Child Welfare
Your path to your first best job and launching an amazing social work career
To keep children safe and well and to support families, we need social workers who have the knowledge and skills to work in the challenging field of child welfare.
You can make a difference in a child's life, help parents provide a safe and loving home, and address the trauma resulting from child maltreatment that may impact a child and family for a lifetime.
It is hard work---but rewarding! Child welfare requires resilient and dedicated professionals. It is complicated work--but never boring!
Child welfare includes family preservation services with families and communities to prevent child abuse and neglect, child protective services to assess and keep children safe, out-of-home placement with kin, in foster care and sometimes in residential treatment, services to reunite children with their parents, and permanency services, such as adoption. It requires clinical and case management skills, expert assessment and engagement skills, and a high commitment to social justice and respect for populations.
Child welfare is a great place to begin one's social work career as it exposes a social worker to so many skills (including evidence-based practice), draws upon knowledge of family and community systems, explores the impact of policy, and connects a professional to so many other systems such as hospitals, schools, and the court system. Gaining experience in child welfare is a solid way to get social work experience, gain supervision that may count for licensure, and work in settings that often qualify for federal loan forgiveness. Opportunities for leadership and supervisory experience are often available in a timely manner. It is a field of practice that social work has been dedicated to since the beginning of our profession.
Gaining a child welfare certificate does not require the student to work in child welfare but hopefully, after gaining relevant coursework and field experience, the challenges and opportunities of working in child welfare will be clear and compelling! Child welfare is a great field to gain initial experience after graduation and to grow and develop a long-term career committed to serving children and families. It is a field that has a lot of flexibility and opportunity for changing positions within an agency with gained experience.
Certificate programs do not require additional expense for students; in addition, scholarships from the School of Social Work or agencies may be available to support your participation in the certificate program.
Employment
Child welfare agencies are looking for social work graduates with a relevant social work education! There are typically child welfare jobs across the state of Michigan in MDHHS and in private agencies available to recent BASW graduates. MDHHS positions are posted on the Michigan Civil Service Commission website (www.michigan.gov/mdcs) or Indeed.com. Public agency salaries begin in a range from $40,452 to $59,904, with excellent state benefits.
Private agency positions are often identified by the Michigan Federation for Children and Families (michfed.org), see Job Postings, or the agencies themselves, or through the MSU School of Social Work jobs' email list. Federal loan forgiveness programs require fulltime employment in a governmental or not-for-profit agency and many of these employment opportunities may qualify for such loan forgiveness programs, depending on the type of loan issued and other loan conditions.
BASW Program Components
The certificate is structured to make minimal demands on your academic planning and can fit with most students’ schedules without complications.
- A senior-year internship in a public or private child welfare agency (full academic year/9months - SW 494A & B), including seminar (SW 493A & B);
- Required courses in human development (SW 310); and in social work practice, interviewing, assessment, problem solving (SW 340/440) and content on cultural competency and anti-racist practice (SW 200, SW 340, SW 440, and SW 441), in addition to a social science elective on diversity, cultural competency and inclusion;
- An elective course dedicated to Child Welfare (SW 471);
- Enrollment in at least one elective course whose content is relevant to child welfare practice, such as diversity (view courses).
- Participation in at least two workshops on topics relevant to child welfare competencies
Field Education
Field education agencies include some of the most respected agencies in Michigan and are located in every one of Michigan's 83 counties. In addition to working at MDHHS in an array of child welfare services, one can work in a private agency and provide family preservation services, foster care, residential treatment, adoption, and licensing services. Some private agencies are members of the Michigan Federation for Children and Families (michfed.org) and the Association of Accredited Child and Family Agencies of Michigan (www.aacfami.org).
A list of members of the Federation can be found here. https://www.michfed.org/federation-members
Some private agencies are members of the Michigan Federation for Children and Families (michfed.org) and the Association of Accredited Child and Family Agencies of Michigan (www.aacfami.org).
Faculty
There are a number of faculty members dedicated to child welfare due to their life experiences, work history, and research interests. We welcome the opportunity to talk to you about your academic preparation, the transition to employment, and a career in child welfare.
Gary Anderson’s interest in child welfare began when his parents became licensed foster parents and his commitment solidified with one of the most challenging and important social work jobs as a Michigan Child Protective Service Worker. He has led federally-funded child welfare national centers and institutes and the national journal CHILD WELFARE; and his research interests now focus on building a positive child welfare culture in agencies and social work programs. ander664@msu.edu
Kimberly Battjes' interest in child welfare began with her first social work position as an in-home counselor. She worked as a Families First worker for several years in Detroit, Washtenaw, and Livingston Counties. Upon earning her MSW, she worked as a School Social Worker for sixteen years. She currently holds the position as Coordinator at MSU’s Chance at Childhood, teaching interns about child welfare and the law. kbattjes@msu.edu
Kelley Blanck’s interest in child welfare began with her first post-graduate position at a private foster/adopt care agency in Detroit as a Post-Adoption Clinician and Supervisor. Her practice and interests include systems of care and trauma training and intervention with a particular focus on foster/adopt youth and foster/adopt families. kblanck@msu.edu
Stephene Diepstra's passion and interest in child welfare stem from growing up with foster and adopted siblings and being a foster and an adoptive parent herself. She currently practices as a school social worker and has researched in the areas of child welfare, foster care, and adoption. diepstra@msu.edu
Rosemary Jackson has a long history with child welfare in the state of Michigan, beginning with placing children from the child welfare system into adoptive families and going on to establish and supervise a foster care unit placing older youth. She was also involved in the design and implementation of two of the Post Adoption Resource Centers in the state and currently teaches child welfare at Michigan State University. jacks807@msu.edu
Sacha Klein has twenty-five years of child welfare experience that includes working as a child protective services worker, foster care and adoption case worker, and family preservation case manager in Pennsylvania and California. She also served as the Child Welfare Policy Director for an association of 80 nonprofit agencies in Los Angeles County, as the Policy Director for First 5 LA, and as a Society for Research in Child Development Policy Fellow in Washington DC where she worked with the Office of Child Abuse Prevention and the research and evaluation arm of the Administration for Children and Families. Her practice and research interests include child maltreatment prevention and early intervention, child welfare policy, and neighborhood effects on parenting. kleinsa@msu.edu
Joe Kozakiewicz's interest in child welfare began when he sought an avenue to practice law as a "helping profession" and volunteered for a non-profit agency representing children in the court system. Joe's practice and research interests include children's legal issues, abuse and neglect, and interdisciplinary law and social work practice. kozakiew@msu.edu
Elizabeth Montemayor has over twenty years of child welfare experience that includes working as a child protective services worker, foster care worker, supervisor, and program manager at the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. As the program manager, she managed all areas of child welfare. She served on the CPS Advisory Committee for the State of Michigan and is on the Michigan Human Trafficking Task Force. She currently holds the position as Child Welfare Programming Coordinator overseeing the Child Welfare Certificate Endorsement in the School of Social Work at MSU. She also oversees administration of the Title IVE program and teaches courses while advising students specializing in child welfare. montema7@msu.edu
Nicki Moody’s first social work job was providing child welfare services to undocumented and unaccompanied foreign national minors. This unique blend led to deepened interests in child welfare and international populations. Nicki continues to partner with state agencies to serve all child welfare needs through field education placements. nmoody@msu.edu
Keunhye Park’s primary fields of interest are child welfare services and policy, juvenile justice services and policy, education experiences for marginalized youth, and the transition to adulthood among foster youth. She has several years of practice experience in community work, child education, and program development at a detention center; as well as research experience in child welfare and juvenile justice, having worked with government agencies and juvenile justice facilities in Michigan and Illinois. kunepark@msu.edu
Delanie Pope’s interest in child welfare began as a Family Court Referee hearing cases on child abuse and neglect and custody matters. Her practice and advocacy interests include an interdisciplinary approach of law and social work to child welfare. poped@msu.edu
Associate Professor Joanne Riebschleger has over two decades of practice experience with at risk children and families. She is particularly focused on rural child welfare practices, preventive interventions, and behavioral health treatments. riebsch1@msu.edu
Anna Maria Santiago’s interests in child welfare began as a bilingual social worker at Catholic Social Services in Milwaukee where she worked with Latino children with special health needs as well as those who experienced exposure to violence in the home and community. Her practice and research interests focus on neighborhood and community effects on the physical and mental health and well-being of Latino and African American children and young adults in the United States and internationally. santia63@msu.edu
Gretchen Sheneman’s interest in child welfare began when she became part of team of evaluators working to understand how to best prepare students and support professionals entering the child welfare workforce as part of the National Child Welfare Workforce Institute in 2009. She also evaluates child welfare professionals’ in-service training across the state for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. Her practice and teaching interests include program evaluation and research, and she serves as the evaluator for the MSU School of Social Work Community Programs, supporting the FAME program (for former foster youth entering MSU) and the Kinship Care Resource Center. archerg1@msu.edu
Cheryl Williams-Hecksel has 30 years of experience working in child welfare and mental health agencies, including private and public settings. Her professional interests include trauma, implementing evidence based practice, secondary trauma, supervision and the child welfare workforce. She is the Coordinator of the evidence-Based Trauma Treatment Certificate. will1534@msu.edu
Contact Person
Elizabeth Montemayor, MSWmontema7@msu.edu