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SILBERMAN CHILD WELFARE COMPETENCIES

Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College’s Child Welfare Field of Practice, working in conjunction with the NYC Social Work Education Consortium has established a comprehensive set of knowledge, skill, and attitude competencies for training its child welfare workforce. These competencies for its students derive from knowledge and practices necessary to achieve positive outcomes of safety, permanence, and well-being and incorporate New York’s commitment to family-centered practice across the spectrum in all child welfare services. The competencies also reflect a commitment to skill development for new child welfare workers.

The Silberman child welfare faculty has adopted these competencies. The child welfare curriculum is based on the child welfare competencies compiled by the NYC Social Work Education Consortium; additionally, all other courses conform to the Council on Social Work Education CSWE Core Competencies.  These competencies are shared with students, instructors and field instructors and advisors.  The competencies cover such areas as professional behavior, ethics and values, culturally competent approaches, role and function, knowledge base, child-centered and family-focused practice.  Students acquire core knowledge, skill and attitude competencies in the following areas: establishing helping relationships; assessing and addressing issues of child safety and risk; permanency for each child in a family; family-centered, strengths-based, and collaborative practices; and developmental approaches that enhance child well-being.  Click here for the full Child Welfare Competencies