CA Title IV-E Education Program

Students in the Title IV-E Program benefit from:

• Financial support through a Title IV-E stipend
• Specialized coursework in child welfare
• Two years of supervised field education
• Professional mentoring from faculty and child welfare professionals
• Career preparation for leadership in public child welfare
• A statewide network of public child welfare practitioners

Graduates leave UCLA prepared to make an immediate impact in child protective services and related public service careers.

First, candidates must be admitted into the UCLA MSW program. All accepted students are sent a PCW Title IV-E stipend application. Candidates who indicate an interest in work with the Children and Youth Services or with high-risk children and families, are encouraged to apply.

The Title IV-E CalSWEC PCW Stipend program requires that students who are awarded a stipend agree to work in child protective services within California for the same number of years they received a stipend. Therefore, students must be able to work in a California upon graduation. At this time U.S. citizens, permanent residents and DACA students with work credentials are included.

There is a two-part application process that involves a written interview and an oral interview. Generally, this is a rolling process, in which applications are processed as they are received, that begins in April and typically ends in June.

Written: The application includes questions about your understanding of PCW CalSWEC requirements and public child welfare goals.

Interview: Selected applicants participate in an interview with UCLA faculty and public child welfare professionals to discuss their experience, interests, and commitment to serving children and families.

Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis.

Typical Timeline

• July: Award notifications
• April: Applications open
• April–June: Interviews conducted

PCW CalSWEC students can choose to be in any of the Social Welfare Departments’ concentrations. They will participate in all generalist social welfare classes and then specialize in children, youth and families in addition to taking specialized PCW courses.

• Many elective courses are available to enhance your education. One law-related choice is required;
• Social Work and the Law

These other requirements prepare you for working in the child welfare field:

• Advanced research with a focus on child welfare
• Integrated seminar with a focus on child welfare
• Advanced practice with a focus on child welfare practice
• Policy seminar with a focus on child welfare
• Adult and child psychopathology

CalSWEC PCW placements are typically within the greater Los Angeles County area. Specialized 1st year placements are usually in child and family mental health, family services, community agencies specializing in high-risk youth and family populations, occasionally in school or health care settings.

Second year placements are most often at L.A. County DCFS. There are times when placements can be arranged in surrounding counties.

No, we only offer a full-time program at this time.

Jesse Marez, M.S.W. ’97, Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services, Adoptions: “Everyone tells you, ‘This is a hard job.’ Yes, that is true, but the key to doing it well is good organization. I love my job and my clinical skills have grown enormously here. My CalSWEC placements and classes made a difference for me.”

Tuin Bui, M.S.W. ’97, Santa Clara County Department of Children’s Services: “I think I received a great education in the UCLA CalSWEC program. I understand the big picture and I am confident in my direct practice work with clients.”

Brian Reems, M.S.W. ’98, San Francisco Department of Social Services: “CalSWEC really prepared me to be a professional practitioner in a PCW agency. It helped me deal with court and understand what happens on a daily basis. CalSWEC taught me how to balance the clients’ needs and the agency’s needs. I feel confident about decision-making.”

El Nido (Carson): This satellite program of the El Nido Family Service Network is a strong example of a small community counseling program that has a significant impact on the area in which services are provided. In addition to providing child, adolescent and family out-patient services, this program has been a leader and innovator in developing specialized groups that operate in the local schools.

Aviva Center Counseling Services: This program provides in-home support, parenting, and counseling services to children, adolescents, parents and foster parents of kids being provided with intervention through the LA County Department of Children and Family Services. In addition, services are provided at the schools for certain children and/or at vocational sites for teens in after-school programs for high risk youth. Aviva Center spent a considerable period of time developing a model for preparing the first year student to eventually deliver services in the homes and schools of child welfare children and families provided with support, educational, and counseling services. This model involved teaming students with assessment, case-management and therapeutic staff of cases and eventually providing students with primary case-management and therapy roles. Students also participated in developing a group for high risk adolescents as a part of their job corps program. In addition, the students interacted with DCFS case workers and other providers on each case and did several reports with recommendations about visitation, therapy, and custody for the DCFS workers to use as documentation for their own comprehensive recommendations in their court reports.

Long Beach Child and Adolescent DMH: This program provides crisis intervention and on-going therapeutic services to children and adolescents who are identified as struggling with serious emotional problems, often emotional problems that will be a part of their experience throughout their lives. In addition, these children and adolescents are growing up in an ethnically diverse and impoverished area of Long Beach, frequently in homes where substance abuse, unemployment, and complicated immigration and naturalization issues are present.

Our students have an opportunity to develop assessment and intervention skills with these children and families that involve a full range of out-patient options, day-treatment services, and case-management and multi-disciplinary team collaboration. Students have also participated in the development of specialized groups and resource materials for the clinic population.

Foothill Family Service: This program maintains a child, adolescent, adult, marital and family out-patient program. In addition, this Family Service agency realized many years ago that it was critical to continue to evaluate and to develop programs relevant to the changing community. The CalSWEC students participate in developing and providing different individual and group services to children in the local schools. Our students have been critical to developing specialized community outreach to the mono-lingual Hispanic community and they have contributed to the development and implementation of a ‘Family Safe’ and ‘Dinners on the Table’ programs to assist both parents and children at risk of future difficulties and placement. This is accomplished through a supportive model of intervention which combines education, communication and problem solving skills, learning from peers, mentoring, and preventive services for multiple family groups that often involve families with three or more generations participating at one time.

Edelman Community Mental Health Clinic, Los Angeles County DMH; Harbor/UCLA Department of Psychiatry, Los Angeles County DMH: This program contains services for Adults with persistent and chronic mental illness, those with dual diagnosis, parents and children who are a part of the CALWORKS intervention programs in Los Angeles County, and children and teens with serious acute and chronic mental illnesses. Interns within this program develop many important assessment and interventions skills with both adults and children who are at risk for or who have been in placements of various kinds and who struggle with mental illness, substance abuse, and are exposed to and suffer from the effects of family violence. Students develop clinical practice skills, case management, collaboration, program development and evaluation skills in addition to doing community outreach.

Long Beach Asian Clinic Services, Los Angeles County DMH; Coastal Asian Community Mental Health Center, LA County DMH: This clinic serves a number of Asian immigrant and non-immigrant groups that live and work in the surrounding community. It is a facility that was developed by the county to house a number of professional and community workers with specialized knowledge and language skills. There are workers who speak Lao, Cambodian, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese and share other language and cultural experiences with the clients served. In addition to having a family member with a severe and persistent chronic mental illness, the families that attend the clinic are often from war-tom countries and a part of refugee groups who have been subject- ed to torture, witness to mass murders, and who have lost their connections to family, work, and homeland that is core to their self identity and sense of community. Our students become involved in all aspects of traditional and innovative community outreach services.

Kaiser Permanente Watts Counseling and Learning Center: At Kaiser Watts, students are able to become immersed in the provision of traditional and innovative services to children, adolescents, emancipating minors, adults, and families. At the same time, our students are able to see and participate in the many challenges that lie in maintaining a relevant community service under the umbrella of a large HMO administration. Students have participated in developing community outreach services and in providing resource guides and information that supports the centers attempts to define itself within the parent organization.

Venice Family Clinic: In this facility, our students become a part of the social service program of a family health center. As a result, they participate in evaluation, brief treatment, longer term interventions, and in the development and implementation of educational and support groups. Students see a range of child, adolescent, and adult living and emotional stressors often related to a primary health concern. Our students often work with bi-lingual or mono-lingual pregnant Hispanic mothers-to-be. As a result of some of the needs that have arisen in this work, over the last several years our students have participated with another staff member in the development of literature and services for Spanish speaking women who are the victims of spousal battery.  Project Impact: This agency contains a juvenile diversion program which provides an opportunity for students to run prevention groups at schools and the agency. Project Impact is also a “hub” for the Family Preservation Program, hence students placed here come to understand how this large community treatment program is administered. Students participate in providing services to the juvenile diversion teens and their families, they also work with the parents and children in the Family Preservation program. In addition the students assist with the development of program services and grant applications for both programs.

Vista Del Mar: This facility has been a hub for developing innovative programs that focus on high-risk child and family services. Students intern in a specialized school based, non-public school program that provides educational, mental health, peer support and case management to children and teens with specialized needs.

• Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services
• Orange County Social Service Agency
• Ventura County Social Services

PCW CalSWEC Student Placement and Training: PCW CalSWEC students are placed in Emergency Services, Continuing Case Services, or sometimes in Adoption Services within high needs offices designated for UCLA Title IV-E interns. Students work with a primary Field Instructor who is a supervising social worker and with preceptors or case carrying social workers. They also have a series of trainings and group meetings sponsored by L.A. County DCFS Education and Licensing. These trainings cover a range of specialized topics like safety assessment, child abuse evaluation, child sexual abuse, domestic violence and substance abuse in addition to learning to document case notes and court reports.

Efforts are made to provide a range of ethnicities and age levels in client assignments. At times, for those with case carrying child protective service experience, we can arrange for exposure to other areas of focus within child protective services, such as:

Foster Family Agency Management: The student placed here learns macro practice skills in managing the issues that present when a public agency contracts with nonprofit community agencies to run their own foster homes. Student reviews contract compliance, proposal, outreach and training issues.

IV-E Waiver/Compliance Unit: The student placed here becomes acquainted with the process the agency uses to secure a waiver

from IV-E regulations as well as how the agency insures compliance with IV-E requirements. Student is also involved in research (e.g., recent time study on caseload issues).

Region IV Headquarters: The student(s) placed with this administrator learn a variety of macro and micro skills ranging from accompanying the administrator to high-level community meetings (e.g., child death review) and studying various management styles and practices to providing direct FM or FR case management services.

Training: This unit provides experienced stu- dents with an opportunity to conduct a needs assessment and develop and deliver a training to a segment of public child welfare workers. Students are also required to make recommendations to training managers about modifying current in-service trainings offered experienced workers. Some trainers have a specific interest in areas such as domestic violence; students placed with these trainers have a unique opportunity to prepare and deliver curriculum for this specialized area.

Adoptions: This unit prepares a student for all phases of direct practice adoption work. Student manages several types of cases and follows an adoption from inception to the final hearing.

Policy Bureau: This unit prepares students for understanding the agency’s process for writing and revising policies. Students conduct research, analyze legislation and evaluate options. They are required to draft a policy bulletin.

ORANGE COUNTY SOCIAL SERVICE AGENCY & VENTURA COUNTY SOCIAL SERVICES also offer internships that provide ER, continuing services and at times:

Adoptions: This unit prepares a student to understand all phases of direct practice adoption work. Students follow an adoption for the length of their placement, performing all direct and indirect services required of a case-caring worker.

Medical Placement: Students in this setting carry cases of medically fragile children who understandably have special needs.

Healthy Start: Students in this setting provide largely prevention work, diverting children from the public child welfare system while providing direct and referral services. For this reason, cases from Emergency Response, Family Maintenance, Family Reunification, and Permanency Planning (these are the four main services provided by any public child welfare agency in the state of California) are selectively added to this experience.

Program Development: Students work on assignments to develop new pro- grams/responses for organizational needs. They are responsible for searching out and following legislation that might provide additional resources to the agency. Once a program is developed, they collaborate with a team on implementation and marketing. As with the above placement, students here must also carry a few client cases to enable them to understand the issues associated with carrying a caseload as an entry-level child social worker.

CWS-CMS Compliance: A student in this function conducts research on how workers are utilizing this statewide computerized information system. The student also provides feedback to the manager, recommending modifications and conducts, additional one-to-one training, etc. Students placed here have also had a preceptorship in another unit in order to have the direct case management experience.