CDRC Learning Community

The CDRC Learning Community involves a consortium of 10 Colorado counties committed to racial equity in child welfare. The Learning Community fosters an environment designed to involve those closest to the work in creating and sustaining practice improvements. In contrast to top-down reforms or pilot projects, small tests of change focus on small practice changes with individual families in the child welfare system that are tested, studied and refined in order to eventually be spread as agency wide improvements. The benefits of using this type of transformative structure include: 

• Ample opportunities to strengthen the cultural proficiency of services and reduce disproportionality and disparities are provided to quickly and effectively impact child welfare practices throughout Colorado.
• Teams are encouraged to collaborate with one another to decrease the amount of time it takes to plan interventions. Because teams are encouraged to “share relentlessly” with one another on practice shifts that are culturally responsive, more time is spent “doing” interventions that will have real impacts on families.

In addition to involving representatives from Colorado county departments, this effort will draw on CDRC partners, policymakers, legislators, family members, youth and other advocates in the country to plan, field test, evaluate and rapidly deploy new strategies and tools (e.g., differential response) that will transform the practice of child welfare. County activities include community and family engagement; evaluation and support for differential response pilot counties; and policy and practice transformation.

The 10-County Consortium

The CDRC will work closely with five self-selected Colorado counties to ensure service equity for their child welfare clients:

• Adams
• Denver
• Douglas
• El Paso
• Prowers

The CDRC will also work with the five counties that are implementing differential response to evaluate if and how this approach reduces disparate and inequitable outcomes for children and families of color:

• Arapahoe
• Fremont
• Garfield
• Jefferson
• Larimer

Are you part of our Learning Community? “Share relentlessly” with others in the consortium on the Learning Community’s SharePoint site!

Do you have questions about the CDRC Learning Community? Email us at cdrc@americanhumane.org.