Social Work Development Program

2023 NACo Achievement Award Winner

Wilson County, N.C., NC

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About the Program

Category: Personnel Management, Employment and Training (Best in Category)

Year: 2023

In 2018, Wilson County Department of Social Services implemented the international Social Work Practice Model, Signs of Safety, within the Adult Services team. This practice model has been used across child welfare programs throughout the world since the early 90s, but our agency saw its potential application in our adult services program. The goal was to create a social work model for adult services that would help our staff deliver the same quality of services across all deliveries to clients and help create a familiar language within our agency. The implementation of this practice model has resulted in a consistent way of onboarding new staff, digging deeper with families, the creation of specific tools to better identify needs, strengths and next steps of the clients served, and a stronger adult services team.