The third annual Virtual Expo supports workforce development and consists of materials and presentations around “Fostering a Healthy Workforce.” Whether learning as an individual or group, child welfare staff will have the opportunity to hear from experts, access valuable resources, connect new knowledge to their work, and identify goals for improving their own practice and the work of their teams.

In this session, the Quality Improvement Center on Workforce Development (QIC-WD) describes the objectives of the QIC-WD and provides an overview of a workforce needs assessment process it used with its eight project sites. In an interview style format, the QIC-WD converses with Oklahoma and Washington, two of the eight project sites, about their experiences in participating in a workforce needs assessment process. This includes highlighting critical data elements, analytic strategies, external engagement and collaboration, and how they used data to approach intervention selection to address the needs of their child welfare systems’ workforces.