The Alabama Higher Education Consortium on Child Welfare hopes these cases will be used to enhance both social work education/training and child welfare social work practice in Alabama.
Each of these cases was developed, in partnership, by a faculty representative from an Alabama college or university social work education program and a social worker, with child welfare experience, from the Alabama Department of Human Resources. These cases were designed for use in all levels of social work education and training. Additionally, each of the cases was reviewed by a consultant with expertise in child welfare case development for the purpose of social work education.
Child Welfare Competencies
The State of Alabama Core Child Welfare Competencies were developed in a step by step process which included input from the Higher Education Consortium on Child Welfare, State Department of Human Resources workers, child welfare faculty from accredited social work programs around the state, child welfare consumers, and multi-systems partners.
The child welfare core competencies are based on many assumptions and underlying competencies that all students graduating from an accredited social work program need to provide best practice to families and children. The students are family/client focused, they work in collaboration with other team members, they have a focus on the safety, permanency, and well-being of children, and they are objective and use evidence based practice. These assumptions and underlying competencies are critical to the application of the knowledge and skills acquired through the core competencies of the curriculum.
