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
The University of Hawai`i and the Department of Human Services (DHS) initiated a partnership in 1998 as a response to the shortage of MSW-level staff in the DHS Child Welfare Services (CWS) Branch. The initial program focused on collaborative efforts to encourage MSW candidates to choose public child welfare as their field of service and place of employment. In addition, the project was designed to enable current DHS employees to pursue an MSW degree. Students of the program receive competency-based public child welfare education and practicum experiences (Title IVE approved).
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.
