Assessing education and training needs.
This project was designed to provide the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect (NCCAN), Administration for Children & Families (ACF) with an assessment of homeless shelter staff and homeless families with two distinct areas of appraisal:
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Training needs of homeless shelter staff in detecting and preventing child abuse and neglect among residents and
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Educational needs of homeless families in preventing maltreatment of their children.
The work to accomplish this included:
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Conducting site visits to homeless shelters, child welfare agencies, and centers serving homeless youth and their families;
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Reviewing existing child abuse prevention materials;
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Developing educational materials for distribution by shelters; and
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Developing a plan to establish linkages between child abuse prevention advocates and service providers.
In addition to the above activities, advisory panels composed of experts in the field were formed, and meetings were held during the preliminary and final phases of the study. The panel meetings served to guide site-visit activities and materials development. Cygnus also developed a workshop for the 10th National Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect. Some of the professional service provided included:
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Materials development;
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Planning and implementation of annual conference; and
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Site visitation and assessment.
