A: You can find Process Information Session recordings and meetings here: CWS-CARES Process Information Session Materials.

Note: You must log in to the Implementation Portal using your county/organization email address to access these files.
 

A: CWS-CARES training is offered through both instructor-led sessions (in-person and virtual) and self-paced online (Salesforce Enablement) courses. All Project-provided training resources will be virtual.

Knowledgeable proctors will be available. Project-provided Proctors will participate in Train-the-Trainer to prepare for supporting statewide CWS-CARES Version 1 (CARES V1) training and will be backed by a Training Support Hub staffed with Senior Trainers to address more complex questions. For more information, contact OTSI CWDS Training.

A: CWS-CARES funding allocations can only be utilized for participation pertaining to CWS-CARES design, development, and implementation activities. This funding does not include merchandise. Please refer to the California Department of Social Services ACL 23-62 and CFL 23/24-03 for more information.

A: Counties have been designated to serve as Core Constituents for different Service Areas by recommendation from the County Welfare Director’s Association (CWDA). Up to this point in the CWS-CARES Project, we've used those Service Area designations to solicit input from Core Constituents. What Core Constituents will see moving forward in holistic design is a greater emphasis on getting input across Service Areas. For example, all Core Constituents are invited to provide feedback on the upcoming prototype demonstrations. It's not limited to just Core Constituents designated to those Service Areas. We encourage Core Constituents to forward these sessions to colleagues at their organizations with additional expertise.

A: The draft of the data dictionary will be published by the end of 2024.  CWS-CARES will remain in active development through March 2026. As a result, the data dictionary will continue to evolve till then. We plan on publishing updates to the CWS-CARES data dictionary every quarter after the initial draft is published by end of 2024.   

A: Here are a few of the most common references to CWS-CARES:

A: Counties may request source files on final versions of CWS-CARES topic-specific communication content (Example: An Infographic or CWS-CARES Newsletter). These requests will be evaluated and approved by the project on a case-by-case basis. If the request is approved, the source file will be provided to the requestor along with guidelines and disclaimers on content modification. Graphics and logos, along with guidelines for use, will be available upon request for county/organization to leverage on their communication content related to CWS-CARES. Blank, ready-to-use project branded templates (Examples: CWS-CARES or CWDS PowerPoint or Word templates) will not be shared for County and Organization use because someone might interpret a county-created message as an official CWDS project message if the project branded template is used.

A: CWS-CARES is being built on a Salesforce platform, a cloud-based Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform, and the CWS-CARES team has selected three tools that integrate seamlessly with this platform. The tools and a description of each are as follows:   

Document Generation          
Document Generation includes the design, production, and delivering of documents in the CWS-CARES tool. Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) software will be used to enable the Document Generation process.   

• Design:  Design includes the design of the template, authoring of documents, and all elements of the design lifecycle. For the purposes of the document generation design lifecycle, it includes review, approval, and publishing of the document.   
• Produce: Produce includes the interactive editing and form generation.   
• Deliver: Deliver is the staging and multi-channel delivery of the form.   

• Storage: Includes the document category and metadata definition, full text & metadata – based search, library services, and redaction.   
• Document Lifecyle: Includes compliance, retention and hold management, and archival features.

• Enterprise/Originator: Includes import from Document Generation and will send a notification to the signer.   
• Customer/Signer: Includes authenticating identity, review and apply sign, and document submission.   
• Document Storage: Includes document retrieval, counter signature, if necessary, and storing to the document management system.  

A: CWS-CARES information is being disseminated through CWS-CARES project teams such as Organizational Change Management (OCM), Strategic Communications, State Communications, and CWDS FAQs. For the latest CWS-CARES updates, please visit our CARES User Resources page.

A: CARES V1 Training will follow an immersive learning approach to create a comprehensive learning experience to support all CARES V1 user groups. Introductory and foundational CWS-CARES training will begin with on-demand, self-directed, learning for end-users that follows end-to-end child welfare workflows directly within the CWS-CARES system. Instructor-led training (ILT) will expand learning by building upon the foundational training with a focus on cross-functional and complex areas, and individual skill building. This will be followed by Post Go-live support training, including Command Center, coaching (over-the-shoulder) with superusers, and some in-app text help. Training may also include the following:
•    Make-up training 
•    Refresher training
•    Administrative training
•    Back-end administrator training for each county