(Posted 11-6-00)
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
News Service Contact: Laurie Gengenbach, 336-334-5371
UNCG, NCA&T, PARTICIPATE IN PROGRAM
TO IMPROVE THE CHILD WELFARE WORKFORCE
GREENSBORO — Abused children are North Carolina's most vulnerable residents, and child abuse in the state is on the rise. Nevertheless, those assigned to intervene on behalf of these small victims are often the most inexperienced of social workers.
 |
|
at UNCG and NC A&T, counsels a client at the Rockingham County DSS office. |
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro and North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University are helping to remedy this statewide problem by participating in the North Carolina Child Welfare Education Collaborative, a program to increase the numbers of highly trained, master's degreed social workers who specialize in child welfare.
Twenty of the 65 students in the Joint Masters of Social Work Program at NCA&T and UNCG are now preparing for careers in child welfare under this program. In exchange for up to two years of service following graduation, these students receive a tuition waiver and $15,000 per year for living expenses for up to two years. Hopes are that the program will turn out students committed to staying in the field.
"The Joint Program in Social Work is grateful for the funding we have received to address the epidemic of child abuse in this state," said Dr. John Rife, chairman of the UNCG Department of Social Work. "Though this is a step in the right direction, child abuse is on the increase, and clearly the state needs to do more."
Overseeing the program is the Jordan Institute for Families at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A fourth participant is East Carolina University. All told, the universities will turn out 33 master's level child welfare specialists by the end of this academic year, most of them from the NC A&T and UNCG program.
The need is great, according to Nancy Dickenson, executive director of the Jordan School. Caseloads in child welfare are heavy and investigations are extremely complicated, often touching on the very worst of society's ills -- family violence, substance abuse and poverty to name just a few, she said. Despite the skill and savvy required to deal with such issues, most child welfare staff members in North Carolina have had no formal social work education. Sixty-six percent lack even a bachelor of social work degree. Not surprisingly, burnout is endemic to this well-intentioned but ill-equipped workforce. Turnover rates are as high as 80 percent, Dickenson said.
"This problem needs our best educated, most committed social workers, so that's why we're preparing social workers who we hope, will have the resources to remain in the field," she said.
Though the program is only in its second year in North Carolina, approximately 35 of 50 states have had similar programs for some years, Dickenson said. In California, retention rates in the child welfare workforce are now as high as 75 percent, following a similar education program, she said.
North Carolina stands to benefit, even if the students now going through
the program eventually leave the field.
"Even if they stay just two years, they will have made such a great
contribution to the cause of child welfare, that we will all see the benefit,"
she said.
The plight of abused children in North Carolina was underscored last week by the failing grade the state received from the N.C. Institute of Medicine at UNC-Chapel Hill. North Carolina received D's and F's in child abuse and neglect, which authors of the report called an "epidemic." During 1998 and 99, there were 37,000 substantiated victims -- up 15 percent from five years ago. Twenty-one children died in North Carolina from abuse during the same one-year period, according to the report.
###
Back to the Latest News
Releases
Return to the University
News Service Home Page