With shifts in policy priorities and accompanying uncertainties in funding, we are seeing a growing need to focus our attention on the increasing moral injury occurring for the human services workforce. While not a new issue in fields such as the military, moral injury has begun to be recognized as an emergent and urgent topic at the intersection of child welfare, behavioral health, ethics, and systems of care. Moral injury occurs when individuals are put in positions where they act, or find themselves unable to act, in ways that deeply violate their personal values, leaving lasting psychological and emotional impacts. We may confuse moral injury with experiences of trauma, secondary traumatic stress, compassion fatigue, and burnout. Moral injury is distinct in that it originates from our experiences of ethical conflict, betrayal, or moral transgression that occur in our workplaces, communities, and in our society at large.
Join CWLA for this powerful four-part training series that will take a deep dive into the significant psychological and emotional impacts that arise when individuals — particularly those in frontline, supervisory, or leadership roles — witness, participate in, or are unable to prevent actions that conflict with their moral or ethical beliefs. Trainers will explore what is known from the research, including in other fields, and use case examples to help participants gain a deeper understanding of moral injury and how it presents in our child welfare systems and in our communities. But it is not enough to just talk about how it might be impacting others. The training will also provide the opportunity for participants to examine and assess how it might be showing up for them and in their work.
The training will explore practical tools and resources that can help individual workers with their recovery and build their ethical resilience along with what supervisors, leaders, and organizations can do to support recovery, foster ethical resilience, create environments that are rooted in compassion and accountability, and enhance community well-being. Ample time for skill development, self-care activities, and opportunities to learn from others what is working for them and/or their organizations has been built into the training.
Facilitators: Melinda Baldwin, CWLA Mental Health Advisory Board Member and Julie Collins, CWLA Vice President for Practice Excellence
Training Dates and Times: Each of the four training sessions will be held for two (2) hours, 2:30 pm – 4:30 pm Eastern Time on: October 23, 2025; October 30, 2025; November 6, 2025; and November 13, 2025.
Training Registration Fee: for Organizational Member $300; for Individual Member $325; for Non-Member $350
Training CEUs Fee: for CWLA Members $25; for Non-Members $35
