DHS Title IVE Programs
Title IVE Program: A Partnership Between the Myron B. Thompson School of Social Work and the Hawai`i State Department of Human Services
Since the fall of 1998, the University of Hawai`i Myron B. Thompson School of Social Work and the Department of Human Services (DHS) have collaborated on a training program designed to increase the number of social workers at DHS, Child Welfare Services (CWS). This project, called the Hawai`i Child Welfare Education Collaboration (HCWEC), provides reimbursement for educational expenses and other accommodations to current CWS employees to assist them with obtaining their MSW degrees. For more specific information on this project, please contact the Project Director at (808) 956-7216.
In 2004, the collaboration expanded to establish a Title IVE Training Academy in order to address training standards mandated by the Child Welfare Bureau. The expansion focused on training and preparing Hawai`i’s CWS caseworkers and unit supervisors for (1) consistent standards-based performance in the field, and (2) consistent supervision to support standards-based practice.
The Training Academy also aims to develop a best practice, evaluation based, culturally relevant, and physically accessible training to meet the needs of the DHS/CWS. A critical part of the expansion related to training is the evaluation research component which was created to 1) to find out if objectives for the trainings are met, and 2) to inform and refine curricula and future trainings.
Our partnership with DHS has served to launch our Distance Education Program offered to the neighbor islands. Funding appropriated by Hawai`i’s legislature was matched by DHS funds in order to create and implement a distance education Master’s in Social Work program that is equivalent to the Manoa-based MSW program.
