Administering Research and Demonstration Projects Aimed at Promoting Evidence-Based Practice in Child Welfare

SUMMARY The Southern Regional Quality Improvement Center for Child Protection, funded by the Children's Bureau is administering research and demonstration projects in public child welfare agencies in four states to test models of structured clinical supervision in achieving organizational, social worker and client outcomes. These projects represent an attempt to promote evidence-based practice in the public agency. These projects are discussed within the context of the status of evidence-based practice in social work. The university has experienced number of challenges in provided technical assistance and conducting the cross-site evaluation of these projects which may be of interest to others attempting to foster evidence-based practice in this type of environment. These challenges, as well as promising solutions, are detailed in this article.