National Capacity Building Centers

National Capacity Building Centers provide training and technical assistance (T&TA) in specific focus areas with the goal of helping agency staff, managers, family and juvenile court staff, and other child welfare professionals better serve children and families.

• AdoptUSKids : This project raises public awareness about the need for foster and adoptive families for children in the public child welfare system and assists states, tribes, and territories, courts in their efforts to recruit and retain foster and adoptive families. It also connects families with waiting children throughout the United States.
• National Center for Diligent Recruitment : A new component of the National Adoption Association, this center provides universal, intensive, and constituency group training and technical assistance to states, tribes, and territories in developing and implementing strategic, data-driven diligent recruitment plans.
• National Center on Substance Abuse and Child Welfare : This project is an initiative of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and is jointly funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's Center for Substance Abuse Treatment and the Children's Bureau's Office on Child Abuse and Neglect. It aims to improve family recovery, safety, and stability by advancing practices and collaboration among agencies, organizations, and courts working with families affected by substance use and co-occurring mental health disorders and child abuse or neglect.
• FRIENDS National Resource Center for Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention : This program provides T&TA to federally funded community-based child abuse prevention programs.
• Center for Workforce Excellence and Leadership : This center’s mission is to advance equity and social justice within the child welfare workforce and improve workforce recruitment and retention through site-specific support.
• National Center for Adoption Competent Mental Health Services: This center provides evidence-informed T&TA to states, tribes, and territories to build strong alliances with the mental health community to improve accessibility to trauma-informed professionals for children and youth impacted by the child welfare system. The technical assistance includes universal services as well as intensive, onsite work.
• National Center for Enhanced Post-Adoption Support : This center provides universal and on-site technical assistance and other resources to build the capacity of states, tribes, and territories to develop, implement and sustain comprehensive, culturally responsive, and accessible post-permanency services.
• Children’s Bureau Learning and Coordination Center : This center facilitates knowledge and skill-building and assists in raising awareness of the work being done by the Children’s Bureau, its federally funded grantees, and federal and national partner organizations to transform child welfare into a system focused on prevention and family well-being. It also provides logistics and strategic communication services to support peer learning, meetings, special events, and multimedia resource development on issues relevant to the full spectrum of child welfare.
• National Electronic Interstate Compact Enterprise : This is an electronic system for the transfer of data and documents across state lines for the placement of children as governed by the Interstate Compact for the Placement of Children.