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In this blog post for the Global Social Service Workforce Alliance, part of a series celebrating Social Service Workforce Week, Colleen Fitzgerald writes about the need to support the social service workforce and to promote the well-being of caseworkers and social workers. "While the work itself is deeply meaningful and essential, it is also relentless in hurdles and stress. There are often complicated family dynamics, dangerous environments and significant legal and bureaucratic obstacles. In addition, witnessing the suffering of children and their families on a constant basis can…
According to the advocacy organization, First Focus, the U.S. Senate Finance Committee is planning to consider new legislation known as the Family First Act in January 2016. The legislation would direct investments at keeping children safe and supported at home and in family-like settings. The Act addresses longstanding barriers in federal child welfare financing by providing targeted new investments in evidence-based prevention, intervention and post-permanency services and supports. The legislation is significant because it would allow states, for the first time, to…
Report: Most Social Workers Happy in Role Despite Unpaid Overtime, Cuts and COVID Mental Health Toll
UK practitioners find the impact they have on people's wellbeing most rewarding but are struggling with administrative burdens, inadequate staffing and workloads, finds first annual British Association of Social Workers (BASW) membership survey.
The analysis of the Step Up to Social Work and Frontline programmes found participants of both, while highly trained and valued by employers, often found the move to a full caseload a “major step up”.
But it said that “dissonance” between an idealised conception of social work and experience of local authority practice – leading to “disappointment” – was much more pronounced among graduates of the latter programme.
About 2,770 children in eastern Congo lost one or both parents to the 2018-2020 Ebola outbreak, the United Nations estimates, and have ended up living with relatives, in orphanages, or even on the streets.
Traumatised and shunned due to discrimination around the disease, many children must work in order to eat, according to local advocates, who said efforts to care for and educate Ebola orphans were falling short due to a lack of funds and interest.
Family for Every Child has launched a new social network platform for child rights practitioners, called Changemakers for Children (changemakersforchildren.community). Child rights practitioners are invited to sign-up to the platform and join a global movement of local leaders working in children’s care and protection.
Changemakers for Children is primarily a space for local civil society organisations working in children’s care and protection to exchange knowledge and build connections across the globe. For the wider sector, it is a space to learn from local experts on the…
This infographic summarizes the information and recommendations provided in Better Care Network's discussion paper Violence Against Children and Care in Africa.
Violence Against Children and Care in Africa explores the interlinkages between violence against children (VAC) and children's care in the African context. The discussion paper presents the evidence from Africa about VAC within the family, highlighting how violence is a key contributing factor to family separation and placement in…
The Global Social Service Workforce Alliance is collecting stories from practitioners with experience working with families impacted by violence.
From the Alliance:
In your job, have you helped a family affected by violence? Tell us a story about working with a family, what you did, and the positive change that resulted from your work with them.
We want to gather information and stories based on the experiences of social service workers such as yourself and highlight examples of the positive impact that social service workers make every day. Using a…
The 2017 Global Flagship Report by Know Violence in Childhood exposes the troubling prevalence of childhood violence around the world, urging leaders to invest in prevention mechanisms to end violence against children.
In 2015, over 425,000 children were placed in foster care in the United States following reported incidents of abuse and neglect. Poorly delivered services by the strained child protection system, however, can cause considerable harm to children placed in care. Transforming the child welfare system will require evidenced-based changes in service delivery, including: improved and ongoing training to child welfare workers, enhanced preventive efforts, and the reallocation of resources.