Land-grant universities were first created in 1862 to upskill the U.S. workforce, state by state. Over 150 years later, a collaboration in ̽̽’s College of Education and Social Services both embodies and innovates upon this legacy.
The (CWTP) shapes the landscape of child welfare services in our state. Since 1993, CWTP has provided training, coaching, and other educational resources to every caregiver and child welfare employee across our state – equating to about 9,000 hours of service and support annually.
“We are a partnership with the State of Vermont and ̽̽’s Master of Social Work (MSW) program,” explains CWTP Learning Management System Administrator Emma Baird. “Some states have their training within the state itself; others contract out. Vermont does a contract between ̽̽ and the Family Services Division of the Department for Children and Families.”
“Caregivers take three foundational trainings over the course of a year to be licensed to take in a child,” Baird continues. “We have advanced training for caregivers and coaching calls.” In addition to supporting caregivers, CWTP provides timely and responsive trainings for the child welfare and youth justice workforce.
“On paper, their job is to train family service workers and caregivers,” explains Social Work Lecturer Cassie Gillespie, who previously served as a training and coaching specialist and a team lead for CWTP. “That is a technical description of something that requires a lot of adaptive functioning and thought.”
For example, when Covid-19 upended typical procedures, the State approached the Partnership to develop a remote assessment of child safety, and then deliver trainings on the new assessment remotely.
The Partnership contributes to safety culture in child welfare by keeping skills sharp in the Family Services Division (FSD). They help caregivers respond to the complex needs of children who may be struggling with severe trauma. And, importantly, the Partnership qualifies Vermont to draw federal Social Security Act funds known as “Title IV-E.”
Twelve FSD District Offices, from Brattleboro to St. Albans, rely on these resources to sustain operations. “Without the training (provided by the Partnership), the State is not eligible to draw down the funding they use to pay for the child welfare system,” explains Social Work Business Operations Manager Kate Ball Clem.
Title IV-E also creates a special opportunity to grow Vermont’s workforce. While earning their MSW, ̽̽ students can receive substantial scholarships and a stipend in exchange for three years’ service promised to Vermont’s child welfare system after completion.
Gillespie was a Title IV-E scholar, applying her MSW degree first in child welfare, and then in services for unhoused adults. She later returned to ̽̽, first to CWTP, and now as a faculty member.
“As long as I can remember, I've been a person who connected people and tried to help figure things out,” Gillespie reflects. “But I have also always been curious about where things get stuck.”
Gillespie’s curiosity drew her attention to the troubled history and structures of the child welfare system.
Indeed, at the time in U.S. history that land-grant universities were being established, “child welfare” included kidnapping Indigenous youth for residential schools. Through the 20th century, child welfare systems disproportionately targeted poor people and people of color, especially Black and Indigenous families.
Now, scholar-practitioners like Gillespie wonder how we can interrupt these patterns and reimagine our systems. “We're just scooping up people who have experienced generational suffering and asking them to individually problem-solve for this structural failing of our society; and the problem is, at some point you have to stop pulling people out of the river.”
Does the arc of child welfare bend toward justice?
Gillespie is paraphrasing Desmond Tutu, who said, “We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in.”
Teachers, nurses, social workers, and other caring professionals are familiar with this tension. Devoting time and resources to managing emergencies allows systemic injustice to continue. And, Gillespie notes, ‘saving people’ might not always be the best solution: “Sometimes they fall back in a different river. Some people that you didn't pull out get out on their own, right?”
Gillespie observes that the Partnership has an obligation to “teach people how to rescue people in the river right now.” That approach, she thinks, forces a choice between technical skills and big picture questions, like Does the system I work in cause more harm than good? “Most child welfare workers, I think, grapple with that question all the time,” Gillespie says.
One phenomenon Gillespie discusses is disproportionality. In the scholarship of social work, data shows that child welfare interventions occur at different rates and with different outcomes when considering the identities in a family. Child welfare systems disproportionately impact Black, Indigenous, and immigrant families; families living in poverty; and families where mental illness, disability, or substance use disorder are present.
What is the responsibility of the land-grant university in this situation? Could the Partnership drive systems change to reduce harm and promote justice?
Inspired by these questions, CWTP engaged , a non-profit committed to rethinking social systems like child welfare and engaging the voices of people impacted by the systems (like the families involved in child welfare).
Best has focused CWTP on racial healing, accountable relationships, and curiosity. “It's growing, but in a healing sense of growth,” Baird reflects.
Best’s consultation has been complemented by the Partnership’s internal work. For example, all employees study antiracism in “cluster” learning groups of 4-5 employees for one hour a month.
“There are definitely challenges,” Baird continues. “Looking at your own racism, what you grew up with, what you’re fighting against. I identify as a person of color. I’ve had racism directed at me. I’ve been witness to racism. I’ve done some [to confront racism]. But I’ve done a lot more after joining the Partnership and being given the confidence to be who I am, to say what I’m feeling, to stand up for what I believe in.”
Gillespie adds, “I wish every person in Human Services could have the benefit of Best’s consultancy.”
To amplify the learning between CWTP and Mining for Gold, The Social Work Lens published a three-part podcast series called “Child Welfare with Justice as the Throughline” in 2023.
How can a state-university partnership advance a national movement?
The Partnership’s self-reflective work has informed and inspired progress that Vermont’s state offices have made. CWTP Director Jennifer Jorgenson explains, “We are regularly providing coaching and participating in groups where we have opportunity to nudge this system, to have a thoughtful, collaborative relationship with the leaders of the child protection system.”
On a larger stage, the Partnership had a special opportunity to move the needle toward justice at the recent the National Title IV-E Roundtable conference. “The Roundtable brings together all of the Title IV-E programs within the United States,” Baird explains. “MSW professors, social workers, people creating curriculum, state supervisors – everyone comes and shares information and experiences.”
Four hundred people convened in Burlington in May 2024 for the conference, titled Transforming Child Welfare: The Aims & Gains of Social Movements and The Vision & Voice of Everyday Lives.
During the conference, CWTP took on more of the big picture questions found “upstream”: Can child welfare be transformed, or must we abolish the existing structure to co-construct a system that ensures child safety? What can we learn from social movement-making and community organizing efforts about change?
“It was energizing. It was exciting,” Baird reflects. Attendees chose from 35 workshops like “Abolition, Anti-Racism and Title IV-E: Deconstructing Social Work” and “Cultivating Compassion: Transforming Child Welfare Practice Through Increasing the Workforces’ Trauma-Informed Beliefs.” Professor Brenda Solomon and Rebecca Jones-Gaston from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services both spoke. Best moderated a panel of people directly impacted by the child welfare system.
In feedback, attendees expressed their gratitude for the opportunity to experience Vermont and ̽̽. They appreciated the focus on voices of those impacted by the child welfare system and openly discussing systems change.
What collective future can we envision?
CWTP hopes anti-oppression ideas and practices radiate out nationally from the conference in Burlington. By comparison, Brenda Gooley, Director of Operations in FSD, observes that the 2023 conference inspired FSD’s first ever Workforce Development Director and forthcoming Wellness Coordinator positions. The 2024 conference compelled Gooley to ask herself, “Where I sit, what am I doing to shine a light on these issues?”
This year, Jorgenson and her team will host or contribute to four state-wide conferences.
Jill Richard, one CWTP team lead continues to navigate the “persistent tensions critical to large-scale change” alongside her colleagues. She encourages government agencies to examine disproportionality, account for its impact, and develop bias-aware and humanistic interventions.
Janine Beaudry, another CWTP team lead, looks forward to partnering with FSD’s Statewide Racial Equity Workgroup this year. Gooley (another Title IV-E alum) explains that the working group is exploring the impacts of race in each stage of intervention, revising policy, and developing supports for children, caregivers, and employees.
The podcast continues to engage crucial conversations for current and future social workers. Recent episodes have included “Mandated Reporting: Safety or Surveillance?” and “The Triple Intersection of Trauma, Neurodiversity & Gender Diversity.”
Baird looks forward to expanding the reach of the Partnership’s trainings, making relevant and responsive trainings accessible to more people.
In the meantime, she finds fulfillment by contributing to a community of care on the river's edge. “I'm first-generation born American," she says. The support that I got growing up within the educational system was paramount to becoming who I am today."
“Being able to be someone who helps—not necessarily the frontline workers like social workers and caregivers—but someone who's able to support the role of education for them,” Baird chuckles, “It gives me the warm and fuzzies.”
The land-grant university system was established by awarding stolen Indigenous land to universities. To learn more about the complex history of land-grant universities, visit:
