DCRC’s Top 10 Moments of 2015
Thanks for taking the time to read our Top 10 Moments. If you have any questions or are interested in learning more, please email [email protected] for more information.
Child Welfare Initiative:
1. Publication of Your Journey Together—DCRC’s newest resilience-building resource is specifically designed to support parents! Please visit www.YourJourneyTogether.org to learn more about this strength-based curriculum designed to promote the social and emotional well-being and resilience of vulnerable children and families. We invite you to watch a recorded overview presentation, download an information packet, and learn about professional development opportunities.
2. Florida Institute for Child Welfare Grant – The Devereux Center for Resilient Children was awarded a grant by the Florida Institute for Child Welfare to conduct research on the efficacy of the Your Journey Together (YJT) curriculum – a new DCRC program designed to promote the social and emotional well-being and resilience of vulnerable children and their families. The project is being implemented in partnership with Dr. Ana Leon, Professor of Social Work at the University of Central Florida, and graduate student Shannon Holliker. Multiple Florida-based child welfare agencies are taking part in the project.
3. Indiana Community Partners Project – DCRC is continuing to expand our work within the field of child welfare and was privileged to partner with SCAN, a child welfare organization in Fort Wayne, IN, to develop resources and professional development for their Community Partners for Safe Families program. The Community Partners program provides in-home, one-to-one services to help solve problems affecting their families. Based on DCRC’s Your Journey Together Curriculum designed to build resilience in vulnerable children and families, DCRC developed customized scripted lessons for caseworkers to use with families, recorded webinars to support case workers in understanding the materials, and delivered live training to support the supervisors in their oversight of this initiative. This exciting partnership reached over 100 caseworkers and provided DCRC with an excellent opportunity to further develop our resilience-building resources to support families involved in the child welfare system.
Resource Enhancements:
4. DECA-Clinical form in Spanish— The DECA-C is now available in Spanish on the web-based e-DECA platform where the scores are automatically calculated and reports generated. DCRC is in the process of preparing a paper that summarizes the extensive process that is used to ensure that equivalent results are obtained from both the Spanish and English versions of the assessment. Visit the research and results section of our website in coming weeks to learn more about the translation process.
5. e-DECA with Conscious Discipline Strategies – DCRC and Loving Guidance have partnered together to offer a web-based resource that allows programs to access Conscious Discipline strategies on the e-DECA web-based assessment platform. To learn more about the Conscious Discipline & e-DECA Assessment and Planning System, we invite you to watch a recorded overview presentation. If you would like to login and practice using the solution, please click here for more information.
6. DESSA Strategies—Apperson Evo Social & Emotional Learning is the name of the web-based platform that supports the Devereux Student Strengths Assessment (DESSA). This year brought the completion of resilience-building strategies developed by DCRC along with sample lessons from some of the leading SEL Curricula providers that offers strategies for individual children, small groups, entire classrooms, and the home. Along with the Strategies, the Assessment and Intervention System also now includes Foundational Practices to support SEL classrooms. To learn more about EVO and the school-age strategies, please view the webinar here, or click here to start your free trial.
DCRC Recognition:
7. Devereux Assessments in the Handbook of Social and Emotional Learning— The 2015 Handbook of Social and Emotional Learning compiles information from some of the most well regarded scientists in the field of social and emotional learning. DCRC is proud that both the DECA and DESSA were selected for comprehensive review and that the overall findings were very supportive of the Devereux assessments. The DESSA is identified as the top alignment measure, covering every core SEL competency highlighted.
8. Los Angeles Public Schools Began Piloting the DESSA – Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), the 2nd largest public school district in the United States, is currently piloting the DESSA. As school systems work to infuse social and emotional learning into their activities, it is critical that schools have high quality tools to measure outcomes. The DESSA was selected to do just that and with successful outcomes, will be rolled out to additional schools in the coming years.
9. Y of the USA recommended the DESSA – This past year, the YMCA of the USA recommended the use of the DESSA to all YMCA programs across the country! For the past three years, the YMCA of the USA has been piloting an after school program designed to close the achievement gap for low-income students by improving academic success and building social and emotional skills. YMCA programs participating in the pilot program are using the DESSA to measure the social-emotional competence of the youth served. The pilot has grown from 7 sites in 2012-2013, to 28 sites in 2013-2014, and expanded again to 41 sites in 2014-2015! The program has shown great success, with 70% of children demonstrating improved social-emotional skills following one year in programming. More information on the YMCA’s pilot program can be found here.
Publications:
10. Topping the Charts in Social Work Research—One of Social Work Research’s most widely read articles this year was written by DCRC colleague, Valerie Shapiro. If you were not one of those who already read this completing article about why and how to effectively promote resilience in children, click here for the full article titled Resilience: Have We Not Gone Far Enough? A Response to Larry E. Davis
