New website provides child welfare professionals with evidence-based resources on child development

The Center for Early Education and Development (CEED) and the Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare (CASCW) at the University of Minnesota have launched Child Development for Child Welfare, a website featuring evidence-based resources on child development aimed at frontline child welfare workers as well as their supervisors.

A group of children look intently at a book held by an adult. One child leans forward to point at the page

“Our goal in building the Child Development for Child Welfare website was to make information about child development easily available to child protection workers and to those who train them,” says Stacy Gehringer, MSW, LICSW, director of outreach at CASCW. “When visitors access the materials on the site, they’ll notice that most of the example situations that are discussed relate to child welfare. But we also want to get the word out about the site to people who work and interact with young children and their families in a variety of other capacities.”

“Guardians ad litem, public defenders, and judges are one group of professionals that comes to mind,” adds Alyssa Meuwissen, PhD, research associate at CEED. “These resources are also appropriate for educators, foster care providers, and adoptive parents. From brain development to toxic stress to cultural humility, there is a wealth of information available on the site.”

Visitors to the website can browse by subject or by the format of the resource, including videos, podcasts, and online trainings. All of the resources provided are designed to meet the professional development needs of people working in the child welfare discipline, both in content and in methodology. All are available to access for free at cd4cw.umn.edu.

This training product was supported by Federal Title IV-E funds via grant #GK302 from Minnesota Department of Human Services, Children and Family Services Division.

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