Bridging Global Social Work Practices
July 07, 2025- Practice
The USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work hosted its third annual Taiwan Fund for Children and Families (TFCF) Sino-America Cross-Culture Training Project from June 1 – 21, 2025. The program is an immersive educational initiative uniting Taiwanese child welfare professionals with leading social work scholars and practitioners across Southern California.
Led by Suh Chen Hsiao, teaching professor and director of practicum education, the 21-day program featured faculty lectures, local agency site visits, clinical observations and facilitated dialogues focused on global issues including child protection, trauma-informed care, family reunification, immigration and interagency collaboration. Themes explored through presentations included U.S. social welfare systems and policy foundations; juvenile justice, foster care and mandated reporting; interdisciplinary collaboration and pediatric behavioral health; and trauma-informed interventions, cultural competence, and self-care.
Professionals representing TFCF and local child welfare agencies from across Taiwan participated in this enriching program. The three-week exchange concluded with final presentations by the Taiwanese delegates, followed by a formal certificate ceremony recognizing completion of the program and honoring their contributions to international social work.
Participating Local Agencies and Site Visits
All For Kids Foster & Adoption Agency
Amity Foundation
Children’s Hospital Los Angeles – Behavioral Health Institute
Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS)
Los Angeles County Public Defender's Office – Juvenile Division
Shields for Families
The Village Family Services
USC Social Work Faculty Presenters
Rafael Angulo, teaching professor: visual arts in public child welfare
Margarita Artavia, teaching professor: cultural humility in clinical work
Danielle Brown, associate teaching professor: EMDR and alternative therapies
Sarah Caliboso Soto, associate teaching professor: telebehavioral health and screening tools
Kim Goodman, teaching professor: professional self-care and wellness
Robert Hernandez, assistant teaching professor: youth justice
Samuel Mistrano, associate teaching professor: social welfare policy and legal systems
Lily Ross, associate teaching professor
Holy Priebe Sotelo, associate teaching professor
Vivien Villaverde, associate teaching professor: trauma-informed care
Debra Waters-Roman, associate teaching professor: working with immigrant populations
Guest Presenters
Wendy Blanco, LCSW, Blanco Behavioral Health Consulting
Nan Ding, director of clinical quality management development, APAIT a division of Special Service for Groups
Jose Ortiz-Rosales, deputy program director, Youth Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights
Fidel Rodriguez, senior human relations consultant, Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission
To reference the work of our faculty online, we ask that you directly quote their work where possible and attribute it to "FACULTY NAME, a professor in the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work” (LINK: https://dworakpeck.usc.edu)