Through presentation of key reflections from the pilot program between the Southern Plains Tribal Consortium and the Quality Improvement Center on Engaging Youth in Permanency Planning (QIC-EY), this 90-minute webinar will explore the federal policy implications for Native youth involvement in child welfare decision-making and strategies on strengthening tribal-state partnerships in Native lived expert youth engagement. This webinar will highlight a promising approach to investing in relational, cultural, and legal permanency for Native youth and provide practical recommendations for building and sustaining Native youth in Youth Advisory Boards (YABs). Participants will leave with strategies for elevating Native youth voice, strengthening partnerships, and advancing systemic change within child welfare systems with Teams of Lived Expertise (TLEs).
Resource Library
The National Tribal Child Welfare Center for Innovation and Advancement offers a curated library of over 150 resources to support the work of Tribal child welfare professionals, programs, and communities. This library is more than a collection of documents—it is a reflection of years of wisdom, innovation, and dedication from across Indian Country.
Types of Resources
Types of Resources
Resources include practical tools, reports, templates, tip sheets, and training materials created to uplift Tribal child welfare systems and respond to the unique needs of Native children and families. Whether a program is building a new initiative, navigating federal requirements, or strengthening cultural practices, the library offers support grounded in lived experience and community knowledge.
Many resources were developed through past Children’s Bureau projects—such as the Capacity Building Center for Tribes and the Center for Native Child and Family Resilience—and continue to provide relevant guidance rooted in cultural humility and Indigenous values.
How to Use the Library
How to Use the Library
Resources are organized by topic and type. Use the search bar or filters to quickly find materials related to areas such as prevention, data management, workforce development, ICWA, and more. Each item includes a short description so users can decide what will be most useful.
Help the Library Grow
Help the Library Grow
The Center welcomes suggestions for new resources. If there’s a tool, report, or template that has been helpful in your program—or a gap you think we can fill—please reach out. Sharing knowledge is an act of reciprocity, and your contribution could support other Tribal programs across the country.
Resource Search
Filter By Topic
Filter By Audience
Filter By Resource Type
Author
Tags
Active Filters
- Topic: Permanency, Prevention, Tribal-State Collaboration
- Tags: Leadership, Lived Expertise, partnerships, Permanency, Prevention, Teams of Lived Expertise (TLEs), Youth
Families and communities involved with receiving prevention services and creating prevention programs often carry the effects of adversity, trauma, and systemic challenges. Prevention work focuses on creating opportunities for families and communities to make positive changes that promote safety, stability, and increased capacity to support the wellbeing of their members. To do this effectively, prevention-focused professionals must recognize that how engagement occurs is just as important as what services are provided. Attitudes, beliefs, and perspectives shape every interaction between child welfare professionals, their clients, and communities they work with. Being aware of the lenses through which we honor each family and community’s experiences and strengths are essential for professionals to build trust, foster meaningful connections, and deliver services in ways that are effective and sustainable.
The PDF includes a resource list for more support after viewing the Strengthening Prevention Services Using a Trauma-Informed Lens Webinar.
- Topic: Prevention, Trauma-Informed Services
- Tags: Community Engagement, Family Engagement, Prevention, Prevention Services, Strengths-Based Practice, Trauma-Informed Care
This primer provides practical guidance for building meaningful partnerships between child welfare professionals and individuals with lived experience. Developed collaboratively by the Quality Improvement Center on Engaging Youth in Finding Permanency, the National Youth Engagement Advisory Council (NYEAC), and partners, it explores how listening, sharing power, and valuing both lived and professional expertise can strengthen programs, policies, and systems. Through reflection questions, practical strategies, and real-world examples, the resource supports stronger, more respectful collaboration that improves outcomes for children, youth, and families.
- Topic: Partnerships, Workforce, Working with Families
- Tags: Authentic Engagement, Collaboration, Lived Experience, partnerships, Youth engagement
This resource helps Tribal child welfare programs prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters while maintaining essential services and supporting children, families, caregivers, and staff. It provides guidance for connecting child welfare to the Tribe’s broader disaster planning efforts, with considerations for communication, evacuation, records, staffing, placements, and continuity of services. The resource also includes sample Tribal plans, planning tools, and disaster-response resources to help programs review existing plans, identify gaps, or begin developing a disaster plan.
- Topic: Partnerships, Workforce, Working with Families
- Tags: Resilience, Safety, Tribal Child Welfare, Tribal Readiness
This resource list highlights guidance, research, tools, and programs that support Native youth as they transition from foster care into adulthood. It is designed to help Tribal child welfare professionals strengthen youth engagement, promote well-being and cultural connectedness, and connect youth with resources that foster successful, self-determined futures.
- Topic: Working with Families
- Tags: cultural connectivity, Prevention, working with families, Youth, Youth engagement
This resource explores prevention in Tribal child welfare through a strengths-based, culturally grounded perspective. It highlights how Tribal Nations have long practiced prevention by strengthening families, honoring cultural knowledge, and building community capacity while also providing resources to support prevention planning and services.
- Topic: Prevention
- Tags: Fathers, Grandfamilies, Levels of Prevention, Prevention, Suicide Prevention, Trauma-Informed
Paying attention on purpose, or mindfulness, involves a conscious direction of one’s awareness. In other words, we make a choice to think in a certain way. Mindfulness, meditation, and silence can be practiced alone or in a group anytime there is a need for people to come together and clear their hearts and minds. This introduction to mindfullness in family assessment will provide you with tools and exercise you can use to practice mindfulness.
- Topic: Working with Families
- Tags: Cultural Humility, mindfulness, values
- Learning Level: Foundational
People don’t accomplish big changes in isolation! It is our relationships with other people that are the foundation of an organized effort for change. We need others to contribute their ideas, take a stand, and get the work done to help improve the lives of children and families in our community. This e-learning will explore how to build a team, strengthen relationships, develop partnerships, and share your vision.
- Topic: Partnerships, Workforce
- Tags: partnerships, relationships, team building, Workforce Development
- Learning Level: Foundational to Intermediate
Tribal child welfare workers play a foundational role in supporting the well-being of families. To do this effectively, workers must practice through a trauma-informed lens, recognizing that Tribal families possess deep strengths, resilience, and generations of knowledge that guide healing. In this module we will explore some of the challenges that families may encounter and how you, as a caseworker, can help.
- Topic: Trauma-Informed Services, Working with Families
- Tags: Adverse Childhood Experiences, Community, Families, Justice System, Mental Wllness, Poverty, Resilience, Suicide, Trauma-Informed
- Learning Level: Foundational
Data is a river that flows through all aspects of child welfare work, as well as through the community — a key resource, but one that can sometimes be challenging to navigate. This introductory e-learning will help you understand how data can help your Tribal child welfare program, why it’s important, and how it can affect your program.
- Topic: Data & Evaluation
- Tags: Data Sovereignty, overview, qualitative data, quantitative data
- Learning Level: Foundational