The Value of Lived Experience in the Child Welfare Workforce
Many child welfare leaders are exploring ways to integrate the perspectives of individuals who have personal experience with the child welfare system, whether as a young person, parent, kinship provider, or a foster or adoptive parent. These lived experiences offer valuable perspective to the work and can enhance decision-making within organizations. Some current members of the workforce bring this perspective to the job, whereas others may find it challenging to enter the child welfare workforce because of their background or access to education and training programs. While formal training and credentials remain necessary for some roles, reassessing job requirements and necessary skills can create job opportunities within child welfare agencies for those who experienced personal involvement with the child welfare system.
The Children’s Bureau and its providers have developed a variety of resources that speak to the importance of, and organizational infrastructure needed to, successfully bring the voices of those with lived experience to the child welfare workforce. These voices can directly benefit the children and families they serve, and agencies need to prepare themselves to encourage and support workers who have experienced the child welfare system firsthand. The resources below highlight the need to coordinate with HR, manage job requirements, develop supportive infrastructure, and prepare other staff members to best support those who have been touched by the child welfare system as a valued perspective to help shape the workforce.
A short video by the Quality Improvement Center for Workforce Development features representatives from the Children's Bureau discussing some steps agencies can take to support the voice of lived experience in the workforce: Enhancing the Child Welfare Workforce: Bringing Families to the Table.
The 42-minute presentation below was hosted by the Capacity Building Center for States and highlights examples of steps child welfare agencies can take to include the voice of lived experience in agency decision-making. There is also a podcast available that shares this same presentation.
An evaluation brief (23 pages: see pages 18–20 for information on the benefits and complexities of integrating lived experience into child welfare practice and organizational development) by James Bell Associates identifies approaches the Child Welfare Capacity Building Collaborative used to support child welfare jurisdictions in incorporating lived experience into child welfare practice and evaluation: Incorporating Lived Experience Into Child Welfare Capacity Building.