UW-Madison has established a new child welfare research center to research successful prevention of child abuse and neglect and offer its results to groups who work to reduce child abuse incidents.
The Center on Child Welfare Policy and Practice ""provides a home base for longstanding efforts on behalf of vulnerable children in Wisconsin and the Midwest and the infrastructure to expand that work,"" according to the university.
The product of a collaboration between the School of Social Work and the Institute for Research on Poverty, the Center will be co-directed by Kirsten Shook Slack and Jennifer Noyes, who have both worked extensively in child welfare research and administration.
The Center will work with the School of Social Work's Title IV-E Child Welfare Training Program, which trains and offers financial support to students committed to a career in the public child welfare system.
In 2009, there were 56,619 child abuse reports, as well as 23 child deaths resulting from maltreatment, according to Wisconsin Department of Children and Families.
