The Resilience Alliance

The intervention is 6 months long & is delivered through weekly sessions held in the participating child protective offices. The sessions follow a 4-week cycle with the participants changing each week of the cycle: (1) CPS alone, by units; (2) CPS/Supervisor units; (3) Child Protective Manager and CPS/Supervisor units; and (4) CPSs & Supervisors/Managers separately. Participating staff are introduced to a resilience-related topic or skill, and receive a brief didactic training on that topic. Staff then engage in a group activity, which is designed to help them apply the new topic or skill to the workplace. Each module wraps up with a relaxation or exercise to help staff transition back into their work responsibilities; the facilitator can pick among the selection provided based on their sense of what would be helpful for the group. Staff are also given handouts and activities to do during the week.

These trainings will take place in two parts (for a total of 3 hours) and include an overview of secondary traumatic stress and its impact on child welfare staff, and some strategies staff can use to protect themselves from STS - essentially a summary version of what the intervention group will receive over the 24 weeks of the intervention. The investigators consider this training to represent treatment as usual, as from our experience it is often how child welfare agencies address the issue of secondary traumatic stress among their staff.