Child Abuse Prevention and Identification Interdisciplinary Education Projects

The National Child Welfare Workforce Institute (NCWWI), a cooperative agreement with the Children’s Bureau (CB), is a federally funded institute dedicated to increasing child welfare practice effectiveness through diverse partnerships. NCWWI has received funding from CB to support and enhance current interdisciplinary undergraduate and graduate education programs in community colleges, tribal colleges, colleges, and universities that improve training on how to prevent, identify, and respond to child abuse. The authorizing legislation is in the FY 2021 Omnibus Bill Congress passed in January in the Child Welfare Research, Training and Demonstration category.

For child welfare systems to achieve their goals, they must attract, develop, and retain a diverse workforce with knowledge and skills in understanding families and preventing and intervening when needed to reduce child abuse and neglect. To further this aim, NCWWI issued a Request for Proposals for Child Abuse Prevention and Identification Interdisciplinary Education Projects in July 2021, inviting state, county, and tribal child welfare programs; community colleges; tribal colleges; undergraduate and graduate programs; and not-for-profit agencies working in the field of child abuse and neglect to apply for funding to expand or enhance a current interdisciplinary education program designed to prepare future professionals across a number of disciplines with greater knowledge, skills, and abilities in the prevention, identification, and response to child abuse.

For this pilot funding initiative, three sites were selected from a very competitive pool of proposals. These sites are:

• University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
• University of South Dakota School of Health Sciences
• Children’s Advocacy Centers of Mississippi

If you would like to stay connected to this pilot project and receive intermittent updates about the funded programs and any lessons learned to help support and improve interdisciplinary education initiatives for child abuse and neglect prevention and identification, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Principal Investigator, with any questions related to this project or funding.