Project Overview

The Community Development and Child Welfare Training (CD-CW Project) equips a cadre of child and family community workers with the professional skills needed to address the needs of orphans and vulnerable children, including those at-risk of sexual abuse and maltreatment. We define the “child and family community workers” as those who have skills to work in child protection and the skills to address family poverty. Even though the co-existence of child abuse and poverty are discussed by scholars, practitioners, and advocates, child protection and community development are separate systems. Workers are trained in one or the other, and generally, child protection interventions do not specifically address this linkage. Thus, the CD-CW Project develops a new strategy that integrates child welfare services with asset and family based community development.

The first phase of the CD-CW Project, completed in December 2009, was a 10-month pilot test with 46 grassroots community and child welfare workers to develop and refine the training curriculum in Ethiopia. Beginning in March 2009, the second phase trains 54 community and child welfare workers from government and nongovernmental organizations in Ethiopia.

CD-CW training emphasizes the practical application of training knowledge and skills. Trainees are in the classroom for three 8-day sessions of training over a 6-month period. Following each 8-day session, participants return to their agencies and organizations for 2 months. During this time, they use their training knowledge and practice skills to carry out applied assignments. The CD-CW Project evaluates the acquisition of training skills and the applied relevance of skills through an Individual Learning Portfolio. The Project also features a train-the-trainer approach for Ethiopian nationals. The training component and its applied methods provide a basis for future certification standards, and a Center of Excellence in Child and Community Work.