4th Annual Global Social Service
Workforce Alliance Symposium:
Case Management and the Social Service Workforce
View the webcast recording here.
Read the event summary here.
Download the presentations here.
Read the Storify summary of Tweets from participants here.
Read the National Association of Social Workers NASW News story about the event here.
The Global Social Service Workforce Alliance hosted its 4th Annual Symposium on May 24, 2017, in Washington, DC, and also via live webcast on the topic of case management and the social service workforce. More than 100 in-person participants and 400 remote participants from 29 countries across NGOs, practice, government, academia, foundations and other experts in the field shared how a strengthened workforce is able to implement integrated and innovative approaches to case management that create comprehensive and sustainable systems of care for vulnerable children and families. The symposium enabled the exchange of information between members of the Alliance and others working in case management, family reintegration, HIV/AIDS service delivery, child welfare, child protection, humanitarian response and health experts across many countries and regions.
Welcome - Amy Bess, Director, Global Social Service Workforce Alliance
Opening Remarks - Tom Fenn, Project Director, Coordinating Comprehensive Care for Children (4Children)
Opening Remarks - Dr. Rebecca Davis, Associate Professor and Director, Center for Global Social Work, School of Social Work, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Panel 1: Building a stronger workforce to strengthen HIV-sensitive case management systems and to realize national and global HIV goals
Moderator: Vishanthie Sewpaul, Professor, Zayed University, United Arab Emirates
Speakers:
1. Strengthening the Community Workforce in Case Management to Improve the Provision of Comprehensive Services and Increase Targeted HIV Testing in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djeneba Coulibaly-Traore, 4Children DRC Project Director
2. Integrating HIV Sensitive Benchmarks into a Case Management Approach in Support of Nigeria’s 90-90-90 Campaign, Tapfuma Murove, 4Children Nigeria Project Director
3. Getting to Zero: Social workers as case managers on transdisciplinary teams improving the quality of HIV care in the United States, Theresa Fox, Research Analyst, Institute for Families, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Panel 2: Promoting multidisciplinary linkages to carry out integrated case management approaches
Moderator: Zeni Thumbadoo, Deputy Director, National Association Child Care Workers, South Africa
Speakers:
1. Coordinating Clinic and Community Services through Case Management, Maury Mendenhall, Senior Technical Advisor, Orphans and Vulnerable Children, USAID
2. Responding to Violence Against Children through Linkage of School Child Protection Teams and Hospital-based Child Protection Units, Bernadette Madrid, Executive Director of the Child Protection Network Foundation, Inc., Philippines
3. Linking a Case Management Approach in Conflict and Refugee Settings to Country Level Systems of Care, Anthony MacDonald, Regional Senior Child Protection Specialist, UNICEF Regional Office for the Middle East and North Africa
Panel 3: Innovations in capturing evidence in order to improve case management and workforce strengthening
Moderator: Dan Lauer, Senior Program Officer, Global Development, GHR Foundation
Speakers:
1. Information Technology and Open Source Software Tools that Facilitate Case Management, Robert MacTavish, Child Protection Specialist/ Primero Project Lead, UNICEF Headquarters New York
2. Developments and Innovations in Case Management in Humanitarian Settings, Colleen Fitzgerald, CP Case Management Specialist, International Rescue Committee and Chair, Child Protection Case Management Task Force under the Global Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action
3. What We Can Learn from Ongoing (RCT) Research: Keeping Children in Healthy and Protective Families (KCHPF) experience using a case management model to support child reintegration, Michelle Ell, Keeping Children in Healthy and Protective Families (KCHPF) and 4Children Uganda Project Director
Small Group Work
Facilitators: Beth Bradford, Maestral International and 4Children; Severine Chevrel, 4Children; and Natia Partkhaladze, Georgian Association of Social Workers
Group Report Back and Discussion
Panel 4: Working toward sustainable models of staffing effective case management and systems of care for children and families
Moderator: Joanne Dunn, Senior Social Welfare and Justice Advisor, UNICEF Headquarters New York
Speakers:
1. Leading the Way: Building national case management system in Zimbabwe, Precious Muwoni, Regional Social Protection Advisor, Bantwana Initiative of World Education (WEI/B), Department of Child Welfare and Protection Services, Zimbabwe; and John Nyathi, Chief Social Welfare – Child Protection Services, Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare, Zimbabwe
2. Case Management in Namibia: Where we are coming from and where we are heading, Charlene Nadine Uakuramenua, Senior Social Worker Gender-Based Violence Protection Unit, Khomas region, Government of Namibia’s Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare
3. Maximizing the Investment in Child Well-Being: Combining social assistance and data tracking pertaining to children through intensified family visits, care and case management, Mayke Huijbregts, Chief of Social Policy and Child Protection, UNICEF South Africa; and Thabani Buthelezi, Chief Director M&E, Ministry of Social Development, South Africa
Closing Remarks
Dr. Jim McCaffery, Senior Organization Strengthening Specialist, TRG and Chairperson, Global Social Service Workforce Alliance Steering Committee
This year's Symposium was co-hosted by the Coordinating Comprehensive Care for Children (4Children) project, a five-year USAID-funded project implemented by a consortium of organizations led by Catholic Relief Services (CRS). This event is made possible in part through funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to the 4Children project through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) program. GHR Foundation also supports the Alliance.
