Children & Families

New Two-Year Project to Strengthen Child Welfare Practice at the Intersection of Immigration and Child Wellbeing

October 6, 2025
The Center on Immigration and Child Welfare Initiative (CICW) led by Assistant Professor Dr. Kristina Lovato is excited to share that the Walter S. Johnson Foundation has awarded funding for Empowering Child Welfare Practice at the Intersections of Immigration and Child Wellbeing.

SHIFT Research Group

SHIFT Research Group

SHIFT is a cross-disciplinary research hub addressing Social Emotional Learning (SEL) and School-Based Mental Health. Our researchers collaborate with young people and educators to co-produce scholarship that advances knowledge about the infrastructure needed for effective SEL implementation in schools. The delivery of high-quality SEL has been connected to improved academic success and well-being of young people. Recent scholarship has expanded this concept to infuse the explicit, additional goal of interrupting the (re)production of inequity in school...

"The Questions That Must Be Answered" - Jill Duerr Berrick Co-Authors Essay on Child Welfare

September 6, 2023
Jill Duerr Berrick and Paul S. Dilorenzo

Professor Jill Duerr Berrick co-authored an essay for the Imprint on child welfare: "Seasons of sadness and confusion are a natural part of the life cycle for humans and their institutions. Although they are perhaps inevitable, they can be debilitating.

The child welfare profession is in the middle...

Feature: Jill Duerr Berrick on Court-Appointed Special Advocates

January 30, 2024

Imprint Magazine | Michael Fitzgerald

"For decades, hundreds of thousands of volunteers across the country have had a rare opportunity to shape the lives of foster children. Court-Appointed Special Advocates meet with kids, confer with social workers and lawyers, and write official reports to judges. These unique relationships begin when the juvenile courts assign a “CASA” or “guardian ad litem.”

But today, the 40-year-old...

BASEL

The Berkeley Assessment of Social and Emotional Learning (BASEL; © Regents of the University of California) is a formative assessment tool that can be administered to students, teachers, and leaders to guide SEL implementation for equity and wellbeing.

The BASEL (pronounced: basil) includes brief surveys that can be used for immediate action and transformative change. It can be administered in conjunction with Kelvin’s survey platform...