Alliance Course Catalog

This course is designed to teach social workers how to identify the service needs of families when trying to prevent out-of-home placement or to support reunification. Working through scenarios social workers actively engage in the decision-making process for appropriate services. Workers will learn the fundamentals of the referral process, engagement with providers and families as well as documentation.

Following successful completion of this elearning course, participants will understand the purpose of the Structured Decision Making-Risk Assessment (SDM-RA), and how it provides a framework for consistent decision making as well as a way to target in-demand resources toward those who can benefit most. Participants will understand the definition of each SDM-RA question, its application, and the procedures for completing this tool. This course incorporates numerous types of media through video, audio, images, and scenario application in order to enhance the transfer of learning. A score of 80% is required to complete this course.

This updated competency-based training program provides the foundation for effective supervisory practice in the Child Welfare system. This program will prepare new supervisors to become comfortable in assuming their new role, learning what it means to be a supervisor in the child welfare system, and to understanding the new responsibilities of this position. This program is offered on a 3-month period and covers topics such as: Becoming a Supervisor; Workload and Caseload Management; Navigating FamLink for Effective Supervision; Supervising with Data; Elements of Administrative Supervision; Talent Management; Elements of Clinical Supervision; Self Care, Secondary Trauma, Burnout Prevention and Conflict Management; Building and Facilitating Effective Teams; Role of the Supervisor in Critical Incidents and AIRS; Professional Ethics; ICW Government to Government.

Supervisor Core Training (SCT) is for new or current Supervisors only, including those who have a scheduled date for promotion. This is due to confidentiality reasons and feedback from previous SCT attendees.

All classes of SCT must be completed within one year. If participants are unable to complete all days of their scheduled class within 1 year from the first day of the class, they will need to retake the course, as the SCT content is updated periodically.

If you are not currently a supervisor, or do not have an official date for promotion, and are interested in leadership training please check out the course Growing A Leader.  Growing a Leader uses the same great content as SCT and is specifically for people not yet eligible to enroll in SCT. If you later promote to supervisor and enroll in SCT, you can choose retake the days you completed in Growing a Leader or complete only the remaining days.

Comments from Supervisors who participated in SCT:

“I think it’s been really helpful to be able to listen to my team and hear what other supervisor’s ideas were.  For example, how to address a person’s caseload if on medical leave.  Recently, I did it in a way that was completely different than I would have before SCT.  Everybody had some ownership in it and I handled it differently than I would have without the training.”

“I think the burnout and job satisfaction [pieces of the training] stood out to me.  If you know your job well, you are happier with it.  That opened my thoughts more in terms of my team, making sure they know their job. Making sure my team is always learning their jobs and getting to be an expert so that they can come to love their work and get to know their work.”

“[The training] helped me to know about the nuts and bolts of the rules of unions and how to handle personnel issues.  I have different personalities in my unit.  As a new supervisor those particular sessions helped because we were able to brainstorm strategies together…I became a lot more confident about how to work as a team.”

“I went with another supervisor and we shared what we learned during our supervisor meeting [back in my unit].  We talked about what we thought was a good idea and what we were going to do and change our practice we were asking for feedback from our co-workers.  Almost everyone in their office is so new [we have a supervisor that has only been at CA for seven months], so we all talk about what we learned and try to see what are good ways to change the supervision role for what would be the best culture of the office.”

“A lot of shifting happened for me going from a worker to a supervisor.  It was definitely touched on in SCT, but it was really helpful for me in that area to be with everyone else being a new supervisor and talking about experiences, instead of an expert talking to us.”

This training focuses on completing the final four days of the Supervisor Core Training (SCT) for those individuals who have completed the three-day course for Growing A Leader.

SCT is an in service training for new supervisors who are overseeing case carrying caseworkers. SCT is a foundational training designed to prepare newly hired social service specialist supervisors with the basic knowledge, skills, and understanding to enhance and grow their careers in public child welfare for the State of Washington. SCT is a comprehensive training program containing a total of four (4) in person training sessions, which lay the foundation for continuous on-the-job learning and professional development critical to developing competent, confident, and effective child welfare professional supervisors.

Growing A Leader prepared future leaders the basics of supervision; however, the Supervisor Core Training will prepare new case carrying supervisors to become comfortable in assuming their new role, learning what it means to be a supervisor in the child welfare system, and to understanding the new responsibilities of this position. This program is for those newly appointed supervisors who have completed the three (3) days of Growing A Leader and who have to complete the final four (4) days of Supervisor Core Training. This course is offered on a 3-month period and covers topics such as: Navigating FamLink for Effective Supervision; Supervising with Data; Human Resources and Talent Management; Self Care, Secondary Trauma, Burnout Prevention and Conflict Management; Role of the Supervisor in Critical Incidents; Professional Ethics; Indian Child Welfare/Government to Government.

This three-hour course covers Situational Leadership and Supervisor Readiness (4Rs). The course will review the three necessary components and strategies to impact performance. The Situational Leadership Theory developed by Paul Hersey and Kenneth Blanchard presents a model that suggests that to be effective leaders, supervisors must match their leadership style to an individual worker’s level of job readiness (job maturity). The manager’s effectiveness depends on their ability to correctly identify the supervisor’s readiness level and to employ the appropriate leader style in that particular situation. Supervisor readiness for any task is determined by the supervisor’s ability and willingness.