Policy and Practice | October 2022

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policies. As we work to put families first, some of those policies will be revised or eliminated—and that is OK. Tierney: It sounds like an area where all child welfare practitioners can give ourselves the gifts of grit, compassion, heart, and humor. Schmidt: Yes, and we have all made decisions and taken actions that seemed right at the time but turned out to be less than optimal. Let us remember what Maya Angelou said—that when we know better, we do better. As we make our way through this process, we are going to understand more about ourselves and the work we are doing. In the end, we are going to do better by the Wyoming families we support.

Schmidt: Anyone who has been in this field for any length of time knows there is something about this work that keeps people engaged. It is not the pay. In conservative Wyoming— where human services are often considered a “necessary evil”—it is not the prestige. And yet, DFS has a loyal and highly engaged workforce. I am proud of our agency’s very distinc tive personality, and humor is a big part of our culture. While keeping a sense of humor is always essential in this field, it is espe cially important when we are turning a critical eye toward entrenched practices. I have been honest with my team that the transition to WyoSafe will and should be hard. It will and should make us uncomfortable. That is because we are not just digitizing how we have always done things. We are completely changing how we do our jobs. Seasoned staffers in any child services agency may have been person ally involved in creating long-standing In some cases, the Youth Teams App solution has helped to accelerate the pathway to permanency for children. One caseworker stated that 16 children on her caseload made the transition to permanency in less than a year, which is a substantially shorter time frame than the average time frame to per manency for children in Illinois. With the ability to communicate instantly with casework team members, the time frame to permanency can shrink significantly. The result is a more nur turing and stable environment where children can flourish. Changing the Delivery of Vital Services The goal of increasing communi cation to improve child safety has been realized through the Youth Teams App. “When the Youth Teams

Wyoming is proud to be a “gritty” state. Our ethos is that we do not need big government, but we do need to take responsibility for our choices. The people of DFS have grit, too. It is not unheard of for a staffer to dig out their car if a snowstorm hits during a home visit. It is not uncommon for us to drive hundreds of miles in a single day for stakeholder meetings. But we know that sometimes people need more than grit. They need support. That is when we need compas sion and heart to identify and arrange for what vulnerable children need to stay home safely. Those services invariably extend outside DFS. So we need grit, compassion, and heart as we partner with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the Wyoming Child Support System, and other human services programs. Tierney: That covers the first three strengths. Where does humor come into play? time to serve families. Additionally, the IL DCFS has reported that cases using the Youth Teams App often involve smoother transitions when caseworkers change, reduced time to permanency, more caseworker satisfaction, and children who feel more connected to all of the people in their case. “The Youth Teams App helps me connect with my social worker and the CASA worker more. It helped me build my trust with them. Anything that I need to tell them, I can tell them, and they will give me advice,” says McKayla, a 16-year-old Youth Teams App user. These success stories motivated the IL DCFS to continue scaling the solution. The Youth Teams App was first rolled out to a pilot group of 10 casework teams, and there are plans for a full-agency release that will be scaled to 10,000 casework teams. ILLINOIS continued from page 6

MollyTierney is the Managing Director of Child Welfare at Accenture.

Korin Schmidt is the is the Director of theWyoming Department of Family Services.

App rolled out, everything changed, and it was a great change. Now that we’ve got the technology, we can connect not only to the parents, but we can connect to the kids. And they have more privacy to talk with us, as well,” says Carolina Bono, Intact Worker at the IL DCFS. With the Youth Teams App, time is saved, efficiency is realized, and better connections are made—all while improving the outcomes for children. To learn more about the IL DCFS experi ence, please visit https://aka.ms/ ILDCFSYouthTeamsApp .

Anna Corley is the Business Development Director at Microsoft.

Ty Abrams is the National Director: Health + Human Services, Microsoft Industry Solutions at Microsoft.

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