive environments that can enhance mental health outcomes.^[2] As drug addiction counselors, they increase accessibility and affordability of necessary treatments. According to Goldstrom et al (2006), mutual support groups and self-help organizations “run by and for mental health consumers” are more numerous, thereby shortening waitlist and increasing the timeliness of access to mental health services. 

By providing essential services locally, at a lower cost and in greater numbers, paraprofessionals fill workforce gaps in rural areas, strengthen community ties and enhance sustainability of interventions in underserved service areas.^[3]

As a part of our Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities initiative, we seek to build a shared understanding around family separations due to reasons of neglect. Our ongoing dialogue aims to explore and implement actionable solutions to challenges facing overloaded families in local communities as well as address overarching systemic issues. 

By engaging those with lived experience, industry experts and various stakeholders such as yourselves, we can co-create solutions that lead to a more inclusive and innovative workforce. Your input is invaluable and we want to hear from you.

Are there other ways workforce initiatives could help families prevent neglect?

to share your thoughts on our proposed innovation and/or the question above. Together, let’s shape a workforce that is not only equipped to handle the challenges of today but is also empowered to innovate for tomorrow.

[1] Zippia (2024). Education paraprofessional demographics and statistics in the US.

[2] Bryan, A. E., & Arkowitz, H. (2015). Meta-analysis of the effects of peer-administered psychosocial interventions on symptoms of depression. American journal of community psychology, 55, 455-471.

[3] Bryan & Arkowitz, Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Peer Administered Psychosocial Interventions on Symptoms of Depression

Milwaukee Independent Column Featuring Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities Initiative

By Luke Waldo

Beginning in January of this year, I was given the honor to share the work that we are doing in Milwaukee and across our state with our Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities initiative through a monthly column in the . Read the latest columns below.

January’s column: 

February’s column:

April’s column:

May’s column:

Recent and Upcoming Events

The Institute provides training, consultation and technical assistance to help human service agencies implement and replicate best practices. If you are interested in training or technical assistance, please complete our speaker request form.

Upcoming Events

• Reimagining Mandated Reporting – Overloaded: Understanding Neglect Podcast Event – May 14th
• Community Collaboration Critical Pathway Meeting – Mandated Reporting in Medical Settings – May 31st
• Transforming Narratives on Child Neglect: A Workshop on Framing, Storytelling, and AI – June 26th

Recent Events

• Season 2 – All 11 episodes available now! 
• Translational Design Workshop – April-May 2024
• with – New Dates for 2024
• Together for Children Conference – April 8-10

The post ICFW Newsletter, Spring 2024 appeared first on Institute for Child and Family Well-Being.

The Institute for Child and Family Well-Being is a collaboration between Children’s Wisconsin and the Helen Bader School of Social Welfare at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The shared values and strengths of this academic-community partnership are reflected in the Institute’s three core service areas: Program Design and Implementation, Research and Evaluation, and Community Engagement and Systems Change.

In This Issue:

• Meet the ICFW
  • Meet our MSW/MPH Intern
• Program Design and Implementation
  • Scaling Storytelling
  • Building Brains with Relationships
• Research and Evaluation
  • Recent ICFW Publications – Family Drug Treatment Court
• Community Engagement and Systems Change
  • SFTCCC Critical Pathways Updates
  • Overloaded: Understanding Neglect Season 2
  • Milwaukee Independent Column
• Recent and Upcoming Events

Meet the ICFW

Meet our MSW/MPH Intern

Jo Guillian Uy Cabrera is a dual MSW and MPH Intern with the Institute for Child and Family Well-being. She has several years of experience as a case manager of older adults and families. She has participated in various data and strategy activities with the Strong Families, Thriving Children, and Connected Communities initiative. Her academic and professional interests focus on macro-level policies/systems-level work and exploring the intergenerational effects of poverty. Jo earned her bachelor’s degree in sociology with a minor in public policy from the University of Illinois-Chicago.

If you are interested in joining our team as an MSW or MPH intern, please reach out to Luke Waldo at lwaldo@childrenswi.org or Gabe McGaughey at gmcgaughey@childrenswi.org.

Program Design and Implementation

The Institute develops, implements and disseminates validated prevention and intervention strategies that are accessible in real-world settings.

Scaling Storytelling

By Gabriel McGaughey

At its core, storytelling is more than entertainment; it’s a fundamental human experience that bridges gaps and builds connections. It offers a unique lens through which we can view the world, highlighting the nuances of the human condition, fostering empathy, and spotlighting social inequities. Stories have the power to simplify complex issues, making them accessible and relatable to a wider audience. This emotional resonance is crucial in advocating for change, as it motivates individuals to act, whether through advocacy, donations, or spreading awareness.

Why Overloaded?
A key inspiration in our framing work is the Frameworks Institute’s “Reframing Childhood Adversity: Promoting Upstream Approaches” report. It emphasizes the importance of framing childhood adversity as a public preventable, and solvable issue, highlighting the role of external conditions in shaping health and development outcomes. The report offers recommendations on how to shift public perception and policy towards preventive measures and resilience-building, advocating for a collective responsibility approach to child welfare. It underscores the need for solutions that address systemic causes rather than focusing solely on individual or family-level interventions.
The frame “overloaded” is particularly important because it offers a metaphor that helps the public understand the stress and pressures on families that contribute to childhood adversity. This metaphor shifts the focus from blaming family dysfunction to recognizing the external pressures (like financial insecurity, housing instability, or hunger) that overload families. By conceptualizing families as “overloaded.” the communication shifts towards solution that “lessen the load” or “manage the weight,” making it clear that the issues are systemic and solvable through collective action. This framing encourages empathy and understanding, avoiding stigmatization and promoting supportive interventions. This frame has been well received in all of our SFTCCC community engagement and is the inspiration for our podcast, Overloaded: Understanding Neglect.

The importance of storytelling in driving social change can’t be overstated. It serves as tangible proof of concept, demonstrating that change is not only possible but happening. By sharing success stories of transformation and resilience, we offer hope and inspire action among communities and stakeholders. The narrative approach amplifies the impact of our work, fostering greater public awareness and altering entrenched mental models. In essence, storytelling is a strategic tool that can shift perspectives, mobilize resources, and influence policy.

Framing shapes how information is presented, influencing people’s perceptions, decisions, and actions by determining the content, delivery, and what’s omitted, including values, metaphors, and messengers involved. Framing shapes the overarching narrative that influences how people think, feel, and act regarding an issue.

Framing examples that the ICFW has used in the past include terms like “ and “ were both frames that were developed by the . Through the unique opportunity in the Change in Mind Institute grant from Social Current, ICFW’s Children’s leadership team was able to get trained in framing, practice among peers, and get feedback. Both storytelling and framing should be tools in the 21st century changemaker toolkit, however having the time to get trained and gain master in both while serving families directly, has numerous barriers.

At the ICFW, we recognize the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to change the way we tell stories. In our journey to support systems change, we are exploring how AI can create efficiencies in cultivating nonfiction stories from our communities and apply framing techniques and principles framing to create openings for our audience to think differently about the complex challenges facing families.  AI technologies offer the capability to take raw data, apply framing principles, to create drafts of short narratives for a wide range of uses. The human editorial perspective is still key. AI doesn’t use framing or metaphors perfectly, and the need for understanding the ‘why’ of the story has to have the human element. However, if you are a professional who is too busy doing the work to develop your framing and/or storytelling skills, or if you’ve ever felt that editing was easier than writing from scratch, the use of AI that the ICFW is piloting provides a path to efficiently cultivate stories focused on changing systemic challenges.

The SFTCCC community’s invaluable feedback has significantly shaped our storytelling process, with promising developments soon to be showcased on our Instagram timeline. This collaborative effort will inform a virtual training series debuting in May, further enriching our storytelling and AI utilization toolkit. Additionally, the ICFW team will illuminate these themes at the Together for Children Seminar on April 8th. Storytelling’s pivotal role in fostering social change is evident. By harnessing AI to streamline storytelling, we aim to empower changemakers across the board, supporting the well-being of families overloaded by stress.

Related Links:

Building Brains with Relationships

By Meghan Christian

The West Allis Health Department invited the Institute for Child and Family Well-Being to speak on topics of toxic stress and resilience, and their effects on individuals, relationships and organizations. Staff including dietitians, environmental specialists, nurses, support staff and more spent their morning together. They took time out of their morning to learn and practice tools that can help individuals and organizations embed trauma-informed care in day to day operations.

ICFW staff are continuing to engage with the Child Witness team at Sojourner Family Peace Center in 2024. Last year, staff were provided the opportunity to learn about what promotes and what derails brain development, resilience and simple ways to connect with kids. This year, the focus will be on trauma-informed care, facilitating difficult conversations, co-regulation and how their specific team can incorporate this material into their program design.

Learn more about Building Brains with Relationships

Research and Evaluation

The Institute accelerates the process of translating knowledge into direct practices, programs and policies that promote health and well-being, and provides analytic, data management and grant-writing support.

Recent ICFW Publications – Family Drug Treatment Court

ICFW recently published two papers from a longitudinal mixed-methods investigation of Milwaukee’s Family Drug Treatment Court program (Mersky, PI). Results from an impact study revealed that parents who participated in the program were significantly more likely to reunify with their children (see ). Findings from interviews with program participants and staff highlighted barriers to and facilitators of program participation and success in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic (see ).

See more recent ICFW Publications

Community Engagement & Systems Change

The Institute develops community-university partnerships to promote systems change that increases the accessibility of evidence-based and evidence-informed practices.

Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities Initiative – Community Collaboration Critical Pathway

By Leah Cerwin

Embracing Authentic Community Collaboration

Authentic community collaboration brings together a diverse group of changemakers to share power and learning that animates co-design of solutions for social change that directly impacts their respective communities. By engaging the lived experience of families, communities, service providers, mandated reporters, and organizational and systems leaders, together we can improve systems and service coordination that prioritizes family empowerment and support over mandated reporting. To accomplish this, we will need to reach across many systems, build trust through power-sharing with each other and the families that we serve, so that we may amplify our impact. Together, we can advocate for policy changes, share best practices, and create a network of support that fosters the well-being of families, particularly families of color who have been disproportionately affected by family separations.

Essential Ingredients for Authentic Community Collaboration

• Open communication: Encourage honest and transparent conversations among changemakers to promote understanding and empathy.
• Shared language and goals: Establish common language and objectives that everyone can share and understand, ensuring collective efforts are rooted in lived experience and evidence, and focusing on achieving meaningful change.
• Inclusive decision-making: Involve all those impacted in the decision-making process, respecting the diverse perspectives and experiences they bring to the table.

The Need for Systems Change and Coordination

In Wisconsin, families of color experience disproportionate rates of family separation and longer stays in foster care. Native American and Black families make up about 13% of our population, and yet make up 27% of all reports to Child Protective Services (CPS), 34% of all CPS investigations, 38% of all family separations, and a staggering 47% of group home placements. To truly combat historical inequities that are further exacerbated by family separation, we must advocate for systems change that addresses the root causes of these issues. At the same time, we have thousands of non-profits statewide that support our children, families and communities, yet families too often need support or services that are unknown to them or hard to access. Our greatest challenges, therefore, lie in how we coordinate our services to ensure that they are meeting the real needs of all that seek them. We must work smarter, not harder, to elevate solutions to ensure all families can access the help they need when they need it. By building bridges between service providers, community organizations, and the families we serve, we can create a more equitable, cohesive, and impactful support network.

The Path to Community Collaboration

By fostering authentic and inclusive community collaboration among our systems, service providers, communities, and families, we can effectively address the historical inequities that have resulted in disproportionate rates of family separations among families of color and poor families. Through co-design with families and service providers, we can shift more efforts and resources towards community empowerment and maltreatment prevention, improve our systems and service coordination, and strengthen social connectedness and trust, which can alleviate the stress that overloads families and reduce the risk of neglect and family separation.

Join our Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities’ .

Announcing Overloaded: Understanding Neglect Season 2

By Luke Waldo

We recently concluded our second season of Overloaded: Understanding Neglect where we confronted the challenging realities and complex questions from season 1 as we explore our Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities’ four Critical Pathways, our roadmaps for discovering and developing innovative solutions to these wicked problems. Through the first year of our Strong Families initiative, which included season 1 of this podcast series, we were able to align the insights and experiences of those who know these issues best with the evidence that has shown promise in advancing meaningful solutions. This collaborative effort identified four critical pathways – Economic Stability, Social Connectedness, Community Collaboration, and Workforce Inclusion and Innovation – that will shape the future of our initiative that aspires to reduce family separations for reasons of neglect.

Join host Luke Waldo as we explore these Critical Pathways with research and policy experts ,��,��,��, my Institute colleague Josh Mersky of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee,��,��, and . Additionally, we shined a light on these Critical Pathways through the lived experience experts of many of my close colleagues at Children’s Wisconsin’s child welfare and child maltreatment prevention programs and the caregivers with whom they have worked closely.

We believe neglect is preventable. Take a journey with us on our Critical Pathways to discover some of the strategies that can help us make that belief a reality for our families and communities. Explore the 11 episodes of season 2 of  wherever you listen to your podcasts, and then keep an eye out for upcoming events that will engage you and our community to discuss the pathways to solutions.

Announcing Milwaukee Independent Column Featuring Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities Initiative

By Luke Waldo

Beginning in January of this year, I was given the honor to share the work that we are doing in Milwaukee and across our state with our Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities initiative through a monthly column in the .

The Milwaukee Independent is an award-winning and advertising-free daily news magazine that advocates for inclusive social understanding in Milwaukee by publishing positive news content that covers a wide range of topics as a catalyst for community development. With a heavy emphasis on photojournalism and analytical reporting to fulfill this mission, our editorial staff is focused to being translators and storytellers more than traditional news correspondents.

Recent and Upcoming Events

The Institute provides training, consultation and technical assistance to help human service agencies implement and replicate best practices. If you are interested in training or technical assistance, please complete our speaker request form.

•  Season 2 – All 11 episodes available now!
•  – Upcoming article release on February 28th
• Translational Design Workshop – Begins April 2024
  • If you are interested in joining the cohort, contact Megan Frederick-Usoh at mfrederick-usoh@childrenswi.org.
• Building Brains with Relationships Workshops with  – New Dates for 2024
• Fulfilling the Promise Conference – March 11-13^th
•  – March 27-28th
• Together for Children Conference – April 8-10

The post ICFW Newsletter, Winter 2024 appeared first on Institute for Child and Family Well-Being.

As we begin 2024 – our eighth year as the Institute – our aim is to strengthen these alliances and forge new community connections that are necessary to disseminate effective strategies and produce lasting systems and community change. So take a moment to review what we learned and accomplished in 2023, and check out our newsletter, social media, webpage, and  to learn more about what we are doing and how you can join us.

Meet the New ICFW Team Members

We welcomed new team members and roles to the Institute this year. Learn more about them here.

 Masters of Social Work Interns

• Andrea Bailey
• Jo Cabrera
• Jill Finnel
• Joe Moreno
• Sylvia Onyeiwu

Research Assistants

• Theresa Beaumier
• Sara Chopp
• Xiyao Liu

Predoctoral Fellow

• Daniela Kaiser

ICFW Enters New Phase of SFTCCC Initiative and Second Season of Overloaded Podcast

We are excited to announce the four Critical Pathways of the Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities (SFTCCC) initiative and our Overloaded: Understanding Neglect podcast.

Critical Pathways are specific problem/priority spaces that are focal points for elevating or designing specific and actionable system-level solutions. Over the course of our first year, we hosted many community roundtables and information gather sessions. We have analyzed the data that we have collected through these community events along with the emerging research in the field to develop our four Critical Pathways.

1. Economic Stability
2. Social Connectedness
3. Community Collaboration
4. Workforce Inclusion and Innovation

In season 2 of , we will be exploring these complex issues through our Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities’ four Critical Pathways, our roadmaps for discovering and developing innovative solutions to the wicked problems that overload families.

Subscribe and listen wherever you find your podcasts or at this link .

ICFW Dissemination in 2023: New Journal Articles and Webinars

• The ICFW had 9 new journal articles published in 2023 on topics ranging from Trauma-Responsive Vocational Rehabilitation Services to Intergenerational transmission of child protective services involvement and Impact of a family treatment court on child permanency and safety. To learn more, explore the publications here.
• New Webinars:
  • Uniting Housing and Child Welfare: Pathways to Progress
• New Workshops:
  • Translational Design: An Introduction
  • Building Brains with Relationships

Projects and Partnerships

• Addressing Unresolved Trauma: JobsWork MKE in partnership with JobsWork MKE.
• Hope and Healing for Children Who Experience Family Violence in partnership with Sojourner Family Peace Center.
• Milwaukee Equity Action Plan in partnership with the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR).
• Parenting with P.R.I.D.E. – Group-based, Virtual Parent-Child Interaction Therapy in partnership with the Children’s Wisconsin’s Child and Family Counseling programs.
• Strong and Stable Families in partnership with Wisconsin Child Abuse & Neglect Prevention Board, Strengthening Families Together Association, and statewide Family Resource Centers.
• Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities Initiative in partnership with Children’s Wisconsin’s Child Well-being Programs and community-based organizations across Wisconsin.

Memorable 2023 Events and Upcoming Events

The Institute provides training, consultation and technical assistance to help human service agencies implement and replicate best practices. If you are interested in training or technical assistance, please complete our speaker request form.

• PCIT Training
• T-SBIRT Trainings
• Together for Children Conference
• Building Brains with Relationships workshops
• Wicked Problems of Child Welfare Convening

Upcoming Events:

•  – February 14^th
•  in Boston – March 27-28^th
• Together for Children Conference – April 8-10

The post 2023 Year in Review appeared first on Institute for Child and Family Well-Being.

The Institute for Child and Family Well-Being is a collaboration between Children’s Wisconsin and the Helen Bader School of Social Welfare at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The shared values and strengths of this academic-community partnership are reflected in the Institute’s three core service areas: Program Design and Implementation, Research and Evaluation, and Community Engagement and Systems Change.

In This Issue:

• Meet the ICFW
  • Meet our Research Assistants
  • Meet our New Predoctoral Fellow
• Program Design and Implementation
  • Translational Design Workshop
• Research and Evaluation
  • Recent ICFW Publications
• Community Engagement and Systems Change
  • SFTCCC Critical Pathways Updates
  • Overloaded: Understanding Neglect Season 2
• Recent and Upcoming Events

Meet the ICFW

Meet our Research Assistants

Theresa Beaumier is a research assistant for the Institute for Child and Family Well-Being. She is working on the Healing Adversity and Trauma through Conversation and Hope (HATCH) project.

Theresa is a doctoral student in Sociology at UW-Milwaukee. She is interested in sociology of mental health, environmental sociology, and mixed methods research, as well as conducting research in community settings. Theresa holds a BA in Religious Studies from St. Norbert College and an MA in Social and Applied Philosophy from Marquette University.

Sara Chopp is a Research Assistant and Project Coordinator currently engaged with the Milwaukee Equity Action Plan and Family Foundations Home Visiting (FFHV) evaluation.

She is dedicated to fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) within organizational cultures. She has a keen eye for scrutinizing organizational policies and practices through the lens of DEI standards, providing valuable insights and recommendations for their enhancement. She is an ABD in 51����’s Educational Psychology PhD program, holds a Master’s in Public Administration, and earned a Bachelor of Arts in Communication.

Xiyao Liu is a research assistant with the Institute for Child and Family Well-being. She is working on the Families and Children Thriving Study (FACT) and Strong and Stable Families (SSF) project.

Xiyao is a doctoral student in Social Welfare at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Her research interests encompass areas such as adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), child and adolescent developmental outcomes, racial and ethnic disparities, poverty, and intersectionality. Xiyao holds a Master of Social Work (MSW) from both the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Meet Our New Predoctoral Fellow

The ICFW continues to support a predoctoral fellowship training program that provides mentorship and funding to doctoral students whose research can be applied to promote better and more equitable outcomes for children and families.

We are proud to announce our newest predoctoral fellow Daniela Kaiser. Her research broadly explores how contact with criminal justice and child welfare systems shapes the wellbeing of families and children, as well as a wide array of collateral effects brought about by the involvement with these systems. Daniela holds a master’s degree in Criminological Research from the University of Cambridge and is currently a Criminology, Law and Society doctoral candidate at the University of California, Irvine.

Learn more about the ICFW Predoctoral Fellowship.

Program Design and Implementation

The Institute develops, implements and disseminates validated prevention and intervention strategies that are accessible in real-world settings.

Translational Design Workshop

By Megan Frederick-Usoh

Do you have a longstanding problem facing the families in your community?

We all know that accomplishing a positive shift in mindsets is both lofty and daunting, but essential to everlasting policy and systems change. If your organization is seeking innovative ways to influence the narrative surrounding child welfare, poverty or other systemic issues in your community, this workshop is for you!

The Translational Design workshop is a six-week training course that is structured to meet the needs of busy schedules. At your own pace, you will complete weekly on-line activities and exercises that are focused on creating tangible opportunities for knowledge application. Each weekly session will be supplemented with instructor-led practice sessions, where you can ask questions and build a Community of Practice with your peers.

Translational Design is a process that draws on different disciplines, from Human Centered Design (PDF), , and  into a three-phase process.

Learning Objectives:

• Brainstorm and design solutions to longstanding challenges
• Engage content and context experts in the design and improvement processes
• Build a Community of Practice which can serve as a learning collaborative and supportive capacity-builder
• Identify and frame the challenges concerning complex issues that have been standing in the way of program- and client- level success
• Move your program or current research more quickly into practice

Join us as we create meaningful prototypes and tangible solutions.

Registration fee: $400 for a team of up to four people. Scholarships available.

If you are interested in joining the next cohort in early 2024, contact Megan Frederick-Usoh at mfrederick-usoh@childrenswi.org or Luke Waldo at lwaldo@childrenswi.org.

Research and Evaluation

The Institute accelerates the process of translating knowledge into direct practices, programs and policies that promote health and well-being, and provides analytic, data management and grant-writing support.

Recent ICFW Publications

Janczewski, C. E., & Nitkowski, J. (2023). Predicting mental and behavioral health service utilization among child welfare-involved caregivers: A machine learning approach. Children and Youth Services Review, 155, 107150.

A recent publication found a large portion of child welfare involved caregivers who reported needing mental health or substance misuse services did not receive services. Frequent contact with CPS workers, adverse experiences in adulthood, and court involvement in CPS case predicted service uptake.

Community Engagement & Systems Change

The Institute develops community-university partnerships to promote systems change that increases the accessibility of evidence-based and evidence-informed practices.

Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities Initiative – Economic Stability Critical Pathway

By Gabe McGaughey

Economic security plays a crucial role in reducing stress, contributing to a sense of well-being, and fostering healthy parenting and parent-child interactions. When discussing the biggest challenges that put families at risk for child welfare involvement due to neglect, SFTCCC participants consistently pointed to ‘poverty’, its associated struggles, and the stress it generates as the key obstacles to family functioning and child well-being. Child neglect is more likely in families that are experiencing an overload of stress related to the weight of poverty, which can overload parents’ abilities to provide the supportive relationships children need.

The Ripple Effects of Poverty on Parenting and Family Dynamics

Since the first round table, SFTCCC participants have identified poverty as the biggest challenge facing the families they work with, one that people working in family preservation programs feel like they lack tools to address. The stressors of poverty are complex and represent a constellation of challenges, from housing insecurity, economic shocks, lack of access to childcare, food insecurity, and navigating the benefits cliff.

While Wisconsin law states that family separation due to neglect should only happen for reasons other than poverty, economic insecurities are common among families with children entering the foster care system. Nationally, nearly 85% of families investigated by CPS earn below 200% of the poverty line. Children from economically insecure households are more likely to face maltreatment and neglect (Drake, 2014).

Poverty can lead to chronic stress, which negatively impacts parenting and parent-child interactions.

High levels of stress caused by poverty can result in parents becoming more irritable, less patient, and exacerbate mental health and substance use challenges. Parents experiencing financial strain may have limited time and resources to focus on their children’s needs, affecting the quality of their interactions.

When parents are overloaded by the stressors of poverty, it can negatively affect their ability to engage in healthy parenting practices, it harms their mental health, child development, and wellbeing. This includes being less responsive to their child’s needs, having difficulty setting boundaries, and exhibiting harsher discipline methods.

Breaking the Cycle: Supporting Family Economic Stability

To improve parent-child interactions and overall parenting, it is essential to address the root causes of poverty-induced stress and support family economic stability. This includes increasing access to resources such as affordable housing, healthcare, and education, as well as implementing policies to reduce income inequality.

Learning from innovative new initiatives in this space, broadening our network, and collectively advancing policy solutions are all opportunities for SFTCCC participants to contribute to moving forward. By creating a more supportive environment for families, we can help alleviate the stressors associated with poverty, thereby promoting healthy parenting and fostering stronger parent-child relationships.

Learn more about our Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities’ Critical Pathways here.

Overloaded: Understanding Neglect Season 2 Coming Soon!

By Luke Waldo

We currently live in a time where over 90% of Americans are connected to each other and the world through smart phones, internet access, and social media.

At the same time, the US Surgeon General released a report this year titled “Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation”, which calls out the fact that 1 in 4 Wisconsinites report that they only sometimes or never get the social and emotional support they need; and only 4 in 10 American adults said that they feel very connected to others in 2022.

In Wisconsin, Native American and Black families make up about 13% of our population, and yet make up 27% of all reports to Child Protective Services (CPS), 34% of all CPS investigations, 38% of all family separations, and a staggering 47% of group home placements.

Also, Native Americans and Black professionals in the three systems that contribute to the majority of reports to CPS – the education, law enforcement, and healthcare systems – are underrepresented, in some cases as low as 5% of that system’s workforce.

How might we address the root causes of poverty-induced stress and support family economic stability?

How might we strengthen social connectedness for our communities, caregivers, and children?

How might we foster authentic and inclusive community collaboration among our systems and organizations, service providers, communities, and families, so that we can effectively address the historical and current inequities that have resulted in disproportionate rates of family separations among families of color and poor families?

And how might we diversify and support our workforce and elevate and empower the contribution of families and staff with lived experience in our prevention services and the child welfare system to advance equity and justice for all families?

In season 2 of , we will be confronting these conflicting realities and complex questions as we explore our Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities’ four Critical Pathways, our roadmaps for discovering and developing innovative solutions to these wicked problem. Through the first year of our Strong Families initiative, which included season 1 of this podcast series, we were able to align the insights and experiences of those who know these issues best with the evidence that has shown promise in advancing meaningful solutions. This collaborative effort identified four critical pathways – Economic Stability, Social Connectedness, Community Collaboration, and Workforce Inclusion and Innovation – that will shape the future of our initiative that aspires to reduce family separations for reasons of neglect.

Join me, Luke Waldo, as I explore these Critical Pathways with research and policy experts ,��,��,��, my Institute colleague Josh Mersky of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee,��,��, and . Additionally, we will shine a light on these Critical Pathways through the lived experience experts of many of my close colleagues at Children’s Wisconsin’s child welfare and child maltreatment prevention programs and the caregivers with whom they have worked closely.

We believe neglect is preventable. Take a journey with us on our Critical Pathways to discover some of the strategies that can help us make that belief a reality for our families and communities. The conversations begin on Wednesday, December 6th when we premiere the first episode of season 2 of  wherever you listen to your podcasts. Then come back each week on Wednesday to listen to the rest of the series.

Recent and Upcoming Events

The Institute provides training, consultation and technical assistance to help human service agencies implement and replicate best practices. If you are interested in training or technical assistance, please complete our speaker request form.

•  – September 27th-29^th
•  Season 2 – December 6^th Release
• Translational Design Workshop – Begins January 2024
•  with  – New Dates for 2024

The post ICFW Newsletter, Fall 2023 appeared first on Institute for Child and Family Well-Being.

The Institute for Child and Family Well-Being is a collaboration between Children’s Wisconsin and the Helen Bader School of Social Welfare at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The shared values and strengths of this academic-community partnership are reflected in the Institute’s three core service areas: Program Design and Implementation, Research and Evaluation, and Community Engagement and Systems Change.

In This Issue:

• Meet the ICFW
  • Recognizing our Interns
• Program Design and Implementation
  • Translational Design Workshop
  • Building Brains with Sojourner Family Peace Center
• Research and Evaluation
  • Recent ICFW Publications
• Community Engagement and Systems Change
  • Introducing the Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities (SFTCCC) Critical Pathways
  • Where is SFTCCC Going Next?
  • The Epidemic of Social Isolation in America
  • Overloaded: Understanding Neglect Headlining National Convening
• Recent and Upcoming Events

Meet the ICFW

Join us as we celebrate our MSW interns. The ICFW team would like to say thank you and congratulations to our most recent interns!

During their time with us, each one demonstrated an ability to think critically, a wealth of mental agility when tasked with new challenges and a true passion for the work and the families we serve. Their unique skill sets and experiences were integral to the advancement of our Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities (SFTCCC) initiative.

We wish each of them much success in their future endeavors!

If you are interested in joining our team as a Master’s-level intern with a focus on systems, please contact Luke Waldo at lwaldo@childrenswi.org.

Program Design and Implementation

The Institute develops, implements and disseminates validated prevention and intervention strategies that are accessible in real-world settings.

Translational Design Workshop

By Megan Frederick-Usoh

Do you have a longstanding problem facing the families in your community?

We all know that accomplishing a positive shift in mindsets is both lofty and daunting, but essential to everlasting policy and systems change. If your organization is seeking innovative ways to influence the narrative surrounding child welfare, poverty or other systemic issues in your community, this workshop is for you!

The Translational Design workshop is a six-week training course that is structured to meet the needs of busy schedules. At your own pace, you will complete weekly on-line activities and exercises that are focused on creating tangible opportunities for knowledge application. Each weekly session will be supplemented with instructor-led practice sessions, where you can ask questions and build a Community of Practice with your peers.

Translational Design is a process that draws on different disciplines, from Human Centered Design (PDF), , and  into a three-phase process.

Learning Objectives:

• Brainstorm and design solutions to longstanding challenges
• Engage content and context experts in the design and improvement processes
• Build a Community of Practice which can serve as a learning collaborative and supportive capacity-builder
• Identify and frame the challenges concerning complex issues that have been standing in the way of program- and client- level success
• Move your program or current research more quickly into practice

Join us as we create meaningful prototypes and tangible solutions.

Registration fee: $400 for a team of up to four people. Scholarships available.

Building Brains with Relationships at Sojourner Family Peace Center

By Meghan Christian

Building Brains with Relationships (BBR) is a one-day workshop with continued skill building in an optional virtual Community of Practice. The power of social connection is explored through the lens of trauma, economic supports and interpersonal relationships. Sojourner Family Peace Center, Wisconsin Child Welfare Professional Development System and Wisconsin Association of Family and Children’s Agencies (WAFCA) have hosted several workshops in 2023.

is currently partnering with our team as part of their “ (PDF) initiative, funded by the Department of Health & Human Services – Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration. The initiative seeks to “increase capacity at the Family Peace Center to provide evidence-informed services to children who have experienced family violence thereby improving their wellbeing including increased safety, decreased PTSD, improved behavior, and increased hope.” Building Brains with Relationships has been delivered to over 40 staff members from executive and program leadership to group facilitators and shelter and legal advocates. Our collaboration strives to build capacity so that Sojourner can expand its “Child Witness to Domestic Violence” and “Moms & Teens for Safe Dates” program.

Participants:

1. Build a shared understanding of the power of relationships and connection on brain architecture by playing the Brain Architecture Game;
2. Add to their protective factors, sometimes called strengths, by practicing skills that are shown to strengthen relationships, create partnerships and increase desired outcomes.

Although the topics are serious, it’s a high value experience. The dozens of participants in 2023 have had time to practice divergent and convergent thinking, communication skills, coping skills and systems design ideation. Participants have ranged from juvenile justice workers, to parents, teachers, domestic violence advocates and home visiting parenting aids. People within the same organization have used this time to think, talk and design around community issues in ways that they’re everyday-work does not allow. They can then continue conversations and relationships in the virtual Community of Practice offered monthly.

The last two in-person sessions in 2023 are October 2^nd in Eau Claire, WI (visit to register) or November 15^th in Glendale, WI ( and after that, email wcwpds-mke@uwm.edu to reserve your seat for the 11/15 event).

Research and Evaluation

The Institute accelerates the process of translating knowledge into direct practices, programs and policies that promote health and well-being, and provides analytic, data management and grant-writing support.

Recent ICFW Publications

The work of Dimitri Topitzes, ICFW Director of Clinical Services, on T-SBIRT (trauma, screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment) was highlighted in Research Features in May 2023. “T-SBIRT can help individuals exposed to traumatic events and situations by reducing their distress, making them aware of their experiences and reactions, providing them with support, and – if required – referring them for treatment. As Topitzes explains, ‘T-SBIRT has two main aims, to help individuals gain insight into the extent and effects of their trauma exposure, and to enhance their motivation to engage in positive coping, such as seeking behavioral or mental health services.’”

Intergenerational Trauma

Two new ICFW papers uncover the intergenerational consequences of trauma.

ICFW predoctoral fellow, Anthony Gómez, headed a study that called attention to the lasting effects of maternal incarceration on children’s social and emotional development.

Gómez, A. Mersky, J. P., Plummer Lee, C., Zhang, L., Shlafer, R. J., & Jackson, D. B. (2023): The long arm of maternal incarceration. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal.

Dr. Colleen Janczewski, ICFW policy and practice analyst, showed that childhood adversity predicts adult experiences of domestic violence and involvement in the child welfare system.

Janczewski, C. E., Mersky, J. P., & Lee, C. P. (2023). Intergenerational transmission of child protective services involvement. Child Abuse & Neglect.

Community Engagement & Systems Change

The Institute develops community-university partnerships to promote systems change that increases the accessibility of evidence-based and evidence-informed practices.

Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities Initiative – Introducing the Critical Pathways

By Luke Waldo

Children thrive when they have regular interactions with responsive, caring adults. Families experiencing significant stressors related to financial insecurity, housing instability, or the impact of systemic racism and interpersonal trauma can be overloaded with stress, interrupting those interactions. In the United States 1 in 3 of all children will experience a Child Protective Services (CPS) investigation, 1 in 10 will have confirmed or substantiated instances of maltreatment, and in Wisconsin 70% of all children in foster care were separated from their families with neglect cited as a removal reason.

We believe that neglect is preventable. The goal of the Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities (SFTCCC) initiative is to prevent family separation due to neglect by establishing a network of changemakers aligned on core, collaboratively developed, critical pathways. The SFTCCC strategy aims to empower potential by coordinating efforts, elevating local initiatives, inspiring new ideas, and catalyzing policy and systems change through collective action. It promotes learning for effective problem-solving, supports co-created solutions, connects networks, and highlights local innovations. Through innovation and collaboration, this initiative aims to work across systems, bridge silos, and engage diverse changemakers through four phases, which can include concurrent activities.

Building a Shared Understanding of Neglect

In the first phase, Building a Shared Understanding, the Children’s Wisconsin ICFW team hosted , a data walk (PDF), storytelling cafes, and produced the Overloaded: Understanding Neglect podcast to explore the root causes of neglect. We’ve relied on valuable input from SFTCCC participants through round table discussions, a data walk, and other targeted feedback opportunities. Through this process, we were able to align the insights and experiences of those who know the issues best with the evidence that has shown promise in advancing meaningful solutions. This collaborative effort identified four critical pathways that will shape the future of SFTCCC activities.

Critical Pathways are specific problem/priority spaces that are focal points for elevating or designing specific and actionable system-level solutions. Through a series of seven round tables, four , and a Data Walk during the past year, we’ve worked with staff at Children’s Wisconsin, community organizations, and people with lived experience to identify systemic challenges, risk factors, and barriers to supporting families overloaded by stress. We have analyzed the data that we have collected through these community events along with the emerging research in the field to develop our four Critical Pathways.

1. Economic Stability
2. Social Connectedness
3. Community Collaboration
4. Workforce Inclusion and Innovation

Even if you haven’t been to any SFTCCC events before, now is a great time to get involved as we begin the collaborative journey on our Critical Pathways to identify and design system-level solutions that will support overloaded families and keep them together. By joining the Critical Pathways journey, you will:

• Build relationships with key stakeholders – organizational and community leaders and staff, people with lived experience – from around the state to better understand these complex issues, surface priorities, and guide solution design;
• Gain broader access to tools, workshops, webinars, and events;
• Discover and share ideas with the many local initiatives across the state;
• Identify levers and advocate for policy and systems change.

If you are interested in learning more and/or joining this initiative, please visit the SFTCCC project page or .

If you would like to attend an upcoming Critical Pathways Virtual Convening, please register here:

Economic Stability: September 13^th from 10:00-11:00am

Community Collaboration: September 20^th from 11:30-12:30pm

Workforce Inclusion and Innovation: October 4^th from 1:00-2:00pm

Social Connectedness: October 10^th from 1:00-2:00

Where is Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities Going Next?

By Gabe McGaughey

Understanding the type of challenges we are facing is critical for effective and efficient change efforts. Simple problems, for example, are like baking bread. Even if someone hasn’t done it before, it’s been repeated throughout history. Complicated challenges take specific technical or training expertise, but are repeatable, like going to the moon. While significant resources, time, and expertise on a variety of levels were needed, it was repeated several times. Complex challenges are like raising kids. The same approach may not work for two kids, even siblings, regardless of how similar the conditions might be.

Neglect is a complex challenge with several dynamic contributing factors, which can diffuse prevention efforts. The SFTCCC community worked over the past year to build a shared understanding about neglect and identify priority issues within neglect prevention through sharing stories, harvesting lessons learned, and exploring research and data. Through this process we identified four critical pathways to prioritize our work: Economic Stability, Community Collaboration, Social Connectedness, and Workforce Inclusion and Innovation.

While learning will be ongoing, and new participants will always be welcomed, SFTCCC is building towards trying to make sense of what’s going on in the system now. Our next step will be focused on understanding the current efforts or challenges surrounding the four critical pathways. This means exploring current trends, identifying innovative practices and policies within and outside of the SFTCCC community, and challenging assumptions about the current context and a potential future state.

We aren’t attempting to create a comprehensive model of all the occurrences within and surrounding the system, as this would be an unfeasible task. Instead, the goal is to organize and deepen the dialogue within your team about current events, extending beyond mere observations of patterns and events to include theories about underlying structural elements. The more adept you become at viewing systems from a structural standpoint, the more empowered you are to understand and influence those systems.

Our endeavor is to forge consensus about what’s certain and uncertain by employing disciplined, transparent observation of the existing state, coupled with methodical and patient probing of the fundamental systemic structures. The emphasis will remain on potential developments rather than on preferred outcomes.

Following this, we will create a set of meaningful scenarios reflecting possible developments within the system. To serve their purpose, these scenarios must be pertinent, thought-provoking, feasible, and unambiguous. We will then explore the implications and conclusions that can be drawn from these scenarios, focusing on what actions are viable and necessary, what goals can be pursued, and who might be the partners in achieving those objectives.

Join us at an upcoming Critical Pathways Virtual Convening, please register here:

Economic Stability: September 13^th from 10:00-11:00am

Community Collaboration: September 20^th from 11:30-12:30pm

Workforce Inclusion and Innovation: October 4^th from 1:00-2:00pm

Social Connectedness: October 10^th from 1:00-2:00

The Epidemic of Isolation in America: Weaving a Tapestry of Social Connection in Wisconsin

By Sylvia Onyeiwu

When I first arrived in America, I was astounded by Atlanta International Airport’s massive size and buzzing life. People walked quickly and conversed on the move. It was a stark contrast to my homeland, Nigeria, where spontaneous interactions may keep people set in one spot for an extended amount of time, and a simple “Hello” can lead to valuable connections. People seek refuge within themselves in the face of financial uncertainty, poor governance, restricted access to resources, and a lack of quality education. Individuals voluntarily offer childcare, food, and emotional support without a price tag, creating a unique spirit of communal living. Nigerians, as we say, “turn up” for one another. Survival instincts refined by adversity, an impermeable network of solidarity, and strong social interactions are key pillars that define our resilience.

As I embarked on my American study experience, the predominant perception I carried from home was of an isolated American culture – a culture that seemed to suggest “Rely on yourself, enjoy your own company.” This perspective was swiftly shattered when I felt the warm embrace of my course adviser, Dr. Linda Britz, who not only welcomed me at the Milwaukee airport when I first arrived in Wisconsin, but also helped me through my first days in a new land. This was an unanticipated America; one that replaced prejudices with genuine compassion and personal connections.

As I learned more about Wisconsin and its people, I observed the deliberate infrastructures woven into this community for forging meaningful bonds. A simple act such as my friend, Liz, encouraging me to use the public library, spoke volumes. In Nigeria, the dream to access a nearby public library was a distant one. The nearest library is twenty miles away from my Lagos home. Not to mention the logistics and financial barriers involved in accessing this resource. The library closest to where I live in Milwaukee is roughly a twenty-minute walk away. The clear difference highlights the importance of easily accessible resources, in building connections and living a healthy life. On my first visit, Ms. Jennifer, the lovely security lady at the Milwaukee Public Library on Mitchell Street, greeted me with a warm smile. She’d then ask how I was doing and what I was learning in school. She encouraged my choice of the Social Work profession and shared that her daughter was studying to be a teacher. This discussion was around fifteen minutes long, but it served as a reminder to stay on course and work towards my goals. One time, I didn’t visit the library as often as I usually would. Ms. Jennifer noticed my absence and inquired about about my well-being the next time she saw me. Her “Hello” left a memorable impression on me.

The key to developing connections with others is in the little details. Community Meetings are my favorite at the Institute. Before the meeting begins, we take turns checking in with each other, describing our current mood, aligning our tasks, and requesting help as needed. This practice has made me more comfortable asking for and receiving support. I, too, am aware of the stigma associated with seeking assistance. Even if our “Hello” goes beyond civility and acts as an open invitation to tell someone you trust how you genuinely feel, asking for and accepting help can be daunting in Nigeria. Stigma, anxiety, and uncertainty are frequently unseen barriers that keep people from seeking support, perpetuating isolation even in times of need. ‘Would they understand me?’, ‘Would they be able to provide this assistance?’, ‘What if I get into more trouble?’, ‘What if they mock me?’, ‘What if I lose my job or family?’ are all valid concerns. As professionals, using lived experiences to create and cultivate safe environments in which vulnerability is seen as strength rather than weakness, aids in removing the stigma associated with getting help.

My passion for social justice derives from the realization that long-term change requires systems change. This was my motivation for pursuing my internship at the Institute, and my supervisor, Luke Waldo,��enabled me to succeed. While the pandemic led to a significant transition from in-person to virtual work spaces,��Luke made efforts to meet with me in person for supervisions. During our sessions, we went to various coffee and tea shops. These meetings gave me the opportunity to share my lived experiences while also learning from Luke’s. We bonded over coffee, stories from our travels, and our mutual appreciation for Senator Elizabeth Warren.

Policy is personal. I quickly resonated with this statement put forward by Elizabeth Warren when I got involved in the SFTCCC initiative. During the data collection phase of this project, I was drawn to the Critical Pathways of social connectedness and community collaboration. Reflecting on both Critical Pathways brought back memories of my own arrival in America, and comparing the support I received to the possible isolation that could have awaited me, it is beyond doubt that meaningful connections can improve lives and help people thrive. The accumulation of all the support I’ve received fuels my commitment to provide the same intentional care to others, and pave their paths with the same compassion and understanding.

My resilience in adapting to my new surroundings is sustained by my in-person environment, not by the country I was born in. I am thriving in America because a group of people, as well as a loving community, Milwaukee, have provided me with the guidance I have needed each step of the way. I am thriving because I did not rely solely on myself and my personal space. Rather, I am connected with those who have embraced me and given me a voice. My academic ambitions are supported by my faculty and instructors at the Helen Bader School of Social Welfare. Liz, Janet, Jill, and Andrea have been extremely responsive in ensuring I have what I need to succeed both academically and socially. This is the Wisconsin I have come to know and love. This is how I made it through despite the difficulties of adjusting to my new environment.

Children, too,��are learning to adapt to their surroundings.  A strong network of caring adults who purposefully provide support to adolescents as they navigate life,��results in positive outcomes. Caregivers who are overloaded with stress are adversely impacted by social inequities and financial insecurity, making it far more difficult to provide the much needed resources for children. Human service organizations and professionals are working around the clock to assist overloaded families. However, they are frequently met with burnout and restricted access to resources, when providing this assistance.

As Helen Keller appropriately puts it, “Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.” The approach to reducing social isolation does not lie in working in silos. We can collectively come together to take a single action while also tending to our corners.  Sharing knowledge and lived experiences, as well as leveraging existing resources to foster a culture of togetherness and community engagement is a bold step towards propelling systems change, and developing a workforce that better serves our communities. At our SFTCCC introduction event, it was interesting to learn about the unconventional ways that other organizations are utilizing to address social isolation in their communities. One of such is using libraries to establish meaningful interactions between families and their children.

It’s been a year since I have lived in Milwaukee, and I can only imagine how different my experience would have been if I had lived in isolation and had to navigate being in America alone. Children require this support, and more to succeed. My professional goals are closely aligned with the Institute’s mission. I, too, am keen on driving systems change that strengthens family preservation and well-being. For me, this is personal.

ICFW Podcast Headlining National Convening

By Luke Waldo

On September 28th & 29th, the (CHSA) will partner with the Jordan Institute for Families and the Children’s Home Society of North Carolina to host the . The event will be held in-person at : The Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans Conference Center in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The theme for this 11^th annual Institute is: Prevention in Action: Building Equitable Pathways to Child and Family Well-Being. CHSA members and invited experts from across the country will collaborate to build shared understanding of systemic factors that can overload families, such as generational trauma, poverty, and structural inequities and gaps caused by historical and current realities. A generative working session, the Institute will focus on actionable, implementable solutions.

The Convening will be using the as source material for the working sessions, and will be opening its first day with a panel discussion with podcast host Luke Waldo and podcast participants Jennifer Jones, Bryan Samuels, and Bregetta Wilson.

Recent and Upcoming Events

The Institute provides training, consultation and technical assistance to help human service agencies implement and replicate best practices. If you are interested in training or technical assistance, please complete our speaker request form.

• – Begins October 5th
• – September 27th-29th
• SFTCCC Critical Pathways Convenings
  • Economic Stability: September 13^th from 10:00-11:00am
  • Community Collaboration: September 20^th from 11:30-12:30pm
  • Workforce Inclusion and Innovation: October 4^th from 1:00-2:00pm
  • Social Connectedness: October 10^th from 1:00-2:00
• with WAFCA – October 2nd
• Season 2 – Fall 2023 Release

The post ICFW Newsletter, Summer 2023 appeared first on Institute for Child and Family Well-Being.

The post Research Features – T-SBIRT: Improving the lives of those exposed to serious trauma appeared first on Institute for Child and Family Well-Being.

The Institute for Child and Family Well-Being is a collaboration between Children’s Wisconsin and the Helen Bader School of Social Welfare at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The shared values and strengths of this academic-community partnership are reflected in the Institute’s three core service areas: Program Design and Implementation, Research and Evaluation, and Community Engagement and Systems Change.

In This Issue:

• Program Design and Implementation
  • PCIT Training
  • Building Brains with Relationships Workshops
• Research and Evaluation
  • Recent ICFW Publications
• Community Engagement & Systems Change
  • Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities Initiative
  • Trauma and Recovery Project Executive Summary
• Recent and Upcoming Events

Program Design and Implementation

The Institute develops, implements and disseminates validated prevention and intervention strategies that are accessible in real-world settings.

PCIT Training

By Leah Cerwin

Another fantastic virtual training is underway with our 2023 PCIT (Parent Child Interaction Therapy) Cohort. Our PCIT Trainers, Leah Cerwin, Meghan Christian, and Dimitri Topitzes have had the pleasure of training and coaching 10 Children’s Wisconsin therapists from Child and Family Counseling clinics in Madison, Milwaukee, Racine, and Walworth and two Integrated Behavioral Health clinics and 2 Master of Social Work students that are currently placed with our team at the ICFW. These clinicians are receiving an introductory clinically-based training for licensed mental health providers (or those pursuing licensure) in Wisconsin who are interested in becoming PCIT therapists. This training is meant for practicing professionals and includes foundational skills in the PCIT protocol, Dyadic Parent-Child Interaction Coding System (DPICS), and the CDI and PDI phases of treatment. Experiential learning opportunities in coding and coaching techniques will be provided, with a particular emphasis on developing PCIT competencies, coding reliability, and fidelity to the PCIT model.

This engaged group of clinicians will continue to expand meaningful access to this effective therapy for children and caregivers across our state. To learn more about PCIT and future training opportunities, check out our website.

Building Brains with Relationships Workshops

By Meghan Christian

If an organization, company or person can be self-reflective and focused on growth, all things are a work in progress. The most recent Building Brains with Relationships workshop was the most successful yet thanks to the participants’ interaction, mindful after-action reviews and participant feedback of past workshop dates. Because this workshop is well-received, ICFW is looking to develop promising partnerships with those who may wish to bring this learning experience to their community. If you’re interested in helping to scale this workshop you can contact mchristian@childrenswi.org. Those who are interested in attending can find more details below.

If you’d like to attend a workshop and/or join the Protective Factors Community of Practice at an upcoming date on June 14^th or November 15^th, and after that, email wcwpds-mke@uwm.edu with your desired ticket date to reserve your seat. All dates will be hosted at the Wisconsin Child Welfare Professional Development-51���� extension site at 4425 N. Port Washington Road, Suite 400, Glendale, WI 53212.

Learn More:

Building Brains with Relationships

Research and Evaluation

The Institute accelerates the process of translating knowledge into direct practices, programs and policies that promote health and well-being, and provides analytic, data management and grant-writing support.

Recent ICFW Publications

Trauma Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (T-SBIRT) Implemented within TANF Employment Services: An Outcome Study

Topitzes, J., Bacalso, E., Plummer-Lee, C. T., Jonas-Gordon, S., & Mersky, J. P. (2022).

The current study tested a trauma screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (T-SBIRT) interview protocol as implemented within Temporary Assistance to Needy Families programming.

Learn more about this study.

Adverse adult experiences and health outcomes: Racial and ethnic differences in a low-income sample

Mersky, J. P., Plummer Lee, C., & Janczewski, C. E. (2022).

Extending research on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), this study aimed to investigate whether the prevalence of and outcomes associated with adverse adult experiences vary among racial and ethnic subgroups.

Learn more about this study.

The Association between Family Physical Environment and Child Maltreatment

Zhang, L., & Topitzes, J. (2022).

A body of emerging research has indicated that adverse family physical environment is related to parenting problems such as parent-child conflict, decreased caregiver sensitivity, and less parental emotional availability. Yet, no study has examined if family physical environment is also associated with child abuse and neglect. This study aimed to examine the relationships between family physical environment and different types of child maltreatment.

Learn more about this study.

Community Engagement & Systems Change

The Institute develops community-university partnerships to promote systems change that increases the accessibility of evidence-based and evidence-informed practices.

Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities Initiative – Emerging Critical Pathways

������Luke Waldo

Children thrive when they have regular interactions with responsive, caring adults. Families experiencing significant stressors related to financial insecurity, housing instability, or the impact of systemic racism and interpersonal trauma can be overloaded with stress, interrupting those interactions. In the United States 1 in 3 of all children will experience a Child Protective Services (CPS) investigation, 1 in 10 will have confirmed or substantiated instances of maltreatment, and in Wisconsin 70% of all children in foster care were separated from their families with neglect cited as a removal reason.

We believe that neglect is preventable. The goal of the Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities (SFTCCC) initiative is to reduce the number of family separations for reasons of neglect by building a community focused on collaboratively pursuing policies and practices that support overloaded families and address systemic failings. SFTCCC launched in early 2022 and is focused on building a shared understanding of the root causes of neglect to better identify critical pathways towards prevention.

Critical Pathways are specific problem/priority spaces that are focal points for elevating or designing specific and actionable system-level solutions. Through a series of seven roundtables, four , and a Data Walk during the past year, we’ve worked with staff at Children’s Wisconsin, community organizations, and people with lived experience to identify systemic challenges, risk factors, and barriers to supporting families overloaded by stress. We have analyzed the data that we have collected through these community events along with the emerging research in the field to develop our emerging Critical Pathways.

Over the last couple months, we have gathered feedback from our community and organizational partners on our four emerging draft Critical Pathways –

1. Economic Stability,
2. Social Connectedness,
3. Inclusive and Supportive Workforce,
4. Community Collaboration

– to finalize their framing and initial strategies prior to our public launch in late July.

Even if you haven’t been to any SFTCCC events before, now is a great time to get involved as we begin the collaborative journey on our Critical Pathways to identify and design system-level solutions that will support overloaded families and keep them together. By joining the Critical Pathways journey, you will:

• Build relationships with key stakeholders – organizational and community leaders and staff, people with lived experience – from around the state to better understand these complex issues, surface priorities, and guide solution design;
• Gain broader access to tools, workshops, webinars, and events;
• Discover and share ideas with the many local initiatives across the state;
• Identify levers and advocate for policy and systems change.

If you are interested in learning more and/or joining this initiative, please visit the SFTCCC project page or .

Executive Summary: Trauma and Recovery Project

By Leah Cerwin

Our Trauma and Recovery Project (TARP) came to an end late last year. Upon completing the project, we conducted a series of After Action Reviews (PDF) with our TARP team. Additionally, we conducted focus groups with leaders and therapists that had been trained in Parent Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), and/or Child Parent Psychotherapy (CPP) and then delivered those therapies to children and families under the TARP grant. Our findings from these AARs and focus groups combined with our evaluation data contributed to our newly released Trauma and Recovery Project: 2017-2022 Executive Summary (PDF) report.

TARP was a 5-year Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration funded initiative that aimed to increase the availability and accessibility of trauma responsive treatments for children and families in southeastern Wisconsin.

In the Executive Summary, you will discover how TARP accomplished its goals by screening and assessing children for trauma, increasing the pool of clinicians trained in evidence-based practices, and increasing the number of children and caregivers that receive appropriate and trauma-responsive services. Over the years of the grant, our TARP team encountered barriers and successes along the way. This report sought to discuss these elements, and highlight the experiences of the therapists who participated in the grant, and discuss future proposals for similar projects.

Recent and Upcoming Events

The Institute provides training, consultation and technical assistance to help human service agencies implement and replicate best practices. If you are interested in training or technical assistance, please complete our speaker request form.

• February and March 2023 – Parent Child Interaction Therapy Therapist Training
• April 6th – T-SBIRT Training with Wisconsin Department of Children and Families Transitional Jobs and Transform Milwaukee Jobs Programming in Madison, WI.
• April 12^th – Together for Children Conference
• April 20th – T-SBIRT Training at Saint Hyacinth Food Cooperative.
• April 20^th and June 14^th – Building Brains with Relationships workshop
• May 9^th –
• May 22nd – Virtual statewide meeting. T-SBIRT Training Booster Session. Wisconsin Family Foundations Home Visiting Programs.
• June 13th-16th – Society for Epidemiological Research Annual Meeting, Portland, OR.
  • Marcus, L.M, Topitzes, J., Pathak, D.R., Cho, Y., Hirko, K., Houang, R., Kwarteng, J. Hamilton, A.S., & Velie, E.M. (2023). Impact of racial and childhood socioeconomic position on latent class analysis-defined concurrent adverse childhood experiences in a population-based sample.

The post ICFW Newsletter, Spring 2023 appeared first on Institute for Child and Family Well-Being.

We believe that neglect is preventable. You are invited to join us at our upcoming Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities (SFTCCC) Virtual Data Walk on March 17^th from 10:00am-12:00pm because we believe that you share that vision. Register .

The ICFW’s Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities  (SFTCCC) initiative is focused on reducing the number of families separated for reasons of neglect by creating a network focused on elevating practice innovations, policy recommendations, and systems change. We’ve taken the first step in building a shared understanding through a series of roundtables with Children’s staff, people with lived experience, and community partners over the course of the year, now we’re focused on taking those insights and themes to develop evidence aligned critical pathways for action. Critical Pathways are specific problem/priority spaces that are focal points for elevating or designing specific and actionable system-level solutions.

Connected Communities, a key pillar of the SFTCCC initiative, seeks to elevate the voices of stakeholders, partners and those with lived experience from across the state and beyond. With your active participation, the data walk will be an opportunity to review the data gathered over the course of 7 roundtables, 4 Conversation Cafes, and many hours of research. While engaging in dialogue with peers, you will have the opportunity contribute to the statewide initiative by sharing your unique perspective. Lastly, the data walk will demonstrate innovative data sharing techniques that can be replicated and personalized to use in your own community.

We hope to continue the journey towards determining Critical Pathways with each of you. Join us for the  on March 17^th, 10am-noon.

The post Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities Virtual Data Walk appeared first on Institute for Child and Family Well-Being.

The Institute for Child and Family Well-Being is a collaboration between Children’s Wisconsin and the Helen Bader School of Social Welfare at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The shared values and strengths of this academic-community partnership are reflected in the Institute’s three core service areas: Program Design and Implementation, Research and Evaluation, and Community Engagement and Systems Change.

In This Issue:

• Meet the ICFW
  • Research Program Coordinator
  • MSW Interns
• Program Design and Implementation
  • Building Brains with Relationships
  • Mobility Mentoring
• Research and Evaluation
  • Spotlight on Home Visiting: Translating Research into Practice and Policy
  • Recent ICFW Publications
• Community Engagement and Systems Change
  • Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities Initiative
• Recent and Upcoming Events

Meet the New ICFW Team Members

Meet our new Research Program Coordinator and MSW interns.

Research Program Coordinator

Meghan Majors is a new research program coordinator with the Institute for Child and Family Well-Being. She helps to coordinate several projects, including the IV-E Public Child Welfare Training Program (CWTP) and the evaluation of Wisconsin’s Family Foundations Home Visiting Program. Prior to this role, she worked as a graduate research assistant at ICFW on the Families and Children Thriving (FACT) Study. Her areas of interest include program implementation and evaluation, specifically around child maltreatment and mental health.

Meghan earned her Bachelor of Science in Psychology at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. She graduated with a Master of Public Health and a Master of Social Work from UW-Milwaukee.

Masters of Social Work Interns

Andrea Bailey is in her third semester as an intern at the Institute for Child and Family Well-Being and is completing her Master of Social Work at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (August 2023). While at ICFW, Andrea has had the opportunity to be involved with the Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities initiative, participating in its various strategic activities as well as working toward completing Parent-Child Interaction Therapy training.

Prior to moving to Milwaukee, Andrea lived in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where she directed a language program working with refugees from around the world. She also has experience working with youth in foster care, specifically adolescent mothers and their children. Andrea is also an adoptive parent, networking with foster/adoptive families raising children impacted by trauma. Andrea’s interests include working with children and adults affected by trauma, as well as systems-level work that seeks to strengthen the relationships and communities in which they live.

Jill Finnel graduated from Marquette University as a Burke Scholar with a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology, Spanish, and International Affairs. As an undergraduate, she was a research assistant at Milwaukee Trauma Outcomes Project and interned with the Benedict Center Sisters Program.

Jill then worked at Children’s Wisconsin Community Services as an Intensive In-Home Family Support Specialist.  She is currently pursuing her Master of Social Work at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and completing her internship at the Institute for Child and Family Well-Being. Jill is completing her current degree in the hopes of becoming a School Social Worker for the Milwaukee Public School District.

Joe Moreno is an intern with the Institute for Child and Family Well-being. He has several years of experience in childhood education and direct services for children and families.

He is involved in ICFW projects ranging from therapeutic services to skill-building workshops to systems-level coalitions. Currently, Joe is training in Parent-Child Interaction Therapy to obtain certification and looks forward to adding this to his therapeutic toolkit to better serve children and their caregivers.

Joe earned his bachelor’s degree in philosophy, graduating with honors from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is completing a Master of Social Work alongside certificates in trauma-informed care and substance abuse counseling from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. His degree is specialized in providing clinical services to children.

Sylvia Onyeiwu is a Master of Social Work student at UW-Milwaukee and an intern with the Institute for Child and Family Well-Being. With over 7 years of experience in Branding, Communication, and Human Resources, Sylvia has worked with start-up and charity organizations in brand development, internal processes and policies, and communication that promotes the well-being of staff and clients.

Her academic interest is primarily focused on Trauma-Informed Care, particularly problem-solving technique models like Human-Centered Design and Trauma Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (T-SBIRT). She is also interested in macro-level policies and systems and exploring the issue of neglect within the family and child welfare system.

She previously earned her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria in Religious and Cultural studies and majored in Gender.

Program Design and Implementation

The Institute develops, implements and disseminates validated prevention and intervention strategies that are accessible in real-world settings.

Introducing Building Brains with Relationships Workshops

By Meghan Christian

Building Brains with Relationships (BBwR) is a one day workshop with an additional opportunity to continue skill building in a virtual Community of Practice in the upcoming weeks and months.

First, participants:

1. Build a shared understanding of the power of relationships and connection on brain architecture;
2. Confront the great nature versus nurture question while playing the Brain Architecture Game.

Then, participants add to their protective factors, sometimes called strengths, by practicing skills that are shown to strengthen relationships, create partnerships and increase desired outcomes.

Although the topic feels serious, it’s a highly useful and dare I say good time, as far as workshops go, of course. At the debut event in February, initial relationships across systems were made thanks to the wide array of participants present. Those participants will be able to continue building those relationships in the virtual Community of Practice to come.

If you’d like to attend a workshop and/or join the Protective Factors Community of Practice at an upcoming date on April 20^th, June 14^th or November 15^th, and after that, email wcwpds-mke@uwm.edu with your desired ticket date to reserve your seat. All dates will be hosted at the Wisconsin Child Welfare Professional Development-51���� extension site at 4425 N. Port Washington Road, Suite 400, Glendale, WI 53212.

Learn More:

Building Brains with Relationships

Mobility Mentoring

By Gabe McGaughey and Jill Finnel

Children thrive when they have regular interactions with responsive, caring adults. Families experiencing significant stressors can be overloaded with stress, interrupting those interactions. The prolonged stress of poverty negatively impacts those interactions as well (Babcock, 2016). Children in economically insecure households are seven times more likely to experience neglect (Dolan, 2011), and nearly 85% of families investigated by Child Protective Services earn below 200% of the federal poverty line (Sedlak, 2010). The prolonged stress of poverty negatively impacts a family’s ability to gain the skills needed to move out of poverty on their own (Babcock, 2016).

, an approach developed by EMPath, involves working with and coaching families to obtain resources, develop skills, and create sustainable behavior changes to become economically independent. Participants work with a trained mentor or coach to assess family life, finances, education, health, and career. Participants set long-term goals and create a plan using the Bridge to Self-Sufficiency®. In 2022, Children’s Family Support and Preservation Home Visiting, Employment and Education Services, and Family Support programs participated in an implementation cohort with EMPath through .

Implementation is the art and science of incorporating innovations into typical human service settings (Fixen, et al, 2009). The process of integrating Mobility Mentoring (MM) practices, principles, and tools into existing workflows is an iterative one. This project is integrating Mobility Mentoring into existing evidence-based interventions such as , as well as becoming the more central practice framework for our Employment and Education Services and Family Support programs, all of which operated with different target populations in different geographic regions. In total, this model implementation includes three programs and seven sites from across Wisconsin.

The ICFW will be compiling lessons learned from this project throughout 2023, but we wanted to start with insights gained from the adapted Bridge to Self-Sufficiency and staff perspectives. Mobility Mentoring begins with a self-assessment to set participant driven goal setting. Families then work with their Home Visitor/Family Support worker/Employment and Education specialist who are trained as MM mentors to assess their family life, finances, education, health, and career. Participants set goals, create action plans, and track progress on the Bridge. Staff acknowledge participants’ efforts and celebrate successes, and obstacles that have been overcome.

The Bridge is the central assessment and planning tool developed by EMPath, containing pillars which represent different areas that impact family stability. These bridges have been modified to align with existing program objectives and constraints based on feedback from families and staff.

Each of the pillars is split into five sections, or rungs. The lowest section corresponds with the lowest amount of skill or capacity in that pillar. The highest section corresponds with the highest amount of skill. Participants are then asked to choose the section of the pillar that best represents their skill level in each category. A participant that chooses the lowest rung is demonstrating that they have low skills in that pillar of the Bridge. A participant that chooses a higher ring is demonstrating increased skill. Scores are then combined from each of the eight pillars.  This combined score comprises a participant’s Bridge Score.

Across the implementing programs we looked at the three lowest pillar scores parents identified as wanting to develop the most, seven of them are financially related. While families are mostly referred to Children’s Wisconsin programs initially for support or education around parenting practices, MM has provided tools like the Bridge that helps us explore what the families’ most important priorities are, which are often underlying stressors tied to financial insecurities that impact parenting. Combining evidence-inform processes from MM, that provide staff with training and tools to be able to engage families around financial challenges, provides a compliment to established evidence-based interventions focused on parent-child interactions. While policy and structural changes are needed to reduce economic hardships that contribute to families being overloaded and becoming involved with the child welfare system, Mobility Mentoring provides families and staff a framework to navigate current state barriers to economic self-sufficiency.

Learn More:

ICFW Practice Brief – Mobility Mentoring (PDF)

Research and Evaluation

The Institute accelerates the process of translating knowledge into direct practices, programs and policies that promote health and well-being, and provides analytic, data management and grant-writing support.

Spotlight on Home Visiting: Translating Research into Practice and Policy

By Joshua Mersky

For more than a decade, ICFW faculty have worked with the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families (DCF) to evaluate the Family Foundations Home Visiting Program. Guided by a community-university partnership model, these activities have helped to shine a light on children and families that enroll in home visiting programs as well as the providers and agencies that offer these services. ICFW and DCF are now collaborating with four other states and Washington, D.C. on a coordinated evaluation that focuses on family engagement and health equity. ICFW also has joined forces with health departments in Racine and Walworth Counties to develop a universal program that will ensure all families have access to nurse home visiting services soon after the birth of a child.

Home Visiting Publications

ICFW faculty have headed several home visiting research projects, including the FACT Study, Healthy Families Study, and REACH Project. Below is a list of recent ICFW publications related to home visiting programs and the families they serve:

(in press).

Adverse adult experiences and health outcomes: Racial and ethnic differences in a low-income sample (in press).

Secondary traumatic stress among home visiting professionals (2022).

Quasinatural experiment of postnatal home visiting (2022).

Impact of home visiting programs on parenting stress in low-income women (2022).

Advancing research on perinatal depression trajectories (2022).

Intergenerational pathways linking mothers’ adverse childhood experiences on children’s social-emotional problems (2022).

Effects of COVID-19 on home visiting services for vulnerable families (2022).

Recent ICFW Publications

Trauma Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (T-SBIRT) Implemented within TANF Employment Services: An Outcome Study

Topitzes, J., Bacalso, E., Plummer-Lee, C. T., Jonas-Gordon, S., & Mersky, J. P. (2022).

The current study tested a trauma screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (T-SBIRT) interview protocol as implemented within Temporary Assistance to Needy Families programming.

Learn more about this study.

Adverse adult experiences and health outcomes: Racial and ethnic differences in a low-income sample

Mersky, J. P., Plummer Lee, C., & Janczewski, C. E. (2022).

Extending research on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), this study aimed to investigate whether the prevalence of and outcomes associated with adverse adult experiences vary among racial and ethnic subgroups.

Learn more about this study.

The Association between Family Physical Environment and Child Maltreatment

Zhang, L., & Topitzes, J. (2022).

A body of emerging research has indicated that adverse family physical environment is related to parenting problems such as parent-child conflict, decreased caregiver sensitivity, and less parental emotional availability. Yet, no study has examined if family physical environment is also associated with child abuse and neglect. This study aimed to examine the relationships between family physical environment and different types of child maltreatment.

Learn more about this study.

Community Engagement & Systems Change

The Institute develops community-university partnerships to promote systems change that increases the accessibility of evidence-based and evidence-informed practices.

Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities Initiative

By Luke Waldo

Children thrive when they have regular interactions with responsive, caring adults. Families experiencing significant stressors related to financial insecurity, housing instability, or the impact of systemic racism and interpersonal trauma can be overloaded with stress, interrupting those interactions. In the United States 1 in 3 of all children will experience a Child Protective Services (CPS) investigation, 1 in 10 will have confirmed or substantiated instances of maltreatment, and in Wisconsin 70% of all children in foster care were separated from their families with neglect cited as a removal reason.

We believe that neglect is preventable. The goal of the Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities (SFTCCC) initiative is to reduce the number of family separations for reasons of neglect by building a community focused on collaboratively pursuing policies and practices that support overloaded families and address systemic failings. SFTCCC launched in early 2022 and is focused on building a shared understanding of the root causes of neglect to better identify critical pathways towards prevention.

Critical Pathways are specific problem/priority spaces that are focal points for elevating or designing specific and actionable system-level solutions. Through a progressive series of seven roundtables during the past year, we’ve worked with staff at Children’s Wisconsin, community members, and people with lived experience to identify systemic challenges, risk factors, and barriers to supporting families overloaded by stress.

Over the past month, we hosted four that explored that were informed by our roundtables and four emerging Critical Pathways: 1) Poverty, 2) Systemic Racism and Mental Models, 3) Informal Community Supports, and 4) Systems/Service Coordination. During the remainder of this month, we will be analyzing the data that we have collected through these Roundtables and Conversation Cafes along with the emerging research in the field to prepare for our Critical Pathways Data Walk. On March 17th, we are hosting a virtual data walk to explore with community partners and stakeholders how these specific themes overlap with evidence from research and other data sources. Even if you haven’t been to any SFTCCC events before, we welcome all new interested parties to participate.

Quick links:

If you are interested in learning more, participating in the upcoming Data Walk, and/or joining this initiative, please visit the SFTCCC project page���ǰ� .

Recent and Upcoming Events

The Institute provides training, consultation and technical assistance to help human service agencies implement and replicate best practices. If you are interested in training or technical assistance, please complete our speaker request form.

• January and February – Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities – Conversation Cafes
• February 2^nd – SWIM Speaker Series – Dimitri Topitzes
  • February 8^th @ Wisconsin Child Welfare Partnership for Professional Development
  • February 21^st @ Sojourner Family Peace Center
  • April 20^th @ Wisconsin Child Welfare Partnership for Professional Development
• February and March 2023 – Parent Child Interaction Therapy Therapist Training

The post ICFW Newsletter, Winter 2023 appeared first on Institute for Child and Family Well-Being.

As we begin 2023 – our seventh year as the Institute – our aim is to strengthen these alliances and forge new community connections that are necessary to disseminate effective strategies and produce lasting systems and community change. So take a moment to review what we learned and accomplished in 2022, and check out our newsletter, social media, webpage, and to learn more about what we are doing and how you can join us.

Meet the New ICFW Team Members

We welcomed new team members and roles to the Institute this year. Learn more about them here.

• Megan Frederick-Usoh – Translational Design Coordinator
• Meghan Majors – Research Program Coordinator
• Predoctoral Fellows
  • Darejan Dvalishvili
  • Anthony Gómez

ICFW Announces New Initiative and Podcast

We are excited to announce the Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities (SFTCCC) initiative and our Overloaded: Understanding Neglect podcast.

The goal of the Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities (SFTCCC) initiative is to reduce the number of family separations for reasons of neglect by building a community focused on collaboratively pursuing policies and practices that support overloaded families and address systemic failings.

The Overloaded: Understanding Neglect podcast represents the important first step of building a shared understanding of the problem and will serve as a foundation for future innovations in practice, policy, and systems change.

ICFW Dissemination in 2022: New Journal Articles and Webinars

• The ICFW had 11 journal articles published in 2022 on topics ranging from adverse adult experiences and intergenerational transmission of adverse childhood experiences to the impacts of COVID and secondary traumatic stress on home visiting and how home visiting supports low-income women. To learn more, explore the publications here.
• Webinars:
  • ICFW Innovations in Prevention Webinar Series Episode 1: Wisconsin Child Abuse Prevention Board
  • ICFW Innovations in Prevention Webinar Series Episode 2: Innovation in Prevention: Jackson County Action Initiative for Early Childhood Education
  • ICFW Innovations in Prevention Webinar Series Episode 3: Primary Prevention: Home Visiting for New Parents
• New Workshops:
  • Translational Design: An Introduction
  • Building Brains with Relationships

New Projects and Partnerships

• Addressing Unresolved Trauma: JobsWork MKE in partnership with JobsWork MKE.
• Hope and Healing for Children Who Experience Family Violence in partnership with Sojourner Family Peace Center.
• Milwaukee Equity Action Plan in partnership with the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR).
• Mobility Mentoring® in Family Support and Preservation Programs in partnership with Children’s Wisconsin’s Family Support and Preservation Programs, EMPath, and Children’s Home Society of America.
• Parenting with P.R.I.D.E. – Group-based, Virtual Parent-Child Interaction Therapy in partnership with the Children’s Wisconsin’s Child and Family Counseling programs.
• Strong and Stable Families in partnership with Wisconsin Child Abuse & Neglect Prevention Board, Strengthening Families Together Association, and statewide Family Resource Centers.
• Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities Initiative in partnership with Children’s Wisconsin’s Child Well-being Programs and community-based organizations across Wisconsin.
• Wisconsin Public Child Welfare and Home Visiting Data Project in partnership with the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families.

Recent and Upcoming Events

The Institute provides training, consultation and technical assistance to help human service agencies implement and replicate best practices. If you are interested in training or technical assistance, please complete our speaker request form.

• February 8^th – Building Brains with Relationships workshop
• February and March 2023 – Parent Child Interaction Therapy Therapist Training

The post 2022 Year in Review appeared first on Institute for Child and Family Well-Being.

The Institute for Child and Family Well-Being is a collaboration between Children’s Wisconsin and the Helen Bader School of Social Welfare at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The shared values and strengths of this academic-community partnership are reflected in the Institute’s three core service areas: Program Design and Implementation, Research and Evaluation, and Community Engagement and Systems Change.

In This Issue:

• ICFW Gratitude
• Program Design and Implementation
  • Building Brains with CARE Community of Practice
• Research and Evaluation
  • Recent ICFW Publications
• Community Engagement and Systems Change
  • New Podcast – Overloaded: Understanding Neglect
  • Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities Initiative
• Recent and Upcoming Events

Grateful for Community

As we begin celebrating the holiday season this week, we would like to express our gratitude to you for being a part of our journey. Over the past six years, we have built relationships with so many passionate individuals and organizations that are committed to improving the lives of children and families who face complex challenges. We believe that through these relationships, at an individual, organizational, community, and systems-level, we can aspire to and inspire changes that lead to child and family well-being and prosperity.

During this year alone, we have celebrated the final year of our Trauma and Recovery Project, which trained hundreds of therapists and served hundreds of children and families with evidence-based, trauma-focused therapies. We launched our Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities initiative that aspires to reduce family separations for reasons of neglect by building a collaborative community. Through that initiative, we have hosted a half dozen round tables with hundreds of Children’s Wisconsin colleagues and Community and Lived Experience partners, and released our first podcast series, Overloaded: Understanding Neglect, by highlighting the voices and expertise of those that have worked tirelessly by our sides over these past six years.

We are deeply grateful for you and your partnership, and look forward to what will come in the years to come. We wish you a holiday season full of community, happiness and hope.

Program Design and Implementation

The Institute develops, implements and disseminates validated prevention and intervention strategies that are accessible in real-world settings.

Building Brains with CARE Community of Practice

By Meghan Christian

Throughout the summer, we were finally able to conduct our Building Brains with CARE Community of Practice with Newcap. In response to the challenges presented by COVID, it was a truly multimedia learning experience. The group was larger than the initial design, but Newcap staff in the Fox Valley area and ICFW Clinician Meghan Christian just completed a six-session virtual Community of Practice that followed an initial in-person session back in April 2022. This format celebrates learning and gaining mastery in concepts and new skills.

ICFW clinicians and participants used Zoom to virtually engage with each other over the past four months to revisit and complement in-person information. In the Community of Practice, skill-building time was cultivated based on different interests, findings and sharing by the participants. Identification of common trauma reactions and skills they can use within their relationships that support resilience and healthy communication were practiced. Family consultations and resource networking also occurred.

As with all efforts from ICFW, evaluation and iteration are continuous. As indicated in the exasperated opening to this article, change is also continuous. In the next iteration of Building Brains with CARE it is being used as a base for two new ICFW community education and engagement efforts, Building Brains with Community and Building Brains with Relationships. Upcoming dates for those to follow.

If you are interested in our workshops, please visit our website and check out our Training page or contact Meghan Christian at mchristian@childrenswi.org.

Research and Evaluation

The Institute accelerates the process of translating knowledge into direct practices, programs and policies that promote health and well-being, and provides analytic, data management and grant-writing support.

Recent ICFW Publications

Goldstein, E., Topitzes, J., Brown, R. L., & Jussel, A. B. (2022). Mental health among university employees during the COVID-19 pandemic: The role of previous life trauma and current posttraumatic stress symptoms. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy.

Marcus, L. Topitzes, J., Pathak, D.R., Cho, Y., Hirko, K., Houang, R., Kwarteng, J., Hamilton, A.S., &  Velie, E.M. Association of childhood socioeconomic position and race with adverse childhood experiences in a population-based sample of women. American Public Health Association Annual Meeting, Boston, MA, November 6^th-9^th, 2022.

Topitzes, J. (2022). Understanding trauma and its effects: Applications to criminal justice settings I & II. Justice Point and the Difference Principle, Milwaukee, WI (virtual), October 21^st, 2022.

Topitzes, J., Ruffalo, L., Barry, C., & Potter, T. (2022). Opportunities to address trauma. Wisconsin Department of Children and Families Work 2022 Programs Conference: A world of opportunities, Elkhart Lake, WI, October 25-26, 2022.

Zhang, L., & Topitzes, J. (2022). The Association between Family Physical Environment and Child Maltreatment. Children and Youth Services Review, 106551.

Community Engagement & Systems Change

The Institute develops community-university partnerships to promote systems change that increases the accessibility of evidence-based and evidence-informed practices.

New Podcast – Overloaded: Understanding Neglect

By Luke Waldo

We are excited to announce our first podcast series, Overloaded: Understanding Neglect. Neglect is a complex and wicked problem, but it’s one that we believe is preventable if we work together to reimagine how we support families overloaded by stress. Neglect is a public health crisis, as it’s the most common reason that children are separated from their families by the government. 37% of all US children experience a CPS investigation, 13% of all children have confirmed/substantiated maltreatment, and children of color are disproportionately represented in foster care. In Wisconsin, nearly 70% of children in foster care are separated from their families due to neglect.

The Overloaded: Understanding Neglect podcast represents the important first step of building a shared understanding of the problem and will serve as a foundation for future innovations in practice, policy, and systems change. Join host Luke Waldo, Director of Program Design and Community Engagement at the Institute for Child and Family Well-being, as he explores these issues with research and policy experts Tim Grove (Wellpoint Care Network), Jennifer Jones (Prevent Child Abuse America), Bryan Samuels (Chapin Hall), and Dr. Kristi Slack (University of Wisconsin), Lived Experience expert Bregetta Wilson (Wisconsin Department of Children and Families) and five Children’s Wisconsin child welfare and child maltreatment prevention experts. Through these conversations, we developed a compelling narrative that seeks to build a shared understanding of the realities of overloaded families, so that we might find solutions that reduce family separations for reasons of neglect.

Join the conversation wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Learn More:

For upcoming Overloaded: Understanding Neglect “Book Club” discussions, check our upcoming events and .

Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities Initiative

By Gabriel McGaughey

Children thrive when they have regular interactions with responsive, caring adults. Families experiencing significant stressors related to financial insecurity, housing instability, or the impact of systemic and interpersonal trauma can be overloaded with stress, interrupting those interactions. In the United States 1 in 3 of all children will experience a Child Protective Services (CPS) investigation, 1 in 10 will have confirmed or substantiated instances of maltreatment, and in Wisconsin 70% of all children in foster care were separated from their families with neglect cited as a removal reason.

We believe that neglect is preventable. The goal of the Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities (SFTCCC) initiative is to reduce the number of family separations for reasons of neglect by building a community focused on collaboratively pursuing policies and practices that support overloaded families and address systemic failings. SFTCCC launched in early 2022 and is focused on building a shared understanding of the root causes of neglect to better identify critical pathways towards prevention.

Critical Pathways are specific problem/priority spaces that are focal points for elevating or designing specific and actionable system-level solutions.  Through a progressive series of six round tables so far this year, we’ve worked with staff at Children’s Wisconsin, community members, and people with lived experience to identify systemic challenges, risk factors, and barriers to supporting families overloaded by stress.

In the next round table on December 7^th, we invite anyone interested to learn more about the themes we’ve discovered so far, as we look to cultivate a deeper understanding of how issues like poverty, systemic racism, social isolation, and other issues lead overloaded families to child welfare involvement. In early February 2023 we’ll be hosting a virtual data walk to look at how these specific themes overlap with evidence from research and other data sources. Even if you haven’t been to any SFTCCC events before, we welcome all new interested parties to participate!

Quick links:

If you are interested in learning more, participating in a Round table, and/or joining this initiative, please visit the SFTCCC project page or .

Recent and Upcoming Events

The Institute provides training, consultation and technical assistance to help human service agencies implement and replicate best practices. If you are interested in training or technical assistance, please complete our speaker request form.

Listen or Register Now

• – September Release
• – December 7th
• Parent-Child Interaction Therapy Therapist Training – February and March 2023

Archived Recent Events

• Translational Design: An Introduction – August 3^rd
• Innovation in Prevention Webinar Series – August, September and November
• SFTCCC Community Round table – October 12^th
• Building Brains with Community – October 26th

The post ICFW Newsletter, Fall 2022 appeared first on Institute for Child and Family Well-Being.

The Institute for Child and Family Well-Being is a collaboration between Children’s Wisconsin and the Helen Bader School of Social Welfare at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The shared values and strengths of this academic-community partnership are reflected in the Institute’s three core service areas: Program Design and Implementation, Research and Evaluation, and Community Engagement and Systems Change.

In This Issue:

• Program Design and Implementation
  • Innovation and Child Neglect Prevention
  • Building Brains with CARE Update
  • Parenting with PRIDE Implementation
• Research and Evaluation
  • Recent ICFW Publications
• Community Engagement and Systems Change
  • Changing Course: Considering Systems Change within Social Work Practice
  • Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities Initiative
• Recent and Upcoming Events

Program Design and Implementation

The Institute develops, implements and disseminates validated prevention and intervention strategies that are accessible in real-world settings.

Innovation and Child Neglect Prevention

By Gabriel McGaughey and Rachael Meixensperger

Families who experience stressors including housing instability, financial insecurity, or trauma, can become overloaded, leading to an increased level of need, child welfare involvement, and possible neglect. In 2020, 64% of family separations were due to neglect nationally (AFCARS Report #28, 2021), with many of its risk factor tied to issues of poverty, with a minimal number of evidence-based interventions available for communities to implement. To address this unmet need, innovative communities have been able to design high quality, evidence-informed, programs to reduce the sources of stress in families’ lives that contribute to neglect. These innovations not only provide potentially scalable solutions but can also inform how communities might approach addressing the unmet needs of families.

Neglect is a complex challenge, which often presents as a constellation of concurrent issues, that have come to a crisis point by the time a family has contact with the child welfare system. The Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA) provides flexibility in funding to be used for specific evidence-based interventions in the IV-E Prevention Services Clearinghouse that reach ‘candidates for foster care’ to prevent separations once a family has contact with child protective services. The Title IV-E Prevention Services Clearinghouse fails to specify which interventions target neglect, but at the time of this writing, only three of one hundred and seven programs in the Clearinghouse include “economic and housing stability” as target outcomes.

To fill this gap, many organizations and communities work to support families overloaded by economic stress utilizing often limited resources to create new solutions that work within their community. Social innovation is the creation and implementation of proposed solutions that promote change. is context specific and requires consideration of specific characteristics of communities and community members. Different communities have specific needs and perspectives that must be accounted for to truly cultivate change. How do innovative communities support innovations to support families overloaded by stress?

Evidence Informed: Drawing on principles rooted in and/or trauma informed care principles, communities strive to develop innovations that meet their specific context while still being rooted in the best available evidence. Integrating these principles into innovation, or improvement, efforts will provide a foundation for scaling successes, and advancing programs towards being evidence-based.

Co-creation: Participation of individuals and families with lived experience, or context experts, in the change process provide into the factors that impact their communities and into what works and what does not work. Without the co-creating of solutions with context experts, content experts may enter the field with preconceived notions of community needs and solutions. While co-creation may be new, and at times feel slower than prior practices, the learning and insights present with co-creation contribute to more efficient solutions.

Resources: Prevention services get a fraction of the funding compared to child welfare, often limiting the number of resources available to support improvement and innovation efforts at scale. Operating in this scarcity environment can make taking the time for an innovation process feel like a luxury. However, scaling to pilots, or larger implementations of ideas, can be inefficient, even generating negative attitudes towards current and future change efforts from staff, stakeholders, and families. Funders can support in prevention through targeted innovation grants, clarity and simplification of rules, training, and encouraging collaboration instead of competition. Organizational culture can provide the scaffolding for innovation by providing time, elevating shared learning as an outcome, and supporting scaling of innovation with ongoing quality improvement support.

Evaluation: The first ‘real world’ interaction most innovations have are as prototypes, small scale tests of ideas that inform if an idea may warrant eventual pilot testing. Approaches to can be different compared to quality improvement efforts with set assessment tools and metrics. The challenge for innovators is to select the prototype evaluation approach that best suits their situation and capacity. Taking evaluation approaches that fit the small scale and provide rapid feedback from participants, both those providing and receiving the service, is essential to thoughtful iteration and innovation.

Strategic learning: Learning is an outcome. Strategic learning is about deliberately gathering lessons learned in near real time to inform strategic decision making. Strategic learning serves multiple purposes, including creating institutional memory, supporting just-in-time iteration, and clarifying our hypotheses about our work. Innovators can use tools and processes from Strategic Learning to help clarify thinking, develop or refine a theory of change, and support rapid iteration.

Neglect is a prevalent wicked problem with few available options for communities to address it, requiring new evidence-informed innovations that can work in unique community contexts. At times, there is a hesitation to implement innovation due to existing struggles in current programs and the strong emphasis on the need to utilize evidence-based interventions. Evidence based interventions are important tools, however the current scope of interventions is insufficient. Innovation is all around our work, as people strive to work together to address the complex problems that overload families. By creating a clearer path to support innovation in preventing neglect, sharing lessons learned, while remaining rooted in evidence-informed principles, we create conditions to foster practices that may be the evidence-based interventions to support overloaded families of tomorrow.

Communities need more interventions to address neglect and its root causes.

Learn More:

Building Brains with CARE Update

By Meghan Christian

Developing effective programs relies on framing learning as an outcome. One of ICFW’s longest running workshops, Building Brains with CARE, is getting the rebuild treatment this year in response to the needs of our program and community partners. Now, two different workshops will take its place. Building Brains with Relationships will focus on building communication skills rooted in evidence-based interventions such as Motivational Interviewing and Parent-Child Interaction Therapy to support executive functioning skills such as self-regulation, person-to-person. Building Brains with Community will engage community members of various personal and professional backgrounds in illuminating critical pathways to improve community well-being through program design and practice innovation, people-to-people. With great hope for the future, ICFW expects to offer each workshop in person on a quarterly basis with registration being handled on Eventbrite. Be on the lookout for these workshops in the near future.

Parenting With PRIDE Implementation

By Leah Cerwin

At Children’s Wisconsin, the ICFW partnered with Child and Family Counseling to offer our 8-week virtual group for caregivers and a child in their care: Parenting with PRIDE. This group was facilitated by mental & behavioral health clinicians in consultation with Well-Being Lead Clinician Leah Cerwin, and ICFW Master’s Level Intern Joe Moreno.

The group includes components from evidence-based Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), offering caregivers and children the opportunity to learn with one another in a supportive virtual environment, and helps parents/caregivers of younger children manage challenging behaviors such as not listening, difficulty with transitions, acting out, and handling big emotions. Parents and their children learned about strategies that promote positive behaviors, enhance parent-child relationship, and decrease undesired behaviors through engaging activities and live coaching feedback with a PCIT-trained therapist.

Child and Family Counseling offered two groups this summer, and both showed success in lowering externalizing behaviors in children and improving parental confidence in caregivers. Linda Chaplin, former ICFW intern and current Qualified Treatment Trainee at Children’s Wisconsin, who delivered Parenting with PRIDE to one of these cohorts shared the following progress that one family made during the eight weeks.

At intake, Mom and Dad shared that their child was having tantrums at least once or twice a day during the week, and more often on weekends. He hated being told no, and would throw things at his parents and the dog when he was angry.

Mom and Dad were excited to use the skills and both jumped right in. As shown by the ECBI scores (see chart above), their child responded right away. After our last session, Mom wrote, “We feel confident that we have the tools we need to continue to manage our child’s periodic tantrums, bedtime routine, etc. Thanks again for all the support.”

It was so rewarding to see them go from being so unsure and really questioning how to handle some challenging behaviors to feeling confident, engaged and more connected as a family.

If you are interested in learning more about the Parenting with PRIDE model or our Translational Design workshops, please contact Luke Waldo at lwaldo@chw.org.

Research and Evaluation

The Institute accelerates the process of translating knowledge into direct practices, programs and policies that promote health and well-being, and provides analytic, data management and grant-writing support.

Recent ICFW Publications

Secondary traumatic stress among home visiting professionals

Janczewski, C. E. & Mersky, J. P. (2022). Secondary traumatic stress among home visiting professionals. Psychological trauma: theory, research, practice and policy.

Working with clients with histories of trauma can put helping professionals at risk of experiencing secondary traumatic stress (STS). This study found that one in ten home visiting professionals experienced PTSD symptoms as measured by an STS assessment. Higher levels of adverse childhood experiences among professionals were associated with higher levels of trauma symptoms. Findings also suggest that staff who work in organizations with positive work environments experienced lower levels of STS. Given the association between STS and workers’ personal histories of adversity, more research is needed to understand the connection between primary and secondary exposure to traumatic events.

Learn more about this study.

Community Engagement & Systems Change

The Institute develops community-university partnerships to promote systems change that increases the accessibility of evidence-based and evidence-informed practices.

Changing Course: Considering Systems Change within Social Work Practice

By Andrea Bailey and

Greater than reduced perceptions of social work as direct or clinical practice, the reach of this field encompasses much more than clinical practice interventions. While clinical social work is an integral component of the profession, it only represents a portion of the work being done. Dimensional in its composition, social work is most readily divided into three levels: micro, mezzo, and macro. Micro social work focuses on individuals or families while mezzo social work focuses on groups or organizations. Macro social work, sometimes referred to as systems social work, differs from micro and mezzo in that its primary focus is on large-scale change. While designating the work into these levels is helpful in defining scope and practice within each station, have these categories unintentionally created a divided practice that values micro-level interventions, while forgetting to enact change within unjust systems creating them? As professionals who abide by a code that values justice and the dignity and worth of the people we serve, to abide by our own standards of ethics we need to take action to undo these oppressive systems.

Unfortunately, the disproportionate focus on clinical social work has obscured or minimized much of the invaluable work that is being done on a macro level. Macro social work often includes community-based research, community organization, program administration, philanthropy, political advocacy, and policy practice (). These areas of social work target larger systems in society. Presently, many established systems uphold and sustain toxic environments which social workers must work to deconstruct. Unseen by those who are not affected by such systems, social workers have the unique opportunity to see, with unmistakable clarity, the patterns and repetitive outcomes invisible to so many. This work, inherent to the ethic of social work practice, is done to mitigate devastating systemic impacts on the lived realities of those social workers have committed to support.

Throughout our time as students, we have observed the shifting gaze, the lowering of heads, and the collective posture, when the concept of ‘macro practice social work’ is mentioned in a lecture. From the classroom to conversation amongst peers, this disengaged sentiment seems to play on repeat. Curious, we asked fellow MSW students what comes to mind when they think about macro practice within social work. Responses ranged from paperwork, to community advocacy, to quality assurance, and eventually landed on policy. The responses from our peers, while accurate in their own nebulous and disconnected way, fail to inspire connection and imagination for pathways forward that empower individuals, families, and communities, and change systems culpable of harm. So, what is needed to reimagine macro practice in a way that inspires students and social workers alike, to engage in systems change efforts?

Consider the lack of literature and social work research aimed at identifying and dismantling inequitable systems. A recent content analysis of literature focused on social work interventions at an institutional level, revealed that the majority of literature discussing social work practice focused on micro-level interventions (). In their research, Corley and Young (2018) implore, “Glaringly absent from these articles were calls for institutional change that challenged structural inequalities.” Likewise, consider the fractional percentage of students in academic contexts pursuing macro level practice in their careers. Social work education has, and continues to, lack adequate macro level curriculum and practice opportunities as the focus remains on clinical and direct service social work. It is necessary that social work education places an increased focus on macro level social work by increasing curriculum and practice opportunities to allow social workers to challenge systemic issues. Social work is comprised of and inhabits layers of intervention. Rather than dichotomizing macro and micro interventions, recognizing they are dynamic and integral components to the field’s overall integrity is pivotal.

As future social workers, the very ethic of our profession requires action—action to advocate, defend, support, and empower those whose care we oversee. While direct practice is essential within our field, failure to act on a macro level is passive inaction. We must exhort one another to seek change, not just in care for those harmed by toxic environments, but in the systems that are creating those environments. This is just one of many steps needed to build trust in our communities and break down strongholds of racism in social work practice. Moving forward, let us seek skilled direct practice interventions that provide the needed care for today; but even more, let us recognize our obligation to change the systems that will better tomorrow.

References:
Corley, N. A., & Young, S. M. (2018). Is Social Work Still Racist? A Content Analysis of Recent Literature. Social Work, 63(4), 317–326. https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/swy042

Iverson, M., Dentato, M. P., Green, K., & Busch, N. (2019). The continued need for macro field internships: Support, visibility and quality matter. Journal of Social Work Education, 57(3), 478–488. https://doi.org/10.1080/10437797.2019.1671265

Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities Initiative

By Gabriel McGaughey

The goal of the Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities (SFTCCC) initiative is to reduce the number of family separations for reasons of neglect by building a community focused on collaboratively pursuing policies and practices that support overloaded families. SFTCCC is a developmental strategy that allows for tactics to be developed and adapted over time based on lessons learned, stakeholder feedback, and emergent opportunities. This approach can result in multiple concurrent activities across the three core phases of Building a Shared Understanding, Implementing a Critical Path Strategy, and Advancing Innovation, Systems, and Policy Solutions.

Currently, SFTCCC has been focused on Building a Shared Understanding through five Roundtables so far in 2022. These roundtables are one-hour or 90-minute long interactive sessions, that include a brief overview of the impact of stress on family functioning, small group discussions, and sharing of insights from your experience to identify challenges and develop pathways forward. Roundtables have included participants from across Children’s Community Services programs and a group of Lived Experience partners. We will be hosting an open community roundtable on September 16th from 10:00-11:30am. To keep this an interactive event, we will have limited slots, so . Given that not everyone will be able to attend a roundtable, we’re also providing an opportunity to provide feedback through the , which takes the most common themes from roundtables so far and asks you to prioritize important risk factors, systemic challenges, opportunities, and contribute anything you may think is missing.

Themes from each roundtable are drafted into a report and shared with participants, and through surveys and future roundtables, will be prioritized to create the foundation for the SFTCCC’s critical pathways. Critical Pathways are specific problem/priority spaces that are focal points for elevating or designing specific and actionable system-level solutions. Developing pathways helps focus attention on the changes we want to achieve together, fosters cross systems relationships, and helps clarify shared intent. This approach provides the flexibility to connect existing efforts, invites new contributions, promotes shared learning, and roots efforts in evidence and lived experiences. This flexibility is key to building community around complex challenges that can present differently in different communities, but share root causes and impact.

SFTCCC in many ways represents an operationalizing of many of the efforts around advancing or transforming child welfare systems into a child well-being system. Core principles, such as including those with lived experience in the process, reframing how we talk about prevention, and using the best available evidence are central to SFTCCC. We believe that this initiative can uniquely contribute to the robust national dialogue by engaging providers, supporting promising practices that address root causes, and supporting innovation.

Quick links:

If you are interested in learning more, participating in a Roundtable, and/or joining this initiative, please visit the SFTCCC project page or .

Recent and Upcoming Events

The Institute provides training, consultation and technical assistance to help human service agencies implement and replicate best practices. If you are interested in training or technical assistance, please complete our speaker request form.

• SFTCCC Roundtable with Children’s Family Preservation and Support Leaders – July 20th
• SFTCCC Roundtable with Lived Experience Partners – July 29th
• Translational Design: An Introduction – August 3rd
• Innovation in Prevention Webinar Series – August 17th
• – September 16th
• Building Brains with Community Workshop – September 21st
• ICFW Podcast Series on Overloaded Families and Neglect – September

The post ICFW Newsletter, Summer 2022 appeared first on Institute for Child and Family Well-Being.

Families who experience stressors including housing instability, financial insecurity, or trauma, can become overloaded, leading to an increased level of need, child welfare involvement, and possible neglect. In 2020, 64% of family separations were due to neglect nationally (AFCARS Report #28, 2021), with many of its risk factor tied to issues of poverty, with a minimal number of evidence-based interventions available for communities to implement. To address this unmet need, innovative communities have been able to design high quality, evidence-informed, programs to reduce the sources of stress in families’ lives that contribute to neglect. These innovations not only provide potentially scalable solutions but can also inform how communities might approach addressing the unmet needs of families.

Neglect is a complex challenge, which often presents as a constellation of concurrent issues, that have come to a crisis point by the time a family has contact with the child welfare system. The Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA) provides flexibility in funding to be used for specific evidence-based interventions in the IV-E Prevention Services Clearinghouse that reach “candidates for foster care” to prevent separations once a family has contact with child protective services.  The Title IV-E Prevention Services Clearinghouse fails to specify which interventions target neglect, but at the time of this writing, only three of one hundred and seven programs in the Clearinghouse include “economic and housing stability” as target outcomes.

To fill this gap, many organizations and communities work to support families overloaded by economic stress utilizing often limited resources to create new solutions that work within their community. is the creation and implementation of proposed solutions that promote change. Successful innovation is context specific and requires consideration of specific characteristics of communities and community members.  Different communities have specific needs and perspectives that must be accounted for to truly cultivate change. How do innovative communities support innovations to support families overloaded by stress?

Evidence Informed: Drawing on principles rooted in and/or trauma informed care principles, communities strive to develop innovations that meet their specific context while still being rooted in the best available evidence. Integrating these principles into innovation, or improvement, efforts will provide a foundation for scaling successes, and advancing programs towards being evidence-based.

Co-creation: Participation of individuals and families with lived experience, or context experts, in the change process provide into the factors that impact their communities and into what works and what does not work. Without the co-creating of solutions with context experts, content experts may enter the field with preconceived notions of community needs and solutions. While co-creation may be new, and at times feel slower than prior practices, the learning and insights present with co-creation contribute to more efficient solutions.

Resources: Prevention services get a fraction of the funding compared to child welfare, often limiting the number of resources available to support improvement and innovation efforts at scale. Operating in this scarcity environment can make taking the time for an innovation process feel like a luxury. However, scaling to pilots, or larger implementations of ideas, can be inefficient, even generating negative attitudes towards current and future change efforts from staff, stakeholders, and families. Funders can support in prevention through targeted innovation grants, clarity and simplification of rules, training, and encouraging collaboration instead of competition. Organizational culture can provide the scaffolding for innovation by providing time, elevating shared learning as an outcome, and supporting scaling of innovation with ongoing quality improvement support.

Evaluation: The first ‘real world’ interaction most innovations have are as prototypes, small scale tests of ideas that inform if an idea may warrant eventual pilot testing. Approaches to can be different compared to quality improvement efforts with set assessment tools and metrics. The challenge for innovators is to select the prototype evaluation approach that best suits their situation and capacity. Taking evaluation approaches that fit the small scale and provide rapid feedback from participants, both those providing and receiving the service, is essential to thoughtful iteration and innovation.

Strategic learning: Learning is an outcome. Strategic learning is about deliberately gathering lessons learned in near real time to inform strategic decision making. Strategic learning serves multiple purposes, including creating institutional memory, supporting just-in-time iteration, and clarifying our hypotheses about our work. Innovators can use tools and processes from Strategic Learning to help clarify thinking, develop or refine a theory of change, and support rapid iteration.

Neglect is a prevalent wicked problem with few available options for communities to address it, requiring new evidence-informed innovations that can work in unique community contexts. At times, there is a hesitation to implement innovation due to existing struggles in current programs and the strong emphasis on the need to utilize evidence-based interventions. Evidence based interventions are important tools, however the current scope of interventions is insufficient. Innovation is all around our work, as people strive to work together to address the complex problems that overload families. By creating a clearer path to support innovation in preventing neglect, sharing lessons learned, while remaining rooted in evidence-informed principles, we create conditions to foster practices that may be the evidence-based interventions to support overloaded families of tomorrow.

Communities need more interventions to address neglect and its root causes.

Resources For Social Innovation

The post Innovation and child neglect prevention appeared first on Institute for Child and Family Well-Being.

The Institute for Child and Family Well-Being is a collaboration between Children’s Wisconsin and the Helen Bader School of Social Welfare at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The shared values and strengths of this academic-community partnership are reflected in the Institute’s three core service areas: Program Design and Implementation, Research and Evaluation, and Community Engagement and Systems Change.

In This Issue:

• Program Design and Implementation
  • Minecraft® Social Skills Design and Implementation Prototype
  • Parenting with PRIDE Implementation Update
• Research and Evaluation
  • Recent ICFW Publications
• Community Engagement and Systems Change
  • Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities Initiative
• Recent and Upcoming Events

Program Design and Implementation

The Institute develops, implements and disseminates validated prevention and intervention strategies that are accessible in real-world settings.

Minecraft® Social Skills Design and Implementation Prototype

By Meghan Christian

A virtual game-based, social skills group recently completed its second prototype iteration with the goal to improve social and emotional skills such as social communication, cooperation, problem solving, and self-control. For 8 weeks, children ages 7.5-13 years old gathered on Zoom and the Minecraft® education edition platform along with facilitators Melissa Sobish, Mental Health Consultant, and MSW intern Brianna Schneeburger. First, a brief conversation took place on a specific social skill. Then the group played Minecraft® together; this provided space for practice which lays down neural pathways towards the development of the skill. In order to practice shifting focus, attunement, and frustration tolerance, the group was brought back together at the end to discuss what had occurred.

Based on the Lived Experience of participants and After Action Reviews with staff, several changes were tested in this iteration of this Minecraft® social skill group. The group size was reduced from 9 to 5 participants. This time around each participant attended every week! The group time was increased from 60 to 75 minutes and was lengthened from 6 to 8 weeks, and a co-facilitator was added. The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) parent and self (for 11+) versions was administered as a standardized assessment pre and post group. The post group assessment was turned into a Survey Monkey versus attaching to an email. A small incentive was offered for the return of post group assessments.

Lessons Learned

• A group size similar to the 1^st group is optimal in order to maximize socializing opportunities and ability to accept referrals across a maximum amount of Wisconsin counties. Two facilitators makes a larger group (around 10 participants) much more doable. Participants liked that facilitators were playing together with them. This would suggest steering away from group sizes in the dozens.
• Parents want information on how they might incorporate group topics and practice into home life sent along with the weekly group updates.
• According to SDQ results, difficulties persisted in more or less all the same areas for participants, however 60% of parents reported the impact of difficulties was less.

Promising Outcomes

• 80% of parents and participants provided feedback in a survey. All (children and parents alike) were glad they joined the group. The majority of parents said their child was communicating, managing emotions and/or navigating social situations better. Half of participants reported using what they learned in real life weekly or more with the other half using the information several time times since starting group. Participants noted feeling successful, powerful, and hopeful.
• Children often preferred to continue interacting with each other in the game world after group time had ended.
• An integrity checklist was developed by the facilitator so future facilitators may replicate the group.
• 100% of requested assessments were returned.

Resources Needs

• Iterate to incorporate best practices into a single group.
• Melissa Sobish (facilitator) is interested in leading another iteration. ICFW expects this could happen starting in early September. An intern would need to be identified to co-facilitate.
• Development of relationships with interested partners to begin targeting scalability and sustainability.

Learn More:

Minecraft® to Build Our Children’s Social Skills

Parenting With PRIDE Design and Implementation Prototype

By Leah Cerwin

As a result of earlier prototype designs and testing conducted by the Institute for Child and Family Well-being (ICFW), Children’s Wisconsin’s Child and Family Counseling programs are currently providing Parenting with P.R.I.D.E., an 8-week virtual therapy group for parents/caregivers and a child in their care. This group is being facilitated by licensed mental and behavioral health clinicians and masters-level student interns, and includes components from the evidence-based intervention, Parent Child Interaction Therapy. We are proud of the efforts that went into designing, testing, and now implementing within one of our Children’s programs so that we may provide the best and safest care to the children and families that we serve.

If you are interested in Parenting with PRIDE for yourself and your child, call Children’s Wisconsin Mental and Behavioral Health Access Department at 414-266-3339.

If you are interested in learning more about the Parenting with PRIDE model or our Translational Design workshops, please contact Luke Waldo at lwaldo@chw.org.

Research and Evaluation

The Institute accelerates the process of translating knowledge into direct practices, programs and policies that promote health and well-being, and provides analytic, data management and grant-writing support.

Recent ICFW Publications

ICFW recently published two studies that underscore the mental health needs of low-income women receiving home visiting services in Wisconsin.

Advancing research on perinatal depression trajectories: Evidence from a longitudinal study of low-income women

Choi, C., Mersky, J. P., Janczewski, C. E., & Goyal, D. (2022).  Journal of Affective Disorders, 301, 44-51.

This study of 899 women showed that most women who experience postpartum depression also report prenatal depression, and that a history of abuse and low social support predicted poor mental health outcomes over time.

Intergenerational Pathways Linking Mothers’ Adverse Childhood Experiences and Children’s Social-Emotional Problems

Zhang, L., Mersky, J. P., & Plummer Lee, C. (2022).  Child Abuse & Neglect.

This analysis of 831 participants in the Study revealed that mothers with higher ACE scores were more likely to have children with social-emotional difficulties. These intergenerational effects were largely explained by the negative effects of ACEs on mothers’ mental health.

Community Engagement & Systems Change

The Institute develops community-university partnerships to promote systems change that increases the accessibility of evidence-based and evidence-informed practices.

Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities Initiative

By Luke Waldo

The goal of the Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities (SFTCCC) initiative is to reduce the number of family separations for reasons of neglect by building a community focused on collaboratively pursuing policies and practices that support overloaded families and address systemic failings. SFTCCC is a developmental strategy at its core, recognizing that more can be accomplished through shared learning and action to address the drivers of systems change that either hold the conditions that contribute to neglect in place or provide scaffolding for progress. This strategy includes three core phases:

• Building shared understanding
• Implementing a critical path strategy
• Advancing innovation, systems, and policy solutions

Each phase can happen concurrently as we work to build community around preventing family separation for reasons of neglect. Over the past few months, we have worked to build a shared understanding by building consensus around shared language for the root causes that impact families, systems, and the decisions that may lead to family separation. We hosted two Roundtables with over 75 participants representing all Children’s Wisconsin Community Services’ programs and regions from Southeastern Wisconsin to the Northwoods. Through these Roundtables, we explored:

• Individual and Systemic challenges that overload families with stress and create conditions for neglect and family separation;
• Opportunities and existing practices, policies, and systems collaborations that we can leverage to reduce stress and keep families together;
• Barriers to those opportunities that may limit their impact.

We have also hosted presentations and meetings with organizational and systems partners that are committed to preventing child maltreatment to share our vision for this initiative and to learn about our partners initiatives, so that we might more effectively collaborate and support one another.

We will be hosting additional Roundtables, presentations, and meetings throughout this year to continue to build a shared understanding. If you are interested in learning more, participating in a Roundtable, and/or joining this initiative, please visit the SFTCCC project page or .

Recent and Upcoming Events

The Institute provides training, consultation and technical assistance to help human service agencies implement and replicate best practices. If you are interested in training or technical assistance, please complete our speaker request form.

Building Brains with CARE – Newcap – April 6^th

Fulfilling the Promise Conference Presentation – Parenting with PRIDE – April

51���� Guest Lecture on PCIT – Leah Cerwin – April

SFTCCC Roundtable with Children’s Leaders – April

SFTCCC Roundtable with Children’s Well-being Programs – June 3^rd

The post ICFW Newsletter, Spring 2022 appeared first on Institute for Child and Family Well-Being.

Children thrive when they have regular interactions with responsive, caring adults. Families experiencing significant stressors related to financial insecurity, housing instability, or the impact of systemic and interpersonal trauma can be overloaded with stress, interrupting those interactions. Families that are experiencing this overload of stress are at greater risk for having neglect identified as a threat to their child(ren)’s safety. If we ensure that communities are equipped to ease the burden on overloaded families, we make resilience a real possibility.

Neglect is cited as the primary or contributing reason for 73% of family separations into foster care nationally and 68% here in Wisconsin. Neglect is frequently defined as the failure of a parent or other person with responsibility for the child to provide needed food, clothing, shelter, medical care, or supervision to the degree that the child’s health, safety, and well-being are threatened with harm^[1]. Children who experience the trauma of family separation for reasons of neglect are more likely than not to return home. Overloaded families are left vulnerable by systems that are misaligned to meeting their basic necessities. Poverty, trauma, and systemic racism are some of the deep seeded root causes to this inequity. We believe that there are pathways forward to preventing a significant portion of these separations from happening.

The conditions that lead to family separations for reasons of neglect are complex, extending beyond any single system or solution. The goal of the Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities (SFTCCC) initiative is to reduce the number of family separations for reasons of neglect by building a community focused on collaboratively pursuing policies and practices that support overloaded families and address systemic failings. SFTCCC is a developmental strategy at its core, recognizing that more can be accomplished through shared learning and action to address the drivers of systems change that either hold the conditions that contribute to neglect in place or provide scaffolding for progress.

Children’s ICFW team will strive to support programs, organizations, and communities to collaborate on solutions and generate knowledge to address these complex challenges families overloaded by stress face before safety threats emerge. By elevating the latest thinking and resources we hope to foster a community of changemakers, support shared learning, expand their networks, and inspire innovation and collaboration.

To learn more and sign up to get involved, please visit the SFTCCC project page.

[1] For a further discussion about what constitutes child neglect, see Child Welfare Information Gateway’s Acts of omission: An Overview of Child Neglect.

The post Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities Initiative appeared first on Institute for Child and Family Well-Being.

The Institute for Child and Family Well-Being is a collaboration between Children’s Wisconsin and the Helen Bader School of Social Welfare at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The shared values and strengths of this academic-community partnership are reflected in the Institute’s three core service areas: Program Design and Implementation, Research and Evaluation, and Community Engagement and Systems Change.

In This Issue:

• Meet the ICFW
  • Translational Design Coordinator
  • Predoctoral Fellows
  • Parent Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) Trainer Team
• Research and Evaluation
  • Recent ICFW Publications
• Community Engagement and Systems Change
  • Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities Initiative
  • Voice of Lived Experience in Program Design and Improvement
  • Trauma and Recovery Project (TARP) Training
• Recent and Upcoming Events

Meet the ICFW

Meet Our Translational Design Coordinator – Megan Frederick-Usoh

The ICFW recently created a new position, Translational Design Coordinator, to support both a strategic and operational evolution within our design and capacity-building projects. We are excited to announce that Megan Frederick-Usoh has recently joined our team in this new role.

Megan has over 16 years of experience in public health and child welfare. She has worked in both the for-profit and non-profit sectors in foster care, injury prevention and with adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Megan began her tenure with Children’s Wisconsin in 2019 as a Treatment Foster Care Recruiter and Educator, with an additional focus on program evaluation. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology, Political Science and Criminal Justice from the University of Tennessee, Honors College-Knoxville.

Meet Our Predoctoral Fellows

The ICFW recently launched a predoctoral fellowship training program that will provide mentorship and funding to doctoral students whose research can be applied to promote better and more equitable outcomes for children and families. We are proud to announce the selection of two predoctoral fellows for 2022: Darejan Dvalishvili and Anthony Gómez.

Darejan Dvalishvili is a predoctoral fellow at the Institute for Child and Family Well-Being. She is completing her Ph.D. in social work at Washington University in St. Louis. Her research focuses on intersections of poverty, child maltreatment, and adverse childhood experiences. Following her work with UNICEF and other international and local non-profit organizations, her interests include exploring the impact of various economic interventions on children’s wellbeing both in the US and globally. Darejan earned an MSW from Columbia University (New York, US) and an MD from Tbilisi State Medical University (Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia).

Anthony Gómez is a predoctoral fellow at the Institute for Child and Family Well-Being. Anthony’s research broadly focuses on child and family well-being, and its relationship to the child welfare system. Driven by professional experience working in early education and child welfare, he is interested in understanding how service systems can better fulfill the material and emotional needs of parents and caregivers, and in turn, how such support can improve parenting, mental health, and child development outcomes. Anthony holds a master’s degree in social welfare from UCLA and is currently a doctoral student at the UC Berkeley School of Social Welfare.

Meet our Parent Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) Trainer Team

During the past month, our Parent Child Interaction Therapy Trainer Team of Dimitri Topitzes and Leah Cerwin has begun delivering the PCIT International Within Agency Trainer (WATer) training to our team member, Meghan Christian. Dimitri became a in 2020, a distinction held by less than fifty PCIT therapists globally, and Leah became a in 2019. We are excited to add Meghan to our training team, so that we may train more clinicians within Children’s and across the state in order to provide greater access to this effective therapy for children and their caregivers.

Research and Evaluation

The Institute accelerates the process of translating knowledge into direct practices, programs and policies that promote health and well-being, and provides analytic, data management and grant-writing support.

Recent ICFW Publications

Effects of COVID-19 on Home Visiting Services for Vulnerable Families

ICFW faculty published a multi-state study that documented the toll of the pandemic on home visiting programs that offer services and support to new and expectant parents. Compared to pre-pandemic levels, post-COVID enrollments decreased by 33–36% and total visits fell by 15–24%. These findings are especially concerning given the vital role that these programs play in supporting children and families from more vulnerable and marginalized populations.

Learn more about this study.

Community Engagement & Systems Change

The Institute develops community-university partnerships to promote systems change that increases the accessibility of evidence-based and evidence-informed practices.

Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities Initiative

Children thrive when they have regular interactions with responsive, caring adults. Families experiencing significant stressors related to financial insecurity, housing instability, or the impact of systemic and interpersonal trauma can be overloaded with stress, interrupting those interactions. Families that are experiencing this overload of stress are at greater risk for having neglect identified as a threat to their child(ren)’s safety. If we ensure that communities are equipped to ease the burden on overloaded families, we make resilience a real possibility.

Neglect is cited as the primary or contributing reason for 73% of family separations into foster care nationally and 68% here in Wisconsin. Neglect is frequently defined as the failure of a parent or other person with responsibility for the child to provide needed food, clothing, shelter, medical care, or supervision to the degree that the child’s health, safety, and well-being are threatened with harm^[1]. Children who experience the trauma of family separation for reasons of neglect are more likely than not to return home. Overloaded families are left vulnerable by systems that are misaligned to meeting their basic necessities. Poverty, trauma, and systemic racism are some of the deep seeded root causes to this inequity. We believe that there are pathways forward to preventing a significant portion of these separations from happening.

The conditions that lead to family separations for reasons of neglect are complex, extending beyond any single system or solution. The goal of the Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities (SFTCCC) initiative is to reduce the number of family separations for reasons of neglect by building a community focused on collaboratively pursuing policies and practices that support overloaded families and address systemic failings. SFTCCC is a developmental strategy at its core, recognizing that more can be accomplished through shared learning and action to address the drivers of systems change that either hold the conditions that contribute to neglect in place or provide scaffolding for progress.

Children’s ICFW team will strive to support programs, organizations, and communities to collaborate on solutions and generate knowledge to address these complex challenges families overloaded by stress face before safety threats emerge. By elevating the latest thinking and resources we hope to foster a community of changemakers, support shared learning, expand their networks, and inspire innovation and collaboration.

To learn more and sign up to get involved, please visit the SFTCCC project page.

[1] For a further discussion about what constitutes child neglect, see Child Welfare Information Gateway’s Acts of omission: An Overview of Child Neglect.

Voice of Lived Experience in Program Design and Improvement

By Luke Waldo

COVID-19 has created enormous stress on families, staff, and communities, and exposed existing and new challenges that families face when it comes to accessing and benefiting from supportive services. In response to these new challenges, we conducted our strategic learning process with the COVID Resilience Plan (PDF) through which we learned that we could better meet the needs of our clients if we increased the voice of lived experience in our program design, implementation and improvement efforts.  “…Lived experience brings value, particularly in contexts with rich histories, cultural nuances, and generations of communal knowledge. These are the things we can’t bottle up in a diagram or find best practices for in a textbook” (Ali, 2019).

When we elevate the voice of lived experience and create authentic engagement and accountability between our program staff and clients, we “prioritize relationships, increase trust across all stakeholders, and use participatory approaches to ensure the work is guided by those most affected” (Hayden et al). So, how might we bring the voice of lived experience to our programs’ training, use of evidence-based models, and “content expertise” to ultimately deliver more positive outcomes for the children and families that we serve?

Many programs already include the voice of lived experience in their program design and improvement efforts in the form of:

• Program completion/ satisfaction surveys
• Focus groups
• Family Advisory Councils
• Parent Advocates

Through the use of these approaches, programs can better understand our clients’ needs, barriers, priorities, and strengths. Empowered with this knowledge, we are better positioned to design, implement, and adapt programs that more effectively meet our clients where they are, build trust, and lead to better engagement. Additionally, these approaches can provide feedback on what works and what doesn’t work for our clients, so that we may make program improvements that demonstrate authentic engagement and accountability to those we serve.

Children’s Child Well-being Programs’ Voice of Lived Experience Journey

Prior to COVID-19, Children’s Child Well-being leadership was polled on its priorities, and the overwhelming majority chose “client voice” in program activities and improvement as its top priority. In 2020, through the COVID Resilience Plan we conducted 19 After Action Reviews, in which it became clear that there were three core areas that we needed to prioritize:

• Client Voice/Community Engagement in Program Design and Improvement
• Virtual Practice/Service Delivery and Training
• Remote/Work from Home Transitions

Consequently, we developed a Community Engagement in Program Design and Improvement Community of Practice, which met over four months and developed three core recommendations, which were then presented as the primary design objectives of the Champions team that represented each program area of the Child Well-being department.

Framing the Challenge

Upon recruiting Champions from each program area across the Child Well-being department, we focused our design project on the following question, so that we could effectively design program and department-wide policy and practice recommendations.

As our service environment has changed due to families’ complex situations and needs – COVID-19, access and technology issues, cultural needs, etc. – how might we increase and/or center family/client voice in our program design, implementation, and improvement processes?

Our Translational Design Process

Over the course of 8 working 90-minute meetings, we centered the Champions team activities on the three COVID Resilience Plan Community Engagement recommendations.

• Develop a Parent Advisory Council
• Improve Client Satisfaction Survey process
• Develop a client readiness/access assessment process

Our Translational Design process centers the principle that the lived experience of the professional and client should be present in all activities while also elevating the best available evidence from our fields. As a result, each phase of the process incorporated reflective practices, client and colleague feedback, and tools that centered the client’s experience, relationships and needs.

1. Frame the Challenge. Define accountability.
2. Create sub-committees for each core recommendation based on Champions’ experience and interests.
3. Storyboard.
4. Prototype Workflow.
5. Theory of Change.
6. Best practice readings.
7. Office Hours.

As the Champions completed their Storyboards, Prototype Workflows, and Theories of Change, they worked closely with their sub-committee partners to review and reflect on their ideas before sharing them with their colleagues and clients for further feedback. They then reworked their ideas and updated the tools to reflect what they had learned. Lastly, they shared their tools on our Basecamp page where all Champions could review them and share their lessons learned. Additionally, throughout the process, the Champions could attend Office Hours with me to work individually on their tools, reflect on what they had learned, and make final updates before submitting to Basecamp.

In our final phase of the design process, we reviewed best practices and evidence by reading literature from national and local partners that have been strong examples of incorporating lived experience into their organizational practices and culture. We then made final additions to our design projects or cited those ideas that we had already developed that are supported by evidence.

In the coming weeks, we will present our final policy and practice recommendations along with a number of the design projects to the Child Well-being leadership team to determine how we might implement them.

References:

Ali, Kareeshma. (2019, February 8) There is an imbalance between lived and learned experience. Retrieved from:

Hayden, Justin, Kalra, Surbhi, Rudd, Christopher, Walker, Justin. How can organizations assess their readiness to co-design? Casey Family Programs, Questions from the Field. Retrieved from:

Learn More:

Translational Design Workshops – If you are interested in learning more about our Translational Design workshops, contact Luke Waldo at lwaldo@chw.org.

Storyboarding – IDEO

– Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University

Trauma and Recovery Project Training

By Meghan Christian

As the final year of Trauma and Recovery Project 5-year SAMHSA grant comes to a close, the final cohort of 21 Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy trainees from around the state of Wisconsin completed their last synchronous training days. Already this cohort has begun treating 55 child and families affected by post-traumatic stress. During these training days, topics included developing and processing a trauma narrative, identifying supportive caregivers to serve as a witness to the narrative, in-vivo exposure, developing future resilience and safety and creating resilience and longevity in clinicians using the Components for Effecting Clinician Experience and Reducing Trauma (CE-CERT) model by Dr. Brian Miller. Cohort trainees will continue to develop their practice through literature review and consultation with the trainer, Jennifer Wilgocki, LCSW and ICFW team member, Meghan Christian.

If you would like to refer a family to a Children’s provider for trauma therapy, please call 414-266-3339. You can also search for certified clinicians by visiting .

Learn More

More information on Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy can be found at .

Recent and Upcoming Events

The Institute provides training, consultation and technical assistance to help human service agencies implement and replicate best practices. If you are interested in training or technical assistance, please complete our speaker request form.

Presentations, Trainings and Workshops:

January 2022

February 2022

Frontiers of Innovation and Children’s Home Society of America Webinar

with Children’s Wisconsin’s Community Services Programs

• If you are interested in attending an upcoming Roundtable, please provide your contact information in the link above.

The post ICFW Newsletter, Winter 2022 appeared first on Institute for Child and Family Well-Being.

As we look to the future, our aim is to strengthen these alliances and forge new community connections that are necessary to disseminate effective strategies and produce lasting systems change. So take a moment to review what we learned and accomplished in 2021, and keep an eye on our newsletter, social media, and webpage that will celebrate our five years of partnership as the Institute for Child and Family Well-being.

Meet the 2021 ICFW Affiliates

As Community Engagement and Systems Change are a core service area of the ICFW, collaboration with our community and systems partners is critical to fulfilling our mission. In recognition of those that value collaboration and whose mission seeks to improve child and family well-being, we have invited those partners to join us as ICFW Affiliates. We were honored to introduce eight ICFW Affiliates in 2021, and are looking forward to expanding our affiliates in 2022.

Jennifer Jones, Dr. John Meurer, & Carmen Pitre

Dr. Julian Ford, Clarence Johnson, & Dr. Christy Warner-Metzger

Leah Jepson & Jennifer Winkler

ICFW Honored with Key Innovator Award

We are excited to announce that Children’s Wisconsin was presented with the Key Innovator award from . Over the past few years, our ICFW team has worked closely with Jen Winkler, an ICFW Affiliate, to adapt and implement Mobility Mentoring® into Children’s Wisconsin’s child welfare program in Milwaukee. We are honored to be recognized for the collaboration and innovation that have contributed to the implementation of this promising model. Please read the award statement from the EMPath Annual Report below.

ICFW Dissemination in 2021: New Journal Articles, Report and Webinar

• The ICFW had 7 journal articles published in 2021 on topics ranging from equity and access to mental health treatment, disparities in Adverse Childhood Experiences to vaccine hesitancy, and processes of healing self and community. To learn more, explore the publications here.
• New Report: COVID Resilience Planning for Nonprofits 
• New Webinar: Parenting with PRIDE – Designing Group-based, Telehealth Solutions with PCIT in Times of COVID
• New Instrument: A Brief Measure of Work Environment for Human Service Organizations

New Projects and Partnerships

• Parenting with P.R.I.D.E. – Group-based, Virtual Parent-Child Interaction Therapy in partnership with the Children’s Wisconsin’s Child and Family Counseling programs.
• Birth to Three Social-Emotional Innovation Grants in partnership with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services and University of Wisconsin – Institute for Research on Poverty.
• Minecraft® to Build Our Children’s Social Skills in partnership with Children’s Wisconsin’s Family Support and Preservation programs.
• Seeking Solutions for Youth Aging Out of Foster Care in partnership with the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families and Bay Area Workforce Development Board.
• Milwaukee Equity Action Plan in partnership with the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR).
• Mobility Mentoring^® in Family Support and Preservation Programs in partnership with EMPath, Children’s Home Society of America and Children’s Wisconsin’s Family Support and Preservation programs.
• Strong and Stable Families in partnership with the Wisconsin Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Board.
• T-SBIRT Training and Development

The post 2021 Year in Review appeared first on Institute for Child and Family Well-Being.

For more information, see the publication here.

The post Integrating T-SBIRT into Family Connects appeared first on Institute for Child and Family Well-Being.

The Institute for Child and Family Well-Being is a collaboration between Children’s Wisconsin and the Helen Bader School of Social Welfare at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The shared values and strengths of this academic-community partnership are reflected in the Institute’s three core service areas: Program Design and Implementation, Research and Evaluation, and Community Engagement and Systems Change.

In This Issue

• Meet the ICFW
• Program Design and Implementation
  • Mobility Mentoring^® in Family Support and Preservation Programs
  • Executive Function and Mobility Mentoring^®: Using Brain Science to Promote Mobility Out of Poverty 
  • T-SBIRT Training and Development
• Research and Evaluation
  • Recent ICFW Publications
• Community Engagement and Systems Change
  • Evaluating Systems Change at the Organizational Level
• Recent and Upcoming Events

Meet the ICFW

We are excited to announce that Children’s Wisconsin was presented with the Key Innovator award from . Over the past few years, our ICFW team has worked closely with Jen Winkler, an ICFW Affiliate, to adapt and implement Mobility Mentoring® into Children’s Wisconsin’s child welfare program in Milwaukee. We are honored to be recognized for the collaboration and innovation that have contributed to the implementation of this promising model. Please read the award statement from the EMPath Annual Report below.

Program Design & Implementation

The Institute develops, implements and disseminates validated prevention and intervention strategies that are accessible in real-world settings.

Mobility Mentoring^® in Family Support and Preservation Programs

By Gabe McGaughey

Children thrive when they have regular interactions with responsive, caring adults. Families experiencing significant stressors related to financial insecurity, housing instability, or the impact of systemic and interpersonal trauma can be overwhelmed with stress, interrupting those interactions. To better support families overloaded by stress, Children’s Wisconsin is proud to announce a partnership through to bring intervention into our Family Preservation and Support programs around the state for implementation starting in January 2022. Mobility Mentoring^® focuses on using a science-based approach to support family-led goal attainment with a primary goal of economic mobility out of poverty. Children’s ICFW team members will be supporting this implementation, evaluation, and shared learning moving forward.

Learn More:

ICFW Practice Brief: Mobility Mentoring (PDF)

Executive Function and Mobility Mentoring^®: Using Brain Science to Promote Mobility Out of Poverty 

By Meghan Majors

Early adversity can derail the development and use of the core capabilities for success in adulthood. Childhood stress and trauma can have a negative impact on the developing brain. The prefrontal cortex, which controls executive functioning, and the limbic system, which controls the assessment of threats, are the most affected. When exposed to enough stress, this leads to brains that lack skills in planning and impulse control and are hypervigilant of threats. Chronic stress can also lead to a dysfunctional stress response over the lifespan. When experiencing a threat, the brain activates the “fight-or-flight” response to deal with the threat, limiting one’s ability to utilize self-regulation skills. Therefore, living in an environment of frequent fear and anxiety leads to brains that are continuously in “fight-or-flight”, affecting one’s ability to both develop and use executive function skills.

Executive function refers to the capacity to plan ahead and meet goals, control impulses, prioritize tasks, and stay focused despite distractions. These skills are developed through practice. Early childhood is an important period for developing executive function. Children who do not have the opportunity to use and strengthen these skills are less proficient and may have a difficult time managing routine tasks of life. In adulthood, executive functioning and self-regulation are the key skills necessary to get and keep a job, develop healthy relationships, and manage finances.

Growing up in poverty, even without the addition of trauma, can have a negative impact on the developing brain and executive function. Poverty is associated with chronic stress and fewer opportunities to practice executive functioning skills. Chronic scarcity, such as that experienced when living in poverty, can be viewed as a series of frequent, stressful events that can result in an overloaded brain. Constantly needing to direct attention to crises takes a toll and requires an incredible amount of energy and time. This bandwidth tax leads to poor decision making and difficulty setting realistic goals. Additionally, it can be difficult for people experiencing chronic scarcity to plan and set goals for the future because needing to frequently handle short-term crises can consume a lot of bandwidth. Executive functions, like impulse control, working memory, and mental flexibility, are important for success in work and school. This contributes to the cycle of poverty, as living in poverty itself limits one’s ability to have mobility out of poverty.

Poverty itself can impact executive functioning but considering the large overlap between living in poverty and experiencing early trauma, the cumulative impact on executive functioning is greater. This intersection of trauma and poverty is frequently seen in the populations involved in home visiting and the child welfare system. The impact can span across the life course. Childhood poverty and adversity can lead to increased parenting stress as an adult and reduce the ability to provide effective care to children. This can be associated with poor emotional regulation in children and neglect, contributing to intergenerational effects. Therefore, to implement programs that will improve the lives of child and families in this population, it is necessary to consider the impact of trauma, stress, and poverty on executive functioning.

Mobility Mentoring^® is an executive functioning and trauma informed intervention that focuses on partnering with clients to build the skills, resources, and behavior to achieve financial independence. Mobility Mentoring^®  engages clients through a coaching model to develop decision-making and goal-setting skills in five key pillars: family stability, health and well-being, financial management, education and training, and employment and career. The intervention includes the use of external incentives to build intrinsic motivation in participants. Children’s Wisconsin is expanding the Mobility Mentoring^® program to five programs in six regions in Wisconsin: Family Support (Black River Falls, Northwoods), Home Visiting (Black River Falls, Northwoods, Stevens Point, Milwaukee, Rock County), Early Head Start (Northwoods), and Education and Employment (Madison).

T-SBIRT Training and Development

By Dimitri Topitzes

T-SBIRT, or trauma screening, brief intervention and referral to treatment, is a one-session interview protocol that has been integrated into health and human service programs across Wisconsin. Implementing T-SBIRT in such settings recognizes two interrelated truths: a) most people experience significant adversity and trauma across the life course, an assertion that is all-the-more salient during this time of pandemic and collective trauma, and b) cumulative trauma exposure undermines functioning across many domains and limits engagement in various service systems.

Derived from screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment for substance use, T-SBIRT has several distinct goals for participants. Namely, it was designed to:

1. help participants generate insight into the extent and effects of trauma exposure,
2. deepen participants’ awareness of and commitment to positive coping skills,
3. enhance participants’ motivation to seek formal or informal supports, and
4. strengthen participants’ engagement in current service episodes.

Thus far, T-SBIRT has been delivered by direct service providers from a variety of settings, including community-based primary care clinics, nurse home visiting programs, and employment service programs. Typically, providers conduct T-SBIRT sessions early in the course of services to strengthen rapport with service recipients, generate insight into root causes of presenting problems, and develop well-informed service and referral plans. T-SBIRT sessions extend over approximately 10 to 45 minutes, dependent on context, and evaluators have published three studies to date indicating that it is feasible to implement T-SBIRT across these diverse settings.

The primary author of T-SBIRT, Dimitri Topitzes, has led multiple T-SBIRT training initiatives in southeastern Wisconsin and other parts of the state. Typically, trainings involve one or two day intensive workshops followed by ongoing technical assistance. The workshops cover topics such as the rate and consequences of trauma exposure. He also presents the trauma service frameworks on which T-SBIRT is based, such as trauma-informed care and trauma-responsive practices. Subsequently, training participants observe T-SBIRT demonstration role-plays and complete T-SBIRT practice role-plays.

The gatherings generally end with discussions about implementation drivers and barriers along with agency-specific plans for integrating T-SBIRT within service workflows. Dr. Topitzes provides monthly T-SBIRT technical assistance or consultation during initial phases of integration to support ongoing practice. During these consultation sessions, usually held remotely, participants present T-SBIRT case examples, discuss T-SBIRT practice themes, and raise T-SBIRT-related questions.

In September of 2021, Dr. Topitzes delivered a two-day T-SBIRT training workshop to health and human service prevention specialists in Dayton, Ohio. Thirty-five direct service or administrative professionals from six area agencies attended the event, sponsored by Montgomery County Alcohol, Drug Addiction, and Mental Health Services (ADAMHS). All agencies represented at the training received grant funding from ADAMHS, and many were planning to combine T-SBIRT with SBIRT services, a relatively common practice. According to evaluations completed by participants at the conclusion of the training workshop, participants found T-SBIRT to be very useful for their practice and were very satisfied with the training event. The participating agencies are currently completing the initial stages of implementation with the help of monthly consultation. If interested in learning more about T-SBIRT, please see the T-SBIRT Issue Brief or contact the Institute for Child and Family Well-Being.

Learn More:  

ICFW Webinar – T-SBIRT: An Introduction

ICFW T-SBIRT Demonstration Video

Research and Evaluation

The Institute accelerates the process of translating knowledge into direct practices, programs and policies that promote health and well-being, and provides analytic, data management and grant-writing support.

Recent ICFW Publications

Mersky, J. P., Choi, C., Lee, C. P., & Janczewski, C. E. (2021). Disparities in adverse childhood experiences by race/ethnicity, gender, and economic status: Intersectional analysis of a nationally representative sample. Child Abuse & Neglect, 117, 105066.

Mersky, J. P., Topitzes, J., Langlieb, J., & Dodge, K. A. (2021). Increasing mental health treatment access and equity through trauma-responsive care. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry.

Romain Dagenhardt, D., Mersky, J.P., Topitzes, J., Schubert, E., & Krushas, A. (2021). Assessing polyvictimization in a family justice center: Lessons learned from a demonstration project. Journal of Interpersonal Violence.

Community Engagement & Systems Change

The Institute develops community-university partnerships to promote systems change that increases the accessibility of evidence-based and evidence-informed practices.

Evaluating Systems Change at the Organizational Level

By and Luke Waldo

“Real and equitable progress requires exceptional attention to the detailed and often mundane work of noticing what is invisible to many.” – The Water of Systems Change.

Introduction

As demand for mental and behavioral health services has grown over the past decade and is projected to outpace growth of most sectors in the coming decade, mental and behavioral health organizations face complex challenges as to how to meet the needs of children and families. At Children’s Wisconsin, we have been implementing evidence-based therapies as one potential strategy and evaluating their impact over the past four years as part of a five-year Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) grant.

The Trauma and Recovery Project (TARP) is a 5-year SAMHSA-funded initiative that aims to increase the availability and accessibility of trauma-responsive treatments for children and families in southeastern Wisconsin. Children’s Wisconsin’s Child and Family Counseling programs in southeastern Wisconsin form part of the project’s Center of Excellence (CoE), which consists of clinicians who have been trained in trauma-informed and evidence-based therapies and deliver these models to children and families. In order to demonstrate the impacts of the CoE to SAMHSA, clinicians must complete a National Outcomes Measures (NOMs) assessment at baseline, every six months, and discharge.

Presenting Challenge

During the third year of TARP, NOMs completion rates fell below 10% and the project was notified by SAMHSA that completion rates needed to improve to a benchmark of 80% or better. Clinicians face increasing and, at times, conflicting demands on their time and ability to focus on the care of their clients. By adding new assessments to their workflow, there may be a perception that their limited time with their client is being infringed upon even further. Consequently, an intense effort was made by leadership and CoE clinicians to increase completion rates. After a variety of systemic interventions, NOMs completion rates eventually reached a high of 82.1% in year four of the grant.

In order to learn how we addressed this challenge and improved our outcomes, we conducted interviews and surveys with grant managers, administrative staff, clinical supervisors, and CoE clinicians. We explored the six drivers of systems change to evaluate the factors involved in this process.

Six Drivers of System Change

Policies Resource Flow Relationships & Connections

According to Kania et al, policies include the “rules, regulations, and priorities that guide actions”. Resource flow is “how money, people, knowledge, information, and other assets such as infrastructure are allocated and distributed.” Relationships and connections are the “quality of connections and communication occurring among actors in the system, especially among those with differing histories and viewpoints.” Based on these conditions and feedback from clinicians, supervisors, and administrative support staff, the most significant impact on NOMs compliance was the addition of an administrative support staff member to manage the NOMs process across offices. Having an administrative staff member assigned to track compliance and offer support to clinicians centralized the process. The administrative support staff emailed the clinicians and their supervisors each month with upcoming NOMs due dates so they knew in advance what their NOMs workload would be. Each week, emails were sent to the clinicians individually reminding them what they needed to complete. The information including specific clinician, child, caregiver, and due dates made next steps very clear. The administrative support staff also entered all the NOMs into the SAMHSA database within one week of them being completed further reducing clinician burden. The policies, resource flow, and relationships and connections impacted by this change helped to improve NOMs completion by guiding actions, distributing information, centralizing core responsibilities, and ensuring quality communication.

Policies   Practices

A second area that contributed to improved NOMs completion was the adaptation of tools to increase accessibility and use. This involved the organizational policies that guide actions, and practice or the “activities targeted to improving social and environmental progress; and the procedures, guidelines, or informal shared habits that comprise their work.” NOMs was initially a long, printed assessment that was filled out by hand. When COVID-19 hit, SAMHSA converted it into a six-page word document that could be completed electronically. The electronic format caused issues with clinicians not being able to type in responses and check boxes, which created another barrier to timely completion. Consequently, our team modified the assessment to make it more user friendly. This included dividing the assessment into three separate measures to use at baseline, reassessment, and discharge. Finally, clinicians were not required to enter NOMs into a database and instead were able to email them directly to the administrative support staff upon completion. These tools and increased accessibility worked to simplify processes for all staff.

Relationships & Connections Power Dynamics

Another contribution to improved NOMs completion was increasing the accountability between clinicians and their supervisors. The relationships and connections involved in this process, and the power dynamics or “the distribution of decision-making power, authority, and both formal and informal influence among individuals and organizations” were central to creating change. Regular meetings were set up with supervisors to discuss NOMs completion. These meetings were designed to support the sites with their individual issues, empower supervisors to enhance their clinicians’ NOMs completion rates, and build a community of practice to meet SAMHSA requirements.

Mental Models

Mental models are deeply held beliefs that influence our behavior and are instrumental in making transformational change. In this case study, we asked the CoE clinicians about their attitude towards assessment-based interventions to learn more about barriers to completing NOMs. All thirteen clinicians who completed the survey reported that assessment-based interventions were important in their clinical practice. Working with clinicians who value assessment-based interventions likely contributed in a positive way to the increase in NOMs completion because the clinicians understood and valued the importance of the measure.

Conclusion

Organizational and system change can be tremendously complex. We believe that we must strive for ongoing improvement, but improvement without understanding what, how and why we improved is simply not enough. Through the evaluation of our small internal system change, we were able to engage clinicians, supervisors, and administrative support staff to determine that the most influential drivers of change were new policies, resource flows, and relationships and connections. By using the six conditions of systems change, we are able to identify the many factors that impact our ability to accomplish our objectives and, ideally, replicate similar efforts in the future for sustained improvements and success.

References

Kania, J., Kramer, M., & Senge, P. (2018). . FSG, pp. 1-18.

Learn More:

National Outcomes Measure (for children)

Recent and Upcoming Events

The Institute provides training, consultation and technical assistance to help human service agencies implement and replicate best practices. If you are interested in training or technical assistance, please complete our speaker request form.

Presentations, Trainings and Workshops:

August 2021

PCIT National Biennial Convention – ICFW presented the following panels, symposia, papers and posters:

• Creating a Community Harvest: Addressing Multifamily Needs in a Pandemic and Beyond
• The Nature of Gathering: Virtually Sowing CDI and PDI Skills and Curtailing Caregiver Stress in Group-Based Telehealth
• Unleash Your Coaching Superhero: Skills That Will Take You from a Good PCIT Therapist to a SUPER PCIT Therapist
• Irrigate Your Field of Connections: WATer-ing Collaboratively

September 2021

September 15^th: Brain Science and Self-Esteem Workshop for Foster Parents

December 2021

December 1^st:  Mindfulness for the Family – Workshop for 51����’s Children’s Learning Center

The post ICFW Newsletter, Fall 2021 appeared first on Institute for Child and Family Well-Being.

The Institute for Child and Family Well-Being is a collaboration between Children’s Wisconsin and the Helen Bader School of Social Welfare at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The shared values and strengths of this academic-community partnership are reflected in the Institute’s three core service areas: Program Design and Implementation, Research and Evaluation, and Community Engagement and Systems Change.

In This Issue

• Meet the ICFW Affiliates – Leah Jepson & Jennifer Winkler
• Program Design and Implementation
  • Minecraft® to Build Our Children’s Social Skills
  • Utilizing Technology for Continued Evidence-Based Clinical Training
• Research and Evaluation
  • A Brief Measure of Work Environment for Human Service Organizations
• Recent and Upcoming Events

Meet the ICFW Affiliates

As Community Engagement and Systems Change are a core pillar of the ICFW, collaboration with our community and systems partners is critical to fulfilling our mission. In recognition of those that value collaboration and whose mission seeks to improve child and family well-being, we have invited those partners to join us as ICFW Affiliates. We are honored to introduce our three newest ICFW Affiliates with whom we look forward to partnering with now and into the future.

Leah Jepson

Leah Jepson is the Project Director of the Milwaukee Coalition for Children’s Mental Health (CCMH) at Mental Health America of Wisconsin, an initiative to improve the mental health of children 0 – 8 in the City of Milwaukee through systems change and authentic engagement of people with lived experience. She is also the co-founder and Executive Co-Director at the Next Step Clinic, a community-based collaboration to address disparities in Autism Spectrum Disorder and children’s mental health identification and treatment. Leah has nearly 25 years’ experience as a social worker that includes home visitation, research, community-based program development and implementation, advocacy, and coalition-building. Her current focus is on young children’s mental health and social-emotional development, authentic engagement of those with lived experience, social justice and health equity.

Leah holds a Master’s of Science degree in Social Work and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology, both from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Leah has collaborated with ICFW through the Milwaukee Coalition for Children’s Mental Health to align action and values around children’s mental health, bringing in ICFW staff to provide presentations for coalition members. Leah served on an expert panel for the ICFW webinar, Authentic Community Engagement: Made in Milwaukee. Most recently, we collaborated with ICFW through the Next Step Clinic. When the clinic was first opening, Dr. Topitzes joined the team to advise clinic leadership on the manifestations of childhood trauma in the children that are served by the clinic. The ICFW team has also trained Next Step Clinic clinicians in Parent-Child Interaction Therapy through the Trauma and Recovery Project.

Jennifer Winkler

Jennifer Winkler is currently the Family Case Management Well-Being & Family Support Manager at Children’s Wisconsin, where she has worked for the last 12 years in various direct practice and leadership positions within the agency. Throughout her career, Jennifer has demonstrated passion around staff and program development, continuous quality improvement efforts, and building an organizational culture that is rich in innovation.

Jennifer received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Carthage College in 2006, with a major in Social Work, and a Master’s of Social Work from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2007, with a specialization in child and family welfare.

The ICFW team has worked collaboratively with Jen to conduct a human-centered design process that led to the adaptation and implementation of Mobility Mentoring® (MM) into Milwaukee’s Family Support Program. Jen has continued to collaborate with the ICFW to engage and interview her staff and the families that they serve to evaluate the effectiveness of and opportunities to improve MM. Additionally, Jen has co-presented with ICFW at regional and national conferences, and advocated for MM and strategic adaptation which has inspired other Children’s programs to begin implementation of the model.

Program Design & Implementation

The Institute develops, implements and disseminates validated prevention and intervention strategies that are accessible in real-world settings.

Minecraft® to Build Our Children’s Social Skills

By Meghan Christian

A virtual game-based, social skills group recently completed its first prototype iteration. The group planned to improve social and emotional skills such as social communication, cooperation, problem solving, and self-control. For 6 weeks, children ranging from 6.5 to 13 years old gathered on Zoom with a Mental Health Consultant for a brief didactic lesson on a specific social skill, and then the group played the video game Minecraft® to practice and develop the skill.

There was initially a group of 9, with 8 finishing the group. A few participants missed 2 groups meetings in the middle weeks. Although technical problems were frustrating to the facilitator and the participants in the beginning, the participants did not note this as a barrier on a post-group survey. Weekly email touch points with caregivers were provided by the facilitator and the use of the Manatee app was expected, however, low enrollment in the app and lack of engagement with this app by parents and staff found this not to be a useful tool in tracking progress. Of those who responded to a feedback request, all (children and parents alike) agreed the group was a useful way to spend their time and felt the group helped them improve their social skills. One child respondent and the facilitator shared they hope the group can run longer each week in the future. In fact, as the weeks went by, the children often preferred to continue interacting with each other in the game world after group time had ended. Some lessons learned garnered through the use of an After Action Review completed by staff suggested that a mixed level of familiarity with Minecraft® actually facilitated more opportunities to practice adaptive social skills and strongly indicated the need for a facilitator workflow to be documented so another facilitator could recreate or step in, if necessary. Also suggested by staff was splitting the age groups up, although the children respondents did not mention this.

In future iterations, ICFW will continue to work on supply chain issues brought on by COVID-19 to make a standardized pre and post assessment a part of the intake and discharge process in order to gather data on efficacy, likely implement a 90 minute group instead of 60 minutes, have a written workflow for the facilitator, and expand the referral opportunity to all children in the state.

For more context, see the original briefing in the Spring 2021 newsletter. If you are interested in referring a child to a future group, please email mchristian@chw.org.

Learn More:

ICFW Practice Brief – After Action Review (PDF)
ICFW Practice Brief – Strategic Learning (PDF)

Utilizing Technology for Continued Evidence-Based Clinical Training
By Kate C. Bennett, LCSW

With support from the Trauma & Recovery Project, a 5-year SAMHSA-funded initiative that aims to increase the availability and accessibility of trauma-responsive treatments in southeastern Wisconsin, the ICFW has continued to collaborating with partner agencies to disseminate Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) to families Milwaukee, Racine, and surrounding southeastern Wisconsin counties.

This summer, certified trainers from Children’s Wisconsin/ICFW and Washington County Health and Human Services facilitated the second annual virtual Wisconsin Regional PCIT Initial Therapist Training for 9 newly trained clinicians. Each clinician participated in 40 total hours of didactic evidence-based workshops over Zoom videoconferencing during learning sessions held in May and July 2021. All trained clinicians will be providing the evidence-based intervention to families under consultation with our trainers through May 2022.

Please help us in welcoming each clinician to our Wisconsin Regional PCIT community!

Beth Strickland, LCSW – PSG (Washington County)
Stacey Davison, LCSW – PSG (Washington County)
Amber Stroud, LPC – Pediatric Psychology Associates (Milwaukee County)
Cathy Brown, LPC – Children’s Wisconsin (Milwaukee County)
Lauren Miller, LPC – Children’s Wisconsin (Milwaukee County)
Leann Vice-Reshel, PsyD, LPC – Children’s Wisconsin (Milwaukee County)
McKenzie Rehm, LPC – Children’s Wisconsin (Milwaukee County)
Michelle Jerard, LPC – Children’s Wisconsin (Milwaukee County)
Kelah Hatcher, MSW Student – University of Wisconsin Milwaukee / Children’s Wisconsin (Milwaukee County)

Learn More


PCIT at ICFW

Research and Evaluation

The Institute accelerates the process of translating knowledge into direct practices, programs and policies that promote health and well-being, and provides analytic, data management and grant-writing support.

A Brief Measure of Work Environment for Human Service Organizations

By Colleen Janczewski

The Measure of Work Environment (MWE) is a new, brief instrument developed to assess work environment in human service agencies. The MWE demonstrated good internal consistency when tested with staff from child welfare and home visiting agencies. With an administration time of less than five minutes, the MWE offers applied researchers and evaluators an efficient method to assess and compare organizational functioning. It may also provide program administrators insight into specific areas of improvement.

Learn More:

Publication – Human Service Organizations: Management, Leadership & Governance.
Tool – Measure of Work Environment

Recent and Upcoming Events

The Institute provides training, consultation and technical assistance to help human service agencies implement and replicate best practices. If you are interested in training or technical assistance, please complete our speaker request form.

Presentations, Trainings and Workshops:

May and July 2021:

PCIT Therapist Training

August 2021:

PCIT National Biennial Convention

• ICFW will be presenting 5 panels, symposia, papers and posters

The post ICFW Newsletter, Summer 2021 appeared first on Institute for Child and Family Well-Being.

The Institute for Child and Family Well-Being is a collaboration between Children’s Wisconsin and the Helen Bader School of Social Welfare at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The shared values and strengths of this academic-community partnership are reflected in the Institute’s three core service areas: Program Design and Implementation, Research and Evaluation, and Community Engagement and Systems Change.

In This Issue

• Reflections on our 5th Anniversary as the ICFW
• Meet the ICFW Affiliates – Dr. Julian Ford, Clarence Johnson, & Dr. Christy Warner-Metzger
• ICFW Recognition
• Program Design and Implementation
  • Minecraft® to Build Our Children’s Social Skills
  • Parenting with P.R.I.D.E. and Web-based Assessments
• Research and Evaluation
  • Milwaukee Equity Action Plan
  • Recent ICFW Publications
• Community Engagement and Systems Change
  • Seeking Solutions for Youth Aging Out of Foster Care
  • Children’s Mental Health in Times of COVID: Interviews with ICFW Clinicians
• Recent and Upcoming Events

Reflections on Our 5^th Anniversary

A Message from Our Co-Directors, Gabe McGaughey and Josh Mersky

This newsletter marks the fifth anniversary of the Institute for Child and Family Well-being. As we reflect on the past five years, we are humbled by the opportunities we have had to join many others who are dedicated to strengthening families and nurturing children. Our community-university partnership emerged from a shared commitment to promoting the well-being of all children and families and to addressing barriers that result in unequal access to the best available care. We do so by translating the science of what works into prevention and intervention strategies that are effective in the real world. Central to this process is the relationships that are present in communities, organizations, and systems with whom we work with to integrate effective, culturally responsive, and sustainable solutions. The list of agencies and stakeholders who deserve our gratitude is too long to acknowledge here, but we invite you to check out our project pages where you will find many of our key partners.

As we look to the future, our aim is to strengthen these alliances and forge new community connections that are necessary to disseminate effective strategies and produce lasting systems change. In that spirit, we will be organizing a series of events over the next year to support the exchanging of information, building relationships, and translating knowledge into action. We hosted our first event in April to highlight our Program Design and Implementation efforts with group-based, telehealth therapy. To learn more about upcoming events, follow us on social media, visit our website, and .

We hope that you will join us!

Meet the ICFW Affiliates

As Community Engagement and Systems Change are a core pillar of the ICFW, collaboration with our community and systems partners is critical to fulfilling our mission. In recognition of those that value collaboration and whose mission seeks to improve child and family well-being, we have invited those partners to join us as ICFW Affiliates. We are honored to introduce our three newest ICFW Affiliates with whom we look forward to partnering with now and into the future.

Dr. Julian Ford, Ph.D., A.B.P.P.

Dr. Ford is a board certified clinical psychologist and Professor of Psychiatry and Law at the University of Connecticut where he directs two Treatment and Services Adaptation Centers in the National Child Traumatic Stress Network: the Center for Trauma Recovery and Juvenile Justice and the Center for the Treatment of Developmental Trauma Disorders. Dr. Ford is past President of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, and a Fellow of the American Psychological Association. He has published more than 250 articles and book chapters and is the author or editor of 10 books, including Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, 2^nd Edition, Treating Complex Trauma: A Sequenced, Relationship-Based Approach, 2^nd Edition, Treating Complex Traumatic Stress Disorders in Children and Adolescents: Scientific Foundations and Therapeutic Models, and Critical Moments: Transforming Crises into Turning Points in Psychotherapy.  Dr. Ford is the Principal Investigator for the national Developmental Trauma Disorder Field trial research study, and  developed and has conducted randomized clinical trial and effectiveness studies with the Trauma Affect Regulation: Guide for Education and Therapy (TARGET©) model for youths and adults with developmental trauma histories and complex PTSD.

ICFW leaders have collaborated with Dr. Julian Ford, an international leader in traumatic stress studies, on several occasions. First, Dr. Ford served as an expert consultant during initial implementation of the trauma screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (T-SBIRT) protocol. Subsequently, he co-authored the initial T-SBIRT feasibility study that Dr. Topitzes published in 2017 along with Dr. Mersky (Topitzes et al., 2017).  Second, Dr. Ford presented his trauma counseling model for youth, TARGET, in a symposium led by Dr. Mersky at the Society for Social Work and Research 2018 annual conference. Dedicated to exploring new frontiers in trauma research, the symposium included presentations delivered by Drs. Mersky and Topitzes.  Future collaborations might center on the continued development of the T-SBIRT and TARGET models.

Clarence Johnson

Mr. Clarence Johnson is currently serving as the Executive Director of Wisconsin Community Services. The mission of WCS is to advocate for justice and community safety, providing innovative opportunities for individuals to overcome adversity. Mr. Johnson was instrumental in leading the effort that resulted in the WCS Center for Driver’s License Recovery being named as one of Mutual of America’s three national 2019 Community Partnership Award winners. Clarence also brought Community Building Milwaukee to WCS, which involves numerous agencies, institutions and organizations across the Milwaukee community serving, youth and adults.

Mr. Johnson believes the key ingredients to effective and successful leadership include holding yourself accountable to the highest standards of performance and empowering and supporting others to reach for their highest level of effectiveness. As one of the most experienced African American nonprofit leaders in the Milwaukee area, he has helped shape the future of several nonprofit organizations in the Milwaukee Community and is held in high regard in many circles. During his long and distinguished career, Mr. Johnson has served on over 20 nonprofit boards and remains an active member of the Milwaukee area community. He was recently elected to the board of directors of the Wisconsin Association of Family and Children’s agencies and also serves as a board member for NAMI Southeast Wisconsin.

Mr. Johnson is a lifelong resident of city of Milwaukee and earned both his undergraduate and graduate degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He has worked on several research projects during his career and began a program to reduce the incidence of obesity and chronic disease among central youth. Working for over 35 years in Social Services, Mr. Johnson has served as Executive Director of Neighborhood House of Milwaukee, Chief Operating Officer for YW Works, and as a high level manager for Milwaukee County Department of Health and Social Services.

ICFW leaders have worked directly with Mr. Johnson in several capacities. Dr. Topitzes, for instance, serves on the WCS board of directors and on several project-based work groups overseen by WCS and Mr. Johnson, including the Community Building Milwaukee Steering Committee.

Dr. Christy Warner-Metzger

Christina Warner-Metzger, Ph.D., hails from Oklahoma State University with a doctorate in Clinical Psychology. True to her organization’s motto of Doing good and doing it well^TM, Dr. Warner-Metzger founded Evidence-based Practices and International Consulting (EPIC), LLC, to promote increased accessibility and excellence in professional training, consultation, and program development within the mental health and wellness sector. With a focus on training culturally humble and socially responsible professionals, she also directs the Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) Program and Early Assessment and Recommendations for Learning in Young Children (EARLY) Clinic at DePaul University’s Family and Community Services. She is 1 of 21 PCIT International Certified Global Trainers worldwide and a Child-Adult Relationship Enhancement (CARE) co-developer, which provides her with clinical expertise in PCIT and CARE training and dissemination. Dr. Warner-Metzger is also the co-developer of a project piloting Trauma-Directed Interaction (TDI) with young children. She has served as a trainer and consultant for dissemination efforts across the United States, as well as Indonesia and Australia. Her contributions as an expert trainer and consultant on institutional, regional, federal, and international grant-funded projects has spanned the greater part of the past decade.

She is also experienced using the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) Learning Collaborative model. Dr. Warner-Metzger’s clinical and research interests include Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), developmental disabilities, disruptive behavior disorders, trauma-informed systems, underserved populations, barriers to treatment participation, and dissemination efforts. She has contributed to these topics through numerous peer-reviewed and invited presentations at national and international conferences, as well as authored peer-reviewed journal articles, government publications, and edited book chapters. Her previous clinical work in Memphis and current work in Chicago has focused on serving urban populations experiencing economic and racial marginalization.

ICFW leaders and clinicians, Dimitri Topitzes, Kate Bennett, and Leah Cerwin have worked closely with Dr. Warner-Metzger in their continuing development as certified PCIT International Within-Agency and Regional Trainers as part of the Trauma & Recovery Project. Dr. Warner-Metzger has also co-facilitated PCIT Therapist Trainings with our team in Milwaukee and as part of a statewide dissemination project in Utah.

ICFW Recognition

Congratulations to Ross Gilbert on matching for his residency in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at Johns Hopkins Medicine-Pediatrics Urban Health Residency Program in Baltimore, Maryland. Ross has worked with the ICFW as a fellow through the while completing medical school at UW-Madison.

Congratulations to Mary Kusch on her acceptance to the . She will be placed with the Wisconsin Division of Public Health, Bureau of Environmental and Occupational Health. Mary has worked with the ICFW as a research assistant while completing her master’s degree at the 51���� Zilber School of Public Health.

Program Design & Implementation

The Institute develops, implements and disseminates validated prevention and intervention strategies that are accessible in real-world settings.

Minecraft® to Build Our Children’s Social Skills

By Meghan Christian

The Institute for Child and Family Well-Being consulted with Children’s Wisconsin professionals across the state to develop Community Services’ COVID Resilience Plan. During this process, a collaboration between Black River Falls Family Support Prevention Program and the ICFW resulted in a virtual, game-based social skill building group opening up to children statewide. This program is designed to help youth acquire social and communication skills to help them interact with others more successfully.

Minecraft® and the work of Australian psychologist Raelene Dundon are used by a Family Support Specialist in secure video teleconferencing software currently in a 1:1 format. This will be the first iteration of using groups and inviting children from all over Wisconsin. The program will target the improvement of social and emotional skills such as social communication, cooperation, problem solving, and self-control. Weekly touch points with caregivers and the use of the Manatee app will help monitor goals and foster communication between the provider and caregivers. Our Before Action Review was used to help create workflows, determine how to collect data and set goals. An After Action Review will be used to log design learning, propose improvements and assess for possible scalability. In future iterations, data will be gathered on executive functioning pre and post completion to examine possible correlations between participation in group and improved functioning.

If you would like more information on referring a child, please email mchristian@chw.org.

Learn More:

ICFW Practice Brief – After Action Reviews (PDF)
ICFW Practice Brief – Strategic Learning (PDF)

Parenting with P.R.I.D.E. and Web-based Assessments

By Kate Bennett

As the ICFW clinical team continues to work toward improved iterations of group-based intervention modifications, we are reminded that successful program design and implementation relies on collecting and analyzing quality data. While data is critical for program analysis, it is also one of the cornerstones of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) treatment and the multifamily Parenting with P.R.I.D.E. intervention.

The screening and assessment tools typically applied in PCIT are accessible for use at Children’s Wisconsin and include the following:

• Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory (ECBI; Eyberg & Pincus, 1999)
• Child Behavior Checklist for ages 1.5-5 and ages 6-18 (CBCL; Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001)
• Dyadic Parent–Child Interaction Coding System, Fourth Edition (DPICS‑IV; Eyberg et al., 2013)
• Parenting Stress Index, Fourth Edition: Short Form (PSI‑4: SF; Abidin, 2012).

Because the ongoing administration and analysis of each of these assessments results are critical to individual patient/family treatment and the overall program evaluation, our clinicians have been piloting the use of web-based assessment forms. Our purpose in moving to electronic administration and scoring is to enhance convenience for both clinicians and families as we continue forward with telehealth delivery of Parenting with P.R.I.D.E. and other trauma-based treatment groups. For example, web-based administration of the ECBI through allows a parent/caregiver to report on child behavioral observations on a weekly basis from their phone or laptop throughout the duration of treatment. Form completion takes approximately 5 minutes for a respondent and is entered within 24 hours prior to the family checking into a therapy session. The assigned clinician receives the assessment results in real-time. This allows for more focused time in treatment, and additionally contributes to the fidelity of goal-directed services for families.

Our intention is to continue to pilot the use of web-based screening and assessment tools for ease of caregiver completion, immediate scoring, and automatic skill progress tracking throughout treatment for PCIT and other evidence-based treatments. We look forward to sharing our findings and feedback from families in coming newsletters and reports.

References:

• Abidin, R. R. (2012). Parenting stress index–fourth edition (PSI-4). Lutz, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.
• Achenbach, T.M., & Rescorla, L.A. (2001). Manual for the ASEBA School-Age Forms & Profiles. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont, Research Center for Children, Youth, & Families.
• Eyberg, S., & Pincus, D. (1999). Eyberg child behavior inventory & Sutter-Eyberg student behavior inventory-revised: Professional manual. Psychological Assessment Resources.
• Eyberg, S. M., Nelson, M. M., Ginn, N. C., Bhuiyan, N., & Boggs, S. R. (2013). Dyadic parent–child interaction coding system, 4th edition (DPICS-IV) comprehensive manual for research and training. Gainesville, FL: PCIT International.

Learn More:

Research and Evaluation

The Institute accelerates the process of translating knowledge into direct practices, programs and policies that promote health and well-being, and provides analytic, data management and grant-writing support.

Milwaukee Equity Action Plan

By Dimitri Topitzes

Leaders at the Institute for Child and Family Well-Being at 51���� are collaborating with the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR) to develop, implement and test a consumer quality improvement plan at the Milwaukee central city location. This initiative builds on an extensive consumer service review that DVR conducted in 2019. Stakeholder interviews revealed that Milwaukee-area DVR consumers, the majority of whom are Black Americans, face multiple barriers to effective service engagement and completion. These include extreme poverty resulting from structural racism, significant distress due to current and historical trauma, and poor service access owing to organizational policies and procedures. Titled the Milwaukee Equity Action Plan, the consumer quality improvement plan aims to enhance the culturally responsive and trauma-informed nature of DVR consumer services.

Members of the Institute’s team for the Milwaukee Equity Action Plan project will help translate insights from the field and results from DVR’s consumer service review into a viable quality improvement plan. The Institute team will also develop and execute an evaluation plan to help DVR gauge progress toward consumer service goals and adjust the quality improvement plan as needed. In addition, the team will help DVR develop a sustainable, high quality consumer service model that reflects its values.

Learn More:

Milwaukee Equity Action Plan

Recent ICFW Publications

Practice Brief: COVID Resilience Plan for Nonprofits (PDF)

Gilbert, R., Mersky, J. P., & Plummer Lee, C. (2021). Prevalence and correlates of vaccine hesitancy in a sample of low-income mothers. Preventive Medicine Reports, 21, 101292. 

Mueller, D., Bacalso, E., Ortega-Williams, A., Pate, D. J., & Topitzes, J. (in press). A mutual process of healing self and healing the community: A qualitative study of coping with and healing from stress, adversity and trauma among diverse residents of a midwestern city. Journal of Community Psychology.

Community Engagement & Systems Change

The Institute develops community-university partnerships to promote systems change that increases the accessibility of evidence-based and evidence-informed practices.

Seeking Solutions for Youth Aging Out of Foster Care

By Luke Waldo

In November 2020, Children’s Wisconsin’s and collaborating partners, Wisconsin Department of Children and Families and Bay Area Workforce Development Board, began working on a planning grant to facilitate a community assessment to determine the causes of poor outcomes for youth between the ages of 18-24 who are aging out of foster care and to propose targeted solutions. The assessment surveyed the region’s strengths, resources, needs and gaps as they relate to the population of youth transitioning to adulthood in Northeastern Wisconsin.

Through these collective efforts, the long-term goal is to provide a pathway to independence by strengthening youths’ resiliency and equipping them with the knowledge and skills necessary to become self-sufficient, build a strong support network, achieve educational and/or job training goals to earn a living wage, and maintain safe and stable housing.

Over four months, insights were gathered from leaders, staff and administrators working within the region’s Independent Living systems, as well as from youth and young adults who have received services through those systems. We used a human-centered design approach in the development of the assessment. A core planning team consisting of representatives from the following organizations and groups developed the assessment:

• Wisconsin Department of Children and Families – Independent Living Program
• Bay Area Workforce Development Board – Region II Independent Living Service Providers
• Youth Advisory Council – Youth who have been involved with child welfare systems

Data were collected through surveys, focus groups and literature review.

Surveys

Between the youth/young adult and provider surveys, there were areas of strong consensus and divergence in the responses noted in Table 1. Consensus occurred when youth and provider responses had strong consensus within and across groups. Divergence occurred when strong consensus was present in one of the surveyed groups but not the other.

Table 1:

Focus Groups
Focus Groups were conducted over 90 minutes on Zoom due to COVID-19 safety and health requirements. Participants were asked a series of questions and were provided between 1-3 minutes to individually reply in the Chat box. Upon completing individual brainstorming, the facilitators identified themes and asked participants to elaborate on those themes and ideas. Between the youth/young adult and provider focus groups, there were areas of strong consensus and divergence noted in Table 2.

Table 2:

Lessons Learned: The Importance of Mental Health and Supportive Relationships

During our assessment, we came back to a number of key questions for youth and providers in response to the prioritization of mental health. Do youth today have more mental health needs, or are we just more aware of those needs? Are housing and financial stability less important to youth today, or do youth prioritize them lower than mental health in recognition that they are much more difficult to obtain and maintain when they are struggling with mental health issues?

While elaborating on why mental health is a bigger concern than it may have been in the past, one of our youth team members said that managing overwhelming feelings and stress is harder to manage than the initial cause of the stress (i.e. relationship or financial issues). She expressed that there might be a generation gap as it was not previously “acceptable” to talk about mental health.

Throughout this assessment, we have heard how having a trusted, supportive person to talk to, even if they aren’t a mental health professional, can be beneficial in strengthening youth’s executive functioning (i.e. enhancing coping and organizational skills). Ultimately, we see potential for meaningful impact by training service providers in trauma, mental health and strengths-based engagement so that they may support youth’s mental well-being and executive functioning, while not expecting them to serve as mental health professionals for youth.

During the final phase of this planning grant, we will develop and identify solutions that align with the lessons learned from the regional assessment. Our final analysis and proposed solutions will be delivered to the regional funder, Oshkosh Area Community Foundation, and the grant partners for future funding and implementation consideration.

Children’s Mental Health in Times of COVID: Interviews with ICFW Clinicians

By ICFW Interns – Paige Bintz, Kelah Hatcher, and Johanna Nelson (photos in order)

While the ICFW clinicians were adapting their therapy to virtual platforms in response to the COVID crisis, the need for Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) was growing. From the end of in-person visits until the start of virtual therapy in May, a significant waitlist had developed. The stress related to COVID-19 seemed to have created and exacerbated mental health issues for children and their families.

Early on in virtual therapy, clinicians noticed an increase in externalizing behaviors for both caregivers and children. Irritability, animosity, and jealousy towards siblings were some of the commonly reported behaviors that clinicians saw in response to children adjusting to COVID-19. Family relationships also were impacted due to increased time spent together while kids were doing school virtually and caregivers worked from home or had lost their jobs. Consequently, caregivers reported more conflicts with their children and between siblings.

Several months into the pandemic, the clinicians began hearing caregivers attributing their children’s challenges directly to the impact of COVID-19. Our clinicians noted an increase in internalizing behavior such as fatigue, anxiety, and depression in children. Symptoms of social anxiety or anxiety around getting sick were also reported more often than previously.

The effect of the pandemic on children’s school experience has varied based on numerous factors. Younger children have struggled more with remaining attentive during virtual learning, while older children have suffered from the lack of social interaction with their peers. For families with multiple children, a lack of consistency between virtual and in-person learning for different age groups has also presented a challenge. However, children are more resilient than we often realize, and the support provided by their families and teachers can make a big difference.

Children of all ages had to adjust to virtual learning and then back to hybrid or fully in-person learning. Virtual learning is unfortunately less cooperative, and older students have shared that they have been stressed by an increase in assignments. More students than usual are “behind”, and while eager to see their friends and teachers, they may not want to return to in-person school if it’s not the same as before. It’s difficult to predict if there will be a long-term impact on social skills, especially for younger children, but so far there is no indication of that. Conversely, a lack of closure for older students, especially seniors, has been disappointing, but again their experience was often dependent on how their school supported them.

The clinicians are noticing that the grief process has been intense for children and families who have experienced loss (i.e. death of a family member, employment, normalcy with school, social life, etc.). They are having to identify loss and know what it looks like, which can be difficult without social interaction. Without social situations due to the pandemic, children are having a harder time developing empathy and different point of views which is strengthened through interaction. Children are being siloed into basic emotional words but grief is a continuous cycle that is more complex than “sad” or “mad”. Caregivers can have difficulty with this too. With a noticeable increase in parental stress, there may be “shorter fuses”. Caregivers are going into survival mode, trying to keep their children safe from disease as well as maintain the mental and economic well-being of their family. Clinicians are noticing that parental response to children’s grief along with their own is key to process the past year and build emotional awareness.

All of this stress and grief seems to have reached an equilibrium due to telehealth, according to the clinicians. Mental health services have become more accessible with the push to virtual formats. Clients do not need to worry about childcare, transportation, or other barriers when seeing their care provider from the comfort of their own home. Families are more willing to reach out for help online. Because of this, clinicians push for more agency leaders, insurance companies, and other services to keep telehealth options and increase accessibility for families in need post pandemic. This way caregivers can focus on the relationships they build with their children, managing emotions and behaviors, responding to uncertainty, and building resilience.

The ICFW Clinicians’ Tips to Building Resilience:

1. Acknowledge the gravity and complexity of this past year

Encouraging emotional labeling with children is key to helping them understand what the pandemic is and how it has impacted them. Then focus on validation. Let the children know that this has an impact on everyone and they are not alone.

2. Set up a conversation on boundaries and needs

Come together as a family and determine what boundaries need to be implemented in order to maintain emotional and physical well-being. Saying “no” can be difficult, but caregivers should emphasize self-care and what is best for the family. An example of a boundary could include electronic use because of the increased need for virtual access during the pandemic. Now may be a good time to develop a plan to return to basics or having conversations about healthy electronic use with children.

3. Be mindful in reintroducing social situations

At this point of the pandemic, people are exhausted and social interaction can be overwhelming. To minimize the stress of this, set up a hierarchy of social stimulation and work your way upwards with the child. For example, this means starting with a walk around the block and working your way up to sitting in a classroom surrounded by other children. Overall, be proactive about creating a safe place and work in short bursts to make the transition smoother.

4. Build a sense of routine

Caregivers should be mindful of preparing children for possible unknowns, but having a daily routine is key to dealing with tough situations like a pandemic. Caregivers could plan out the day and create visual charts, that way the children can tangibly see and check off accomplishments during the day. Make sure to praise for any adaptation that the child is going through and say that you are proud they are dealing with difficulty. Also, building the routine may be a great opportunity to set new and healthier habits that get back to family time.

Recent and Upcoming Events

The Institute provides training, consultation and technical assistance to help human service agencies implement and replicate best practices. If you are interested in training or technical assistance, please complete our speaker request form.

ICFW 5^th Anniversary – May 2021

Schedule of events to celebrate our anniversary year and highlight our efforts to achieve our mission will be announced soon on our website and social media.

ICFW Webinars:

April:

ICFW Webinar: Parenting with PRIDE – Designing Group-based, Telehealth Solutions with PCIT in Times of COVID

Presentations, Trainings and Workshops:

April:

Together for Children Conference: Vicarious Trauma: Honoring the Weight of our Work – Meghan Christian and Luke Waldo

Together for Children Conference: Asking Sensitive Questions: Effectively Assessing for Exposure to Trauma and Adversity – Kate Bennett and Dimitri Topitzes

May and July 2021:

PCIT Therapist Training

The post ICFW Newsletter, Spring 2021 appeared first on Institute for Child and Family Well-Being.

The Institute for Child and Family Well-Being was proud to host the webinar “Parenting with PRIDE – Designing Group-based, Telehealth Solutions with PCIT in Times of COVID” with Haley Challoner Miller, Child and Family Therapist II, and Kate Bennett, Well-Being Lead Clinician, on April 14, 2021 from 12:30-1:30PM CST.

One of the most profound and noticeable effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, aside from the toll on the physical health of individuals and families, is the impact on the mental health of individuals, specifically in children. Inconsistency in school models, pressures put upon caregivers due to loss of or changes in employment, illness or death of family members, and the stress of family isolation and lack of support led to a rush of referrals and a building waitlist of families looking for mental health treatment for their children at Children’s Wisconsin.

Parent Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) has been referred to by experts as the “gold standard” treatment for children with disruptive behaviors, and is a well-known, well-researched evidence-based treatment for children with behavioral difficulties and adjustment disorders. In order to meet the growing need for PCIT services, Institute for Child and Family Well-being clinicians at Children’s Wisconsin designed and implemented a program that administers core components of PCIT in a group setting by way of telehealth, to reach larger numbers of families in a safe and effective way.

In this webinar, Leah Cerwin discussed the following with Ms. Bennett and Ms. Miller:

• The challenges and opportunities that led to the design of a program to provide PCIT in a group setting, by way of telehealth;
• The Program Design and Implementation process by which the program was created, and how it was administered to families;
• How Parenting with PRIDE is a change maker for families, and what effects are seen after completion of the program.

Related Resources from the ICFW

ICFW Newsletter – Winter 2021: Parenting with PRIDE

Practice Brief: Internet-based PCIT: Beyond the Pandemic (PDF)

PCIT & Child Welfare Webinar

Integrating PCIT into Child Welfare Programs

Webinar PowerPoint Presentation (PDF)

Related Resources from PCIT International

The post Parenting with PRIDE – Designing Group-based, Telehealth Solutions with PCIT in Times of COVID appeared first on Institute for Child and Family Well-Being.

For more information, see the publication here.

The post Vaccine Hesitancy in New Mothers appeared first on Institute for Child and Family Well-Being.

The Institute for Child and Family Well-Being is a collaboration between Children’s Wisconsin and the Helen Bader School of Social Welfare at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The shared values and strengths of this academic-community partnership are reflected in the Institute’s three core service areas: Program Design and Implementation, Research and Evaluation, and Community Engagement and Systems Change.

In This Issue

• Meet the ICFW Affiliates – Jennifer Jones, Dr. John Meurer, & Carmen Pitre
• Program Design & Implementation
  • Parenting with P.R.I.D.E. – Group-based, Virtual Parent-Child Interaction Therapy
  • Seeking Solutions for Youth Aging Out of Foster Care
• Research and Evaluation
  • Birth to Three Social-Emotional Innovation Grants
  • Recent ICFW Publications
• Community Engagement and Systems Change
  • COVID Resilience Plan
• Recent and Upcoming Events

Meet the ICFW Affiliates

As Community Engagement and Systems Change are a core pillar of the ICFW, collaboration with our community and systems partners is critical to fulfilling our mission. In recognition of those that value collaboration and whose mission seeks to improve child and family well-being, we have invited those partners to join us as ICFW Affiliates. We are honored to introduce our three newest ICFW Affiliates with whom we look forward to partnering with now and into the future.

Jennifer A. Jones, MSW
Chief Strategy Officer, Prevent Child Abuse America

Jennifer Jones currently serves as the Chief Strategy Officer at Prevent Child Abuse America (PCAA) where she develops, implements and advocates for an integrated strategic framework to help grow PCAA’s leadership role consistent with national prevention priorities, and serves as the lead on regional and national strategic partnerships. Prior to her role with PCAA, Jones was the Director of the Change in Mind Institute and the Co-Director of the Safety and Resilience Impact Area at the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities. As the Director of the , she worked closely with ICFW Co-Director Gabe McGaughey as Children’s Wisconsin was one of the organizations that participated in the inaugural Change in Mind class. Since then, Jennifer has partnered with Gabe and Luke Waldo to present the impact of and findings from the Change in Mind experience at conferences across the country.

Jones led all aspects of the Institute, including raising $1.7 million for the Texas Change in Mind Learning Collaborative and National Impact Study. Jones also served as the Project Director of the Child Safety Forward Initiative, a three-year Department of Justice cooperative agreement working with 5 jurisdictions to develop community-led, systematic solutions to reduce child fatalities caused by child maltreatment. Jones worked closely with the Alliance policy team, other national organizations and congressional representatives to advance brain science infused policy and trauma-informed care legislation.

Preceding her role at the Alliance, Jones served as the Associate Director of the Wisconsin Children’s Trust Fund (CTF). In her last two years at the agency, Jones served as Interim Executive Director, at the Board’s request, and coordinated all activities related to the Governor-appointed Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Board, including managing all operations, and overseeing the agency’s budget and grantmaking functions. Before her positions with the Children’s Trust Fund, Jennifer served as the communications specialist in the Secretary’s Office at the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families and as a child welfare policy advisor in the Wisconsin Division of Children and Family Services. Jones is also a member of the National HOPE (Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences) Advisory Board and serves on the Board of Directors of the Hunger Task Force.

Jennifer received her master’s in social work from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and bachelor’s in social work from Marquette University.

Dr. John Meurer
Professor and Institute for Health & Equity Director, Medical College of Wisconsin

John Meurer, MD, MBA is Professor and Director of the Medical College of Wisconsin Institute for Health & Equity. The mission of the Institute is to improve health and advance equity through research, education, and shared expertise by working collaboratively with local, national and global communities.

Dr. Meurer is a general pediatric clinician-educator and is academically recognized for his achievements in community-engaged research. He has a national reputation for research to improve childhood asthma and advance early childhood development and community-engaged health systems research. He has been a collaborative and transformative steward and leader of 25 Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin projects including 5 recently focused on improving early childhood developmental care systems.

Dr. Meurer worked closely with ICFW Co-Directors Gabe McGaughey and Josh Mersky on his that aimed to improve early childhood developmental screening and assessment along with improved practices in data monitoring and integration. More recently, he co-led the Scaling Wellness in Milwaukee (SWIM) Policy Action Team with Gabe.

He holds a medical degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, completed his residency at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, attained a master of business degree from Northwestern University, and was a fellow with the David Winston Program, Washington DC.

Carmen Pitre
President & CEO, Sojourner

Carmen Pitre is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Sojourner, Wisconsin’s largest service provider for families dealing with domestic violence. Under Pitre’s leadership, Sojourner provides crisis housing, system advocacy and individual support to thousands of women, children and families.

Carmen and her team at Sojourner worked closely with ICFW Co-Director Josh Mersky and Clinical Director Dimitri Topitzes to develop and administer a polyvictimization screening tool with clients that receive services from the Sojourner Family Peace Center. Subsequently, Carmen and her team have remained strong partners with the ICFW in the pursuit of collaborative community efforts through initiatives like Scaling Wellness in Milwaukee.

Pitre draws on decades of work and personal experience to improve the way the community supports families impacted by domestic violence. Pitre believes – and data proves – a holistic approach of co-locating services and coordinating resources is effective, efficient and yields better outcomes for families. In 2016, Pitre rallied key community leaders to create the Sojourner Family Peace Center where people impacted by domestic violence can access emergency shelter, domestic violence services, physical and mental health services, law enforcement and legal assistance, counseling, employment services, financial literacy, community education and professional training – all under one roof.

Pitre was integral in the 2009 merger of Sojourner Truth House and the Task Force on Family Violence when she became Co-Executive Director of the new agency, Sojourner Family Peace Center. Before the merger, Pitre was the Executive Director of the Task Force on Family Violence from 2002 to 2009. Pitre served as the Director of the First Judicial District Judicial Oversight Demonstration Initiative and the Coordinator of the Milwaukee Commission on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault from 1997 to 2000.

Pitre graduated from the University of Southwestern Louisiana – Bachelor of Arts program in 1984.

Program Design & Implementation

The Institute develops, implements and disseminates validated prevention and intervention strategies that are accessible in real-world settings.

Parenting with P.R.I.D.E. – Group-based, Virtual Parent-Child Interaction Therapy

By Kate Bennett and Haley Challoner Miller

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we recognize that it is imperative to meet the mental and behavioral health needs of families through safe, convenient and swift approaches. Providing telehealth services in the context of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) allows for evidence-based treatments to reach more families in a shorter period of time. As a result, waitlist times decrease for families seeking treatment. As many children and families are socially isolated during these times, virtual group-based therapy offers a sense of connection and community that otherwise would not be available right now.

As a result of earlier prototype designs and testing conducted by the Institute for Child and Family Well-being (ICFW), Children’s Wisconsin is currently providing an 8-week virtual therapy group for parents/caregivers and a child in their care: Parenting with P.R.I.D.E. This group is being facilitated by licensed mental and behavioral health clinicians and masters-level student interns, and includes components from the evidence-based intervention PCIT. Providing this group-based service through telehealth offers caregivers and children the opportunity to learn with and from one another in a supportive online environment from the comfort and safety of their own homes.

Parenting with P.R.I.D.E. helps caregivers of young children manage challenging behaviors including not listening, difficulty with transitions, acting out, and handling big emotions. Each family is able to learn tangible strategies that promote positive behaviors, enhance the caregiver-child relationship, and decrease undesired behaviors through engaging activities and live coaching with a PCIT-trained therapist. Additionally, this group benefits parents who may identify as overwhelmed, depressed, stressed, feeling guilty, or are confused about how to best meet the needs of their children who might be struggling with focus on tasks or changes in daily life. Parents who have previously participated in the ICFW’s PCIT-based groups have provided feedback that they feel less isolated and have experienced a reduction in parenting stress.

Specifically, the group format of the Parenting with P.R.I.D.E. program allows for virtual service delivery to a maximum of six caregiver/child dyads (families) through telehealth. Dyads include children between the ages of 2.5-5 years who were screened for inclusion criteria prior to intake. Caregivers access weekly therapy appointments through Zoom on Children’s Wisconsin MyChart, the web-based portal for their child’s electronic medical record. Services are provided in the following format:

• 60-90 minute intake appointment including baseline dyadic observation of caregiver and child.
• One hour group session per week for 6 weeks.
• One hour individual graduation session including post-treatment dyadic observation of caregiver and child.

Children’s Wisconsin plans to continue to utilize group-based therapy approaches for children and families beyond the pandemic and will begin to share new offerings in coming weeks.

Seeking Solutions for Youth Aging Out of Foster Care

By Luke Waldo

Youth aging out of foster care do not fare as well as their same-aged peers. Frequent exposure to trauma and adversity stresses executive functioning skills most needed to perform essential life skills that set the foundation for self-sufficiency and independence. According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, youth who are aging out of care are at increased risk for a variety of adverse outcomes, including homelessness/unstable housing, unemployment, low educational attainment, higher prevalence of poor health status, sexual and physical victimization, and incarceration.

Children’s Wisconsin’s Institute for Child and Family Well-being (ICFW) and its collaborative partners were awarded a planning grant from the Oshkosh Area Community Fund to facilitate a community assessment to delineate the causes of poor outcomes for youth 18-24 years of age who are aging out of foster care and to identify solutions. The assessment will help us gain a greater understanding of the risk factors and future difficulties that young adults in the region face when leaving the foster care system. These youth are often left on their own to navigate the transition to adulthood, and in the absence of strong, stable connections with parents or extended family members, there is no safety net to support them.

The ICFW will convene key stakeholders, including but not limited to the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families, Bay Area Workforce Development Board and the region’s Youth Advisory Council to collect and assess information about the extent of the challenges facing this population. The assessment will include surveying the region’s strengths, resources, needs, and gaps as they relate to the population of youth transitioning to adulthood. The assessment findings will provide a foundational framework that we will use for exploring existing service delivery models, such as Youth Villages LifeSet and/or developing a tailored intervention(s) to meet the unique needs of the target population. Through these collective efforts, our long-term goal is to provide a pathway to independence by strengthening youths’ resiliency and equipping them with the knowledge and skills necessary to become self-sufficient, build a strong support network, achieve educational and/or job training goals to earn a living wage, and maintain safe and stable housing.

Learn More:

Research and Evaluation

The Institute accelerates the process of translating knowledge into direct practices, programs and policies that promote health and well-being, and provides analytic, data management and grant-writing support.

Birth to Three Social-Emotional Innovation Grants

By Allison Amphlett

We are pleased to announce a new partnership with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) to support the evaluation of  innovation grants awarded to 15 Birth to 3 programs across the state to pilot new and innovative efforts to improve social-emotional outcomes for participating children.

The ICFW team is conducting a cross-site evaluation of the 15 projects with 3 central aims:

• To describe trends in Birth to 3 program services delivered and outcomes of children and families served, observing changes that occur in the overall client population and specific demographic subgroups after the adoption of the proposed program enhancements.
• To identify common and unique approaches across the sites, and draw associations between observed trends, reported successes, and specified programmatic changes.
• To support recommendations about whether and which program elements should be sustained and incorporated in Wisconsin’s Birth to 3 programs.

Learn More:

Birth to Three Social-Emotional Innovation Project

Recent ICFW Publications

Gilbert, R., Mersky, J. P., & Plummer Lee, C. (2021). Prevalence and correlates of vaccine hesitancy in a sample of low-income mothers. Preventive Medicine Reports, 21, 101292. 

Mueller, D., Bacalso, E., Ortega-Williams, A., Pate, D. J., & Topitzes, J. (in press). A mutual process of healing self and healing the community: A qualitative study of coping with and healing from stress, adversity and trauma among diverse residents of a midwestern city.” Journal of Community Psychology.

More ICFW publications

Community Engagement & Systems Change

The Institute develops community-university partnerships to promote systems change that increases the accessibility of evidence-based and evidence-informed practices.

COVID Resilience Plan

By Gabe McGaughey

COVID-19 placed unique and unprecedented stress on families, staff, and communities while also exacerbating already existing health and economic disparities. On March 18, 2020, Wisconsin’s governor issued a ‘Safer-at-Home’ order to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 that dramatically impacted nonprofit service delivery, a $14.6 billion sector in Wisconsin, accounting for 1 in 12 employees in the state. In one survey, 27.6% of nonprofits reported widespread conversion to virtual programming.

System disruption can lead to one of three types of outcomes for families and service providers to navigate; a return to the old equilibrium, finding a new equilibrium, or managing a new disequilibrium. The scale of the innovation required to adapt to the challenges associated with COVID-19 have been staggering, from rapid expansion of virtual therapy to radical shifts in group-based parent support programs. At no time in our profession’s history has innovation occurred on this scale so rapidly. How might organizations move quickly, but also identify what has value that will be useful to carry into the ‘new normal’ of a post-COVID social service delivery system?

COVID-19 has forced nonprofit human services providers to rapidly adapt to new restrictions on how they might engage families made more vulnerable because of either disparities or the inability of systems to support their well-being. Coming out of this unprecedented level of disruption, nonprofits have an opportunity to reflect on what of their innovative responses can support their objectives moving forward. Children’s Wisconsin’s Well-Being programs developed a COVID Resilience Plan to identify and elevate innovative practices that have surfaced since the start of the COVID-19 crisis that supports the well-being of families, are adaptable to our current limitations, and may enhance future practice. This process leveraged strategic learning to highlight lessons learned to carry forward in the future state, including:

• Support for enhancing staff comfort and skill in providing virtual group-based, home visiting, child welfare, and other supportive services. 42% of parents surveyed by the ICFW indicated that they preferred virtual services to traditional in-person services. While connectivity challenges and disparities likely left some families with a reduced amount of support, home visiting and other services still saw new families that hadn’t sought out services previously. Segments of a nonprofit’s target demographic may be more open to, or even prefer, having virtual options continue.
• Virtual training for staff, stakeholders, and foster parents, when done in an engaging manner, addresses some challenges around travel and childcare while also providing flexibility of how and when to deliver content. The COVID Resilience Plan will continue to explore the balance between convenience of virtual services and the quality of engagement and service delivery through these methods.
• Community engagement, providing authentic role and voice of people with lived experience in program development and feedback, continues to be essential. Families are stressed because of a lack of capacity of systems to meet their needs. Eliciting their voice and insight is fundamental to advocacy and systems change. Virtual connection options provide new, more widely accepted, methods for program participants to have input into program direction.

The ongoing work of the COVID Resilience Plan is now focused on facilitating Communities of Practice focused on these three prioritized findings to deliver recommendations on concrete next steps for activities that will carry forward beyond the restriction associated with social distancing. While these findings reflect a specific set of experiences, the role of virtual service provision in what was almost exclusively in-person supportive services is inescapable. Different organizations may be able to yield relevant insights for their own work from these lessons, or adapt the strategic learning process to identify their own specific lessons learned to carry into the ‘new normal’ of a post-COVID world.

Learn More:

Practice Brief: Strategic Learning (PDF)
Practice Brief: After Action Reviews (PDF)

Recent and Upcoming Events

The Institute provides training, consultation and technical assistance to help human service agencies implement and replicate best practices. If you are interested in training or technical assistance, please complete our speaker request form.

ICFW 5^th Anniversary – May 2021

Schedule of events to celebrate our anniversary year and highlight our efforts to achieve our mission will be announced soon on our website and social media.

ICFW Webinars:

April 14th:

Parenting with PRIDE – Designing Group-based, Telehealth Solutions with PCIT in Times of COVID

Presentations, Trainings and Workshops:

January 21^st-22^nd:

Janczewski, C.E., Nitkowski, J. (2021). Parental Mental Health and Substance-Related Services Among CPS-Involved Families, Society for Social Work Research, January 22. Virtual Event

February 22^nd:

April 15^th:

Together for Children Conference: Vicarious Trauma: Honoring the Weight of our Work – Meghan Christian and Luke Waldo

May and July 2021:

PCIT Therapist Training

The post ICFW Newsletter, Winter 2021 appeared first on Institute for Child and Family Well-Being.

We are excited to remain steadfast in these commitments and to continue this journey as we celebrate our 5^th anniversary later this year. So take a moment to review what we learned and accomplished in 2020, and keep an eye out for upcoming announcements for our events that will celebrate our five years of partnership as the Institute for Child and Family Well-being.

Meet the 2020 ICFW Affiliates

As Community Engagement and Systems Change are a core service area of the ICFW, collaboration with our community and systems partners is critical to fulfilling our mission. In recognition of those that value collaboration and whose mission seeks to improve child and family well-being, we have invited those partners to join us as ICFW Affiliates. We were honored to introduce three ICFW Affiliates in 2020 and are looking forward to expanding our affiliates in 2021.

Confronting COVID-19

COVID-19 placed unique and unprecedented stress on families, staff, and communities while also exacerbating already existing health and economic disparities. Read some of our articles that illustrate how we responded to COVID-19 and its challenges this past year.

• Non-profit and Systems Innovation in Times of COVID-19
• Child Welfare in Times of COVID-19
• Mental Health in Times of COVID-19
• Virtual Clinician Training and COVID-19
• TARP 2020: Implications of COVID-19 on Training, Service Delivery, and Trauma Screening
• Parent-Child Interaction Therapy During Times of COVID-19

New Webinars in 2020

From Trauma Screening to Authentic Community Engagement, Housing as a Pathway to Prevent Maltreatment and Executive Functioning for Child and Family Well-being, check out our conversations with the ICFW team and community and national experts on these important issues.

To learn more, explore the webinars here. 

ICFW Publications in 2020: New Journal Articles, Reports and Practice Briefs

• The ICFW had 10 journal articles published in 9 different journals in 2020 on topics ranging from Adverse Childhood and Adult Experiences, Parent-Child Interaction Therapy, Home Visiting, and the Transmission of Violence and Trauma. To learn more, explore the publications here.
• Family First Prevention Services Act Report
• From Human-Centered Design to Strategic Learning, Internet-Based PCIT and Mobility Mentoring, check out our new Practice Briefs from 2020.

New Projects and Partnerships

• Goodwill Boys & Men of Color Initiative in partnership with Goodwill Industries of Southeastern Wisconsin, Inc.
• Executive Functioning Across Generations in partnership with the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University’s Frontiers of Innovation

The post 2020 Year in Review appeared first on Institute for Child and Family Well-Being.

The Institute for Child and Family Well-Being was proud to host the webinar “Executive Functioning for Child and Family Well-being” with John Till, Senior Vice President of Strategy and Innovation at The Family Partnership, and Jennifer Winkler, Family Case Management Well-Being and Family Support Manager at Children’s Wisconsin, on December 7th from 11:00-12:00 CST.

Executive function skills are like an air traffic control system in the brain that helps us manage information, make decisions, and plan ahead. Stress and the lingering impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) can negatively impact executive functioning, making it difficult to effectively navigate challenging and uncertain circumstances.

This webinar explored how executive functioning is impacted by Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and toxic stress, why it is critical to our child and family well-being systems, and how our presenters’ organizations have developed and implemented executive functioning programming into their core service delivery through robust conversation with an experienced panel through their work with the Executive Functioning Across Generations and Mobility Mentoring models.

Related Resources from the ICFW

• Practice Brief: Mobility Mentoring (PDF)
• Newsletter Article: Innovation and Executive Functioning
• Newsletter Article: How Human-Centered Design Led Us to Mobility Mentoring in Our Child Welfare Programs
• Webinar PowerPoint Presentation (PDF)

The post Executive Functioning for Child and Family Well-being appeared first on Institute for Child and Family Well-Being.

 (EF) skills are like an air traffic control system in the brain that helps us manage information, set and work towards goals, and make decisions that help us reach those goals. EF Skills, which can be developed throughout the life-course, are central to navigating distractions, unexpected challenges, and stressful situations while making decisions that contribute to long-term goal attainment.

Resilience, or the , is a central concept operationalized, in part, through EF Skills. Building resilience helps children and adults navigate stressful situations and the lingering impact of trauma.Childhood experiences are the foundation for healthy development into adulthood. Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) can cause cracks in that foundation, potentially impairing EF Skills and contributing to less intentional self-regulation. ICFW team members Drs. Mersky and Janczewski co-authored a study finding that parents in home visiting programs reported the same level of ACEs as parents with children involved in the child welfare system.

Parents participating in  home visiting program face a myriad of complex challenges beyond the legacy of ACEs. 77% of caregivers in that program have reported an alcohol or other drug abuse, mental health, or domestic violence issue. 48% of caregivers screened positive for postnatal depression. Through those challenges, 56% of parents are receiving services and 90% demonstrate positive parent-child interactions, a core component to child health, well-being, and resilience.

How might programs that already reach families further address enhancing executive functioning of parents and children in their programs to promote long-term stability and success?

Children’s Wisconsin, along with two other  partner organizations, is participating in a collaborative feasibility study of the “Executive Functioning Across Generations” program, funded by , the R&D platform of the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. Developed in 2017 by  (TFP) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the organizations are working together to adapt the intervention for virtual use in a Healthy Families America home visiting program.

Over the course of 10 virtual sessions, parents learn about brain science and familiarize themselves with the types of activities that help foster brain development and self-regulation in their children through a language-based curriculum. Specifically, there will be an increase in knowledge of brain science, internal state words, theory of mind, serve and return, and personal narratives (BITSN’s). These are all key functions of brain development in children. Parents will learn how to recognize, model and respond to Internal State Words (ISWs) as part of a supportive relationship with their child. ISWs are important because they are used by children in order to express themselves by describing thoughts, feelings and perceptions. This helps them to tell stories about events that have affected them emotionally (see chart).

Home visitors coach families, encourage further learning, and provide teaching tools, like storybooks that use ISW-based language. There will also be activities and handouts for the parents to practice skills with their children in between the sessions. This project has a greater impact with the implementation of a two-generation approach because it allows for more alignment with the goals and more stability in the family unit. The skills learned and the impacts made can continue to affect more generations and create a “domino effect” of positive development.

In order to measure the impact of the curriculum, Minnesota Executive Functioning Scale (MEFS), developed at the University of Minnesota by Dr. Stephanie M. Carlson and Dr. Philip Zelazo, will be used. The app is a quick, “game-like” measure of executive functioning for anyone over the age of 2 that features audio and picture-based prompts. This administration should only take 15 minutes to complete virtually. Overall, the MEFS provides a direct behavioral measure of executive functioning skills which are vital for the development of a child’s social and emotional wellbeing.

By increasing the use of internal state words and a personal narrative, Executive Functioning Across Generations helps to foster better parent/child relationships, which is central to child resiliency and being able to adapt to challenges. The ICFW is looking forward to collaborating with The Family Partnership, Nebraska Children’s Home Society, Children and Families First of Delaware, and the Frontiers of Innovation at the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University to share our lessons learned as we go through this process.

Learn More:

: An R&D platform designed to accelerate the development and adoption of science-based innovations that achieve breakthrough impact at scale.

Adverse Childhood Experiences in home visiting: Validity of expanded assessment of adverse childhood experiences: A replication study (Choi, et al., 2020)

Executive Functioning Across Generations

The post Innovation and Executive Functioning: A new feasibility study appeared first on Institute for Child and Family Well-Being.

The Institute for Child and Family Well-Being is a collaboration between Children’s Wisconsin and the Helen Bader School of Social Welfare at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The shared values and strengths of this academic-community partnership are reflected in the Institute’s three core service areas: Program Design and Implementation, Research and Evaluation, and Community Engagement and Systems Change.

In This Issue

• Meet the ICFW – Child and Family Therapist Meghan Christian and Policy and Practice Analyst Colleen Janczewski
• Program Design & Implementation
  • Innovation and Executive Functioning: A new feasibility study
• Research and Evaluation
  • Promoting Dignity through Work
  • Recent ICFW Publications
• Community Engagement and Systems Change
  • TARP 2020: Implications of COVID-19 on Training, Service Delivery, and Trauma Screening
  • Parent-Child Interaction Therapy During Times of COVID-19
• Recent and Upcoming Events

Meet the ICFW

Meghan Christian is a Child and Family Therapist with the Institute for Child and Family Well-Being and a Licensed Clinical Social Worker.

Meghan has spent most of her career in the nonprofit sector, working with people who have experienced acute or ongoing trauma including abused children and adults, refugees and families living in poverty. Meghan’s interests lie in translating research on the effects of trauma on the developing brain into practical ways of using evidence-based interventions with her clients. She’s particularly interested in the role resilience plays in protecting against and transforming negative neurophysiological changes.

Along with her direct practice, Meghan enjoys exchanging perspectives and knowledge with fellow helping professionals by way of communities of practice, case consultation and facilitating workshops relating to neurodevelopment, responsive relationships and resilience.

Meghan received her master’s degree in social work in 2009 from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She earned her bachelor’s degree in social work from the same institution in 2006.

Dr. Colleen Janczewski is a policy and practice analyst at ICFW and an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Helen Bader School of Social Welfare. Her research interests include child maltreatment and improving public systems that serve children and families. She has expertise in applying advanced statistical techniques to inform policy decisions and practice innovations in social service systems.

In terms of ICFW projects, Dr. Janczewski is currently the lead evaluator of the Alternative Response in Wisconsin evaluation, for the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families. She is also on the evaluation team for the FACT Study, the Healthy Families Study, Family Foundations Home Visiting Program, and the Trauma and Recovery Project. Dr. Janczewski holds a Ph.D. in social welfare from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a master’s degree in social work from Virginia Commonwealth University.

Program Design & Implementation

The Institute develops, implements and disseminates validated prevention and intervention strategies that are accessible in real-world settings.

Innovation and Executive Functioning: A new feasibility study

By Gabriel McGaughey and Paige Bintz

(EF) skills are like an air traffic control system in the brain that helps us manage information, set and work towards goals, and make decisions that help us reach those goals. EF Skills, which can be developed throughout the life-course, are central to navigating distractions, unexpected challenges, and stressful situations while making decisions that contribute to long-term goal attainment.

Childhood experiences are the foundation for healthy development into adulthood. Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) can cause cracks in that foundation, potentially impairing EF Skills and contributing to less intentional self-regulation. ICFW team members Drs. Mersky and Janczewski co-authored a study finding that parents in home visiting programs reported the same level of ACEs as parents with children involved in the child welfare system.

Resilience, or the , is a central concept operationalized, in part, through EF Skills. Building resilience helps children and adults navigate stressful situations and the lingering impact of trauma.

Parents participating in home visiting program face a myriad of complex challenges beyond the legacy of ACEs. 77% of caregivers in that program have reported an alcohol or other drug abuse, mental health, or domestic violence issue. 48% of caregivers screened positive for postnatal depression. Through those challenges, 56% of parents are receiving services and 90% demonstrate positive parent-child interactions, a core component to child health, well-being, and resilience.

How might programs that already reach families further address enhancing executive functioning of parents and children in their programs to promote long-term stability and success?

Children’s Wisconsin, along with two other partner organizations, is participating in a collaborative feasibility study of the “Executive Functioning Across Generations” program, funded by , the R&D platform of the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. Developed in 2017 by (TFP) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the organizations are working together to adapt the intervention for virtual use in a Healthy Families America home visiting program.

Over the course of 10 virtual sessions, parents learn about brain science and familiarize themselves with the types of activities that help foster brain development and self-regulation in their children through a language-based curriculum. Specifically, there will be an increase in knowledge of brain science, internal state words, theory of mind, serve and return, and personal narratives (BITSN’s). These are all key functions of brain development in children. Parents will learn how to recognize, model and respond to Internal State Words (ISWs) as part of a supportive relationship with their child. ISWs are important because they are used by children in order to express themselves by describing thoughts, feelings and perceptions. This helps them to tell stories about events that have affected them emotionally (see chart).

Home visitors coach families, encourage further learning, and provide teaching tools, like storybooks that use ISW-based language. There will also be activities and handouts for the parents to practice skills with their children in between the sessions. This project has a greater impact with the implementation of a two-generation approach because it allows for more alignment with the goals and more stability in the family unit. The skills learned and the impacts made can continue to affect more generations and create a “domino effect” of positive development.

In order to measure the impact of the curriculum, Minnesota Executive Functioning Scale (MEFS), developed at the University of Minnesota by Dr. Stephanie M. Carlson and Dr. Philip Zelazo, will be used. The app is a quick, “game-like” measure of executive functioning for anyone over the age of 2 that features audio and picture-based prompts. This administration should only take 15 minutes to complete virtually. Overall, the MEFS provides a direct behavioral measure of executive functioning skills which are vital for the development of a child’s social and emotional wellbeing.

By increasing the use of internal state words and a personal narrative, Executive Functioning Across Generations helps to foster better parent/child relationships, which is central to child resiliency and being able to adapt to challenges. The ICFW is looking forward to collaborating with The Family Partnership, Nebraska Children’s Home Society, Children and Families First of Delaware, and the Frontiers of Innovation at the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University to share our lessons learned as we go through this process.

Learn More:

: An R&D platform designed to accelerate the development and adoption of science-based innovations that achieve breakthrough impact at scale.

Adverse Childhood Experiences in home visiting: Validity of expanded assessment of adverse childhood experiences: A replication study (Choi, et al., 2020)

Executive Functioning Across Generations

Research and Evaluation

The Institute accelerates the process of translating knowledge into direct practices, programs and policies that promote health and well-being, and provides analytic, data management and grant-writing support.

Promoting Dignity through Work

By Josh Mersky and Dimitri Topitzes

We are pleased to announce a new partnership with on their Boys and Men of Color Initiative, which aims to support career advancement, self-sufficiency, and leadership development among youth and young men in Milwaukee.  An Institute team headed by James “Dimitri” Topitzes, Josh Mersky, and Allison Amphlett are working with Goodwill to design and evaluate an innovative workforce development program to address barriers to economic prosperity, including generational poverty and trauma, incarceration, and health disparities. The program’s immediate goal is to help participants establish a foothold in the labor force. In the long run, the program aims to help young men of color forge a path toward career success and community leadership.

The Boys and Men of Color Initiative builds on the Institute’s ongoing commitment to workforce development efforts that promote the dignity of work. We continue to collaborate with the on the Healthy Workers, Healthy Wisconsin project.  This job enhancement project aims to strengthen employment services for low-income job seekers by increasing client access to trauma-responsive health and mental health care. The Institute also is partnering with on its Rise Up initiative, which is supporting  underemployed mothers with young children by increasing access to an enhanced workforce training program. Taken together, these workforce development projects draw on the Institute’s academic expertise and reflects our mission to improve the lives of children and families with complex challenges by implementing effective programs, conducting cutting-edge research, engaging communities, and promoting systems change.

Recent ICFW Publications

Choi, C., Mersky, J. P., Janczewski, C. E., Plummer Lee, C., Davies, W. H., & Lang, A. C. (in press). . Children and Youth Services Review.  

Mersky, J. P., Janczewski, C. E., & Plummer Lee, C., Gilbert, R. M., McAtee, C., & Yasin, T. (in press). . Journal of Health Education and Behavior.

Plummer Lee, C., Mersky, J. P., Marsee, I., & Fuemmeler, B. (in press). . Development and Psychopathology.

Zhang, L., & Mersky, J. P. . (in press). Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal.

Zhang, L., Mersky, J. P., & Topitzes, J. (in press). . Child Abuse & Neglect.

More ICFW Publications

Community Engagement & Systems Change

The Institute develops community-university partnerships to promote systems change that increases the accessibility of evidence-based and evidence-informed practices.

Trauma and Recovery Project (TARP) 2020: Implications of COVID-19 on Training, Service Delivery, and Trauma Screening

By Leah Cerwin

Virtual Training

As the ICFW set out to adapt to the unprecedented changes brought about by COVID-19, many services provided by the Trauma and Recovery Project moved to virtual delivery. This year, our trainers were abruptly asked to shift all training of evidence-based interventions to a virtual setting. This necessitated hand delivery of printed materials to trainees’ homes, the need to learn and use novel tools and apps to complete activities virtually, and changes to  training structure and processes due to both the trainees’ and trainers’ new realities; often including lack of their own home office space, supplies, and even childcare. During our third year of the Trauma and Recovery Project, even with this enormous shift, there were a total of 43 new clinicians in Milwaukee & Racine Counties trained in the target interventions (Parent Child Interaction Therapy, and Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy).  Hitting this number during such an unprecedented time required enormous adaptability from our trainers and was an enormous success for the project.

Evidence-Based Treatments as Virtual Services

Similar to our trainers, Center of Excellence (CoE) clinicians at Children’s Wisconsin quickly and effectively shifted their services to . This was most evidenced by the number of children provided services during the months when COVID-19 hit.  During this time, even as clinicians made the immediate move to telehealth services from their homes, only six fewer children were provided services by CoE clinicians, as compared to the previous quarter (136 => 130).

In addition to finding ways to successfully serve their kiddos, clinicians reported high levels of success in adapting PCIT to virtual visits with clients. This, in part, is attributed to the model of PCIT, where clinicians conceal themselves behind a one-way mirror and the parent wears an earpiece to hear the clinician’s instructions. When using PCIT in a virtual format, clinicians could turn off their cameras, simulating the “behind the scenes” nature of in-person PCIT. This also speaks to the skill, passion, and dedication of the clinicians in administering PCIT to clients—without their knowledge and energy, PCIT would fall flat in a virtual setting. Clinicians could maintain the most fidelity to the PCIT model when meeting virtually with families, especially families they had previously seen in-person.

Of course, there is always a learning curve to new things: the new reality of virtual meetings created the most change for clinicians administering PCIT. Logistically, no access to a printer, variability of internet connections, an increased demand in time required to do simple tasks, and limitations of a webcam were some of the challenges brought on by administering PCIT virtually. Additionally, in a virtual visit, clinicians are now responsible for filling out paperwork that would normally be completed by the parent, creating additional work for the clinician, and delaying the amount of time spent in PCIT.

With the clinician experience aside, parents and children overall have adapted well to the changes and liked the changes to service delivery. Many parents like the video sessions, noting how easy and convenient the virtual format was for them and their family; additionally, when only one parent was previously able to participate in PCIT, now both could, due to the convenience of virtual service delivery. And, many children were more likely to engage in play during the virtual visits. This can be attributed to children feeling more comfortable in their own environment, feeling more familiar in their home versus the office setting.

Trauma Screening and Assessment

In addition to maintaining our service delivery throughout COVID-19, the number of children screened for trauma during this time was actually higher than its preceding quarter (186 => 296).

As clinicians moved to providing assessments from home via telehealth, they experienced the same challenges mentioned above in regards to service delivery. However, our clinicians were able to screen and assess 1,134 children, exceeding our goal of 750 by adapting to web-based screening and assessments to children receiving virtual care.

Overall, our third year of this grant has been unprecedented: a world ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic and a nation swept by a social movement against racial injustice have changed us. In an effort to maintain normalcy, life moved online: work was largely conducted from home, social gatherings were moved to virtual happy hours, school shifted to virtual classrooms, and so many other changes were made to hold on to life as we knew it. In order to adapt to the rapid changes of reality, clinicians worked tirelessly to continue service delivery for their clients in virtual spaces while finding a new urgency and purpose to increase humility towards race and culture within service delivery.

Learn More:

PCIT at ICFW

2021 PCIT Initial Therapist Training

Parent-Child Interaction Therapy During Times of COVID-19

By Kate Bennett, Meghan Christian and Haley Miller

Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) is an internationally-recognized, evidence-based parent management program for families who have young children with internalizing and/or externalizing behavior problems. PCIT was developed in the early 1970s by Dr. Sheila Eyberg, and involves live coaching of parents and caregivers as they interact with their child. Historically, PCIT and the training of new clinicians in this treatment modality have been done in person, however, internet-based PCIT (iPCIT) has been utilized within certain clinics prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Comer, et al. (2017) showed increased parent-reports of improvement in child behaviors with the provision of iPCIT. With approval from PCIT International and support from the Trauma and Recovery Project, ICFW clinicians Kate Bennett, Leah Cerwin and Dr. Dimitri Topitzes were some of the first in the nation to train new PCIT clinicians and new Level 1 PCIT trainers through virtual platforms.

Traditionally delivered in a clinic setting, PCIT uses a one-way mirror and an earpiece listening device while the clinician is in another room coaching the caregiver during dyadic sessions on how to manage certain behaviors (PCIT International, 2018). In order to establish similar observation and communication capabilities for iPCIT, a webcam on laptop, tablet or phone is set up by the parent with the help of the clinician allowing for sessions to occur in the home. Several benefits have been identified through qualitative and quantitative data. Comer, et al. (2017) have found that families are more likely to stay engaged in treatment and attend services if they do not have to travel to a provider. Some contributing factors to this may be flexibility in scheduling, especially when children have appointments with several specialists, parents who work 1^st shift jobs and/or have limited access to childcare, and the ability to physically distance. ICFW works with many families with complex circumstances that made attending appointments regularly difficult. Because of this, ICFW clinicians were some of the first within Children’s Wisconsin to begin completing virtual PCIT sessions.

The ICFW team of clinicians receives frequent feedback from caregivers about the benefits of iPCIT, which is in line with their findings on doing in-home PCIT years before. Clinicians are now able to be in the home environment while being invisible to the child, which results in clinicians being able to see behaviors that caregivers report only occur at home. At the start of one coaching session, a parent asked if the clinician “could be here all the time” after successfully navigating a particularly lengthy instance of defiance using PCIT skills. Within two sessions, the same parent said they have “started to see [them] transform into a new child” and the clinician noticed significantly improved concentration, self-regulation, social skills, and joy in the child.

Training new PCIT clinicians and trainers using the internet to maintain safe distances is new to PCIT International, but is likely not going anywhere due to the successes that have been seen thus far. Facilitating sessions with a trainer can now also be done with ease and safety through the use of iPCIT. This keeps clinicians growing in their expertise of the model, and families receiving the best possible service to address treatment goals. Our experience in providing web-based training, consultation, and mentorship for clinicians in 2020 has shown us that PCIT is well-served to fidelity in this context. Clinicians trained in PCIT under the ICFW have reported that they are confident in use of the evidence-based protocol and have learned effective ways to manage telehealth sessions.

To help support trained PCIT clinicians, ICFW has long used virtual case consultations and a Community of Practice through Zoom for live discussions and Basecamp, a project management website, for ongoing shared learning. In Basecamp, digital materials and discussion between clinicians are shared in order to provide clinicians quick access to materials and answers needed, ultimately optimizing family experience with the model. The ability to quickly connect with other clinicians has been helpful in minimizing the isolation felt by clinicians working from home during the pandemic.

PCIT is not a widely practiced modality but has demonstrated high success rates for families. We are excited to be able to work with families who may not have otherwise had access to PCIT due to transportation and scheduling barriers or lack of access to PCIT practitioners around the state. Parity of access from insurance companies now must be matched with clinician availability so all families in Wisconsin have access to iPCIT. ICFW is dedicated to expanding access through training new clinicians, implementing new web-based strategies and sharing information about PCIT throughout the state and nation.

Learn More:

ICFW Internet-Based PCIT Practice Brief (PDF)

Recent and Upcoming Events

The Institute provides training, consultation and technical assistance to help human service agencies implement and replicate best practices. If you are interested in training or technical assistance, please complete our speaker request form.

ICFW Webinars

November 16^th:

Executive Functioning for Child and Family Well-being

Presentations

October 26^th:

T-SBIRT – National Association of Social Workers National Virtual Conference 2020

October 28^th:

Trainings and Workshops:

August

Home Visiting T-SBIRT Training (Northwest Region) – La Courte Oreilles (HFA); Indianhead Community Action Agency (HFA); Burnett County (HFA)

September

Brain Architecture and Relational Skills Workshops – Children’s Wisconsin Family Support and Preservation Program

October

Child Adult Relationship Enhancement (CARE) Workshops – 51����’s Children’s Learning Center

October 8^th and 9^th:

TF-CBT Training (Learning Session II)

October 15^th:

Home Visiting T-SBIRT Training (Northeast Region) – Howe Community Center (PAT); Children’s Wisconsin Northwoods (HFA)

November 5^th and 6^th:

PCIT Training (Learning Session III) – State of Utah

November 6^th:

Home Visiting T-SBIRT Training (Southcentral Region) – Children’s Wisconsin Black River Falls (HFA); Sauk NFP (PAT); SWCAP Early Head Start

November 24^th:

PCIT Recalibration Workshop Kickoff

December 2^nd:

Mindfulness for Parents and Children – 51����’s Children’s Learning Center and Life Impact Program

The post ICFW Newsletter, Fall 2020 appeared first on Institute for Child and Family Well-Being.

The Institute for Child and Family Well-Being is a collaboration between Children’s Wisconsin and the Helen Bader School of Social Welfare at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The shared values and strengths of this academic-community partnership are reflected in the Institute’s three core service areas: Program Design and Implementation, Research and Evaluation, and Community Engagement and Systems Change.

In This Issue

• Meet the ICFW – Well-being Lead Clinicians Kate Bennett and Leah Cerwin
• Research and Evaluation
  • Building an Institutional Memory
• Program Design and Implementation
  • Virtual Clinician Training and COVID-19
• Recent and Upcoming Events
  • Webinars
  • Trainings
• Recent Publications

Meet the ICFW

Kate Bennett, LCSW, is a Well-Being Lead Clinician and serves as a lead mental and behavioral practitioner at Children’s Wisconsin and the Institute for Child and Family Well-Being. She has recently shifted to providing direct clinical services primarily via telehealth in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In her role, Kate routinely delivers community-based and therapist training workshops rooted in evidence-based interventions such as Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT). As a PCIT International Level 2 Trainer candidate under the Trauma and Recovery Project (TARP), a Category III SAMHSA grant, she is continuing to co-facilitate some of the very first virtual trainings for new PCIT therapist and PCIT Level 1 trainer cohorts statewide throughout the summer.

Kate is passionate about leveraging technology to promote equitable access for families receiving prevention and treatment services.  In June, she began pursuing her doctorate in social work at the University of Kentucky and is focusing her capstone on PCIT training and dissemination.

Leah Cerwin, LCSW, is a Well-Being Lead Clinician with Children’s Wisconsin and the Institute for Child and Family Well-Being. Leah is a Parent Child Interaction Therapy Certified Level 1 Trainer and has worked to provide a PCIT virtual training to clinicians across the state this summer. Along with providing services to families herself, Leah also conducts co-therapy over telehealth with PCIT trainees who she co-trained in the fall of 2019 and assisted in transitioning their cases to telehealth services. Leah provides consultation video calls for PCIT clinicians, and works closely with PCIT Level 2 and global trainers to help develop new PCIT training processes. Leah also co-trained a cohort of PCIT clinicians in a virtual Level 1 training this summer and provides consultation for these Level 1 trainer candidates as they begin training clinicians within their own agencies. Leah participated in a virtual PCIT Toddlers training this past spring. Leah also manages a Category 3 SAMHSA grant, in which she promotes the development of strategies to improve assessment processes for evidence-based treatments PCIT, TF-CBT, and CPP.

While in graduate school, Leah interned with the Institute for Child and Family Well-Being directors and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee faculty, Drs. Dimitri Topitzes and Joshua Mersky, to develop Project Connect, a group-based pilot of PCIT. Leah then helped pioneer PCIT and Project Connect at Children’s Wisconsin.

Research and Evaluation

The Institute accelerates the process of translating knowledge into direct practices, programs and policies that promote health and well-being, and provides analytic, data management and grant-writing support.

Building an Institutional Memory

By Luke Waldo

Strategic Learning inspires and guides future direction from the failed attempts and successful outcomes of past efforts. The use of a strategic learning process supports an organizational culture committed to continuous quality improvement and collective growth and knowledge. Being a learning organization serves multiple purposes: creating institutional memory, supporting just-in-time iteration, and clarifying our hypotheses about our work. Engaging every staff member in these learning practices allows us to make our thinking visible to each other, strengthening our hypotheses and uncovering hidden assumptions.

The Institute’s Children’s Wisconsin team developed a Strategic Learning process and set of tools in early 2019. While many of those tools serve a formal decision-making, planning or evaluation function, Learning Logs are our platform where we share insights and reflections on work that we’re doing – from the clinic to meetings to thoughts that arise in the course of writing, reading, or meeting new people. Learning Logs serve a knowledge management function, and allow us to share and track how our thinking and work with others and within our systems evolve over time.

Our Learning Log process is rather simple and can be replicated easily by other groups and organizations. We start with two questions that we are asked to answer each week:

• What did you learn this week?
• How might it inform our work?

These questions land in our inboxes each week through an Automatic Check-in through Basecamp. We then proceed to Basecamp and post our answers with the following basic expectations:

• Header – Topic of Learning (i.e. Systems Change, Clinical Services, Social Innovation, etc.);
• Brief synopsis of what was learned and how it relates to/informs our work;
• Link to the source material(s) (i.e. Article, Podcast, Speaker, etc.)

Once the posts are submitted, they are shared with all team members for review and are archived on our Basecamp page as institutional memory. We can interact with one another’s Learning Logs by adding comments, questions, recognition or engaging in further learning by exploring the source material links.

Since we started this process last year, our small team of ten has completed more than 500 Learning Logs on topics ranging from integrating clinical services into the child welfare system to the importance of lived experience in social innovation to systems drivers and evaluation. The content of the Learning Logs has served as a consultative space for the team, a catalyst for deeper, more targeted conversations in supervision, and the development of a virtual learning resource center on Basecamp that our team can refer to for future use.

While the Learning Logs are intended to be driven by each individual’s learning and relevant areas of interest, we have developed Focused Learning Logs that have a specific topic that is currently relevant and urgent in our practice and culture. In 2019, we focused on our practice, use of tools and strategies around Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) to develop a toolkit for fellow practitioners and families that receive TF-CBT. This year, we are focusing on Anti-Racist and Inclusion, Diversity and Equity issues and efforts that impact our clinical practices, systems, policies, and organizational culture. In addition to providing a sharper focus on our own education and reflection in these critical areas, it also serves as an opportunity to understand where everyone on the team is in their learning, which leads to increased empathy, support and constructive conversation on the team.

We believe that ongoing learning is happening daily throughout our organizations, but often occurs without sufficient reflection or documentation that lend themselves to growth – both personal and organizational – and future reference and use. Learning Logs have served as a powerful tool that help us capture and enhance our learning, growth, and potential for continuous improvement.

Learn More:

Practice Brief: ICFW Strategic Learning

Practice Brief: ICFW After Action Reviews

Program Design and Implementation

The Institute develops, implements and disseminates validated prevention and intervention strategies that are accessible in real-world settings.

Virtual Clinician Training and COVID-19

By Kate Bennett & Leah Cerwin

In the previous ICFW newsletter, our team shared a few of the ways that our work has changed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.  One area of focus for our mental and behavioral health practitioners has been the implementation of virtual training.  In March, clinicians at Children’s Wisconsin and the ICFW were recipients of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy –Toddlers (PCIT-T) training facilitated by Dr. Emma Girard.  In July, we were able to flip the script and provide one of the very first web-based PCIT Level 1 Trainer and PCIT Therapist trainings in the country alongside PCIT Global Trainer, .

Traditionally, the standard for PCIT training facilitation has been in-person workshops; however, physical distancing is an important step the ICFW is taking to slow the spread of COVID-19.  Attending to the , Dr. Warner-Metzger, Dr. Dimitri Topitzes, Kate Bennett, and Leah Cerwin strategically planned and facilitated an 8-hour web-based Level 1 PCIT training and the first half of a web-based 40-hour PCIT therapist training supported by the Trauma & Recovery Project.

As agencies continue the provision of telehealth services that allow clinicians to engage with families remotely, internet-PCIT (I-PCIT) delivery was included as a highlighted didactic skill.  Recommendations for safe implementations of in-person PCIT services for agencies who cannot provide telehealth were also discussed.

Along with adapting to telehealth strategies for PCIT Clinicians, PCIT trainers made space during virtual training for rich discussion of anti-oppressive strategies for delivering PCIT.  This was done both by providing information and updates on how PCIT International as an organization is taking steps to create a more inclusive and for therapists, trainers, and families, and also by allowing the trainees themselves the opportunity to discuss the cultural sensitivity and tailoring necessary to make PCIT an approach better suited to meet the needs of their families of color.

PCIT trainers discussed how PCIT as an organization utilizes The Equity Approach, to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to participate and prosper when building strategies to improve community health.  By understanding and acknowledging disparities and privilege, the PCIT organization is creating a more inclusive and anti-racist model.

Additionally, the Trauma and Recovery Project, a grant managed by ICFW PCIT Trainers, seeks to recruit and train clinicians of color to build a more diverse clinician pool, and PCIT trainers encouraged trainees to voice how PCIT practices could be tailored to meet the needs of the diverse families in the Milwaukee community that are served by Children’s Wisconsin.

The ICFW team is truly passionate about expanding evidence-based treatments like PCIT for kids and families throughout Wisconsin.  We are excited to welcome our newest PCIT Level 1 Trainer and PCIT Therapist candidates:

2020 PCIT Level 1 Trainer Candidates

Jacqueline Kawa, Ph.D.   (Children’s Wisconsin – Milwaukee)
Robin Matchett-Schmidt, LCSW (Children’s Wisconsin – Racine/Mount Pleasant)

2020 PCIT Therapist Candidates

Leah Brittnacher, Ph.D.   (Advocate Aurora Health – Brown County)
Tamara Makhlouf, LPC   (Children’s Wisconsin – Milwaukee)
Kaylee Johnson, MSW Candidate, APSW (Children’s Wisconsin – Racine/Mount Pleasant)
Shauna Pichette, LPC, NCC   (Family Service of Waukesha)
Sarah Cartwright, LPC, ATR  (Family Service of Waukesha)
Leigh Monahan, Ph.D. Candidate  (Next Step Clinic – Milwaukee)
Cassie Matejka, Ph.D. Candidate  (Next Step Clinic – Milwaukee)
Amy Leventhal, Ph.D.  (Next Step Clinic – Milwaukee)
Glenna Gransee, Ph.D. Student  (Next Step Clinic – Milwaukee)
Daysi Jimenez, MSW, APSW  (Next Step Clinic – Milwaukee)
Monica Cross, CAPSW (Dodge Country Health and Human Services)
Vanessa Rosas LPC-IT  (Sixteenth Street Community Health Center – Parkway/Milwaukee)

Learn More

PCIT at ICFW

Recent and Upcoming Events

The Institute provides training, consultation and technical assistance to help human service agencies implement and replicate best practices. If you are interested in training or technical assistance, please complete our speaker request form.

ICFW Webinars:

Upcoming – August 20^th

Register here: Strategic Learning and Social Innovation in Times of Uncertainty

Past Webinars

April 8^th

Evaluating Systems Change: An Inquiry Framework For Uncertain Times

April 16^th

Authentic Community Engagement: Made in Milwaukee

May 4^th

Making the Unspeakable Speakable: Making a Case for Trauma Screening and Assessment

May 20^th

Parent Child Interaction Therapy in Child Welfare

June 17^th

Trauma Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment (T-SBIRT): An Introduction

July 30^th

Housing as a Pathway to Prevent Child Maltreatment

Trainings:

July 2, 6-10

Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) Learning Collaborative – South Milwaukee

August 7, 10-14

Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) Learning Collaborative – Wausau

July and August

PCIT Initial Therapist Training (Virtual)

Recent Publications

Choi, C., Mersky, J. P., Janczewski, C. E., Plummer Lee, C., Davies, W. H., & Lang, A. C. (in press). The Childhood Experiences Survey: Replication study of an expanded assessment of adverse childhood experiences. Children and Youth Services Review.  

Beckert, T. E., Plummer Lee, C., Albiero, P. (in press). Reaching Adult Status Among Emerging Adults in United States, Italy, and Taiwan. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology.

Plummer Lee, C., Mersky, J. P., Marsee, I., & Fuemmeler, B. (in press). Child maltreatment and marijuana use in adolescence and early adulthood. Development and Psychopathology.

Zhang, L., Mersky, J. P., & Topitzes, J. (in press). Adverse childhood experiences and psychological well-being in a rural sample of Chinese young adults. Child Abuse & Neglect. 

The post ICFW Newsletter, Summer 2020 appeared first on Institute for Child and Family Well-Being.

Children who have experienced maltreatment and are involved in the child welfare system often exhibit behavioral difficulties, and their parents often struggle to provide effective discipline, may unintentionally engage in coercive parenting practices, or may appear to lack sensitivity towards their children due to their own history of trauma.

Parent Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) has been referred to by experts as the “gold standard” treatment for children with disruptive behaviors, and it is a well-known, well-researched evidence-based treatment for children with behavioral difficulties, and has gained significant evidence particularly in the last ten years that suggests its efficacious for parents who have engaged in child maltreatment.

The Institute for Child and Family Well-Being was proud to host the webinar “Parent Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) & Child Welfare” with , PCIT Master Trainer, and Kate Bennett, Children’s Wisconsin Well-Being Lead Clinician.

In this webinar, Leah Cerwin discussed the following with Dr. Girard and Kate:

• Why it is so important to offer and administer PCIT within the child welfare system;
• How PCIT has been adapted and provided to meet the needs of these clients with complex lives, including challenges and potential solutions;
• The positive outcomes that have been seen providing this service to these families;
• All within the context of the Milwaukee area families.

Related Resources

From the ICFW:

PCIT Training

PCIT Video

Webinar PowerPoint Presentation (PDF)

Report: Family First Prevention Services Act (PDF)

Issue Brief: Integrating PCIT into Child Welfare Services

Journal Article: Translating and Implementing Evidence-Based Mental Health Services in Child Welfare

The post Parent Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) & Child Welfare appeared first on Institute for Child and Family Well-Being.

We are in unprecedented times. COVID-19 is ravaging our health and economic infrastructure, with untold losses still to come. Globally and nationally the pain of the pandemic is widespread, and it is a particularly dire situation for those among us who are most vulnerable. These include individuals and families who struggle with extreme poverty, housing insecurity, substance use, health and mental health problems, and chronic stress. Even in good times, these challenges are difficult to bear. But now they are compounded by social distancing from the connections that protect us in times of stress—our families, friends, schools, places of worship, and communities.

These tragic conditions will have a profound impact on children, especially those who need protection. At a point when they are most developmentally sensitive, many are being exposed to adverse experiences that will have lasting neurobiological, cognitive, social and emotional consequences.  It is a stark reality that, as our lives are being upended, some children are being abused and neglected. Worse still, these children are being dislocated from the social institutions and connections that are in place to protect them.

To illustrate the magnitude of the problem, consider that child protective service (CPS) agencies in the U.S. received over 4.3 million abuse and neglect reports in 2018, representing approximately 7.8 million children. Although most reports are not investigated or substantiated, CPS records indicate that hundreds of thousands of children are abused or neglected each year. Of course, many more children experience trauma that goes unseen or unheard.

Now consider that, at a time when our most vulnerable children are at even greater risk, rates of CPS reporting and detection are plummeting. Here in Wisconsin, in the four weeks following the stay-at-home order which went into effect on March 15, there was a 48% decrease in CPS reports in Wisconsin as compared to the same time period last year.

It is unlikely that this trend reflects a true decrease in abuse and neglect, but rather the social isolation of children from mandated reporters. Roughly two-thirds of CPS reports come from professionals such as teachers and doctors. Yet, as shown in the figure below, their reporting has dropped significantly, because they cannot report what they cannot see or hear.

The Child Protection System

If children do come to the attention of CPS, they are now entering a system that is experiencing a period of instability due to COVID-19. Core functions of the child welfare system have been compromised because of the crisis, not unlike other systems. For example, child welfare agencies have been forced to move away from in-person visits where parent-child interactions can be observed directly. Access to substance use and mental health treatment has been reduced significantly. Staffing shortages and court closures have caused delays in removals and permanency decisions.

Disruptions in regular activities are producing a growing backlog of demand for services inside and outside the system. As stay-at-home policies are relaxed, CPS workers who already carry substantial workloads may face even greater job strain, which could lead to high rates of staff turnover. Worse still, assuming the current rate of abuse and neglect reporting is artificially low, the CPS system should be prepared for the coming spike in referrals, substantiations, and out-of-home placements. These impacts are most likely to affect low-income communities of color that are already overrepresented in the CPS system. Disparities in CPS involvement seen before COVID-19 may be compounded by the disproportionate health and economic burdens that these groups are bearing during the crisis.  People around the CPS system have been quickly finding new ways of adapting to the social distancing restrictions and accompanying financial hardships, developing clear for planning, as the current economic and public health crisis threatens to take a heavy toll on our nation’s most vulnerable population of children and youth.

The Time for Prevention

With state and local governments facing acute budget shortfalls, and with the loss of revenue due to massive increases in unemployment, the need to focus on the most urgent child welfare challenges is clear. And it may seem untimely to increase funding for prevention services that may not pay off immediately, even if these investments tend to yield greater returns in the long run. Although Wisconsin allocates less than 5% of total child welfare funding to prevention services, it may be difficult to justify increased support for anything other than essential responses to known child safety concerns.

On the other hand, the COVID-19 crisis has exposed frailties in the child welfare system, and it is this kind of shock that could force us to reexamine our priorities and rebuild a system that simultaneously ensures the safety, stability, and well-being of children and families. Before this crisis emerged, there were positive signs of movement in this direction with the passage of the Families First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA). Signed into law in 2018, the FFPSA reforms federal child welfare financing by increasing the scope of evidence-based prevention and intervention services that are reimbursable. This includes proven approaches that already have strong roots in Wisconsin such as parent-child interaction therapy,�� (TF-CBT), and .

We believe that our recovery efforts can include plans for increased public investment in prevention services that support families without compromising the vital mission of protecting vulnerable children. It can be difficult to prepare for the future during times of uncertainty and crisis, but bold visions can set in motion lasting change. Let us rebuild our neglected service systems to provide universal, equitable, and accessible services for families and communities.

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