Training
Permanency Planning for Older Youth
Most veteran social workers in public child welfare have
worked with children who have experienced multiple placements
and have aged out of care without permanent families or connections.
Safeguarding the stability and connections of older children
and youth in the child welfare system presents specific challenges
and yet, permanent homes and connections are possible. Permanency
planning strategies, tailored to the needs of older children
and youth offers workers the specific tools they need to
insure that no child leaves the care system without permanent
family connections.
This fun, interactive one and a half day training will provide
social workers in state agencies and in residential settings
with a context for permanency planning for older youth, an
opportunity to consider ways to incorporate the practice
into their daily work and the skills needed to do so successfully.
The training reviews permanency outcomes for older youth
and explores the underlying assumptions that influence those
outcomes. Specific skills based upon the principles of concurrent
planning are taught. Techniques for addressing permanency
issues with youth and their caregivers will be practiced.
Training objectives include (a) an increased understanding
of the nature of permanency planning for older youth (b)
an increased understanding of the role that professional
belief plays in permanency planning for older youth (c) increased
knowledge in how to locate and engage permanency resources
for youth (d) practice assessing specific permanency options
(e) practice addressing issues of permanence with youth and
caregivers.
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Family Group Conference Facilitation:
A Two-Day Skill Building Training for FGC Facilitation
Family group conference facilitators are key to successful,
sustainable family group conference projects. The skill of
the facilitator is central to the delivery of effective conferences
and lasting conference outcomes. Through effective conference
preparation and delivery, facilitators establish a foundation
of trust and collaboration with family, youth and professionals.
Facilitators develop support and referrals through relationship
building, skillful practice, education, feedback and follow-up.
This two-day training builds skills and competencies in
a highly interactive training format that reviews the nature
of power and the helping relationship, provides concrete
practice in specific aspects of FGC facilitation and increases
understanding of the role that measurable outcomes play in
sustaining this innovative practice.
Learning objectives include (a) an increased understanding
of the shift from expert driven to family driven decision
making (b) skill building in conference preparation and facilitation
(c) an increased ability to work with resistance (d) an increased
understanding of how to include youth in the FGC process
(e) an increased understanding of the role that outcomes
play in sustaining FGC.
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Introduction to Family Group Conferencing:
A one-day training for stakeholders
The stakeholder community is key in any practice and systems
change initiative. Stakeholders carry with them influence
that can help champion a cause and inspire people. They belong
to political and community networks that can be powerful
supporters of new initiatives. They control resources that
can lead to the success of an initiative. The stakeholder
community is a vital part of successful Family Group Conference
initiatives.
This engaging one-day training will
explore power and decision making in child welfare, and
the way in which Family Group
Conferencing facilitates authentic collaboration between
professionals and families. Participants will have an opportunity
to see an actual conference and the kinds of plans that family’s
develop. Benefits and concerns related to the model will
be discussed and action planning will identify next steps.
Learning objectives include (a) an increased understanding
of the role that power plays in the shift from a professional
to a family driven way of decision making (b) an introduction
to the family group conference model (c) increased understanding
of the benefits and concerns that various stakeholder groups
might experience with family group conferencing (d) an opportunity
to identify key elements related to successful implementation
of family group conferencing.
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Permanency
Planning from Day One
Permanence as well as safety is a
matter of urgency for every child involved with the child
welfare system. Diligent permanency planning from day one
insures that children will not age out of the system without
permanent family and family connections.
This one day training builds on the principles of the concurrent
planning model to include specific actions that can be taken
throughout the life of a case to protect the permanence of children
in out of home care. Data related to permanency outcomes is reviewed.
Case studies illustrate how those outcomes are achieved. Specific
skills in early identification of children most at risk of impermanence,
in strengths based engagement, kinship assessment and behaviorally
specific case planning are taught.
Learning objectives include (a) increased understanding of how
permanency planning can be incorporated into daily practice (b)
increased understanding of the risks and protective factors related
to permanence (c) review of policies and laws related to permanence
(d) skill development in strengths based engagement (e) skill
development in early prognostic assessment (f) increased ability
to utilize kinship care (g) skill development in behaviorally
specific case planning.
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Concurrent
Planning
Concurrent planning is a specific set of
strategies designed to achieve the goal of permanence for children
most at risk of foster
care drift. Developed in the 1980’s by Linda Katz and others,
concurrent planning involves early and consistent attention to
permanence and stability throughout the life of a case.
This one day training reviews the Adoption and Safe Families
Act (ASFA) as well Child and Family Service Review(CFSR) standards.
Concurrent planning principles and outcomes are taught. Specific
skills related to concurrent planning are practiced using a variety
of engaging and interactive training methods.
Learning objectives include (a) increased understanding of ASFA
and CFSR (b) increased understanding of the principles of concurrent
planning (c) skill development in strengths based engagement
(d) skill development in early prognostic assessment (e) exploration
of concurrent planning benefits and challenges using case scenarios
(f) practice in full disclosure interviewing (g) increased knowledge
of permanency resources (h) increased understanding of the connection
between visitation and permanence.
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Improving
Interventions in Chronic Neglect
This half day, one day or two day training reviews the knowledge base regarding
child neglect and its effects on child development, provides a typology of
neglecting families, sets forth practice guidelines for child welfare practitioners
and discusses lessons learned from neglect projects in Washington State.
This training advances an epidemiological theoretical
framework for understanding chronically neglecting families which strongly
emphasizes the relationship
between severe and/or long term poverty and parents’ substance abuse
and mental health problems. The training includes ideas for combating depression
and demoralization in chronically neglecting families.
Learning objectives of the training include (a) an increased ability to recognize
the relationship between severe or long term poverty and parental impairments
(b) an increased ability to recognize important differences among neglecting
families (c) an increased ability to organize comprehensive assessments of
neglecting families (d) an increased ability to respond to parents, hopelessness
and helplessness in the engagement, and treatment phases of intervention.
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Decision
to Place
This one day or two day training reviews the knowledge
base regarding child abuse and neglect related placements and placement outcomes,
sets forth guidelines
for placement decisions, allows participants to work together in groups on
a variety of case scenarios and then compare group responses to typical CPS
fact patterns, clarifies thinking about the meaning “ risk of imminent
harm”, presents a perspective for understanding the emotional impacts
of placement on children and addresses the differences between initial placement
decisions and reunification decisions.
This training utilizes case scenarios which have been presented to child welfare
staff in Washington State and other states over many years, and so allows participants
to compare their responses with those of many other CPS staff in Washington
State and around the country.
Training objectives include (a) an increased knowledge
regarding the actual placement practices of child welfare agencies (b) an
increased understanding
of placement guidelines, along with ability to apply these guidelines to common
case scenarios and an increased awareness of the extent to which participants’ thinking
regarding out of home placement is similar to or different from their peers.
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Workload
Management
This one day training asks participants to reflect on the common effects of
overwhelming workloads in child welfare and agencies, presents a framework
for understanding and measuring workload in various child welfare programs,
proposes workload standards based on workload studies in Washington State,
recommends guidelines for workload management at the social worker, unit and
office level and advances a framework for bringing program goals into line
with available resources.
Training objectives include an increased understanding of how to measure and
analyze child welfare workload and an increased repertoire of workload management
strategies at the unit and office levels.
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Critical
Thinking
This one and a half day training encourages participants to become more self
aware of how they prefer to go about processing information in decision making
contexts, gives participants the opportunity to consider alternative hypotheses
for understanding common child welfare scenarios, provides an in-depth discussion
of bias and ways of combating bias and presents a description of recognition
primed decision making and its emphasis on pattern recognition.
This training provides an overview of evidence based practice and presents
a number of research findings which have practical applications in child welfare.
Training objectives include the increased self awareness of participants regarding
their decision making styles and an appreciation of the importance of pattern
recognition in high stakes decision making, along with an increased ability
to critically assess the evidence base for various programs and interventions.
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Pattern
Recognition
This is a half day or one day training regarding pattern recognition and its
importance in assessment and high stakes decision making. This training will
present an overview of recognition primed decision making, present typologies
of physical abuse and chronic neglect and demonstrate how expert responses
to common problems in child welfare can be developed out of pattern recognition.
Training objectives include an increased ability to articulate the differences
between observation, pattern recognition and theory building and an increased
ability to develop expert responses to common patterns in child welfare; and
an increased awareness of anomalous factors in child welfare patterns which
require creative responses.
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Leadership
Development in Child Welfare
This 9 day leadership development course is designed
for line staff, supervisions; it is delivered in three 2 ½ day segments, with an additional 1 ½ days
devoted to a ropes course. It is build around the theme that staff at every
organizational level can exercise leadership.
This course includes presentations on bureaucracy, developing a mission and
an organizational culture to support it, acquiring informal influence in units
and offices, collaboration, cultural competence and the future of child welfare.
Participants are taught the importance of truth telling, passion, idealism
and taking initiative. The paradoxical lesson that to gain power, i.e. effectiveness,
staff must relinquish power, i.e. control, is stressed.
This leadership development program has been utilized successfully for several
years in two regions in Washington State.
This course has the potential of dramatically changing the assumptions of
promising staff regarding what is possible in child welfare organizations.
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Dealing
with Stress, Secondary Trauma and Burnout in Public Child Welfare
This one day training invites child welfare staff to talk about the emotional
challenges of working in public child welfare, listen to presentations regarding
secondary trauma and burnout, including ways of minimizing their impact, and
to develop strategies for protecting staff from psychological injury.
The importance of unit cohesion, professional development and staff empowerment
are stressed.
Many child welfare staff attending this training find it therapeutic merely
to talk openly about these issues. However, the goal of the training is to
describe an approach to supervision and social work in child welfare settings
which will protect staff from psychological injury in challenging work environments.
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Foster
Care Outcomes
This one half day training summarizes current knowledge regarding foster care
outcomes, including length of stay, permanent planning, kinship care, racial
disproportionality, re-entry into care and placement instability. State and
national data are compared. Implication for policy and practice are discussed.
This training is an opportunity to reflect on the overall functioning of foster
care systems as described by administrative data. It is also an opportunity
for child welfare staff at all levels of the organization to talk with one
another about the meaning of this information for policy and practice.
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Reducing
Multiple Placements
This half day or one day training reviews current knowledge
regarding placement disruptions and their relationship to length of stay in
foster care, children’s
behavioral problems, re-entry into care and kinship care. The training describes
common patterns of multiple placements and their implications for child welfare
practices. The training presents strategies for reducing multiple placements
and stabilizing children/youth in placement, and discusses the emotional impact
of various types of placement moves.
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