James Satterwhite Academy:
Leading the Professional Development of Child Welfare Staff
By Ervine Kimerling, Executive Director, James Satterwhite Academy
As ACS builds a more professional staff and continues to implement the Reform Plan, it has become apparent that we must reframe the historical split between education and training in our field. A new paradigm is emerging, in which the relationship between social work education and child welfare training is one of inter-relationship rather than division. The foundation of this new paradigm is the work of engagement and collaboration with families, service providers and communities to achieve the outcomes of safety, timely permanency and child and adolescent well being.ACS is working closely with NASW and the Consortium of the NYC and NYS Schools of Social Work to make the best use of our mutual resources in support of our mutual goals. We share an interest to promote child welfare as a profession, to inspire both those considering and those already working in child welfare, to educate staff with broad knowledge and the ability to think critically and to ensure competency in the abilities necessary to do this work well. This is the mission of the James Satterwhite Academy, where we are working towards "best practice" and a professionalized workforce through all of our training and professional development initiatives.
The James Satterwhite Academy is leading the effort in New York City to implement the Common Core Training System, a "training" which includes extensive reading of professional literature, practice based skill building, and (similar to field placement) closely supervised on the job application of skills alternating with classroom training. This will be the standard, pre-service training for all New York City child welfare staff in ACS and its contracted agencies, for all programs from child protection through adoption. No newly hired child welfare caseworker or supervisor will be able to carry a full caseload until this training is successfully completed. All current staff will take a condensed version of the common core, so that all staff, old and new, will share common purpose and practice.
This outcome based training has a framework of practice as its unifying element which describes the outcomes, values, practice principles, casework process and abilities needed for child welfare work in NYC. The values expressed in the Common Core reflect not only ACS' reforms, but also the core values of the social work profession. Our vision is that staff will approach even the most troubled families with respect and empathy, view families and communities through a strength based perspective, involve families in mutual service planning and help families share responsibility for making life changing decisions. Because we believe that this is one example where education and training come together, the NYS/OCFS and ACS have asked the NYS consortium of schools of social work to make recommendations for revisions to the common core that would allow it to be credit bearing in the schools of social work.
The James Satterwhite Academy, through its Professional Development Program, has become a national role model for the implementation of an education program supporting the professional-ization of NYC child welfare staff. Both scholarship and self financed staff are able to take advantage of release time and paid field placement (currently ACS has 200 staff in field placement). One hundred full MSW scholarships are awarded annually to ACS staff, with a total of 200 staff in the scholarship program at any one time. Almost 100 partial scholarships are awarded to staff in the agencies that ACS contracts with, and 375 non-matriculated agency and ACS staff have the opportunity to take graduate credit courses via Distance Learning classrooms. We are tremendously encouraged by our strengthened relationship with NASW, the formation of the NYS and NYC consortiums of schools of social work, and the meetings between Commissioner Scoppetta and the Deans of the New York City Schools. As the ACS Renewed Plan of Action for the Administration for the Children's Services states, "….it will be the strengths of our partnerships that will ensure that the path laid out by the 1996 Reform Plan is continued and developed."