"What We Wish We Knew” : Findings from a World Café on knowledge gaps and kinship caregivers perspectives on social worker practice

Kinship caregivers provide substantial benefits to the children in their care, yet they frequently carry these responsibilities without adequate information, training, or support. This report presents findings from a World Café conducted as the first phase of What We Wish We Knew: Reimagining Training for Kinship Families and Social Workers — a community-engaged collaboration between F4CRR and the UBC Centre for the Study of Services to Children and Families (CSSCF). Hosted at an annual kinship care event in British Columbia, the World Café engaged caregivers across three topics: training and supports, accessibility and learning preferences, and training for social workers. Responses were recorded on sticky notes at rotating tables and analyzed using content analysis. Findings indicate that kinship caregivers experience significant gaps in information, accessible training, and recognition, while simultaneously asserting the value of their own experiential knowledge. Caregivers described difficulty locating information and navigating systems, identified accessibility barriers tied to format, cost, and geography, and named the need for social work practice grounded in communication, respect, empathy, and cultural responsiveness.