Child Welfare · Life Skills · Workforce Development
Certified training, compliance consulting, and life skills programming — delivered by 33 years of insider expertise across New Jersey, Connecticut, Philadelphia, and Delaware.
Edith Richards, MSW
Founder & Principal Consultant
“Choose your response.
Don’t react to theirs.”
Our North Star
“Choose your response.
Don’t react
to theirs.”
AscendWell Consulting © 2026 — Edith Richards, MSW
Every training module, every de-escalation framework, every compliance improvement lives or dies in a single moment — the moment a staff member decides whether to react or respond. This is the one principle that makes all the other training work.
It is not a technique. It is not a checklist. It is a daily professional decision, built into a habit through practice — to pause before responding and choose the action that serves the person in front of you, not the emotion inside you.
About the Founder
Edith Richards, MSW, has spent 33 years inside child welfare and school health systems — not advising from the outside, but doing the work. As a caseworker in the NYC Human Resources Administration (HRA) Child Welfare Administration’s Home Rebuilders Program, she worked directly with birth parents in the process of family reunification and discharge from foster care. As a Care Ambassador in the Ebola Care Program with CDD/Caduceus at Newark International Airport and JFK, she managed at-risk travelers under federal CDC emergency protocols at two of the country’s busiest airports.
AscendWell Consulting was founded to bring that expertise directly to agencies across the tristate region — through training, compliance consulting, life skills programming, and workforce development grounded in the philosophy of Dr. Myles Munroe: we do not own the people we serve. We are stewards. Accountable for improvement.
“We don’t own the property we manage — but we ensure that when we return it, or when an assessment is made, the outcome is improved. Better.”— Dr. Myles Munroe
What We Offer
01 — Certification
Evidence-based infant sleep safety instruction for young parents, foster families, and agency staff. Satisfies state and contract documentation requirements.
02 — Certified Instruction
NYS Food Safety & Protection certified instruction for BOCES, residential programs, foster care agencies, and adult living services. Adapted for all populations.
03 — Independent Living
Meal planning, budgeting, benefits navigation, and kitchen safety. Chafee Act-aligned for youth transitioning from foster care.
04 — Workforce Development
Compliance, documentation, CFSR outcomes, negligence prevention, and supervisory accountability aligned to CAPTA, Title IV-E, and federal mandates.
05 — Professional Development
De-escalation, composure under pressure, autism and disability awareness, and the one shift that makes all other training work. For every agency type.
06 — Reentry & Transition
Life skills for returning citizens — with a specialized track for returning parents navigating the child welfare and reentry systems simultaneously.
Our Philosophy
Dr. Myles Munroe taught a distinction that sits at the heart of everything AscendWell Consulting does. Every training session ends with this framework — because information without application is just noise.
You receive information in every training session. Knowledge lives in your notes. It is the starting point, not the destination.
When you connect information to your own experience — when you recognize why a family behaves the way they do — that is understanding. It lives in your mind.
When you use the pause in a real moment — when a parent is shouting or a child is overwhelmed — that is wisdom. It is not what you know. It is what you do with what you know.
Who We Serve
County and state agencies in NJ, CT, PA, and DE seeking compliance and workforce training
Contracted nonprofits providing parenting, life skills, and independent living programming
Food safety certification and life skills instruction for youth and adults in transition
Emotional regulation and disability-competent staff training for customer-facing teams
Life skills, food safety, and family reunification support for returning citizens
Adapted food safety and independent living programming for adults with special needs
Safe sleep, parenting skills, and family nutrition for parents 16–25 in or exiting care
Family preservation providers seeking certified, credentialed training partners
Work With Us
Ready to bring certified life skills and child welfare training to your agency? Let’s start with a conversation about your population, your requirements, and how AscendWell can help you become a steward of better outcomes.
Phone: (347) 908-8753
Service region: New Jersey · Connecticut · Philadelphia · Delaware
Contracts under: Title IV-E, Chafee, SNAP-Ed, TANF, Second Chance Act & more
Delivery: In-person, virtual, and hybrid options available