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Description
The purpose of this project was to develop and implement a work training curriculum designed to address the needs of childcare workers who work with severely emotionally disturbed children in the county of San Diego. Research reports that high turnover is an issue among employees who work in children's services and that high turnover incurs costs that include induction and training costs and effects on staff morale. Among child welfare staff in the United States, the turnover rate ranges from 30 to 40 percent, and the average length of employment is less than two years. Researchers also describe the perspectives of staff who help young children who are traumatized and show that secondary trauma, compassion fatigue, and burnout can afflict individuals who work with people who have experienced trauma. This project will focus on training staff who work for the company New Alternative's, Inc, a program that includes numerous facilities that house severely emotionally disturbed children throughout San Diego County. The program is important because, similar to the national statistics cited above, there appears to be a high turnover rate among New Alternatives, Inc employees. Data collected on 6,628 employees revealed that 48% of employees work for the company for less than a year. The company has recently started to address the turnover rate by starting a Trauma Informed Care staff committee that focuses on policy changes that make the facility more trauma informed for the children, and also assist staff with their concerns and needs. The program, called Project Knowledge, will incorporate research based practices and address secondary trauma and burnout in staff. The program includes lessons on self care, and team-building and reflective activities, and the curriculum was piloted over two half-day trainings with 10 staff members who work with Severely Emotionally Disturbed children (6 to 12 years old). This paper presents the curriculum, the research guiding the content and implementation, and a description of the pilot implementation at one NAI facility. Preliminary results on the pilot program are presented which have informed the continued development and incorporation of the curriculum into future NAI staff orientation trainings.
