A First-Hand Account of Title IV-E Child Welfare Initiatives in Social Work Education and Practice

This article describes the personal experiences and insights of a child welfare practitioner and professor derived from 20 years of involvement in IV-E agency/university partnerships. The author describes perspectives from her work in IV-E programs in multiple contexts (federal, state, and local). Included are descriptions of important historical events and changes in IV-E programs that have served to facilitate or impede successful child welfare practices and the education of IV-E students. Emphasis is given to the importance of: (a) communicating the complexity of work in child welfare particularly by IV-E students; (b) the challenge of sustaining effective IV-E partnership programs; (c) designing and implementing sound IV-E program evaluation procedures; and (c) understanding the political and policy-driven contexts framing current CW practices.