The Latino Consortium is a partner with Loyola University Chicago School of Social Work, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, and the Consulate General of Mexico in Chicago, in the project Culturally Responsive Child Welfare Practice with Latino Children & Families: A Child Welfare Staff Training Model. Professor Maria Vidal and Robert Mindell of Loyola University, School of Social Work are the project PI and Coordinator, respectively. The project is designed to develop, field test, and evaluate a culturally responsive, competency-based training curriculum to prepare child welfare supervisors, front-line staff and court personnel to work effectively with Latino children and families.

The training curricula incorporates contemporary scholarship regarding Latino cultural factors relevant to child welfare practice such as: family structure and process, risk and protective factors, communication patterns, migratory experiences, acculturation stress and assimilation process, and help seeking behaviors. It will also addresses relevant population characteristics and population specific research regarding service system barriers, legal issues, and practice theories and techniques.

The goal of the project is to enhance and expand system and practitioner capacity to effectively serve Latino children and families involved with the child welfare system. The training curricula is currently being field-tested with the public and private agencies and courts, and will be evaluated for its effectiveness in developing knowledge, skills and culturally relevant competencies necessary to achieve safety, permanency and well-being for Latino children and families.

This is a three-year project. The first year was dedicated to the development of the curriculum and training model, as well as the companion resource and instructional materials, including a training video and trainer and trainee manuals. The curriculum and training model is currently being piloted and will be modified as needed. The training model will be implemented in the Chicago region in the second year and across the state in the third. The Latino Consortium has a primary role in the second and third year of the grant, as it will conduct the training sessions.

A project web page will be launched in the second year to support product dissemination and the ongoing learning of the training participants. Data for evaluation purposes will be collected during all phases of the project and an evaluation report will be completed in the third year. Wide dissemination of project lessons, findings, and products will also occur in the third year.

From the National Association of Social Workers:

Preserve the Profession

Social Work Reinvestment Initiative

Illinois General Assembly:

Full Text of Public Act 095-0619 Latino Family Commission

Public Act 0497 94TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY Student Loan Forgiveness