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Vol. 28, No. 2
July 2025
Empowered Conversations: Building Trust and Collaboration in Child Welfare - Launching Fall 2025
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Social Services (NCDHHS DSS) is excited to announce a new, advanced-level, in-person training course launching in fall 2025: "Empowered Conversations: Building Trust and Collaboration in Child Welfare." This two-day training is designed to help child welfare professionals-program administrators, supervisors, and front-line workers, to develop the skills needed to navigate the tough yet essential conversations that arise throughout the life of a case. Rooted in the principles of crucial conversations and tailored specifically for the child welfare context, this course emphasizes how intentional communication fosters trust, strengthens collaboration, and supports better family outcomes.
What Is an Empowered Conversation?
Empowered conversations are critical, sometimes uncomfortable discussions that move cases forward-both at the family and supervisor case staffing level. These may involve highly sensitive topics, such as family dynamics, domestic violence, or substance use, and require not just technical knowledge but emotional intelligence and communication skills. No matter their role, child welfare staff must engage in these challenging dialogues to build trust and collaborate effectively toward shared goals.
These conversations have always been difficult to navigate, but there has not been a course specifically dedicated to strengthening this skillset-until now.
Why Now?
The need for this course has become increasingly clear. In 2019, the CPS Assessments curriculum was updated to include content on crucial conversations. As NCDHHS DSS Program Manager Crystalle Williams explains, "Case reviews and county feedback showed that workers were either avoiding difficult conversations or approaching them too forcefully. It was a case of too little or too much."
Early feedback from the revision of the CPS Assessments course was positive. Yet over time, it became apparent that all job functions and all roles in child welfare, not just assessments, could benefit from training in this area.
Emi Wyble, NCDHHS DSS Regional Abuse and Medical Specialists Manager, says, "This course is not just for assessment staff. It will be good for everyone. There is a need to have a conversation about stopping a trial home visit, pending adoption, worker performance, stakeholder involvement, or a safety plan. The skills learned in this course will help staff feel prepared for all of those conversations and focus on staying in dialogue with families, even when things turn difficult. When we are able to stay in dialogue with families, we can work together to address concerns."
Additionally, regional continuous quality improvement (CQI) teams have identified lack of skill in difficult conversations as a root cause of many systemic challenges. Holly McNeil, NCDHHS DSS CQI Lead, notes, "This has always been an area for improvement, but in recent years, the need has grown. Many workers, regardless of age, struggle with face-to-face communication, especially in a post-pandemic workforce more accustomed to virtual interactions."
These communication challenges impact the ability to build trust with families, collaborate within teams, and provide effective supervision. Avoiding difficult conversations may temporarily prevent conflict, but it also weakens relationships and delays progress.
Course Overview
"Empowered Conversations" provides participants with tools to communicate effectively in high-stakes situations. The course supports supervisors and staff in building the skills needed to prepare for, engage in, and follow through on difficult conversations, while strengthening trust and collaboration with families, colleagues, and teams.
During this course, participants will:
- Define what constitutes a "crucial conversation" in child welfare, identifying relevant scenarios
- Identify the role of self-awareness in navigating emotionally charged discussions
- Learn and apply at least five of the eight key communication skills through hands-on activities
- Practice using these skills in small groups with role-specific case scenarios
- Understand how to incorporate structured decision-making tools to transition conversations into concrete action steps
Supporting Better Outcomes
This training is designed not just to enhance individual communication skills but to improve systemic outcomes. McNeil highlights the broader impact: "When workers can go deeper into the issues facing families and children, they're better able to identify root causes and develop more effective solutions."
Crystalle Williams echoes this: "The bottom line is better outcomes for families. Trust and collaboration are built through conversation, and we must improve our ability to engage families in a meaningful way to make accurate safety decisions."
These skills are as critical for supervisors as they are for workers. Strong communication builds trusting teams, holds staff accountable to policy and best practice, and contributes to a more resilient workforce. As McNeil points out, "In our current staffing crisis, where it is difficult to find staff to fill all the necessary positions, supervisors are often hesitant to have conversations that they feel might cause a worker to leave. This may leave them with fewer vacancies, but also less effective staff."
Looking Ahead
The hope for "Empowered Conversations" is that staff and supervisors alike will leave with a renewed sense of confidence and competence in addressing difficult topics, while maintaining the relationships essential to both child and family safety and workforce stability.
"It's about being intentional," says Williams. "When we invest the time to plan and approach conversations with empathy and purpose, we build trust and strengthen collaboration. That's how we create real, lasting impact."