Kim Helfgott is the TA Partnership's Child Welfare Resource Specialist

Kim Pawley Helfgott is the TA Partnership’s Child Welfare Resource Specialist. She serves as a liaison among System of Care communities by sharing strategies, tools, and resources for supporting children, youth and families at risk of or involved in the child welfare system. In this role, she facilitates peer to peer networking, coordinates conference presentations and webinars, and provides technical assistance and training.

Kim has 30 years experience in the human service sector in the areas of service delivery, program development, and project management. She has coordinated national initiatives to enhance services and service delivery for children, youth and families. Prior to her work at the national level, she worked with children, youth and families in residential treatment, community-based mental health, psychiatric, and special education organizations.

She recently served as Deputy Director/Senior Program Manager for the Child Welfare Information Gateway, an information clearinghouse funded by the HHS Administration for Children and Families, Children’s Bureau. She coordinated the development of web and print resources to disseminate information to assist States and local child welfare organizations in improving child welfare practice and addressing Federal mandates for safety, permanence and wellbeing. She also coordinated the development of online communities of practice to enhance peer to peer problem solving and online technical assistance tools for evaluating the effectiveness of child welfare programs. She also coordinated a national child abuse prevention initiative to promote family resiliency in partnership with nearly 30 national youth serving organizations.

As Director of Program Services at Volunteers of America National Office, she was responsible for coordinating training and technical assistance with nonprofit community- based service providers with the goal of developing and improving services and service delivery for children, youth and families. She provided leadership in developing the first national standards for services for homeless families by working in partnership with the Council on Accreditation and other national homeless service organizations, developed a national demonstration project to promote positive youth development in low income housing communities, and coordinated a national literacy program for children of incarcerated parents in partnership with Scholastic Inc. At the National Collaboration for Youth/National Assembly of Human Service Organizations she coordinated national initiatives to promote positive youth development in youth serving organizations. At Child Welfare League of America, she initiated a national Program Exchange to identify and disseminate information on promising child welfare programs and practices.