Program Development & Capacity Building:
Current Projects

For the past two decades the Butler Institute has developed a strong record of collaboration with the Federal Department of Health and Human Services and various states, counties, and community entities to enhance the capacity of child and family-serving systems. Using a collaborative approach among formal agencies, the community, and consumers, the Institute advocates for evidence-based practice, sound public policies, and quality services.

Current project examples include:

• Collaboration between TANF and Child Welfare to Improve Child Welfare Outcomes
• Healthy Marriage and Family Formation Training Project
• Mountains and Plains Child Welfare Implementation Center
• National Child Welfare Workforce Institute
• Western Regional Recruitment and Retention Project
• Western Workforce Project

Collaboration between TANF and Child Welfare to Improve Child Welfare Outcomes:

The Butler Insitute is the evaluator for Jefferson County Human Services' TANF - Child Welfare Collaboration Project, funded through a grant from the federal DHHS, ACF.

 

Healthy Marriage and Family Formation Training Project:

Multi-state technical assistance in Wyoming, Colorado, and Kansas in capacity building in the area of healthy marriage and family formation for child welfare professionals and clients funded through a federal HHS-ACF five-year grant.

Project Website: www.thebutlerinstitute.org/projects_marriage.cfm.

 

Mountains and Plains Child Welfare Implementation Center (MPCWIC):

The MPCWIC is one of five Child Welfare Implementation Centers established by cooperative agreement with the Children's Bureau in October 2008. Our role is to facilitate communication and peer-to-peer networking across State and Tribal child welfare systems in federal Region VI (Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas) and Region VIII (Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming). Each Implementation Center will assist States and Tribes to develop and execute in-depth, multi-year projects, intended to achieve sustainable system change that results in improved outcomes for children, youth and families. Additionally, the MPCWIC is a member of the Children's Bureau Training and Technical Assistance (T/TA) Network and will work collaboratively with the Child Welfare National Resource Centers and other members of the T/TA Network, and the Children's Bureau to meet identified MPCWIC project goals and to provide coordinated, individualized, intensive technical assistance to these regions' states and tribes.

Grant Partners: University of Texas, Arlington, School of Social Work's, Judith Granger Birmingham Center for Child Welfare (Project Lead) and grant partners the University of Denver, Butler Institute for Families, and the Native American Training Institute, Bismarck, North Dakota.

Project Website: www3.uta.edu/mpcwic.

 

National Child Welfare Workforce Institute (NCWWI):

The NCWWI’s purpose is to build the capacity of the nation’s child welfare workforce and improve outcomes for children and families through activities that support the development of skilled child welfare leaders in public, private and tribal child welfare systems. The goals are to derive promising practices in workforce development, identify and facilitate child welfare leadership training for middle managers and supervisors, administer BSW and MSW traineeships, engage national peer networks, support strategic dissemination of effective and promising workforce practices, and advance knowledge through collaboration and evaluation. Butler Institute for Families University of Denver is lead for two project components, the Knowledge Assessment and Management (KAM) and the overall project evaluation.

Grant Partners: SUNY at Albany School of Social Welfare (Project Lead), University of Iowa School of Social Work, University of Southern Maine’s Muskie School of Public Service, Michigan State University School of Social Work, University of Michigan School of Social Work, Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service, National Indian Child Welfare Association, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Social Work - Jordan Institute for Families, University of Denver Butler Institute for Families

Project Website: www.ncwwi.org/

 

Western Regional Recruitment and Retention Project (WRRRP):

A five-year DHHS-ACF Children's Bureau child welfare training grant. Organizational and training needs assessment for six child welfare sites in Colorado, Arizona, and Wyoming funded through a federal HHS-ACF five-year grant.

Project Website: www.thebutlerinstitute.org/projects_wrrrp.cfm

 

Western Workforce Project (WW):

 

The U.S. Children’s Bureau (Administration for Children and Families, Department of Health and Human Services) awarded funding for five National Child Welfare Workforce Initiatives in October 2008. The Butler Institute for Families University of Denver, in partnership with the Native American Training Institute (NATI), was awarded one of these five-year cooperative agreements.

The Western Workforce Project is designed to create and test a workforce assessment and intervention model focused on organizational health. The overall goals and approach of the Western Workforce are to:

• Develop, conduct, and test a comprehensive organizational health assessment
• Develop an intervention model to address workforce issues, initiated and designed by teams at each site
• Build a learning culture at each site through the development of “learning circles”
• Provide professional educational opportunities by offering BSW and MSW traineeships at all sites and integrating stipend students into site teams

Through the Western Workforce Project, the Butler Institute and Native American Training Institute will have the opportunity to work collaboratively at child welfare sites and institutions of higher learning in three states. The following project sites have been chosen to represent a range of organizational and geographic realities in the western U.S.

• Denver County (Colorado), Department of Human Services (DDHS); Metro State College and University of Denver
• Casper, Wyoming, Department of Family Services and University of Wyoming
• North Dakota Tribes: Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara (Three Affiliated Tribes), Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa; University of North Dakota, Turtle Mountain Tribal College, and Minot State University

Grant Partners: University of Denver Butler Institute for Families (Project Lead)and the Native American Training Institute, Bismarck, North Dakota.