End of year service sows seeds for a productive 2017

As 2016 came to an end, the center held its end of year team meeting in the Brickhaven Building on NCSU’s West Campus. Each year, this meeting brings staff together for professional team building, work planning sessions, and fellowship. This year, the team chose to engage in service to support the local Wake County community. Staff assembled about 70 donation bags of food items to be handed out by the Oak City Outreach shelter in Raleigh. Staff left the meeting feeling refreshed and energized for the upcoming year.

Sure enough, in early January, the training team joined the North Carolina Division of Social Services (NCDSS) Staff Development Team and the UNC Jordan Institute Family and Children Resource Program for a two-day Child Welfare Training Partnership Meeting. The event, attended by 49 professionals, opened with representatives from each partnership presenting key elements of their work in training child welfare social workers and community partners as part of the larger NCDSS training system.

The conference room buzzed with energy as attendees brainstormed ways to grow the partnership; discussed topics like curriculum development/revision, transfer of learning, partnership effectiveness, training impact evaluation, and technical assistance; explored the mission and vision of this partnership; and planned next steps. The meeting ended with plans for the group to meet again in July, and a plan for how partnership members would begin working on the goals and tasks outlined together.