Changing Minds, Meeting Criteria: Caseworker Training on Economic Supports As Part of Meeting Ffpsa Clearinghouse Requirements

Background: Evidence indicates that economic factors, including insufficient and inconsistent material resources, drive child welfare system-involvement through direct and indirect pathways. For child welfare-impacted families, resources may be available but awareness of and access to supports depends on caseworkers. Yet, caseworkers are largely untrained in the importance of material supports in preventing maltreatment. Additionally, lack of resources likely reduces the efficacy and impact of case management interventions as families are constantly diverted from attempts to improve their parenting knowledge and skills and address mental health issues by their struggle to meet basic needs. Closing this gap along with other approaches to increasing family resources is a promising approach to preventing child maltreatment.

Federal clearinghouses are the arbiter of allowable federally-matched funding. For the widest uptake and adoption to benefit the largest number of children and families, economic supports, including cash, concrete, and material supports, must meet federal criteria as an intervention, including having implementation materials such as a manual.

We present the implementation and evaluation of a manualized caseworker training program that is a critical part of a two-part intervention that combines case management with flexible financial support provided directly to child welfare-impacted families. The training builds on research from a prior study-phase on worker attitudes toward material supports as a child maltreatment prevention approach that found significant resistance to the concept. Workers expressed perspectives that indicated they viewed poverty more as an individual failing rather than a combination of structural factors and individual circumstances and choices.

Method: Fifty-one caseworkers, managers, and supervisors completed the five-hour in-person training on: the role of economic supports in preventing child maltreatment; economic challenges to achieving and maintaining stability; and the potential for cash transfers to support families in developing and demonstrating the skills, knowledge, and behaviors to provide safe and consistent care. Pre-tests and post-tests were administered to all participants.

Result: Analyses of pre- and post-tests showed consistent and positive shifts in attitude after the training. Respondents (62%) reported the training changed their views “some” or “a lot” on structural racism as a major issue; 40% agreed more that poverty was a systemic problem; 45% agreed more that resources could decrease neglect and 40% that resources could decrease abuse. Much of the changes came from participants who selected “agree a little” or were neutral at the beginning of training. Importantly, the training did not elicit a strong adverse response; only one participant expressed a more strongly negative view after training.

Conclusion: Our understanding of economic supports in increasing family stability and preventing child maltreatment continues to develop. However, the widespread availability of these potential supports will only be possible to the extent that these programs and policies both meet the criteria for adoption and uptake under current maltreatment prevention funding streams and can be effectively implemented in usual care. Evaluation results indicate that worker attitudes toward resources as a form of prevention can be changed but that without training workers may not be supportive of this type of intervention.