RADFORD – The Radford University School of Social Work recently received three grants from the Virginia Department of Social Services (VDSS) to provide continuing support for the Child Welfare Student Stipends Program, the Community Resource Adoptive Foster Family Training Initiative (CRAFFT) and the Children’s Advocacy Center of the New River Valley (CAC-NRV).

The student stipends program, which was developed to provide support to undergraduate and graduate students in the RU School of Social Work, received more than $333,000 for the 2008-2009 fiscal year. The school must award at least 20 full-time equivalent stipends to qualified social work students and have a minimum of 80 percent of 2009 stipend graduates employed in state or local departments of social services in the Commonwealth within two months of graduation.

“We are honored to be able to continue providing educational support for students who may not otherwise have this opportunity,” said Jenny Alexander, coordinator of the RU Institute for Children & Families and an assistant professor. “Through this program, we are able to provide specialized training to increase child welfare knowledge, skills and abilities in preparation for employment in public child welfare agencies.”

CRAFFT, which was developed in 2003, provides consistent preparation and technical assistance for local social service agencies as they train adoptive and foster families. The program, which covers agencies in the Piedmont and Western regions of Virginia, received more than $170,000 from VDSS for 2008-2009. The grant will fund two CRAFFT coordinator positions, pre-service and in-service training per region, and technical assistance to local departments of social services.

“Through CRAFFT, we can help families interested in adopting or fostering a child understand what to expect during the child’s development,” said Alexander. “This is an invaluable service to our communities, and we are able to fill some of those gaps that exist in Virginia where such resources are scarce and there is a declining economy.”

The VDSS grant for the CAC-NRV will support the hiring of a full-time coordinator/forensic interviewer who will provide assistance to the five jurisdictions in the NRV. Forensic interviewing is one of the first steps in child protective services investigations in which a professional interviews a child to determine if he or she has been maltreated.

“The addition of a full-time forensic interviewer has been fundamental to the CAC-NRV,” said Alexander. “Such a process is of vital importance to child abuse investigations, and with the support of the VDSS, we are now able to provide this critical element to local agencies.”

To learn more about the student stipends program, CRAFFT or the CAC-NRV, please contact Jenny Alexander at (540) 831-7686 or jburroug@radford.edu. To learn more about the RU School of Social Work, visit http://sowk-web.asp.radford.edu.