TheAmerican child welfare system is in crisis. Given its history, the beleaguered state of the system evokes little surprise. There is anurgent need for new and creative approaches to problem-solving and transformation in child welfare. Design Thinking,a change management frameworkthat prioritizes deep empathy for end user needs is one such approach, holding promise for helping child welfare systems transform to meet the challenges of the 21stcentury.Like many states, Rhode Island has long struggled to effectively recruit, license, and retain an adequate pool of resource families.From 2012 to 2017, Rhode Island saw a 12 % drop in statewide resource home capacity, measured as the number of beds available in licensed non-relative foster family homes. Over the same five-year period, the total number of children in Rhode Island’s foster care system increased by 7 %. This growing discrepancy between placement demand versus available placement resources in the state led to a serious over-reliance on congregate care placements.We utilize a single descriptive case study framework to explore the application of Design Thinking processes to improve foster parent recruitment and licensing in Rhode Island.We interviewed three respondents who worked on the redesign of Rhode Island’s foster parent recruitment and licensing processes. Results from the effort suggest that Design Thinking can facilitate child welfare system change and effectively address the “pain points” of the people for whom solutions are designed.

中文翻译：

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“周一已有一百九十四人获得许可”：设计思维在罗德岛州寄养创新和转型中的应用

美国儿童福利体系正处于危机之中。鉴于其历史，该系统陷入困境的状态并不令人意外。迫切需要新的、创造性的方法来解决儿童福利问题和变革。设计思维是一种优先考虑最终用户需求的变革管理框架，它有望帮助儿童福利系统转型以应对 21 世纪的挑战。像许多州一样，罗德岛州长期以来一直在努力有效地招募、许可、并保留足够的资源家庭池。从 2012 年到 2017 年，罗德岛州全州资源家庭容量下降了 12%（以获得许可的非亲属寄养家庭的可用床位数量来衡量）。同一五年期间，罗德岛州寄养系统中的儿童总数增加了 7%。该州的安置需求与可用安置资源之间的差距日益扩大，导致了对集体护理安置的严重过度依赖。我们利用单一描述性案例研究框架来探索设计思维流程的应用，以改善罗德岛的寄养父母招募和许可岛。我们采访了三位致力于罗德岛州养父母招聘和许可流程重新设计的受访者。这项工作的结果表明，设计思维可以促进儿童福利制度的变革，并有效解决解决方案所针对的人们的“痛点”。