“Improving the lives of families and children is the mission of the Center for Child Welfare Education and Research which was established here at WKU in 2019. Now the Center is launching research that will better the lives of child welfare workers here in southcentral Kentucky. “There are a number of centers focused on child welfare in the country but we are the first in Kentucky and we’re really excited about that.” “To us it matters that we’re building kind of an alliance and we’re bringing the community together.” One of the Center’s first grant funded efforts is called the Kentucky Child Welfare Workforce Wellness Initiative. The two-year project involves using a device to track how local child welfare workers respond to psychological stresses.