Child Welfare Education Program (CWEP)
The ASU Child Welfare Education Program is a collaborative effort between the Arizona State University School of Social Work and the Arizona Department of Child Safety (DCS). The program provides financial support to students interested in working in child welfare. The pedagogy of the program includes a specialized, skills-based curriculum with coordinated practicum experience in a Child Welfare Education Unit embedded in a DCS office. CWEP currently offers programs to BSW students in their junior and senior years at the Phoenix, Tucson, and West campuses, full-time MSW Advanced Standing and Standard Students at the Phoenix, Tucson, and Yuma campuses and in the Sync program, and DCS employees in the MSW part-time program through ASU Online, Phoenix and Tucson campuses, and the Sync program. The Title IV-E training program at ASU began in 1988 and there are over 1000 alumni. The Principal Investigators of the grant are Dr. Elizabeth Lightfoot and Dr. Tonia Stott.
The mission of the program is to prepare social work students to empower families and promote the safety, permanency, and well-being of the children involved in Arizona's public child welfare system. The goals of the program are:
- Foster students' development of socially just and anti-oppressive critical decision-making capacities.
- Prepare students to view problems and engage in collaborative solution-seeking using culturally-grounded, trauma-informed, relationally-based, and resiliency perspectives.
- Coach students in the acquisition of advanced skills in engagement, assessment, and intervention that are specific to safety planning and the promotion of both legal and felt permanency among children and families involved in child welfare systems