Dear CalSWEC Community,
With the assistance of our Executive Committee, CalSWEC is moving toward revitalizing university-agency partnerships and implementing the recommendations from its Strategic Plan that was approved by the Board of Directors last February. Our primary intention is to build on the existing strengths of the organization while remaining mindful about the changing contexts in which we all work.
As the recently designated executive director and principal investigator of CalSWEC contracts, I will continue to collaborate with CalSWEC program directors and staff, state leadership, and university and agency partners to sustain the viability of the organization and implement the proposed changes outlined in the Strategic Plan. The convening of the permanent committees on February 23 will present an opportunity to exchange information about the “action steps” that will be used to guide the organization through a series of proposed changes over the next several years.
Activities Relate to Strategic Plan
As we move through these changes, CalSWEC’s work continues. Following are a number of important efforts that align with CalSWEC’s mission and relate to the goals of the Strategic Plan:
- Revising the CalSWEC Curriculum Competencies for Public Child Welfare, Behavioral Health and Aging to better align with the 2015 Council on Social Work Education Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards;
- Implementing the Common Core 3.0 curricula for new child welfare workers;
- Optimizing and maximizing the use of technology and instructional design for online learning and resource development, including statewide centralized revisions of Common Core 3.0 eLearnings;
- Reinstating baseline, 3-year, and 5-year follow-up surveys of all stipend recipients and conducting a 25-year retrospective study of Title IV-E graduates;
- Maintaining strong oversight of all funded programs to ensure they remain consistent with all applicable regulations; and
- Working with funding agencies and university partners to examine and update contract and budget processes.
It is CalSWEC’s intention to build on our strengths and prepare for changing times and expectations about what CalSWEC represents and how we should proceed. Whether you are a county director, agency representative, dean or director, faculty member, or Title IV-E or MHSA stipend program alumnus/alumna or student, we all have a stake in sustaining our mission to facilitate and support “statewide partnerships for the education and training of social workers to ensure culturally responsive, effective, and high-quality health and social service delivery to the people of California.”
I hope you will join us in this auspicious endeavor.
Virginia
Virginia Rondero Hernandez
Executive Director and Principal Investigator, CalSWEC