The Academy invites you to participate in a listening session to discuss and review a proposed research agenda related to child welfare. We appreciate your perspective on this vital work. Please share the invitation and registration information below with colleagues who are expert in this field or early career colleagues who may be interested in seeing this research agenda in advance and who could contribute. More listening sessions will be added.
Background: Recently, the Child Welfare League of America (CWLA), the American Public Human Services Association (APHSA), and the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare (AASWSW) were asked by Casey Family Programs, The Annie E. Casey Foundation, and the William T. Grant Foundation to engage you and your peers in a collaborative review of a draft 21st Century Research Agenda. For additional information, please see Building a 21st Century Research Agenda to Increase the Use of Research in Child Welfare Decision-Making.
According to the three foundations, “The purpose of building a 21st Century research agenda – grounded in diversity, equity, and inclusion – to support child and family well-being is to (1) form a broad-based coalition of research partners to identify research gaps to support child welfare, (2) articulate clear research questions that need to be addressed that are relevant for families, jurisdiction leaders, policy-makers and practitioners; (3) identify research strategies that will close the gaps and answer those key questions; and (4) help agencies use findings to improve policy, program and practice strategies resulting in transformative systems change.
The Listening Groups: A number of small listening groups including the three foundations and those with lived experiences will meet over zoom for an hour in August and September. Each small listening group will be asked for feedback on the research agenda that has been developed by Casey Family Programs, The Annie E. Casey Foundation, and the William T. Grant Foundation. Feedback from these listening groups will be put together and the three foundations will review and summarize to provide a final research agenda to advance child welfare.
Registration: You can register for a specific date and time using the links in the following table. If you register for a session and your availability changes, no worries, you can return to this email and register for another session. If none of these times work with your availability and would still like to share your perspective, click the following link to send an email to schedule a one-on-one listening session brown-aaswsw@wustl.edu. The registration link will ask varying demographic-based questions to ensure that a diverse group is part of this conversation.
The Listening Group Sessions:
| Date | Times | Zoom link to register |
| August 25th, 2021 | 5:30p-7:30p PST, 6:30p-8:30p MST, 7:30p-9:30p CST, 8:30p-10:30p EST | Registration Link |
| August 26th, 2021 | 11a-1p PST, 12p-2p MST, 1p-3p CST, 2p-4p EST | Registration Link |
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