About this guide
Case studies and real-life stories can be a powerful tool for teaching and learning about child welfare issues and practice applications. This guide provides access to a variety of sources of social work case studies and scenarios, with a specific focus on child welfare and child welfare organizations.
Child welfare case studies, real-life stories, and scenarios
- Real cases projectThree case studies, drawn from the New York City Administration for Children's Services. Website also includes teaching guides
- Protective factors in practice vignettesThese vignettes illustrate how multiple protective factors support and strengthen families who are experiencing stress. From the National Child Abuse Prevention Month website
- Child welfare case studies and competenciesEach of these cases was developed, in partnership, by a faculty representative from an Alabama college or university social work education program and a social worker, with child welfare experience, from the Alabama Department of Human Resources
- Calling for help: Tom's storyPresents the powerful real-life story of Tom Alfandary and his challenge to get help when he was a teenager. Part of the Dress Purple resources found on the OACAS website
- Better serving African Canadian families: What we can learn from Notisha Massoquoi’s adoption experienceThis interview ilustrates the racism that exists in the Ontario child welfare system and some of the barriers to better serving African Canadian families
- A home visit: Simulation gameThis interactive video simulation from Ryerson University promotes the application of knowledge and skills related to establishing a therapeutic relationship and completing a home visit. While intended for practitioners in nursing it may also be relevant to child welfare professionals
- Immigration in the child welfare system: Case studiesCase studies related to immigrant children and families in the U.S. from the American Bar Association
- White privilege and racism in child welfare scenariosFrom the Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare
- Until the Last Child: Case studiesTwo case studies from Until The Last Child, an organization that works alongside child welfare agencies to improve permanency outcomes
- You decide: Would you remove these children from their families?Interactive piece from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation featuring cases based on real-life situations
- Casework and evaluation: Learning from my success storyA caseworker recalls one of her most rewarding and successful child welfare cases and explains the role that evaluation played in delivering the services and supports that made a difference for two teenage girls and their mother
- A case study involving complex traumaThis case study complements a series of blog posts dedicated to the topic of complex trauma and how children learn to cope with complex trauma
- Fostering and adoption: Case studiesFour case studies from Research in Practice (UK)
- Troubled families case studiesThis document describes how different families in the UK were helped through family intervention projects
- Parenting case studiesFrom of the Pennsylvania Child Welfare Resource Center's training entitled "Understanding Reactive Attachment Disorder"
- Children’s Social Work Matters: Case studiesCollections of narratives and case studies
Social services and organizational case studies
- Real stories from the fieldMultimedia collection of workforce development stories from students, faculty, and child welfare professionals at all levels. From the National Child Welfare Workforce Institute
- Race for Results case studiesSeries of case studies from the Annie E. Casey Foundation looking at ways of addressing racial inequities and supporting better outcomes for racialized children and communities
- Systems of care implementation case studiesThis report presents case studies that synthesize the findings, strategies, and approaches used by two grant communities to develop a principle-guided approach to child welfare service delivery for children and families
- Child Outcomes Research Consortium: Case studiesCase studies from the Child Outcomes Research Consortium, a membership organization in the UK that collects and uses evidence to improve children and young people’s mental health and well-being
