Staff members Jon Garcia and Kirstin O'Dell demonstrate the Child Welfare Partnership's simulation facility with one of their cast of actors.
Having both the authority to take a child out of someone’s family and the mission to keep families safe and together is an extremely high-stress position to be in. That’s why the Child Welfare Partnership (CWP) within Portland State University's School of Social Work offers a variety of mandatory and optional training opportunities for those employed with the Oregon Department of Human Services.
Before they can carry cases or assess allegations of potential child maltreatment, child welfare workers must demonstrate the ability to interview a parent and child, while assessing the home environment for safety. To do so, the partnership runs a unique training simulation center in Salem, Oregon that’s also available to other partners who need preparation for field work.
“The simulations are a cornerstone to provide the worker and management with really concrete information about where they are in their professional development and readiness to begin field work,” said Marty Lowrey, the Child Welfare Partnership Director.
Created in September of 2017, it took between 12 and 18 months to get the physical simulation space, processes and skills in place for the partnership. Leased through Portland State University, the site is approximately 3,333 square feet, comprising five simulation spaces: three courtrooms, a family living room and a dining room. In addition, there is a computer lab for trainees to watch their simulation videos and complete self-assessment assignments. Connected to the state’s agencies, the partnership even hired youth involved with the probation department to help build the judges’ benches for the courtrooms.
Trainers for the simulator have all been Oregon child welfare practitioners themselves, coming directly from the field. “What we do is help trainers build the muscle around adult learning strategies, textures, training design, and curriculum writing,” Lowrey said. The partnership is also committed to having diversity on their team. Half of the current trainers identify from BIPOC communities.
The trainers provide the principles, and the simulation gives child welfare workers experiences like knocking on the door of a family and being cross-examined by a defense attorney. To play out these scenarios, the partnership hired a cast of actors to play judges, parents, and children, as well as several attorneys.
To accommodate for the pandemic, the partnership came up with a way to run simulations virtually using Zoom and adapted the case scenarios to include information relevant to the pandemic. The partnership reviewed their evaluation data and found that doing the simulations remotely did not significantly impact the quality of the experience.
“It’s actually positive,” said Lowrey, “Because they are simulating how they’re going to have to do a lot of their practice during this pandemic.”
Five years ago, the Child Welfare Partnership collaboratively developed their year-long training plan with Oregon Child Welfare. Throughout that year, child welfare workers build a portfolio with the partnership, including videos of their simulation. The portfolio also contains their self-assessment, knowledge scores, and work samples, allowing their supervisors to review the outcomes in one place. The training prepares them for carrying cases, assessing allegations of child maltreatment, preparing and presenting for success in court, trauma informed practice, and evaluating the well being needs of children, young adults, and family conditions.
“Those scenarios represent different kinds of cases and families that are likely to come in contact with either a public, private, or tribal child welfare setting,” said Lowrey, “They follow the kind of things that happen in cases.”
Sometimes they get information from the field about areas of practice that workers are struggling with, like expected outcomes or writing Conditions for Return. Maybe one worker does great in their court simulation, but has trouble when they encounter resistance during the parent interview. The simulation and portfolio both support child welfare, so customized field-based training can onboard new workers around their areas of strength and where they’ll need more support.
“When we put them into the simulation,” said Kirstin O’Dell, CWP’s Workforce Development Evaluations Manager, “They actually need to interact with somebody who they haven’t met before, who is playing the role of a parent or child being interviewed. They’re getting real emotion and some of the pushback. So they have to in-the-moment figure out how to proceed.”
Afterward, trainees get immediate feedback from the trainer, along with reflecting on what they did well and where they can improve. Trainees often report that the reflection opportunity is valuable, saying things like: “I didn’t know I was doing that thing with my face” or “I see now where the parent said something that I missed.”
What’s unique about the Child Welfare Partnership is that they work with subject matter experts and trainers to identify which skills should be exhibited in each simulation. Pairing this knowledge with a tool that anchors these skills to rating scales allows them to give detailed, clinical level feedback for each individual simulation. They use this data to not only benefit the individual trainees, but for program improvement as well.
The partnership is not only capable of creating other simulations for their partners, they also have availability. They’re currently running over 600 people a year through Oregon’s child welfare training, but only use the facility three to four days a month. This gives them the capacity to expand simulations and take on other partnerships. Outside of the Oregon Department of Human Services, they have been in discussion with court and community partners regarding how to leverage the simulation facility to strengthen our state’s work.
“In our state we’re underutilizing this center,” said Lowrey. “We have the capacity to let people practice essential skills around human engagement.”