Developing New Knowledge in Foster Care
- Dr. Moria Levy
- Jan 1, 2008
- 4 min read
Written in collaboration with: Shlava Leibovich, Director of Foster Care Services Branch, Child and Youth Service in the Ministry of Welfare
The Foster Care Branch, which is managed by the Ministry of Welfare and Social Services, is interesting and unique. It deals with the delicate art of matching a foster family with a child in need, who maintains contact with their biological family throughout. Those working in foster care require high sensitivity and exceptional professionalism to make the right match, provide optimal guidance, support, and accompaniment, and to be alert to signals that may indicate distress and risk of an unplanned termination of the arrangement.
The branch consists of professionals, primarily the Ministry of Welfare staff members, and workers from various non-profit organizations who guide foster care in the field, each organization in a different area. Alongside these are the departments for social services, affiliated with local councils and municipalities. Knowledge management in the foster care branch is critical but not at all easy due to the combination of different organizations that do not always have uniform interests, have different reporting structures, and are under constant budgetary constraints.
Nevertheless, knowledge management exists. It includes advanced knowledge development processes alongside knowledge sharing processes.
New knowledge development takes place through a learning group that includes representatives from all ministry bodies and representatives of field organizations. The first stage in the learning group's work was to decide which areas it is appropriate to develop new knowledge for foster care. A workshop on focusing needs to distinguish between existing knowledge and areas where there is a perceived gap, thus prioritizing topics where professional understanding and the approach regulating actual work need to be developed. Two initial issues were selected for the 2007 work year: identifying signals; and optimal foster care matching (the "match"). The knowledge development process included seven stages:
Opening: Bringing up two stories from the field describing one success and one failure (or missed opportunity) in the studied area. Group discussion of these stories. The importance of this stage is that it brought all participants into a shared framework of thinking and began the debate from a "non-blank slate."
Learning from articles and collecting field knowledge: Joint definition of the topic's main components. In small parallel teams, analysis of articles from Israel and around the world related to the topic (not always from the foster care world, but ones that could be applied to the topic and field). One learning team member takes responsibility for collecting relevant articles before the learning session. These are copied so that each article is in the hands of at least two teams. Of course, additional team members can also contribute articles, but there is someone whose role is defined explicitly as such. While learning from the articles, relevant existing knowledge from the field is collected and surfaced.
Model definition: A group meeting and discussion of outputs combine all content and define a model—a graphic image representing the shared structuring of the topic. Sometimes, the model is initially partially structured, and in a repeated discussion after a meeting, it undergoes a processing procedure for an improved definition.
Knowledge detailing: Work in small teams to detail knowledge, combining field experience with what was learned from the articles, related to the model components. Each team takes responsibility for detailing one to two elements. This process can continue for several meetings, with homework between meetings advancing the outputs.
Writing an article: Integration of content into a joint article. Upload it to the website and request comments. The knowledge site serves as a tool to improve the learning process by receiving constructive and validating comments, from the first draft until the completion of the article.
Tool development: Development of practical tools (forms, questionnaires, etc.), intended for different populations (teachers, foster care guides, parents, etc.) that embody what was learned and transfer the knowledge from the theoretical model and article to something used in daily practice. Testing tools in the field, validating and improving them.
Defining the tools as mandatory.
Learning a topic takes about a year. The process is carried out gradually: We are currently at the end of validating the tools and making them mandatory in the area of identifying signals. We are in the middle of writing the article on optimal matching. Soon, we will begin learning a new field.
Results? Amazing. All those involved in the field who see the learning products are very impressed with their professional quality and potential contribution to improving foster care. The learning group, which began as a collection of representatives from different organizations, with many concerns and little mutual trust, is now a cohesive group. Participation in the learning group is now considered a "professional perk" and a place to reward high performers. We all feel that we have much ahead of us, and the sky is the limit.
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