Session: The Empowering Parents with Resources (EmPwR) Study: Implications for Policy and Practice (Society for Social Work and Research 30th Annual Conference Anniversary)

Most families who come to the attention of child welfare agencies in the United States are impoverished. There is extensive evidence that economic factors, including insufficient and inconsistent material resources, are a cause of child maltreatment (e.g., Landers et al., 2019; Slack et al., 2004; Thomas et al., 2023). In response to the extensive evidence, there are growing efforts by child welfare agencies in many states to provide different types of material resources to families to reduce the risk of maltreatment, such as Illinois' Norman Funds and Kentucky's Family Preservation Program's flexible funds (e.g., Anderson, 2023).

Motivated by the above evidence and policy efforts, the EmPwR Study is a first-in-the nation large scale field experiment to investigate whether unconditional cash gifts to families involved in the child welfare system reduces subsequent reports of child maltreatment and out-of-home placement. Having begun enrollment in January 2025, the study is randomizing 800 families (400 treatment, 400 control) who are receiving Intact Family Services - an Illinois case management program for low-risk child welfare cases across the state of Illinois to receive one year of monthly cash gifts, averaging $500/family per month, varying by local cost of living and family size. EmPwR is conducted in partnership with Brightpoint, formerly Children's Home and Aid of Illinois, and the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. Brightpoint is a nonprofit child welfare service provider, offering a range of child welfare services throughout the state of Illinois including Intact Family Services.

This symposium includes presentations of four papers, offering early insights into the process of training caseworkers on and implementing the EmPwR Study. Papers draw on early qualitative data from the EmPwR study, including 9 focus groups with 64 child welfare caseworkers. Paper 1 explores a disconnect between caseworkers' understanding of structural racism and classism and their individualist treatment of parents. The second paper investigates the gap between research and practice in child welfare casework and explores how a paternalistic mindset influences perceptions of equity with regard to cash transfers. Paper 3 examines the impact of arbitrary service eligibility criteria on intact services workers' decision-making. Finally, the fourth paper analyzes caseworkers' perceptions of families economic needs and describes the development, implementation, and effectiveness of the EmPwR training module on economic resources for child welfare-impacted parents.

Take together, these four papers offer novel evidence on child welfare caseworkers' perceptions of poverty and income and how caseworkers act on these perceptions in their routine practices with their low-income clients. Results across the four papers indicate a need to address ingrained paternalism and individualism in child welfare practice, such as through further training or additional policy shifts prioritizing concrete material supports to impoverished families in the U.S.