PA Child Welfare Resource Center 1 County Connection: January

I ns i de t h i s I s s ue :

Highlighting the Positive

Work of Child Welfare

Social Workers

1

Foundations Certificates 2

Prerequisite Checks 2-4

Completion of Foundations Simulations

5

CWEB Student Enrollment in Foundations

5-7

Regional Team Contact Information

8

Highlighting the Positive Work of Child Welfare Social Workers

Submitted By: Andrea Merovich

Help us spread the news about the positive work of Pennsylvania’s

child welfare professionals! Each month, we focus on a theme

related to the field, using our media channels to publicize the

important work you do in the child welfare system for children and

families. Previous themes include celebrating educational successes,

National Adoption Month, and National Social Work Month.

Looking ahead, we will be focusing on the following themes:

• January: National Human Trafficking Awareness Month

• February: Black History Month and Parent Leadership Month

• March: National Social Work Month

• April: National Child Abuse Prevention Month

• May: National Foster Care Month

Please join us in celebrating the successes and the meaningful

contributions of child welfare professionals. Please share, repost, or

retweet any of the stories, tools, and resources we feature. What’s

more, if you have a meaningful tool or resource, or a positive news

article or story of resilience from your own team, please share them

with us at anm222@pitt.edu. Together we can shine a spotlight on

the meaningful work of Pennsylvania’s child welfare professionals!

PA Child Welfare Resource Center 2 County Connection: January

Foundations Information and Updates

Submitted by Jenna Meister

Prerequisite Checks

Submitted by Wendy Unger

As we continue with the Foundations Series, we are always striving to make improvements. The Resource Center wants to thank you and the county advisors for supporting your caseworkers in completing their mandatory online prerequisites to the in-person modules. Now that the majority of the counties have sent someone through the Foundations Series, we are no longer sending out 48-hour reminder emails to you regarding incomplete pre-requisites. Participants continue to get reminders with their registration confirmation and at 72 and 24 hours prior to the training.

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Foundations Certificates

The CWRC team would like to share how Foundations participants receive training certificates as they complete their Foundations modules. When Foundations participants complete each online and field work module, they will receive a certificate in E-Learn. These certificates can be accessed by the participant at any time by logging in to E-Learn. E-Learn certificates are PDF documents that may be saved or printed at any time.

When participants complete an in-person Foundations module, the CWRC will process their attendance and send certificates to the county training liaison. Certificates for in-person modules cannot be accessed in E-Learn. Participants who completed in-person Foundations modules between July 1-December 1, 2019 will see a document in E-Learn titled “Verification of Attendance” for each in-person module. This document was used as a “placeholder” in our E-Learn system to grant participants access to their next online module. In early December, the CWRC team automated the enrollment of participants in each online module in the Foundations series, and removed the “placeholder” documents from the E-Learn system. Any participants completing Foundations in-person modules on or after December 2, 2019 will not see the placeholder “Verification of Attendance” document in their E-Learn account. Please be assured that each participant who attends in-person Foundations modules will continue to receive credit for attending and will continue to receive official training certificates. All Foundations certificates will be distributed to counties in the same manner as certificates for all other CWRC trainings.

For assistance obtaining online or field work training certificates, please contact the CWRC Help Desk at helpcwtp@pitt.edu. For questions about in-person training certificates, please contact your CWRC Regional Resource Specialist.

PA Child Welfare Resource Center 3 County Connection: January

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Many of you have requested access to view the progress of your staff’s prerequisite work. To help assist you in making sure staff have completed their work prior to attending the in-person trainings, we have created a way for you to check in real time. Please follow the instructions below and contact your Regional Resource Specialist if you have any questions.

Prerequisite Check How To

1. To access this prerequisite check, please select the link http://forms.cwrc.pitt.edu/PreWorkCheck/. Of note, this link is only accessible by using the link; it is not available on the CWRC website. Please bookmark the link for future use. The link should only be used by approved users and for the sole purpose of checking prerequisite completion. The page will look like this:

2. Once you have clicked on the link, you will need to enter the Workshop ID number that is associated with the training, select the date of the training, then hit the “continue” button (all workshop IDs for the Foundation modules will be added to the training calendar).

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PA Child Welfare Resource Center 4 County Connection: January

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3. This will take you to the next page that will have the course name, Workshop ID number, and date. The screenshot below shows what the prerequisite is for that particular in person training and who has or has not completed the online work.

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PA Child Welfare Resource Center 5 County Connection: January

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CWEB Student Enrollment in Foundations

Letter from OCYF, emailed to counties on September 10, 2019 is shown on the next two pages.

Completion of Foundations Simulation

As a reminder, all course requirements (prerequisites online, in-person, and field modules) must be completed in order for participants to receive credit for the courses and be eligible for certification as a Direct Service Caseworker in Pennsylvania. In particular, participants must complete all four simulation activities. The simulation experiences, whereby participants interact with a standardized clients or with standardized attorneys, provide participants with unique and realistic experiences and challenges. Most of the participants have responded to these simulation experiences with enthusiasm, and others with trepidation. A few participants have questioned whether they are ready for these simulation experiences, and a few questioned whether they have correctly chosen a profession in public child welfare. When instructors encounter participants who are reluctant to actively participate in a simulation, they will encourage the participant to proceed. However, we are not asking our instructors to insist or force participants to proceed in a simulation experience when they are experiencing serious reservations or anxiety. On the very few occasions when it is determined that the participant will not proceed with the simulation, we have asked our instructors to encourage the participant to remain in the class, inform their advisor of their experience when they return to the office, and plan to repeat the module in full before receiving credit. Thank you for your support of the Child Welfare Resource Center and for quality service to children, youth and families. Please contact Wendy Unger, wau2@pitt.edu, if you have any questions or concerns.

PA Child Welfare Resource Center 6 County Connection: January

PA Child Welfare Resource Center 7 County Connection: January

PA Child Welfare Resource Center 8 County Connection: January

Regional Team Contact Information

Our local number is 717-795-9048

Our fax number is 717-795-8013

Registration and winter weather number 1-877-297-7488

Central

Nick Ranney, Regional Team Supervisor ner20@pitt.edu

Mackenzie Seiler, Practice Improvement Specialist mas739@pitt.edu

Christina Fatzinger, Practice Improvement Specialist cmf27@pitt.edu

Emily Patterson, Practice Improvement Specialist emily.patterson@pitt.edu

David Vactor, Practice Improvement Specialist djv20@pitt.edu

Mike Danner, Resource Specialist mjd12@pitt.edu

Northeast

Jody Price, Regional Team Supervisor jlp78@pitt.edu

Nicole Lance, Practice Improvement Specialist nil34@pitt.edu

Jill Ferrero, Practice Improvement Specialist jab462@pitt.edu

Jayme Toczylousky, Practice Improvement Specialist jat115@pitt.edu

Maricar Williams, Resource Specialist man86@pitt.edu

Southeast

Sarina Bishop, Regional Team Supervisor ris47@pitt.edu

Angela Plantz, Practice Improvement Specialist anp202@pitt.edu

Colleen Cox, Practice Improvement Specialist coc31@pitt.edu

Russell Cripps, Practice Improvement Specialist ruc17@pitt.edu

Jessica Wittman, Resource Specialist jms137@pitt.edu

Western

Tammie Weaver, Regional Team Supervisor tmw89@pitt.edu

Adam Garrity, Practice Improvement Specialist adg105@pitt.edu

Michael McClure, Practice Improvement Specialist mjm298@pitt.edu

Jennifer Caruso, Practice Improvement Specialist jcar@pitt.edu

Cassie Kreckel, Practice Improvement Specialist cek83@pitt.edu

Veronica King, Resource Specialist vek21@pitt.edu