Gateway to a forever family: Improving child welfare through dynamic information

Our nation’s child welfare professionals—social workers specializing in child abuse and neglect prevention, 采用, and foster care—work tirelessly and with limited resources to promote the safety, 永久的事物, 以及儿童的福祉, 青年, 和家庭. 他们需要支持. ICF has managed 儿童福利资讯网 since 1990, getting essential research into the hands of social workers to help achieve this mission.

客户端

Children’s Bureau, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. 卫生与公众服务部

挑战

Create a continuous flow of resources, training, data, and funding information to U.S. social workers to enhance child welfare efforts.

解决方案

Build a dynamic online repository of trusted, relevant information. Conduct outreach and support to help social workers translate new insights into practice.

As the nation’s largest library dedicated solely to child welfare, 信息门户包含近110个,000 titles and receives over 3 million sessions annually. It aids social workers in efforts to reduce the need for foster care, 采用增加, 防止滥用. With these vital resources, they can better help children 和家庭 thrive.

儿童福利资讯网 is a nationwide clearinghouse connecting professionals to resources, data, 联系信息, and tools covering the continuum of care for child welfare. 公众也可以使用信息门户.

We provide access to print and electronic publications, 网站, 数据库, 以及改进练习的在线工具, including educational materials for families. It is a dynamic and ever-evolving service that identifies emerging trends in child welfare. By meeting the ongoing information needs of the right audiences, 它有助于改善儿童的生活, 青年, 和家庭.

On top of operating a vast online repository, including a suite of more than 250 peer-reviewed publications, ICF supports Information Gateway’s users with information services through a 1-800 number, 电子邮件, 和实时聊天. We address media inquiries and information requests. 经常, this means shipping and fulfillment services—we distribute approximately 160,000+ materials around the country each year.

ICF还帮助创造和分享 近60集播客, covering perspectives and innovations from child welfare experts. Our social media and outreach footprint reaches more than 100,000名订阅者和关注者, so social workers and related professionals can easily find and engage with Information Gateway’s insights.

In managing 儿童福利资讯网 for 30 years, ICF已经成为 the Children’s Bureau’s (CB) conduit for information. We are a direct voice to professionals in the field. But—just as important—we are also CB’s eyes and ears, maintaining a pulse on the current state of child welfare by:

• Interacting with child welfare professionals through industry conferences
• Engaging grantees to share lessons learned and findings from new research
• 与社会工作学校合作, 社会工作机构, and public and private agencies to share data, 获取对当前产品的反馈, 建立新的资源
• Responding to requests from professionals, the media, and the public

最终, 这些见解有助于制定政策, 确定趋势, 确定的需求, 改进实践.

继续履行自己的使命, the Children’s Bureau required a significant technology update. 由28个系统组成, 网站, and 数据库 that were primarily managed and maintained in separate environments, the agency’s IT ecosystem was ripe for IT modernization.

熟悉程序知识和 联邦IT现代化专业知识, we are in a unique position to translate the Children’s Bureau’s program needs into technology modernization vision and strategy.

2020年初, we proposed a technology modernization roadmap to help the agency better serve child welfare professionals, applying new and innovative tools to simplify access to relevant content and improve collaboration and learning. Our agile approach will also deliver significant benefits to CB’s internal operations—reducing maintenance, 简化业务流程, 集中分析, 促进整个机构的协调一致. 这项工作目前正在进行中, and we’re eager to deliver powerful new IT capabilities to help the Children’s Bureau meet its business objectives.