Policy & Practice December 2017

association news

technology, make things more visually appealing for participants, and increase engagement.” Brenda Lockwood, Senior Program Associate from the Butler Institute for Families at the University of Denver, said,

Training Program award. ImpaCT is a state-of-the-art eligibility system that determines eligibility, issues benefits, and maintains cases for state and federal public assistance programs. The ImpaCT system replaced four legacy systems and serves as a single, integrated system for Department of Social Services (DSS) staff. The DSS charged the Office of Organizational and Skill Development (OSD) and Deloitte to create a comprehensive training program. The collaboration between OSD and Deloitte brought a rich level of experience and best practices to the training initiative, resulting in a program that has received federal attention from the Food and Nutrition Service as a model for other states to use when training on a new inte- grated eligibility system. As a result of this innovative training program, staff’s attitudes about the transition improved, productivity increased, and cost savings were achieved at multiple levels, including federal reimburse- ments, reallocations of existing staff, and ongoing training cost.

NSDTA Convenes Staff Development and Training Professionals in Savannah, GA The National Staff Development and Training Association (NSDTA), an affinity group of the American Public Human Services Association, held its 2017 conference September 17–20 in Savannah, GA. This year’s theme— Unlocking Performance, Innovate for the Future, Grow for the Present, Build on the Past —offered cutting-edge workshops, inspiring keynote speakers, and networking oppor-tunities for representatives of human services agencies to develop their training and organizational effectiveness programs. Conference attendees learned about innovations that redefine approaches to training and improve organizational effective- ness, as well as the use of technology to strengthen programs and make them more accessible. An Innovation Station offered a hands-on experience to try all sorts of new technologies and apply them to everyday work. Attendees were excited by how the information and skills they learned will exponentially advance their approaches to training new and ongoing employees, and make their organizations more effective. Diana Cottrill, Learning Programs and Staff Development Coordinator from Fairfax County, VA, said, “My experience at the conference this year helped me be more forward thinking….out with the old, in with the new. I left feeling inspired to give all of my trainings a facelift, and bursting with new ideas. I will use what I learned to incorporate

“The conference offers a broad range of topics no matter your experience. The conference design encouraged net- working for advancing the field.” Stay tuned for details about next year’s conference in Columbus, OH in fall 2018. 2017 National Staff Development andTraining Association Awards Career Achievement Award Nancy Dickinson is the Project Director at the National Child Welfare Workforce Institute (NCWWI) and Clinical Professor at the University of Maryland School of Social Work. Since 2008, as NCWWI Project Director, she has led a workforce development trans- formation in the child welfare field with development of a constellation of interventions targeted at various organizational levels, including the seminal Leadership Competency and Workforce Development Frameworks. Prior to NCWWI, Dickinson was Project Director for the North Carolina Recruitment and Retention project, which helped to establish recruitment and retention as necessary for effective organizations, and led to NCWWI’s founding. Her achievements show a remarkable visionary, whose belief in the power of workforce development has led to transformational change in the child welfare field. Quality Training Program Award The state of Connecticut’s ImpaCT Training Program under the leadership of Darlene Klase received the Quality

Nancy Dickinson

December 2017   Policy&Practice 31