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West Virginia Learns More About KVC’s Safe & Connected Model

SandCWayne

Wayne staff relax after staffing a case using the Safe and Connected model.

Sue Lohrbach, KVC’s Director of Child Welfare Innovation and Research, recently traveled to West Virginia to teach our staff and community partners more about KVC’s Safe & Connected™ integrated child welfare model. The model provides a structured way to make decisions with and for the children and families served by the child welfare system. Safe & Connected emphasizes organizing information in order to promote critical thinking, collaborating with the family and other stakeholders, and taking a comprehensive, balanced assessment of risk in service to the outcomes of improved child safety, wellbeing and permanency.

Although KVC staff have been using the model for some time, Lohrbach helped to fine-tune staff skills and assisted in critical thinking on difficult cases. President Brent Lemon and KVC WV leadership met with Sue and the staff from the Lincoln and Wayne offices to staff cases and explore future uses of the model.

In addition to the staff training, Lohrbach also provided training to more than 30 interested community partners. She explained how KVC uses Safe & Connected both in West Virginia and across the U.S., and what its many benefits are – such as children being in foster care for shorter amounts of time.

If you are a KVC West Virginia community partner and are interested in learning more about how KVC uses Safe & Connected or how it can help children, please contact Erin Keltner at ekeltner@kvc.org.  KVC West Virginia is grateful to Sue Lohrbach for sharing her knowledge and expertise to our staff.