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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

ICFW Newsletter, Summer 2023

Posted on August 30, 2023April 6, 2026

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
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?

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

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.

Cover for Hope and Healing for Children who Experience Domestic Violence report

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:

Build a shared understanding of the power of relationships and connection on brain architecture by playing the Brain Architecture Game;
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

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

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.

Map of how to prevent family separation for neglect

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.

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.

Table of Simple, Complicated and Complex Problems — Source: Drs. Glouberman and Zimmerman; Image credit: Valeria Maltoni

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

Download Economic Stability PDF

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

– 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

Intergenerational transmission of child protective services involvement

Posted on August 11, 2023January 18, 2024

Janczewski, C., Mersky, J., & Lee, C. P. (2023). Intergenerational transmission of child protective services involvement: Exploring the role of ACEs and domestic violence among families who receive home visiting services. Child Abuse & Neglect, 144, 106384.

Abstract

Background
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are associated with negative outcomes over the life course and across generations, including domestic violence (DV) and child maltreatment. However, no studies have examined the connection between parents’ ACEs and their child’s risk of child protective services (CPS) involvement or possible mechanisms of transmission.

Objective
In addition to describing the prevalence and correlates of CPS involvement, our primary aims are to test whether parental adversity in childhood is associated with CPS involvement and whether DV victimization mediates the ACE-CPS association.

Participants and setting
The sample included 3039 primary caregivers and 3343 children served by home visiting programs in Wisconsin between 2014 and 2019.

Methods
Using matched home visiting and CPS records, we generated prevalence estimates of screened-in CPS reports and assessed bivariate associations between CPS involvement and ACEs, DV, and household demographics. We then conducted a two-stage path analysis to test the association between ACEs and CPS involvement and whether DV mediated the ACE-CPS association.

Results
Overall, 22.8 % of caregivers had a screened-in report. Prevalence rates were higher among women who endured ACEs and DV, and they varied by demographic characteristics. ACEs were directly linked to DV and CPS involvement, and there was an indirect pathway linking ACEs to CPS involvement through DV exposure.

Conclusions
Home visiting programs serve families that frequently interact with the child welfare system. By enhancing the trauma-responsive potential of these interventions, it may be possible to interrupt intergenerational mechanisms that contribute to child abuse and neglect and CPS involvement.

Critical Pathways – Economic Stability

Posted on August 9, 2023March 6, 2026

The Ripple Effects of Poverty on Parenting and Family Dynamics

Since the first roundtable, 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.

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

Breaking the Cycle: Supporting Family Economic Stability

Critical Pathways – Workforce Inclusion & Innovation

Posted on August 9, 2023March 6, 2026

A stable and diverse family preservation workforce ensures continuity of care, fosters expertise and experience, preserves institutional knowledge, promotes cultural competence, encourages collaboration and innovation, and enhances representation and trust. These factors contribute to the effectiveness and impact of programs that support families overloaded by stress.

Stabilizing and Supporting our Workforce

Surpassing the average for all occupations, employment growth for social workers is expected to increase 9% from 2021-2031, with many separations resulting from workers transferring to other occupations or exiting the labor force (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2022). Turnover in our workforce is costly to families, staff, and the organizations that serve and employ them. Home-visiting workforce turnover and attrition rates are high, with similar shared challenges contributing to separations. Faced with a shortage of resources and 28.9% of workers leaving to take jobs with increased compensation, home-visiting programs will continue to struggle with recruitment and retention (Fitzgerald et. al, 2020).

We believe that innovation plays a pivotal role in shaping our future workforce, yielding stability as it brings forth fresh perspectives and diverse experiences to empower, equip, and support our families and those serving them. Through cultivating and prioritizing an environment that fosters creativity, collaboration, and growth, we can build a resilient and adaptable workforce today that is ready to tackle the challenges of tomorrow.

Diversity Representation and Family Voice in the Workforce

Diversifying our present workforce and elevating and recognizing the contribution of families and staff with lived experience in both prevention services and the child welfare system, is essential for change moving forward. Our current social services workforce still lacks representation from the populations it serves. According to the 2015 American Community Survey, 68.8% of our social work workforce is White (Salsberg et al., 2017). Specifically in prevention, in 2020, 63% of our home-visiting workforce were White (Fitzgerald et. al, 2020). Finally, the most recent State of WI workforce report reveals that within the Department of Children and Families, only 29.2% of its workforce are racial and ethnic minorities.

Peer Support: A Powerful Tool in Prevention

The use of peer supports or paraprofessionals in the workforce could ease struggles around workforce recruitment and make services more accessible. It also offers potential solutions to a workforce lacking in diversity, language skills, and cultural understanding of those it serves. Concurrently, by valuing and developing a career pathway for those with lived experience, use of a peer support model also functions as an economic stability intervention.

The Workforce of the Future

In conclusion, workforce innovation plays a pivotal role in shaping our future workforce, as it brings forth fresh perspectives and diverse experiences. By including individuals with lived experience and providing ample support to our staff, we cultivate an environment that fosters creativity, collaboration, and growth. Therefore, it is crucial that we prioritize these elements in order to build a resilient and adaptable workforce of the future.

Download Workforce Inclusion & Innovation PDF

Critical Pathways – Social Connectedness

Posted on August 9, 2023March 6, 2026

A child’s community plays a critical role in fostering their growth. For children to truly thrive, they need safe, responsive connections with caring adults. When the adults in their lives have their own needs met, they’re better equipped to respond to the social and emotional needs of their kids.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, social connectedness is defined as the relationships people or groups have, which lead to a sense of belonging, being cared for, valued, and supported. When individuals are socially connected, they are better able to navigate life challenges and cope with stress, trauma, adversity, anxiety, and depression.

Social isolation is the absence of connectedness to people, community, and therefore, influence and power. Social isolation creates barriers to developing supportive relationships and communities, sharing personal and communal experiences, or forming part of the bigger whole that can build a sense of individual and collective identity.

The toll of social isolation has been shown in recent studies in which nearly 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. Even more troubling, caregivers of children, especially mothers and single parents, are more likely to experience feelings of loneliness.

So, what is causing the increased social isolation across our communities? A few examples:

Declines in meaningful connection, trust and membership in religious groups, social clubs, and labor unions due to the increase in use of smart phones, social media, remote work and political polarization;
Disruption of communities due to loss of industries such as farming and manufacturing;
Increased demands on lower-wage earners’ time and energy due to working longer hours and having less money to spend on transportation, social activities, etc.

When we are socially isolated, our health becomes vulnerable to heart attacks, dementia, depression, and early death. Recent studies have compared its impact to smoking nearly a pack of cigarettes a day. Additionally, when caregivers are socially isolated, they are less likely to have the coping skills AND community such as family and friends to support them when they become overloaded by stress. In these critical moments, children become vulnerable to neglect.

How might we strengthen social connectedness for our communities, caregivers, and children? Social connectedness occurs through family, school, work, and recreational and faith communities. More formally, it occurs through community and cultural events, support groups, and social services. Strengthening social infrastructure is crucial for enhancing community health, resilience, safety, and prosperity.

The goal of SFTCCC is to create and support a movement that shares knowledge and strategies, elevates one another’s efforts, and collaborates intentionally to co-design and advance policy and practice solutions that prevent and reduce social isolation by refocusing our efforts on building community and strengthening social connectedness for families, so that we may reduce family separations for reasons of neglect.

Download the Social Connectedness PDF

Critical Pathways – Community Collaboration

Posted on August 9, 2023March 6, 2026

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 nearly 40,000 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.

Download Community Collaboration PDF

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

Posted on June 20, 2023January 18, 2024

Mersky, J. P., Plummer Lee, C., & Janczewski, C. E. (2023). Adverse adult experiences and health outcomes: Racial and ethnic differences in a low-income sample. Stress & Health. Advance online publication.

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. Survey data were collected from 1566 low-income women in Wisconsin using the Adult Experiences Survey (AES). Ten major adult adversities were assessed, including items that reference an intimate partner or household member (e.g., physical or emotional abuse, substance use) along with other social and economic stressors such as homelessness and discrimination. Adverse adult experiences were highly prevalent overall, but even more so among non-Hispanic Whites than their Black and Hispanic counterparts. The results reinforce prior research on ACEs in low-income populations. Lending further credence to these findings, tests of measurement invariance indicated that the AES demonstrated acceptable configural and scalar invariance across racial and ethnic groups. As expected, greater exposure to adult adversity was significantly related to poorer physical and mental health. These associations manifested cross-sectionally and longitudinally for observed and latent measures of adult adversity—even after controlling for ACEs. Associations between adult adversity and health were not moderated by race/ethnicity. In sum, adverse adult experiences were unequally distributed across racial/ethnic groups, but the consequences associated with adversity appeared to be evenly dispersed.

Life course adversity and sleep disturbance among low-income women with young children

Posted on June 20, 2023January 18, 2024

Mersky, J. P., Plummer Lee, C., & Jackson, D. B. (2023). Life course adversity and sleep disturbance among low-income women with young children. Sleep Health. Advance online publication.

Objectives: This study explored whether patterns of lifetime adversity are associated with sleep disturbance and tested whether adult adversity mediates the relationship between childhood adversity and sleep.

Methods: A sample of 1510 postpartum women in Wisconsin who received home visiting services completed assessments of childhood adversity, adult adversity, and sleep disturbance; 989 women completed another sleep assessment about one year later. Latent class analysis was used to identify classes of lifetime adversity, which were then used to predict later sleep ratings while controlling for earlier sleep ratings and demographic variables. A path analysis was conducted to explore whether adult adversity mediated the association between childhood adversity and sleep.

Results: Adverse childhood and adult experiences were highly prevalent, and greater life-course adversity was associated with sleep disturbance. The association between childhood adversity and sleep was significantly mediated by adult adversity.

Conclusions: Sleep quality appears to correspond with life-course adversity, pointing to ongoing opportunities for prevention and intervention.

The long arm of maternal incarceration

Posted on June 20, 2023January 18, 2024

Gómez, A. Mersky, J. P., Plummer Lee, C., Zhang, L., Shlafer, R. J., & Jackson, D. B. (2023). The long arm of maternal incarceration: Indirect associations with children’s social-emotional development. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal. Advance online publication.

A growing body of research reveals a connection between maternal incarceration and various child development outcomes. Even so, little is known about how the timing of maternal incarceration may shape the social–emotional development of young children and the role of maternal mental health in mediating this association. Using a sample of 1097 mothers (18–52 years old, 47.6% white) and children (aged 12–48 months) receiving home visiting services in Wisconsin, this study examined the intergenerational effect of incarceration before a child’s birth on child social–emotional development, and whether this association was mediated by maternal mental health. While incarceration prior to a child’s birth was not directly associated with child social–emotional outcomes, path analysis revealed an indirect association between mother’s incarceration prior to a child’s birth and child social–emotional problems through maternal mental health problems. Findings suggest that formerly incarcerated mothers may experience long-lasting mental health concerns that can undermine child social–emotional development. To optimize outcomes, practitioners may consider services that address the mental health, social support, and instrumental needs of mothers and children who have been impacted by mass incarceration.

Linking adverse experiences to pregnancy and birth outcomes

Posted on June 20, 2023November 13, 2024

Mersky, J. P., Jeffers, N. K., Plummer Lee, C., Shlafer, R. A., Jackson, D. B, & Gómez, A. (2024).��Linking adverse experiences to pregnancy and birth outcomes: A life course analysis of racial and ethnic disparities among low-income women.��Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities.��Advance online publication.��

Racial and ethnic disparities in birth outcomes have persisted in the United States for decades, though the causes remain poorly understood. The life course perspective posits that poorer outcomes of Black birthing people stem from heightened exposure to stressors early in life and cumulative exposure to stressors over time. Despite its prominence, this perspective has seldom been investigated empirically. We analyzed longitudinal data gathered from 1319 women in low-income households in Wisconsin who received perinatal home visiting services. Variable- and person-centered analyses were performed to assess whether 15 adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and 10 adverse adult experiences (AAEs) were associated, alone and in combination, with pregnancy loss, preterm birth, and low birth weight among Hispanic (i.e., Latinx) and non-Hispanic Black and White participants. As expected, there were disparities in preterm birth and low birth weight, and both ACEs and AAEs were linked to poorer pregnancy and birth outcomes. Unexpectedly, bivariate and multivariate analyses showed that the associated effects of ACEs and AAEs were most robust for non-Hispanic White women. A latent class analysis produced four patterns of life course adversity, and multigroup latent class analyses confirmed that, compared to White women, higher-adversity class assignments were associated with less robust effects for Hispanic women, and even less robust effects for Black women. We discuss interpretations of the paradoxical findings, including the possibility that alternative sources of stress such as interpersonal and structural racism may better account for the reproductive disparities that disproportionately affect Black birthing people.

Trauma-Responsive Vocational Rehabilitation Services

Posted on June 20, 2023January 18, 2024

Chopp, S., Topitzes, J., & Mersky, J. P. (2023). Trauma-responsive vocational rehabilitation services. Behavioral Sciences, 13(6), 511.

Research on the effectiveness of Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) Programs has revealed that VR services are less effective for trauma-affected and Black consumers. For instance, consumers with trauma exposure disengage from services earlier than their non-traumatized counterparts, and Black consumers benefit less from each phase of VR services compared to others. One midwestern state’s VR program sought to address these disparities by offering trauma-informed and trauma-responsive services that emphasize cultural responsiveness, racial equity, and strengths-based practices. To begin this work, the state’s VR program collaborated with an applied research unit in a public university to establish two work groups: a communications group and a training group. The purpose of the communications group was to build a robust referral network within the VR Division and with other community-based agencies and providers, particularly for low-income, Black consumers. The purpose of the training group was to develop and deliver a training program to support VR professionals in providing trauma-informed and trauma-responsive services. Results from an evaluation of the training indicated that each training module generated for staff both reminders and new insights into ways to effectively work with consumers. Staff expressed that they wanted opportunities to further explore and apply the training content and needed additional, ongoing support to implement what they were learning. In response to staff needs, the state’s VR program is continuing to invest in this community–university partnership by establishing communities of practice for staff and evaluating the effectiveness of the training program.

Research Features – T-SBIRT: Improving the lives of those exposed to serious trauma

Posted on June 14, 2023June 14, 2023

The work of Dimitri Topitzes, ICFW Director of Clinical Services, on T-SBIRT (trauma, screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment) was highlighted in 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 behavioural or mental health services.’”

ICFW Newsletter, Spring 2023

Posted on May 18, 2023April 2, 2026

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

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

Building Brains with Relationships

Quote that reads "The training was informative and gave me skills that were easy to integrate into my work."

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:

Research and Evaluation

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.

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).

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.

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

By��Luke Waldo

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 –

Economic Stability,
Social Connectedness,
Inclusive and Supportive Workforce,
Community Collaboration

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

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

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

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.

Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities Virtual Data Walk

Posted on March 13, 2023April 7, 2026

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.

Increasing equitable access to home visiting: An independent implementation study of Family Connects

Posted on March 7, 2023January 18, 2024

Mersky, J. P., Choi, C., Langlieb, J., Plummer Lee, C., & Chang, P. (2022). Increasing equitable access to home visiting: An independent implementation study of Family Connects. Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research.

Objectives: Home visiting programs often provide long-term services to at-risk populations, though briefer, universal interventions like Family Connects are increasingly being disseminated to bring home visiting to scale. Extending research by the model’s developers in North Carolina, this paper presents findings from the first independent implementation study of Family Connects.

Method: Observational data were drawn from program records entered between August 2017 and February 2020 at a new Family Connects site in [location blinded]. Indicators of program acceptance, participation, and fidelity were examined. Data collected during home visits were used to describe family needs and demographics. An analysis of data gathered after program completion examined consumer satisfaction and referral connections.

Results: Of 2,304 families who were offered the program, 1,778 (77.2%) accepted services and 1,107 (48.0%) received services. Replicating prior findings, the program was implemented with high fidelity. Most participants had some need for education (99.4%), and over half (50.6%) had a need that warranted a referral. Family needs varied by race/ethnicity, educational attainment, and health insurance status. Post-program data gathered from 648 participants revealed high levels of program satisfaction and high rates of referral connections.

Conclusion: Interpretations of the findings and implications for health equity are discussed.

ICFW Newsletter, Winter 2023

Posted on February 22, 2023March 20, 2026

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

Building Brains with Relationships

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:

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

Benefits participants get to grow their own strengths and contribute to the strengths of others

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:

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.

Children's Wisconsin Adapted Bridge Pillars

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

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.

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).

The Association between Family Physical Environment and Child Maltreatment

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

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

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��or .

Recent and Upcoming Events

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

2022 Year in Review

Posted on January 23, 2023April 3, 2026

This past year we celebrated the conclusion of some of our seminal projects such as our Trauma and Recovery Project, Birth to Three Social-Emotional Innovation Evaluation, and Family Drug Treatment Court Evaluation, and the launch of new projects that seek to strengthen families and the systems that support them such as our Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities initiative, Wisconsin Child Welfare and Home Visiting Data Project, Coordinated State Evaluation of Family Engagement and Health Equity, and JobsWork MKE. As we reflect on the past five years of the Trauma and Recovery Project and the potential of our new initiatives and projects, we recognize and honor the enormous value of the relationships that we have developed over these years that make possible the advancing of our mission to promote the well-being of all children and families by addressing barriers that result in unequal access to the best available care and solutions. As we embark on these new opportunities, we will continue to strengthen those relationships, learn from our partners’ research and lived experience, and aspire to translate what we learn into prevention and intervention strategies that make a real difference in people’s lives. 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 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.

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:
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

Hope and Healing for Children Who Experience Family Violence

The purpose of this project is to enhance therapeutic services at the Sojourner Family Peace Center (FPC) that aim to promote healing among children and youth who have witnessed domestic violence. FPC will increase its capacity to deliver evidence-informed services while working with partner agencies to link children and families to community-based...

Addressing Unresolved Trauma: JobsWork MKE

JobsWork MKE is partnering with personnel from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (51��)/ Institute for Child and Family Well-Being (Institute) to enhance the trauma-informed nature of their employment services. The project goal is to effectively address unresolved trauma among JobsWork MKE program participants or members. In turn, the project...

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

Posted on January 19, 2023January 18, 2024

Topitzes, J., Bacalso, E., Plummer-Lee, C. T., Jonas-Gordon, S., & Mersky, J. P. (2022). Trauma Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (T-SBIRT) Implemented within TANF Employment Services: An Outcome Study. Journal of Social Service Research, 48(6), 753-767.

Abstract

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. Using a non-experimental process evaluation and quasi-experimental outcome evaluation (N = 88), the study assessed four research questions. First, do T-SBIRT providers reach model adherence rates above 90%? Second, do over 90% of T-SBIRT completers experience the intervention as tolerable? Third, is T-SBIRT completion associated with decreases in mental health symptoms? Fourth, is T-SBIRT completion linked to reductions in positive mental health screenings? Process data emerged from provider-completed integrity checklists. Participant-completed baseline and follow-up surveys furnished outcome data, i.e., mental health indicators from validated scales of depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Descriptive statistics answered questions one and two; multivariate analyses addressed questions three and four. Results revealed that providers realized adherence rates at 98.5%; 91.3% of completers found the protocol tolerable; and completers reported significant reductions in depression symptoms, PTSD symptoms, and positive PTSD screenings relative to a comparison group. Findings recommend integrating T-SBIRT into social services to promote participant mental health and potentially enhance program outcomes. Future T-SBIRT research should include a randomized controlled trial assessing long-term mental health, employment, and income outcomes.

ICFW Innovations in Prevention Webinar Series Episode 3: “Primary Prevention: Home Visiting for New Parents”

Posted on December 21, 2022September 17, 2025

November 14, 2022

Cover for webinar series with photo with Joshua Mersky

This webinar will make the case that all new parents deserve to be offered a home visit by a highly qualified healthcare professional. Research has shown that postnatal visits can have significant prevention benefits, including a reduced risk of child abuse and neglect. A new initiative in Racine and Walworth counties will be described that aims to ensure that all parents with newborns are eligible for a home visit by a public health nurse. Grounded in the principle of progressive universalism, which balances equal access to care with an equitable distribution of resources, this program will be tailored to ensure that each family receives direct care and connections to community services that match their needs.

ICFW Innovations in Prevention Webinar Series Episode 2: “Innovation in Prevention: Jackson County Action Initiative for Early Childhood Education”

Posted on December 21, 2022September 17, 2025

September 14, 2022

Cover of webinar series with photo of Julie Woodbury

Accessible, affordable and high-quality early childhood education (ECE) can contribute to cognitive, emotional and social development in children helping them grow into thriving, contributing adults. For parents and caregivers, ECE provides them with the opportunity for gainful employment, economic stability and self-sufficiency. The Jackson County Childcare Network (JCCN) identified Jackson County as an early childhood education desert, with capacity to only serve 278 children of the estimated 1000+ children in need of care. This disparity has resulted in an estimated $2.5 million loss in work productivity, parents unable to work to their full capacity, while 17.8% of children in the county live in poverty. The stressful conditions and circumstances associated with the lack of ECE options, un/under-employment, the effects of poverty, and toxic stress all are risk factors for poor child health outcomes, including increased risk for experiencing neglect.

In 2021, the Jackson County Action Initiative (JCAI) was formed to engage the local community to address the ECE crisis in Jackson County and enhance protective factors for families to mitigate negative outcomes and support family well-being. To achieve these goals and address this complex challenge, the JCAI is using a collective impact approach. Collective impact is a network of community members, organizations, and institutions who advance equity by learning together, aligning, and integrating their actions to achieve population and systems level change. In this webinar, you’ll learn about:

The importance of early child education in supporting child, family, and community health and prosperity.
Challenges around insufficient early childhood education facing rural communities.
Core principles from the Collective Impact model and how the JCAI is applying them.
Early lessons learned from this ongoing effort.

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

Posted on December 13, 2022January 18, 2024

Mersky, J. P., Plummer Lee, C., & Janczewski, C. E. (2022). Adverse adult experiences and health outcomes: Racial and ethnic differences in a low-income sample. Stress & Health.

Abstract

The Association between Family Physical Environment and Child Maltreatment

Posted on November 21, 2022January 18, 2024

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

Abstract

Background

Objective

This study aimed to examine the relationships between family physical environment and different types of child maltreatment.

Participants and Setting

The study sample includes 1,624 mothers who participated in both year 3 and year 5 surveys of the U.S. Fragile Family and Child Well-Being Study (FFCWS).

Methods

Family physical environment was measured by the Infant-Toddler Child Care Home Observation of Environment (HOME). Child maltreatment was assessed by the Conflict Tactics Scale: Parent-Child Version (CTS-PC), and mother’s self-report if child protective services had a concern about the family’s child maltreatment. Multivariate logistic regression models were run to test if family interior (i.e., inside house conditions) or exterior (i.e., immediate outside house conditions) environment would predict child abuse and neglect, while controlling for a series of covariates.

Results

Results indicated that family exterior environment was not related to any type of child abuse and neglect. However, family interior environment was significantly associated with child neglect (OR = 1.10; 95% CI = 1.02–1.20), but not with physical abuse, emotional abuse, and sexual abuse.

Conclusions

Study findings suggest that family interior environment is significantly associated with initial or ongoing child neglect. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.

Mental health among university employees during the COVID-19 pandemic: The role of previous life trauma and current posttraumatic stress symptoms

Posted on November 21, 2022January 18, 2024

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.

Abstract

Objective: Previous studies indicated that the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has harmed the mental health of diverse samples. Adopting a trauma lens with a sample of university faculty and staff, this study examined risk conferred by previous exposure to traumatic life events (TLE) on pandemic-related mental health harm (MHH) and stress and the mediating influence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Method: In Spring 2021, employees (N = 641) of a public university in the United States completed an online cross-sectional survey, including validated scales of TLE and PTSD and single-item measures of MHH and stress taken from published COVID-19 studies. A structural probit model was used to estimate: (a) direct effects of cumulative TLE on PTSD, MHH, and stress; and (b) indirect effects of cumulative TLE via PTSD adjusting for age. Gender was tested as a moderating influence. Results: Nearly 36% of the sample reported positive PTSD screens along with high levels of MHH (22.5%) and stress (42.3%). Cumulative TLE was significantly and positively associated with MHH and stress. Both genders experienced a negative impact on mental health and stress either fully or partially through PTSD symptoms; however, the gender by trauma interaction term was not significant. As age decreased, PTSD and MHH increased. Conclusion: Results suggest that PTSD symptoms play a crucial role in the experience of MHH and stress during the pandemic for those who endured previous trauma. Implications for employer policies, public health messaging, and mental health services are explored.

ICFW Newsletter, Fall 2022

Posted on November 21, 2022April 13, 2026

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

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

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

Recent ICFW Publications

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.

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

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.

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

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

Quasinatural experiment of postnatal home visiting: An independent impact study of Family Connects

Posted on October 25, 2022January 18, 2024

Mersky, J. P., Choi, C., & Plummer Lee, C. (2022). Quasinatural experiment of postnatal home visiting: An independent impact study of Family Connects. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 63(5), 783-789.

Family Connects (FC) is a postnatal nurse home visiting program that has scale-up potential because it is brief, inexpensive, and universal. Three investigations have linked Family Connects to improved maternal and family outcomes, but no independent impact studies have been conducted to date. This study investigates a FC program in Racine County, WI that was implemented by a multimunicipal health department in partnership with a local hospital.

Impact of home visiting programs on parenting stress in low-income women: Findings from a community-based trial at��an urban health department

Posted on October 25, 2022January 18, 2024

Mersky, J. P., Janczewski, C. E., Plummer Lee, C., & Yasin, T. (2022). Impact of home visiting programs on parenting stress in low-income women: Findings from a community-based trial at an urban health department. Children and Youth Services Review, 142, 106638.

Four decades of home visiting research has yet to reveal clear implications regarding the amount and type of services required to produce intended outcomes like reduced parenting stress. This study compared the effects of two home visiting programs on parenting stress and examined whether depressive symptoms and social support were associated with stress levels and differential program effects. Data were collected during an impact study at an urban health department in the Midwest United States from 237 low-income pregnant women who were referred for services between April 2014 and March 2017. Referrals were randomly assigned to a Healthy Families America program or a briefer prenatal care coordination program. A third quasi-experimental study group included women who were referred to but did not receive services. Data on demographics, depressive symptoms, and social support were collected at baseline near the time of program enrollment; 210 participants completed post-baseline parenting stress assessments at up to three time points during the child’s first year. Results from mixed model repeated measures analysis of covariance showed that receiving prenatal care coordination was associated with lower parental distress at 14–60 days postpartum. Neither intervention was linked to reduced stress at 6 or 12 months postpartum. Higher depressive symptoms and lower social support predicted greater stress. Depressive symptoms moderated the effects of prenatal care coordination, with benefits concentrated among participants with higher depression scores. Joining recent calls for greater precision in home visiting, the findings highlight the need to optimize limited resources by effectively tailoring services to address specific outcomes in different populations and contexts.

Intergenerational transmission of parental adverse childhood experiences and children’s outcomes: A scoping review

Posted on October 25, 2022January 18, 2024

Zhang, L., Mersky, J. P., Gruber, A. M., & Kim, J. Y. (2022). Intergenerational transmission of parental adverse childhood experiences and children’s outcomes: A scoping review. Trauma, Violence & Abuse.

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are among the leading environmental causes of morbidity and mortality. Extending research on within-generation effects, more recent scholarship has explored between-generation consequences of ACEs. Despite growing interest in the intergenerational effects of parents’ ACEs on children’s outcomes, this line of scholarship has yet to be coalesced into a comprehensive review. The current study is a scoping review on the intergenerational transmission of parental ACEs and children’s outcomes. Ten databases such as PubMed, APA PsycArticles, and Social Work Abstracts were searched. To be included, empirical studies must have been published in English and analyzed associations between a cumulative measure of at least four parental ACEs and children’s outcomes. Sixty-eight studies qualified for the review and, among these, 60 were published in the most recent 5 years (2018–2022). Fifty-one studies had sample sizes smaller than 500, and 55 focused on the effect of maternal ACEs. Nearly all studies demonstrated that parental ACEs could affect children’s outcomes directly or indirectly via mechanisms like maternal mental health problems or parenting-related factors. By scoping the extant literature, this review advances the knowledge base regarding the intergenerational impacts of parental childhood trauma and children’s outcomes. It also reveals methodological limitations that should be addressed in future research to strengthen causal inferences along with practical implications for interventions that aim to interrupt the intergenerational transmission of trauma.

Podcast Guests

Posted on August 31, 2022April 2, 2026

Tim Grove

Senior Consultant

Tim Grove, MSSW, is a senior consultant at Wellpoint Care Network (formerly SaintA), a human services agency whose mission it is to facilitate equity, learning, healing and wellness for all. He has over 25 years of professional experience in a variety of direct care, administrative and executive positions. Tim created, developed and lead Wellpoint’s Trauma Informed Care (TIC) initiatives. He created a TIC training curriculum centered around the Seven Essential Ingredients, or 7ei, of understanding and practicing TIC. Tim and the training team at Wellpoint have used the 7ei framework to train more than 60,000 people from diverse disciplines over the past 15 years.
Tim is an Affiliate of the Institute for Child and Family Well-being.

Tim is a Mentor with and a Master Trainer in . Tim and the Wellpoint team’s work has been highlighted and published in a number of magazines, journals and newspapers. He was the lead project manager of a three year research study on the effectiveness of 7ei in child welfare outcomes which demonstrated positive effect on creating placement stability and permanency for kids. Tim is recognized nationally as a trauma informed care expert and .

Ashlee Jackson
– Milwaukee
Family Support Specialist I

Ashlee Jackson is a Family Support Specialist II at Children’s Wisconsin in Milwaukee. She has worked for Children’s for 8 years, 6 of those as a Family Support Specialist, and 2 in our Prevention Program as a Home Visitor. She also has volunteer experience supporting families at the . Ashlee graduated with her BSSW from UW-Milwaukee.

Jennifer Jones

Chief Strategy Officer

Jennifer Jones, MSW, serves as the Chief Strategy Officer at Prevent Child Abuse America (PCA America) where she develops, implements, and advocates for an integrated strategic framework to help grow PCA America’s leadership role consistent with national prevention priorities, and serves as the lead on regional and national strategic partnerships. Prior to her role with PCA America, Jones was the Director of the and the Co-Director of the Safety and Resilience Impact Area at the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities. Jones led all aspects of the Institute, including raising $1.7 million for the 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 . 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 , 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 and as a child welfare policy advisor in the Wisconsin Division of Children and Family Services. Jones is an affiliate of the Institute for Child and Family Well-Being, a joint project of Children’s Wisconsin and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Jones is also a member of the and serves on the Board of Directors of the . Jennifer received her master’s in social work from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and bachelor’s in social work from Marquette University.

Hannah Kirk

Healthy Start Supervisor

Hannah Kirk is the Healthy Start Supervisor in Milwaukee, and was previously a Family Case Manager Training Specialist with Children’s Wisconsin, who partners with the Division of Milwaukee Child Protective Services.

Hannah has dedicated her professional career to Child Welfare within Milwaukee County, where she has worked extensively with children who have adverse childhood experiences. Hannah has a decade of experience in child welfare, where she has served children and families extensively with strengths-based and evidence-based interventions. Hannah has trained several child welfare case managers at Children’s Wisconsin over the last four years, supporting service implementation, and highlighting the importance of community engagement.

Hannah earned her Masters of Social Work from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2021 and served as an intern with the Institute. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.

Bryan Samuels

Executive Director

Bryan Samuels is the Executive Director of Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago, a nonprofit policy research institute focused on connecting research to action. Under Bryan’s leadership, Chapin Hall is actively working in more than 40 states in building knowledge and creating solutions with and for public system partners, community leaders and members, and families—all with an aim to improve the wellbeing of children and youth and ensure all families thrive.

Across his career, Bryan’s work has centered on identifying and addressing inequities using evidence in policymaking. Key accomplishments include the creation and application of a well-being framework based on the best developmental understanding of normal childhood development; formation of a shared and actionable understanding of the effects of exposure to violence, trauma, poverty, and adverse childhood experiences on the mental, emotional, behavioral, and physical health of children; and emphasis on the importance of building the capacity of public and private child- and family-serving systems and organizations to focus on and produce positive outcomes.

Bryan was appointed by President Obama as the Commissioner of the , where he served from 2009 to 2013 and leveraged the work of federal departments including Health and Human Services, Justice, and Education, among others, on behalf of children in foster care, youth experiencing housing instability, and families impacted by domestic violence. He received his B.A. in Economics from the University of Notre Dame in 1989 and his M.P.P. from the University of Chicago-Harris School in 1993.

Dr. Kristen Slack

Dr. Kristen Slack’s research focuses on understanding the role of poverty and economic hardship in the etiology of child maltreatment, with a particular emphasis on child neglect. She is also interested in the caseload dynamics of child welfare systems in relation to other public benefit systems, and in community-based programs designed to prevent child maltreatment. Her work advances approaches to better coordinating services and benefits to effectively address the economic needs of families at risk for child maltreatment, and improved assessment strategies for identifying risks and protective factors related to child neglect. Her current research is supported by the and the . Dr. Slack has been published in dozens of academic journals, authored dozens of reports and manuscripts, and been primary investigator on over 20 federally-funded research projects.

Dr. Slack is also the founder of , a free platform for professionals and doctoral students in academia to showcase their work, network, and find resources for college teaching, research, higher education administration, and student affairs services.

Theresa Swiechowski
– Merrill
Family Support Supervisor

Theresa Swiechowski is a Family Support Supervisor for Children’s Wisconsin’s Northwoods Family Resource Centers, where she has worked for 7 years in various roles. She is a UW Oshkosh graduate with a bachelor’s degree in Human Services. After moving around a bit from Oshkosh to the state of Maine, she and her husband returned to her hometown of Merrill, Wisconsin to raise their 5 children. The balance of work and family is always a challenge for families and theirs was no exception. Theresa’s career, although weaved in and out of raising her kids, has always been working in the human service field but mainly in case management involving mental health, addiction, and parent education. Over the years, she has seen those that were faced with the most difficult obstacles, build resilience and become super heroes of their own stories.

Soua Thao
– Wausau
Home Visitor

Soua Thao has been a Home Visitor for Children’s Wisconsin for 16 years. She serves parents of young children from before they have their child up to their child’s fifth birthday. Soua works primarily with Hmong families in Central Wisconsin. Over the past 18 months, I have had the pleasure of getting to know Soua as she has worked with me as a champion for elevating the voice of the families that she serves to better design and improve our programs. I was thrilled when she accepted our invitation to participate in this podcast as she brings so much experience and understanding of the families that she serves, their strengths, the challenges that they face, and the opportunities that our programs and systems have to support and empower them further.

Bregetta Wilson

Lived Experience Coordinator

Bregetta Wilson, MS, LPC-IT, is a positive person, an advocate, community leader, and change agent. She has been working for and with families for the last eighteen years. Bregetta has worked with on Capitol Hill to bring awareness and issues regarding children and families on behalf of Wisconsin. She is a recipient of the Black Excellence Award for her work around Child & Youth Advocacy. Bregetta’s current role within the Department of Children and Families includes working with Lived Experience Partners to elevate the voices of families and children within system and policy change.

Through her organization . Bregetta supports organizations with mental health and community engagement efforts. She is a contracted psychotherapist for the , providing mental health services to families in Wisconsin.
She is active in her community around social justice efforts and serves on the boards of the , and ; she is a member of Professional Dimensions, a network of women professionals in Milwaukee and an Alum of Forward48.

A graduate of Alverno and Cardinal Stritch University, she resides in Milwaukee with her fiancé, three children, and pet Husky. Bregetta enjoys going to Orangetheory, dancing, traveling, collecting crystals, practicing holistic aspects of healing, and spending time with family and friends.

Julie Woodbury
– Black River Falls
Family Preservation and Support Manager

Dr. Julie Woodbury has been actively involved in the education of families and youth for more than 30 years. Her focus has been on teaching resilience to emerging adults through youth education and development, staff management, and leadership. Julie has been with Children’s Wisconsin for 6 years and is currently a Family Preservation and Support Manager in Black River Falls, Wisconsin. Dr. Woodbury supervises the delivery of child abuse prevention services to Children’s Wisconsin clients in the Western Wisconsin area. She holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Technical Management, a Master’s Degree in Public Administration with an emphasis on Non-Profit Organizations, and a Doctorate in Education.

ICFW Innovations in Prevention Webinar Series Episode 1: Wisconsin Child Abuse Prevention Board

Posted on August 23, 2022September 17, 2025

August 17, 2022

Cover for webinar series with photo of Rebecca Mather

Innovation, the process of trying new ideas to solve new or under addressed challenges has long been central to child maltreatment prevention. The ICFW Innovations in Prevention webinar series focuses on elevating innovations in Wisconsin, serve as a platform to share new ideas, and make connections across communities. This webinar focuses on the primary prevention of child maltreatment tactic referred to as the Family Strengthening approach. Rebecca Mather from Wisconsin’s Child Abuse Prevention Board provides a presentation focuses on:

The dynamics and internal resources of the individual family as well as the community and social environment that surrounds it
The Protective Factors Framework and how it is integrated into primary prevention, highlighting specific projects to support and strengthen families.
A review of the Five for Families model and how it aligns with the Protective Factors Framework to support families.

Resources:

ICFW Newsletter, Summer 2022

Posted on August 16, 2022April 13, 2026

In This Issue:

Program Design and 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.

Illustration of person with puzzle pieces in brain

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

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

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.

Graph showing ECBI scores decreasing from week 1 to week 7

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

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

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

Translational Design: An Introduction

Posted on August 4, 2022September 17, 2025

The Institute for Child and Family Well-Being was proud to host the Translational Design: An Introduction workshop led by Luke Waldo, ICFW Director of Program Design and Community Engagement, on August 3rd from 10:00-12:00 CST.

Why?

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. Over time, and without adequate supports, overloaded families can become vulnerable to adverse experiences, ranging from toxic levels of stress to involvement in the child welfare system, and even family separation for reasons of neglect.

A staggering 36,000 randomized controlled trials are published each year, on average, and it typically takes about 17 years for findings to reach clinical practice. Our understanding of brain science and human development has advanced dramatically in the past 20 years, and many of our evidence-based interventions have not caught up, so we must design and adapt solutions to ensure that they are effective. What’s in it for you?

What’s in it for you?

The Introduction to Translational Design workshop is an interactive presentation of:

The impact of stress on childhood development and family functioning;
Engaging content and context experts in the design and improvement processes;
Identifying and framing the challenges that overloaded families face;
Brainstorming and designing solutions to the challenges that the overloaded families face;
Approaching learning as an outcome; and
Design and strategic learning tools.

How?

Through an introductory session that explores why translational design is essential to balancing the latest brain science with the strengths and needs of your local context, participants will begin framing their programs through these questions:

How might we center the voice and experience of overloaded families so that we may better understand their strengths, challenges and needs?
How might we design our services so that they translate the latest science into the greatest possible impact on reducing the burden on overloaded families?

Innovation and child neglect prevention

Posted on July 29, 2022April 13, 2026

By Gabriel McGaughey and Rachael Meixensperger

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.

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.

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

Helping nurses identify and report sentinel injuries of child abuse in infants

Posted on July 27, 2022January 18, 2024

Cleek, E. A., Totka, J. P., Sheets, L. K., Mersky, J. P., Haglund, K. L. (2022). Helping nurses identify and report sentinel injuries of child abuse in infants. Pediatric Nursing Journal, 48(3), 123-128.

Abstract

Sentinel injuries (SIs) are some of the earliest and most readily identifiable red flags of child abuse. SIs are unexpected bruising or intra-oral injuries in premobile infants and highly correlated with child abuse. However, SIs are not always recognized and reported as red flags of child abuse. Infants are left at risk for continued harm when SIs are not identified and reported. Although increasing nurses’ knowledge of SIs is important, child abuse researchers and behavioral theorists have identified that knowledge alone does not predict nurses’ behaviors when identifying and reporting suspected child abuse. Other predictors may include implicit biases, interpersonal and interprofessional relationships, and nurses’ understanding of mandatory reporting laws. Nurses may improve their recognition and comfort of reporting SIs and all suspected child abuse by being alert for SIs, being aware of potential implicit biases, communicating in non-technical language with families, understanding the clinical evaluation of suspected child abuse, and understanding the processes of Child Protective Services (CPS). Using these steps, nurses can fulfill their legal and ethical responsibilities to protect and advocate for victimized children.

Secondary traumatic stress among home visiting professionals

Posted on July 8, 2022January 18, 2024

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

Abstract

Objective: This study examined the reliability and factor structure of the Secondary Traumatic Stress Scale (STSS) and the prevalence and correlates of secondary traumatic stress (STS) among home visitors.

Method: Survey data were collected between 2015 and 2020 from 301 home visitors with caseloads. Participants completed the 17-item STSS, which assesses intrusion, avoidance, and arousal symptoms using the DSM-IV-TR diagnostic criteria. Internal reliabilities of the scale and subscales were measured and confirmatory factor analyses were performed to validate hypothesized model solutions. Symptom prevalence among the sample was calculated and linear regressions were conducted to examine whether personal and workplace factors were associated with STS.

Results: Analyses confirmed that the STSS had sound internal consistency and that both 3- and single-factor measurement models fit the data. Approximately 10% of home visitors met the clinical criteria for PTSD, though prevalence decreased to 8% after omitting an intrusion item that was endorsed by most respondents. Increased exposure to adverse childhood experiences and poorer work environment ratings were associated with increased STS. Non-Hispanic White race was associated with elevated arousal symptoms. No other personal or workplace factors were associated with scores on the STSS full scale or subscales.

Conclusion: This study reaffirms that the STSS has sound psychometric properties, but it also raises questions about the prevalence and etiology of STS. Given the likely costs of PTSD to personal well-being and professional efficacy, further research is needed to advance the measurement and prediction of secondary traumatic stress.

ICFW Newsletter, Spring 2022

Posted on May 17, 2022April 13, 2026

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

Minecraft® to Build Our Children’s Social Skills

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:

Parenting With PRIDE Design and Implementation Prototype

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

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