NCSL's Child Welfare Program Picks Up National Award.

• Position: Newsmakers - National Conference of State Legislatures

When the National Foundation to End Child Abuse and Neglect announced a contest calling for ideas to transform training in the field of child abuse and neglect, NCSL's Child Welfare team responded. In a paper produced with Florida State University and Prevent Child Abuse America, the team argues that child welfare policy would benefit from greater use of state-specific data and structured collaboration among researchers, policymakers and practitioners. All of that, they write, requires training that breaks down silos in the field.

EndCAN, as the foundation is known, selected the team's paper, "Bridging the Gaps Between Research, Policy and Practice in the Field of Child Maltreatment Through Cross-Sector Training and Innovation," as the winner in the education and training category. The award comes with a cash prize to help put the idea to work, along with publication in the International Journal on Child Maltreatment.

Among the paper's authors were NCSL's Donna Wilson, Nina Williams-Mbengue and Wade Fickler.

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