Working with families impacted by Domestic Violence can be challenging, nerve wracking, and sometimes inspiring. You may often wish that you had more guidance about how you should approach this work.

In this course, you’ll learn more about the policy and legal guidance for child welfare work with families experiencing domestic violence. More importantly, you’ll learn the best practices for this work and get to practice applying these best practices. In Washington we are lucky to have an entire manual outlining these best practices, “The Social Worker’s Practice Guide to Domestic Violence.” This guide will be heavily relied upon in this course and you’ll become familiar with most of its contents.

The course aims to build your knowledge and skills across four core areas: universal and periodic screening for domestic violence, conducting a specialized DV assessment, engagement and accountability with DV perpetrators, and case planning in families experiencing DV. In addition, you’ll learn about the different types of protection orders that may exist and the implications of each, as well as the process of domestic violence safety planning with adult DV victims.