Amy M. Salazar

Purpose: To assess the effects of a child welfare workforce training-and-coaching model on workers’ perceptions of individual and organizational capacity to engage youth in case/permanency planning. Method: Five state pilot sites—Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, and Rhode Island—selected intervention and comparison regions based on population density and characteristics. Intervention groups received the training-and-coaching model; comparison groups received no intervention. Pre–post surveys were completed ( N = 703) between January 2023 and September 2024. Analysis of covariance models were used to assess outcomes. Results: Intervention groups showed small, significant improvements in caseworkers’ self-perceptions of confidence, skills, and agency culture supportive of youth–adult partnership; in supervisors’ and caseworkers’ commitment to meaningful youth–adult participation; and in supervisors’ perceptions of organizational capacity for change. No significant changes were observed in worker well-being or job satisfaction. Conclusions: Training paired with supervisor coaching may strengthen workforce capacity for youth engagement, though attention to workforce well-being during implementation is warranted.

Being a foster, relative or adoptive parent (herein referred to as ‘resource parent’) is a crucial but highly challenging role. Resource parent trainings are designed to build knowledge, skills, preparation and confidence in resource parents prior to beginning their support of children and youth. However, often resource parents go into these roles feeling unconfident and unprepared to fulfil their responsibilities. The National Training and Development Curriculum for Foster and Adoptive Parents (NTDC) is a new curriculum developed with support from the United States Children's Bureau. This study compares the perceived preparation, confidence and willingness to care for a variety of subgroups of children at baseline and 6 months after training of caregivers who participated in NTDC training curriculum versus training as usual to assess whether the NTDC curriculum led to improved caregiver preparation to foster or adopt. NTDC caregivers were found to have more positive differences than control group caregivers from baseline (pretraining) to follow‐up on confidence to care for children considered challenging, confidence to care for children across multiple age ranges and perceived preparation to care for children aged 13 years and older. NTDC is a promising new resource that can help overcome some traditional resource parent training and preparation‐related challenges.

Purpose: Caregiving for children in foster, kinship, and adoptive placements (hereon referred to as resource parenting) is a challenging role that requires unique knowledge and skills, but there is limited evidence for currently available trainings. The National Training and Development Curriculum for Foster and Adoptive Parents (NTDC) was recently developed with support from the US Children's Bureau. Methods: Baseline and 6-month follow-up surveys from 540 resource parents receiving NTDC training and 409 receiving training-as-usual (propensity score matched; group assignment based on location) were compared on a variety of knowledge types and skills. Results: NTDC parents had larger growth in trauma-informed parenting, potential to promote positive child development, and key resource parent knowledge from baseline to post-training. NTDC parent growth in receptivity to working with biological parents approached but did not reach statistical significance. Conclusions: NTDC offers promise as a new training resource for improving resource parent knowledge and skills.