How PEWL and ACS Work to Keep Children Safe
CUNY SPS’ Workforce Development Unit Offers Innovative Trainings for New York City’s Child Protective Specialists
At CUNY SPS, we believe that learning is not limited to students seeking a degree. One unique unit at our school is focused solely on workplace learning and training. Known as the Office of Professional Education and Workplace Learning (PEWL), this office designs and offers custom workplace learning programs to help organizations achieve their goals. PEWL works with city government agencies and nonprofits, among others, to provide online as well as in-classroom curriculum development and implementation.
PEWL’s many programs are continually evolving to meet the needs of today’s workers. In this month’s spotlight, offered as part of a nationwide observance of National Child Abuse Prevention Month, we look at PEWL’s partnership with the Hunter College Silberman School of Social Work and the Administration for Children Services Workforce Institute (ACS WI) to provide ongoing professional skills development of direct service staff and supervisors at ACS and its many partner agencies across the child welfare and juvenile justice sectors.
Since 2015, PEWL, the Hunter College Silberman School of Social Work, and ACS WI have worked together to help keep children safe.
One of the many ways PEWL staff members assist with that mission is to train child protective specialists on how to look for signs of neglect and abuse by simulating potential scenarios they might face when visiting homes of those reported to the ACS.
On the second floor of a former department store converted into offices for the ACS James Satterwhite Academy in Jamaica, Queens, Jesenia Pijuan, simulation specialist, oversees the actors, equipment, and “apartments” that are used to train the specialists.
One of the simulations, “Making the Safety Decision,” is about the Johnson family, and things aren’t going well for Mr. Johnson, a single parent, or his 10-year-old son, Morgan, Pijuan explained.
The set of the apartment includes a living room, kitchen, and two bedrooms and in this scenario, it’s very messy. Empty food boxes, little food in the refrigerator, blinds drawn and on the coffee table lies an overflowing ashtray, several syringes, a tourniquet, and a crack pipe.
The background to this simulation is that the agency received a call from the school with concerns of maltreatment. In the past four weeks, Morgan has missed 15 days of school, hasn’t turned in any assignments, and has asked the teacher for extra snacks to take home for later. Mr. Johnson is a single parent and is known to have a substance abuse problem and has a previous maltreatment case from when Morgan was an infant.
Aljosha Horvat, a professional actor, plays Morgan and one of the trainers has stepped in to play the role of Mr. Johnson. The apartment has numerous cameras and microphones and in a separate control/observation room Emily Dalton, a training assistant, controls the simulation apartment cameras and audio from a tablet, while Pijuan and a few supervisors observe the training and provide on-demand directional feedback to the actors via listening devices.
When the child support specialist trainees ring the apartment doorbell, Horvat answers it in character and eventually is persuaded to open the door since his dad is unresponsive and sleeping on the couch. The trainees first interview Mr. Johnson, who has trouble staying awake and then Morgan. They also ask permission to check Morgan’s arms and legs for signs of abuse such as bruising and promise to get pizza for Morgan since he’s complaining that he’s hungry.
Assistant Deputy Director Jasmin Singleton said the simulations are great learning opportunities for new incoming child protective specialists to practice the skills that they’ve learned during their trainings.
“They get a chance to really see what it’s like being in the house, working with a parent, having conversations with kids…having tough conversations,” she said. “It’s real experience, and it’s great to have the actors play the family members. They are very believable even though the actor is an adult playing that role.”
Pijuan said the simulation training is a vital component to the work.
“We’re glad that they go through our simulations to practice and experience a family visit in a safe and realistic environment,” she said. “Learners would be less prepared if they went to visit families without the much-needed strength-based feedback received from the actors, trainers, and fellow trainees.”
To learn more about this and other PEWL programs, read the latest PEWL Year in Review.
