3rd Annual Child Welfare Roundtable at Southwest Texas State University

The 3rd Annual Child Welfare Roundtable, sponsored by the Center for Children and Families at Southwest Texas was held on June 14-15, 1999 in San Marcos, Texas. The event is coordinated by Dr. Karen Brown and Dr. Nancy Chavkin, co-directors of the Center for Children and Families. The purpose of the event was to continue building a strong collaborative network for children and families. All Texas undergraduate and graduate schools of social work with an interest in Title IV-E funding for preparing social workers for child welfare were invited to attend. Attendees included: the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Texas at Arlington, the University of Houston, Texas A & M University-Commerce, Texas Lutheran University, Southwest Texas State University, Stephen F. Austin State University, and representatives from state and local child protective services offices in the Austin, Arlington, Dallas, Houston, Nacogdoches, and San Antonio regions.

President Jerome Supple of Southwest Texas State University opened the meeting by welcoming participants to Aquarena Springs Conference Center and Dean Rumaldo Juarez extended greetings from the School of Health Professions. Presenters included: Joan Levy Zlotnik of the Council on Social Work Education, Joe Woodard of the Administration for Children and Families, Pat Newlin of the Administration for Children and Families, Alvin Sallee of the Family Preservation, Tammy Jones of MidSOUTH, and Bert Ellett of the Louisiana Office of Community Services.

Three major recommendations emerged from the meeting. First, the group felt that it should keep the Texas focus but expand the discussion to the region, and thus next year the 4th Annual Child Welfare Roundtable will make a concerted effort to have representatives from all the states in this region or nearby regions join them for discussion. Second, the group recommended that participants spend more time in small group discussions of current issues, and thus next year the Roundtable will have five committees that will develop key questions and issues for small focus groups that will report back to the whole. The five committees proposed for the next roundtable are: field, evaluation, recruitment/employment, budget/recoupment, and collaboration/partnership. Third, the group recommended that top-level administrators from the state agencies and from the Department of Health and Human Resources be invited, and these invitations are in process.

SWT will continue to host the Roundtable at Aquarena Springs in June 2000. A planning meeting for the 4th Annual Roundtable has been scheduled for Wed. Sept. 29, 1999 at 5pm at the Red Lion Inn during the National Family Preservation Conference in Austin (9/29-10/1). If you would like to be involved in next year’s roundtable, contact Nancy Chavkin at 512-245-2593 or nc02@txstate.edu