Building Core Competencies of the Social Service Workforce in Europe and Central Asia: Evaluating Feasibility of a Capacity Building Model

Background and Purpose

Global health emergencies along with regional conflicts and resulting humanitarian crises have escalated the need for a well-trained social service workforce (SSWF). The extension of social services to all children at the community level is critical to ongoing reforms and priority agendas including humanitarian crises, child poverty, migration, identifying and responding to social exclusion and gender inequities, addressing violence against children and women, promoting a positive and equitable agenda for adolescents, young people, and childhood development. Trained in core competencies in interpersonal communication and community engagement, social workers can serve as a critical ‘bridge’ and providers of services for vulnerable beneficiaries. This initiative seeks to expand access to a comprehensive, sustainable and cross-national approach to capacity building for the SSWF.

Methods

The Building Social Service Workforce Competencies Project, a partnership with UNICEF, Columbia University, School of Social Work (CSSW), and the Global Health Research Center of Central Asia (2019-2022) developed and evaluated a 10-day, foundational train-the-trainer curricula, Foundations in Communication and Community Engagement Competencies (FCCEC) for the Social Service Workforce, in hybrid form (online and classroom content designs) implemented with social work and allied professionals. Recruitment was partnership with UNICEF country offices included academia, ministries, local NGOs, and service providers. The design builds upon the CSSW model, UNICEF’s core standards of community engagement, international accreditation standards for social work education, policy, theory, and practical. The model incorporates a collective learning Community of Practice strategy. Training is preceded by consultations to ensure cultural and contextual relevance. Evaluation (n=175) included surveys for pre-post training knowledge, skills, confidence self-assessment; daily formative assessment, and summative training assessments.

Results

Implementation evaluation demonstrated both feasibility and acceptability of the FCCEC for the SSWF model in 3 pilot countries--Kazakhstan, Georgia, and Albania and 5 additional countries--Greece, Uzbekistan, Montenegro, Serbia, and Turkmenistan. Master trainees (n=175) held master’s degrees (44%), bachelor’s (33%) and doctoral (15%) were from the field of social work (32%), psychology (6%), and from government agencies (48%), universities (20%), and non-government organizations (24%). Summative findings demonstrate high model satisfaction (higher than 9.2 out of 10) regardless of baseline knowledge and skill. Participants expressed commitment to replicating the training (estimated to > 5,000 recipients) reinforcing adoption.

Conclusions and Implications

Evaluation of the FCCEC model provides evidence of feasibility and acceptability demonstrated through high levels of satisfaction scores from master trainers, and post-training knowledge and trainer confidence. The capacity building model and curricula promotes a well-trained SSWF and underscores the promotion of social work professionalization, especially in crisis intervention skills and community engagement needed for global health impacts, regional conflicts and economic challenges that often lead to humanitarian crises. Through international cooperation, the SSWF capacity building model may enhance services to children and families by joining resources and collective learning, mentorship and evidence-based content. Further research is needed to examine dissemination and scale up of this model to advance a skilled SSWF grounded in international standards and core competencies to meet the ever-growing demand for equitable, effective and crises responsive social services.