National Technical Assistance and Evaluation Center for Child Welfare Systems of Care Grantees

Who We Are

Improving Child Welfare Outcomes Through Systems of Care is a Children's Bureau initiative that grew out of the State CFSRs, which showed that serious deficiencies exist in most State child welfare agencies in terms of ensuring children's safety, finding them permanent homes, and promoting their well-being. Systems of care is a service delivery approach that builds partnerships to create a broad, integrated process for meeting families' multiple needs. This approach is based on the principles of interagency collaboration; individualized, strengths-based care practices; cultural competence; community-based services; accountability; and full participation of families at all levels of the system. Systems of care is not a "program" or "model"; instead, it serves as a framework for guiding processes and activities designed to meet the needs of children, youth, and families.

The Children's Bureau awarded funding to nine initiatives around the country to demonstrate systemic changes in the way States and Tribes provide services to children, youth, and families. In addition, the Children's Bureau funded the National Technical Assistance and Evaluation Center for Child Welfare Systems of Care Grantees to support the grantees through programmatic and evaluation technical assistance, evaluation, and training.

How We Can Help

The National Technical Assistance and Evaluation Center for Child Welfare Systems of Care Grantees provides training and technical assistance and evaluation to recipients of funds from the Children's Bureau for the Improving Child Welfare Outcomes Through Systems of Care demonstration initiative. The Center develops resources and provides technical assistance that supports the grantees' efforts to improve outcomes for children, youth, and families. Through its evaluation efforts, the Center also produces information on the initiative's development, implementation, and effectiveness.

Technical Assistance
Technical assistance efforts to grantees include:

Identifying grantee needs and providing technical assistance to support the development, implementation, and sustainability of their system of care efforts
Providing technical assistance through liaisons assigned to each grantee and conducting additional technical assistance through presentations, conference calls, meetings, and other means
Creating and distributing products to help grantees and others implement the systems of care framework
Developing products that integrate technical assistance experience, evaluation findings, and other information to support wider understanding and implementation of systems of care

Evaluation
The Center provides assistance with evaluation efforts that include:

Working with sites and local evaluators to develop and implement a national cross-site evaluation of the implementation of systems of care in the demonstration sites
Providing training and technical assistance as needed to support national evaluation data collection
Providing evaluation data and results to sites for program improvement, social marketing, or other uses
Developing products that integrate evaluation findings, technical assistance experience, and other information to support wider understanding and implementation of systems of care

Maintaining a Website With Resources
The National TA and Evaluation Center provides content to Child Welfare Information Gateway for the Systems of Care section of the Information Gateway website; this section includes an extensive library of resources relating to the systems of care principles.

For More Information

Address:	Caliber/ICF 10530 Rosehaven Street, Suite 400 Fairfax, VA 22030
Phone:	703.385.3200
Fax:	703.385.3206
Email:	JGriffith@icfi.com
Website:	http://www.childwelfare.gov/systemwide/service/soc/
Contact:	Janet Griffith, Director

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