Representatives from the Child and Family Policy Institute of California (CFPIC) and the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) are working as a Core California Staff Team to coordinate technical assistance and support to Fresno, Humboldt, and Santa Clara counties and two Los Angeles County child welfare offices for implementing and sustaining a Child and Family Practice Model as part of the California Partners for Permanency project. The Core California Staff Team and participating sites recognize that achieving the full and sustainable impact of this practice model is dependent on how systems adjust and redesign themselves to support the practice expected by case workers. Dr. Boothroyd and colleagues at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will provide active, ongoing, and intensive implementation assistance to strengthen the capacities of the Core California Staff Team and participating child welfare partners to fully implement the Child and Family Practice Model and ensure related system-level changes to improve outcomes for children and families.

This implementation assistance will focus on, but is not limited to, knowledge, skill-building and behavioral coaching for: (a) strengthening and embedding implementation infrastructure and capacities that are relevant to county and/or office-levels of the system and tailored to local system readiness and context; (b) integrating the Child and Family Practice Model with other local and state initiatives and strengthening implementation supports for system alignment and sustainability; (c) strengthening implementation infrastructure and capacities of the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) to ensure system support and alignment for the Child and Family Practice Model and other innovations; and (d) exploring strategies to leverage county and state lessons learned in implementing the Child and Family Practice Model for California’s Statewide Practice Model activities. Support to the Core California Staff Team will occur via regular strategic calls (weekly to bi-monthly), approximately seven in-person site visits (each visit will likely include time at multiple sites), and via the web (email, connecting with existing public e-learning resources). In addition, Dr. Boothroyd and colleagues will meet regularly via phone and web conference with the Core California Staff Team to review progress, plan for upcoming activities, and make decisions about project priorities.