CATALOG | DCCFSA-DEA

CWTA is approved by the DC Board of Social Work as a continuing education provider for licensed social workers in the District of Columbia. CWTA offers a variety of courses to enhance staff’s knowledge, skills and abilities on child welfare principles and practices. Training classes are trauma and healing-informed and rooted in best practice.

Here is a list of all in-service training courses within the CWTA training catalog and their descriptions.

NON-SUPERVISORY IN-SERVICE COURSES

ADULT MENTAL HEALTH DISORDERS: Child welfare workers may face challenges when serving clients who have mental health disorders. In many instances mental health disorders can be difficult to identify. This course allows the participant to develop awareness of mental health diagnosis, distinguish important features, and identify methods to engage clients. In addition, participants will be introduced to strategies and techniques to assess clients who have mental health disorders and refer them for appropriate services. This is an in-service course for child welfare social workers, direct service staff and human service professionals.

THE ART OF PARENT ENGAGEMENT WITH KINSHIP FAMILIES: Bridging the knowledge and strategies gained in Building Relationships with Families, this 3-hour customized training will further assist staff’s ability to engage and partner with kinship and birth families. Utilizing an extended role-play format, this experiential workshop for professionals assists practitioners with developing empathy for their clients and in-depth understanding of the challenges they face. It encourages self-reflection as a foundation for strengthening their parent engagement skills and surfaces practical kinship family engagement strategies for staff to incorporate into their daily practice.

ART AND SCIENCE OF FACILITATION: During this two-day training, participants learn a comprehensive approach to facilitation, including the principles of adult learning, learning styles, creating the right atmosphere, and much more. Introduction to THE ART & SCIENCE OF FACILITATION will help participants understand group facilitation and provide practice opportunities for applying basic facilitation skills.

ASSESSMENT INTEGRATION WORKSHOP: This six-hour in-service course provides permanency and in-home child welfare professionals the opportunity to examine the current array of tools, screens, and assessments that prompt ongoing child welfare case practice. Participants enhance their ability to organize, analyze, and integrate information gathered during assessment into sound clinical case planning and practice with families. Participants evaluate their trauma-informed engagement skills and recognize the importance of partnership-based work with families at every step of case practice. Participants identify ongoing trauma-informed engagement strategies that support families in leveraging strengths into safety and protective capacities, mitigating dangers, risks, and complicating factors that contribute to agency involvement and helping clients transform self-awareness and insight into positive behavior changes.

BACK TO BASICS: FUNDAMENTALS OF THE INVESTIGATIVE PROCESS: This session is a six-hour training session developed specifically for social workers, supervisors, and program managers assigned to CFSA’s Entry Services division. This training provides participants with the fundamentals of completing investigations and family assessments. The course focus is on incorporating the skills of motivational interviewing and clinical assessment through a trauma-informed lens. Participants will walk away understanding their role in the completion of investigations and family assessments while sharing space with their supervisors who support the investigative process with clinical supervisory support. The session is hands-on, reflective, and meets the needs of individuals across learning styles.

BUILDING STRONG RELATIONSHIPS WITH FAMILIES: This 6-hour training promotes the awareness of the importance of developing skills in building relationships with birth and kin families through a variety of reflective and interactive activities. This hands-on, activity-based, experiential workshop builds staff members’ parent engagement skills. Participants also increase their understanding of how their personal attitudes and professional practices contribute to and/or undermine positive partnerships with parents and kinship families. Having such relationships allow for programs and staff to implement strategies that value the principles of family-centered practice.

CHILDHOOD DISORDERS: The training provides participants with information on common childhood psychological & behavioral disorders. At the conclusion of the training, participants will be able to recognize the dynamics surrounding childhood disorders, distinguish important features and differences in childhood disorders, and identify some specific methods for diagnosis of childhood disorders.

CHILD AND ADOLESCENT DEVELOPMENT: This training provides a foundation of knowledge regarding various theories on the stages of development. It explores age-appropriate behaviors, as well as adaptive methods for managing behavioral concerns. Also discussed are the implications of caretaker and social worker roles in working with traumatized clients, specifically within the context of the maltreatment that initiated child welfare services.

CHRONIC NEGLECT: This course enables participants to understand the impact of chronic neglect on families and the necessity for having a dedicated unit to serve this specific population. Participants have the opportunity to practice best practices on working with families impacted by chronic neglect. Workers develop and implement self-care strategies that will enable them to empower their families.

CLINICAL DOCUMENTATION AND THE CHILD WELFARE SOCIAL WORKER: Documentation is one of the most important ways CFSA social workers convey to others how the Agency is able to assess, engage and intervene in clients’ lives to enhance their resilience. However, documentation may not readily capture everything that social workers accomplish, especially in a clinical sense. This class helps participants to conceptualize what documentation should look like in respect to their role as a social worker. The class gives suggestions for how to infuse clinical concepts into documentation that will effectively display interactions with clients as well as demonstrating clinical interventions.

COMMUNICATION WITH KINSHIP FAMILIES: Similar to the Art of Parent Engagement, this 3- hour workshop will utilize an extended role-play format and other experiential for strengthening a worker’s ability to have difficult and courageous conversations with kinship caregivers. This course will provide strategies on how to effectively work with kin families, which is often dependent on how skillful a worker is in engaging and teaming with kin families.

CPR AND FIRST AID: American Red Cross certifies foster parents on infant, child, and adult CPR and basic First Aid. Training focuses on mitigating risk and preventing injury of foster children, identifying medical emergencies when they occur, and administering CPR/First Aid until emergency personnel arrive. CFSA and private agency social workers are invited to attend if space is available.

CRISIS INTERVENTION DE-ESCALATION: This hands-on and interactive six-hour workshop style session incorporates a trauma-informed lens to coach participants through each phase of the crisis cycle and enhancing their ability to utilize an appropriate de-escalation intervention. Participants will learn how to apply motivational interviewing, critical thinking, documentation standards, Mandt principles, trauma systems therapy tenets, social work principles, and their current structured decision-making tools for encounters within the community when clients experience behavioral dysregulation.

CULTURALLY AWARE & RESPONSIVE PRACTICE: Participants need self-awareness about their own and others’ cultures and their beliefs and actions (conscious and unconscious) that reflect culturally responsive behavior. To that end, this module focuses on the ladder of inference, cultural competence concepts, cultural interviewing, and using cultural tools in working with families.

CULTURAL HUMILITY: Historically, social workers have been educated to be culturally competent and/or culturally aware in their social work practice. Over the past decade, social workers have been challenged to practice cultural humility in their work. Cultural humility is centered on life-long learning and critical self-reflection, recognition and challenging of power imbalance that are inherent, and upholding institutional accountability. This six-hour session will provide foundational information to social workers on culture and cultural humility, while also focusing on the impact of oppression in the lives of the families involved in the child welfare system and ways in which social workers can work to radically transform their practice.

DE-ESCALATION: This training offers a means to engage with an individual during a potentially dangerous or threatening situation. The purpose of this training is to reduce the risk of physical injury to the child development professional, the resource parent, and the youth or adult being engaged.

DIMENSIONS OF GRIEF & LOSS: This training explores the grief and loss process in children and adolescents. Participants learn the common characteristics of a grieving person and what grief "looks like" throughout the different developmental stages of a child and adolescent. Participants also learn different tools to use with grieving children and adolescents to facilitate emotional expression.

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE (DV) 102: This training provides participants with information on DV and how to recognize DV when they see or hear it. Participants learn to understand the impact of the identified DV and how to engage with DV perpetrators and how to partner with the non-offending parents.

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE (DV) POLICY WEBINAR: When dealing with a client’s DV issues, it is CFSA's policy to take action and to provide services and supports that address the immediate and long-term needs of non-offending partners, as well as the needs of their children. CFSA also recognizes that a holistic approach to DV must include supports for the offending partner in order to exact truly positive outcomes for all involved. The DV Policy Webinar training provides clarification and understanding of the Agency’s policy, including proper referral procedures to the CFSA’s Office of Well Being.

EMPTYING THE CUP | UNDERSTANDING THE IMPACT OF INTERGENERATIONAL TRAUMA: This six-hour, in-service course is designed to expand the child welfare professional’s ability to understand, assess and engage family systems impacted by historical and familial intergenerational trauma. Participants will have the opportunity to explore their own family history, the family histories of clients, and the systemic factors that perpetuate traumatic response and place children at risk for maltreatment. Participants will be provided trauma-informed principles to consider when engaging, assessing, and making intervention recommendations for families displaying the effects of unresolved traumatic grief.

ETHICAL CHILD WELFARE PRACTICE: This course builds upon the National Association of Social Workers’ (NASW) Code of Ethics and delicate interpersonal relationships between social worker and client. Through interactive and participatory learning, this training’s content facilitates the development of case conceptualization and critical thinking skills around ethical dilemmas that frequently arise in child welfare practice. Trainees engage in discussions around self-awareness, self-disclosure, the use of “self” in practice, and recognizing boundaries as both a strength and challenge to the therapeutic relationship. The training also addresses boundaries within the context of the workplace, professionalism, and self-care.

ETHICAL DILEMMAS: This six-hour course builds upon the National Association of Social Workers’ Code of Ethics around the delicate interpersonal relationship between social worker and client. Through interactive and participatory learning, this training’s content facilitates the development of case conceptualization and critical thinking skills around ethical dilemmas that frequently arise in child welfare practice. Trainees engage in discussions around self-awareness, self-disclosure, the use of “self” in practice, and recognizing boundaries as both a strength and challenge to the therapeutic relationship.

ETHICS AND SOCIAL MEDIA: This ethics course focuses on a review of the NASW Code of Ethics as it relates to the use of social media in social work practice. Social workers also review the CFSA policy related to the use of social media.

ETHICS: PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE: This 3-hour training session assists in showing staff how far the Agency has come from an ethical perspective in child welfare practice and where the Agency should be headed in the future of child welfare. Class participants will review notable legislation, regulations and policies that impact social work while also discussing how CFSA needs to evolve ethically moving forward.

FAMILY FIRST PREVENTION SERVICES: This course aids collaborative workers in performing the critical role of assessing families of the District of Columbia for danger and risk. Participants will hone the critical skills needed to perform formal and informal assessments. Collaborative workers will also review mandated reporting requirements and gain a deeper understanding of how to determine when reports of abuse or neglect should be made to the hotline.

FAMILY MATTERS: ENGAGING KINSHIP RESOURCES: This course will focus on the kinship care network. Participants will develop a better understanding of the challenges and triumphs of kinship care on the family system and other stake holders. Participants will develop a basic understanding of the kinship assessment, referral, and licensing process and best practice and strategies for the identification and engagement of kinship resources.

FETAL ALCOHOL SPECTRUM DISORDERS (FASD): This training provides an overview of causes and symptoms of FASD. Discussions include service delivery for children diagnosed with FASD. The six-hour course explores age-appropriate behaviors, as well as adaptive methods for managing behavioral concerns and best practices to assist with effective service delivery and improving case outcomes.

FIRST 30 DAYS: The purpose of this session is to provide the staff of the Office of Older Youth Empowerment with step-by-step information on the initial case management practices necessary within the first 30 days of an older youth’s entrance into care.

FOUNDATIONS OF TRAUMA-INFORMED CARE: This six-hour workshop provides participants with the opportunity to explore core concepts related to trauma-informed care, including a shared definition of trauma, traumatic stress, and the trauma system. Participants apply information gathered from the latest research and their own case practice to examine how trauma and traumatic stress can alter the development of brain structures resulting in functional impairments across intellectual, emotional, and behavioral domains. Participants draw upon knowledge and skills from Trauma Systems Therapy (TST) to connect to how a child's past trauma history continues to impact their current functioning as they struggle to cope with chronic stress and ongoing trauma reminders in their social environment.

GRAMMAR AND BUSINESS WRITING: Professionals who can write clearly and correctly are very valuable to an organization. This six-hour course serves as a refresher in correct grammar and punctuation, and it explains what is grammatically correct but can’t always be explained. This highly interactive and collaborative course is a perfect and painless solution. Participants will learn the standard rules for proper usage and grammar, and then work with other course participants to apply what is learned through hands-on exercises and activities.

HUMAN IMMUNODEFICIENCY VIRUS (HIV)/ACQUIRED IMMUNODEFICIENCY SYNDROME (AIDS) AND HEPATITIS: This six-hour course provides participants with information about exposure to bloodborne pathogens and infectious diseases, specifically HIV/AIDS and hepatitis. Participants learn about the basics of HIV/AIDS and hepatitis, including biology, transmission, prevention, treatment, and care. The class also features a brief introduction to CFSA’s policy on HIV/AIDS. The course additionally covers ethical considerations, such as documentation, communication, professional behavior, etc.

HUMAN TRAFFICKING: RECOGNIZING AND RESPONDING TO RISKS AND INDICATORS: This training session focuses on recognizing the risk factors and conditions that place children and youth involved in the child welfare system at heightened risk for commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC). By the end of the six-hour session, participants will be able to demonstrate best practice approaches in reducing the risk of victimization, engaging children and youth in screening, responding to CSEC indicators, and partnering to develop trauma-informed and strengths-based plans to promote safety and empowerment.

INTEGRATING ADOLESCENT BRAIN DEVELOPMENT INTO CHILD WELFARE PRACTICE WITH OLDER YOUTH (PART 1 AND 2): This two-day 12-hour training incorporates the latest research from the report “The Adolescent Brain: New Research and its Implications for young People transitioning from Foster Care” developed by the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative of the Annie E. Casey Foundation. This training will provide strategies on how to more effectively work with older youth who experience the child welfare system.

IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON CHILD DEVELOPMENT: This training session focuses primarily on how social media impacts child development stages and domains, i.e., physical, intellectual, moral, spiritual, sexual, emotional, and social. Human Sex Trafficking is covered during the discussion on the impact of social media on the sexual domain. Participants receive in-depth knowledge of healthy child and adolescent development, how social media can impact development, and how they can maintain the safety of children while using it. This class is for both social workers and resource parents.

IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON CHILD DEVELOPMENT: The purpose of this session is to provide participants with an in-depth knowledge of healthy child and adolescent development, how social media can impact development, and how they can maintain the safety of children while using it.

INTEGRATING ADOLESCENT BRAIN DEVELOPMENT INTO CHILD WELFARE PRACTICE WITH OLDER YOUTH PT. 1 & 2: This two-day 12-hour training incorporates the latest research from the report “The Adolescent Brain: New Research and its Implications for young People transitioning from Foster Care,” developed by the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative of the Annie E. Casey Foundation. This training provides strategies on how to more effectively work with older youth who experience the child welfare system.

LICSW PREP SESSIONS: These facilitated study sessions help prepare social workers for licensing as an independent clinical social worker (LICSW). CWTA conducts the two-day sessions in a group format to allow social workers to construct individual action plans, acquire test taking skills, and build a supportive network of colleagues and peers using up-to-date resources and tools.

LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION: PROFESSIONAL ETIQUETTE FOR CHILD WELFARE PROFESSIONALS: The purpose of this session is to provide participants with practical tips and tools for interacting in a professional environment. Participants will learn common errors in everyday behavior that impact their professional brand, career trajectory, and working as a team.

LIVING THE PROTECTIVE FACTORS: This 6-hour workshop for child welfare professionals introduces the Strengthening Families™ Protective Factors framework as an important component of a comprehensive wellbeing paradigm and links the framework to trauma-informed child welfare practice. The goal is to demonstrate the practical benefits for bridging communications between child welfare staff, courts, kin and birth families.

MAINTAINING FAMILY CONNECTEDNESS: The 4-hour training workshop highlights the importance of maintaining family connectedness through the lens of kinship / birth families and assists child welfare professionals with understanding how they can strengthen family ties throughout the life of a case. Navigating the child welfare system is difficult for any parent and doing the work to get one’s children returned home is a monumental feat. This course will highlight how to support reunification by maintaining strong family ties with kinship caregivers while the child is out of their parents’ home.

MANDATED REPORTING: This course explains the roles and responsibilities of the mandated reporter, including the definition of “mandated.” Mandated reporters play a critical role in child protection. This course covers legal definitions of child abuse and neglect and how to recognize them, when and how to report known or suspected incidents of abuse or neglect, tips on responding to a child’s disclosure of abuse, and how CFSA respond to reports of abuse.

MEDICATION ADMINISTRATION: The purpose of this course is to provide instruction on how to safely administer medications according to written physician orders. Tailored to resource parents (but available to social workers), this course prepares participants to be knowledgeable on health and safety factors impacting the administration of specific medications to the children in their care. In addition, the course prepares resource parents to minimize health and safety risks and medication-related errors by using correct and safe procedures for medication administration. Lastly, participants learn how to recognize and report medical and medication-related observations, and medication errors.

MOTIVATIONAL INTERVIEWING: Motivational Interviewing (MI) is an established evidenced based client-centered treatment approach that targets the development and enhancement of intrinsic motivation to change problem behaviors. Because MI’s foundation is rooted in strengths-based, solution-focused treatment modality, it will be integrated as a practice standard for CFSA’s direct service staff to increase positive outcomes for children and families. This two-day course will introduce participants to the principles and skills of motivational interviewing (MI) while also connecting the use of MI to the implementation of the Family First Prevention Services Act of 2018.

NEWBORN SAFE HAVEN: The DC Newborn Safe Haven Law of 2009 specifically outlines the criteria and process for safe surrender of newborn babies in the District of Columbia. This session will walk participants through the DC law and the step-by-step process of completing contact with CFSA and documentation of a Safe Haven surrender.

PEERS AND PRESSURES: SEXUAL HEALTH TRAINING: The purpose of this course is to prepare participants to have age-appropriate conversations with CFSA youth about their sexuality and sexual health. Specifically, this course prepares child welfare professionals for discussion with the youth on their caseloads about sexual health, CFSA’s policies regarding sexual health issues, and the importance of their responsibility to provide comprehensive physical and mental health services to all youth in a confidential, culturally competent, and inclusive manner.

RACE EQUITY IN CHILD WELFARE SERIES: The Race Equity in Child Welfare series focuses specifically on the work of child welfare and includes three 2-hour sessions focused specifically on race equity that addresses each requirement of the Mayor’s Plan for Racial Equity training.

SESSION ONE: RACE EQUITY IN CHILD WELFARE

This session will define racial equity and inequity and explore the historical role of child welfare and government laws, policies, and practices in creating and maintaining racial inequities.

SESSION TWO: UNDERSTANDING BIAS AND THE FORMS OF RACISM

This session will explore the differences between explicit and implicit bias with a discussion on the various forms of racism from individual to structural.

SESSION THREE: APPLYING A RACIAL EQUITY LENS WITH RACE EQUITY TOOLS

The final session of the series will focus on defining and understanding the concept of a racial equity lens. Participants will also assess their own understanding of race equity and race equity in their work using the race equity toolkit.

RESTORING THE ART OF SOCIAL WORK IN CHILD WELFARE: This training focuses on the importance of strengths-based, solution-focused practice based on CFSA’s Practice Model. The six-hour course includes an additional, strong focus on planning, communication, and decision-making. The training further defines resilience and guides social workers to understanding the Practice Model’s importance in working with child welfare-involved clients.

SAFE AND TOGETHER DC COALITION AGAINST DOMESTIC VIOLENCE (DV): This two-day workshop addresses the intersection between child maltreatment and DV. Participants engage in interactive and practical discussions about the dynamics of DV, its impact on the family, children witnessing domestic violence, how to recognize and report incidents of domestic violence, how criminal and civil aspects of DV differ from case to case, and why caretakers sometimes choose to not press criminal charges. Resources for all involved in the DV process are discussed with a focus on child safety and well-being.

SBIRT TRAINING: THE SCREENING, BRIEF INTERVENTION, REFERRAL TO TREATMENT: (SBIRT) training provides practical and experiential training on stages of change and motivational interviewing, all within the context of finding out about substance use concerns. Introduction to SBIRT helps participants conduct Global Appraisal of Individual Needs – Short Screen (GAINSS) with all youth ages 11 and older, adults of young children (ages 0-5) with substantiated cases, or any youth or adult who may need treatment. Upon completion of the GAIN-SS, social workers refer all clients to the CFSA Office of Well Being.

BE STRONG FAMILIES: SHARED PARENTING: The focus of this training session is to lay a solid foundation for enhancing the participants’ understanding of their role in developing and maintaining a shared parenting approach between the biological parent and resource parent. Participants engage in discussions on the definition of shared parenting and how to operationalize this approach in day-to-day parenting and practice.

TEAMING WITH FOSTER PARENTS & SOCIAL WORKERS: During this training, participants learn the philosophy, principles, and components of teaming, and specifically the use of the coparenting model (i.e., the relationship between the resource parent, birth parent and social worker, values, and beliefs in child welfare practice). In addition, this six-hour training identifies contractual agreements (policies, stipends, transportation etc.) for resource parents and social workers; helps participants to plan a problem identification and resolution process with each case; and explains how to use active communication, support, reciprocity in working with resource parents.

TEENS AND PERMANENCY: This 4-hour course will help participants identify ways to improve outcomes for older youth. Participants will learn new techniques to enlarge a youth’s network of supportive adults which will assist with education opportunities, future employment, and necessary life skills.

TRAUMA 101: This course introduces participants to the essential elements of trauma that every child welfare professional should know when caring for a child who has been through trauma. Participants learn about what trauma is and how they can help children move past their traumatic experiences. The class also covers how trauma affects a child’s development and the effects of trauma on children of various ages.

TRAUMA 102: Trauma 102 helps participants understand the difference between physical and psychological safety in children and adolescents who have experienced trauma. Participants are introduced to the concept of the safety message and how to deliver it effectively, the cognitive triangle, and techniques for helping traumatized children understand and control their emotional and behavioral reactions.

UNCONDITIONAL POSITIVE REGARD: Based on the teachings of humanistic psychologist, Carl Rogers, unconditional positive regard is the concept of offering compassion through acceptance and support regardless of their actions. This session will provide social workers with tips on assessing their capacity for unconditional positive regard and ways to enhance this skillset.

UNDERSTANDING AND ADDRESSING PRIMARY AND SECONDARY TRAUMATIC STRESS: Engaging in the support of children and youth who have experienced trauma often leaves social workers, family support others, and other child welfare team members at a greater risk of experiencing primary and secondary traumatic stress (STS). This session will provide a clear definition of vicarious trauma while also allowing the participant the opportunity to better understand the impact of STS. Participants will walk away from the session with tangible next steps to address their experience of STS which will ultimately enhance their work with CFSA-involved children and families, as well as their work with child welfare colleagues.

UNDERSTANDING THE DYNAMICS OF GRIEF AND LOSS: This training will explore the grief and loss process in children and adolescents. Participants will learn the common characteristics of a grieving person and what grief "looks like" throughout the different developmental stages of a child and adolescent. Participants will also learn different tools to assist grieving children and adolescents to facilitate emotional expression.

UNDERSTANDING AND PREVENTING HUMAN TRAFFICKING: Participants learn about the impact of consumer sex and human trafficking on children and teenagers placed in resource homes. Participants also learn how to recognize and react responsibly to children and teens who have been exposed to or have experienced these problems. The class reviews the impact of exposure to inappropriate sexual acts, materials, exploitation and sexual abuse.

WORKING EFFECTIVELY WITH LGBTQ YOUTH: CWTA provides this training to help participants learn how best to work with youth who self- identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ). The course offers clear definitions and experiential exercises that allow participants to better under-stand the thought and feelings of the LGBTQ population.

SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE WITH LGBTQ+ AND GENDER NON-CONFORMING PEOPLE: This three-hour session introduces participants to foundational knowledge, values, skills, and ethics related to work with self-identified LGBTQ and gender non-conforming people. The course emphasizes the practitioner’s ethical role in supporting LGBTQ and gender non-conforming people, with specific focus on the NASW’s Code of Ethics’ preamble which states, “social workers are sensitive to cultural and ethnic diversity and strive to end discrimination, oppression, poverty, and other forms of social injustice.”

YOUR REPUTATION PRECEDES YOU: This course provides an interactive workshop environment geared toward fine tuning professional etiquette. Participants identify skills that increase their ability to present themselves in a professional manner through communication, behavior in the workplace, and social media. Participants discuss universal leadership skills that are beneficial in any position and examine methods to be successful in networking.

YOUTH MENTAL HEALTH FIRST AID: This eight-hour course teaches lay-persons how to recognize the signs and symptoms of mental illness and substance use disorders, de-escalate crises, provide comfort, and refer individuals to professional services. The program utilizes interactive exercises to teach a unique action plan for helping others.

RESOURCE PARENT IN-SERVICE COURSES

CWTA has developed the following courses specifically for the ongoing support of the Agency’s resource parents, including specialized courses for relative caregivers, as well as foster parents specializing in the support of older youth, teen parents, and children and youth who present with additional needs for trauma-informed care. Several of the above in-service trainings are also open for Resource Parents to complete.

CONCURRENT PLANNING FOR RESOURCE PARENTS: Concurrent planning is the process of achieving permanency by simultaneously working two plans to timely move children and youth to a safe and permanent family. One of the goals of concurrent planning is to ensure children in foster care achieve permanency with families quicker. This six-hour course is devoted to partnering with resource parents in concurrent planning practice.

KINSHIP CARE WORKSHOP SERIES: This series of seven interactive workshops will provide the agency’s kinship care providers with in-service training hours specific to their unique role. Each workshop is engaging and interactive with concepts to challenge and develop kinship care providers.

KINSHIP CARE REWARDS AND CHALLENGE’S PART 1: This 2-hour workshop will allow the kin caregiver the opportunity to look through the lens of other members of the family to include immediate, extended, living and even deceased members. It will assist the caregiver in recognizing how the crisis in the family impacts more than the child, bio-parent and caregiver.

KINSHIP CARE REWARDS AND CHALLENGE’S PART 2: This 2-hour workshop will allow the kin caregiver a physical experience of what their body could be internally manifesting by being the middle person between the agency and birth family. The exercise will highlight the emotional and physical strain that could be experienced by the kin caregiver because of being in the middle.

HISTORICAL TRAUMA FOR KINSHIP PART 1: This 2-hour workshop will allow the kin caregiver to discuss how historical trauma impacts their families today. They will explore their own family history and the systematic factors that perpetuate traumatic responses that place children at risk for maltreatment.

HISTORICAL TRAUMA FOR KINSHIP PART 2: This 2-hour workshop will allow the kin caregiver to role play conversations with members of their family and to share their thoughts and feelings surrounding their connection to that member at various ages and stages of their lives.

HISTORICAL TRAUMA FOR KINSHIP PART 3: This 2-hour workshop will allow the kin caregiver to discuss how chronic neglect connects to historical trauma. They will explore how it is observed in their families. Strengths-based activities will also occur that encourage kin caregivers to embrace a positive vision of their family unit.

KINSHIP CARE PARENTING PARTNERSHIP’S PART 1: This 2-hour workshop will help the kin caregiver to understand a removal from the perspective of their relative whose child has been removed and why it is often difficult to understand their situation based on how much information that is known or unknown at the time of the removal.

KINSHIP CARE PARENTING PARTNERSHIP’S PART 2: In this 2-hour workshop, kinship caregivers explore the different roles of the varied entities and positions within the child welfare team. This workshop allows them an opportunity to see how their roles intersect with each team member and they are a valuable part of the team.

LIFEBOOKS AND MEMORY MAKING: Lifebook’s and Memory Making is a six-hour class that is designed to bring together a child's past, present, and future. It is a course that teaches participants how to document a child's history, celebrate accomplishments, and allow his or her talents to shine. This course will highlight the importance of children understanding and making new meaning of their traumatic history and current experiences and introduce the therapeutic tools to help a child process his or her life journey using photos, artwork, and things picked up along the way.

PARENTING SPECIALIZED POPULATIONS: This six-hour session is designed to provide resource parents with information on ensuring the safety, permanency, and well-being of children in foster care who have been identified as part of a specialized population per the Foster Parent Training Regulation Amendment Act of 2018. Participants will receive information regarding the unique development needs, parenting practice, and ways to best support children who are sixteen (16) years of age or older, a victim of sex trafficking, may be LGBTQ, a child with a disability, pregnant and parenting, or has a history of violent behavior. Participants will also be provided a list of both in-person and online training sessions that will provide more in-depth and detailed information for each of these populations.

POSITIVE PARENTING: Parenting is both rewarding and challenging. Trauma-informed positive parenting is critical to meeting the unique needs for children in care. This training session brings together trauma-sensitive knowledge and a trauma-informed the mindset for resource parents to identify the rewards of parenting amid these challenges as parents learn to promote children's natural potential for optimal outcomes. This session covers fostering children's emotional intelligence as well as their cognitive abilities, both of which are critically important to their well-being and success. Participants will also be introduced to the major theories behind positive parenting.

PSYCHOTROPIC MEDICATIONS: To educate resource parents, child welfare professionals, and NCMs about psychotropic medications, this course addresses the associated policies, and everyone's roles and responsibilities. Participants learn common classes of psychotropic medications, indications for their use, and side effects. They also learn how to monitor a child or youth for possible side effects or to see if the psychotropic medication is working. The course covers what to do if the resource parent has concerns about the psychotropic medications prescribed to the child or youth in their care and how to gain awareness of the various classes of psychotropic medications, their side effects, and examples of medications in each class. Participants also become familiar with signs and symptoms of serious or life-threatening side effects of medications.

REBUILDING THE EMOTIONALLY BROKEN CHILD: This workshop focuses on the relationship between the resource parent and the child in out-of-home foster care. Training focuses on the resource parent as a vital bridge between the child and CFSA. Emphasis is given on resource parents as agents of healing. Participants develop a basic understanding of the importance of healthy relationships between resource parents and the children in their care.

TRANSRACIAL PARENTING: This course helps prospective and current caregivers understand and embrace potential cultural differences between themselves and children joining their families. Participants will examine the intersection of race and class in American society and its impact on culture. Special attention will be given to challenges that may be present and skills to positively address them will be developed.

TRAUMA-INFORMED CAREGIVING FOR FOSTER PARENTS: This training provides information on the Trauma Systems Therapy treatment modality. Participants learn the impact of trauma on children involved with child welfare, as well as the importance of being trauma-informed in service delivery. The training promotes an understanding of child stress responses, as well as factors to assist caregivers with supporting children with maintaining behavioral and emotional regulation.

TRAUMA-INFORMED PROFESSIONAL PARENTS: A training series dedicated to the support and retention of CFSA’s CWTA professional parents (TIPP). This training series is an in-service training offered weekday evenings to accommodate resource parent schedules.

MODULE 1 – TRAUMA-INFORMED CARE (9 HOURS) - This module lays the foundation of trauma-informed care in the context of child welfare. Participants will obtain a better understanding of the TIPP’s role, revisit discussions of trauma systems therapy, and be introduced to the instrumental concept of unconditional positive regard.

OVERVIEW OF TRAUMA-INFORMED PROFESSIONAL PARENTS (TIPP) INITIATIVE - TIPP homes provide care 24 hours per day, 7 days a week, for children ages 8-12 who have experienced trauma. However, TIPP homes also include youth older than 12 years. The homes provide appropriate family-based foster placement for children and youth with particularly challenging mental and behavioral health concerns. This brief overview will provide information to TIPP about their roles, expectations, and success.

TRAUMA SYSTEMS & CHILD WELFARE - This session is designed to provide opportunities for resource parents to gain the parenting skills needed to support children with trauma histories to regain emotional regulation. Resource and kinship parents - the team members who spend the most time with children placed in their homes - will learn about the impact of trauma and acquire skills that can help them through a systems approach to parent children and teens who have experienced trauma.

UNCONDITIONAL POSITIVE REGARD - Based on the teachings of humanistic psychologist, Carl Rogers, unconditional positive regard is the concept of offering compassion through acceptance and support regardless of an individual’s actions. This session will provide resource parents tips on assessing their capacity for unconditional positive regard and ways to enhance this skillset.

MODULE 2 – UNDERSTANDING BEHAVIOR (9 HOURS) - Module 2 begins the work of understanding the unique development and behaviors of children and youth who have experienced trauma first by focusing on a set of specialized populations. Participants will then be introduced to the signs and behaviors of common childhood disorders and their likely origin. Finally, cultural humility will be discussed as a means of understanding behavior from a cross-cultural perspective.

FOSTERING SPECIALIZED POPULATIONS - This session is designed to provide resource parents with information on ensuring the safety, permanency, and well-being of children in foster care who have been identified as part of a specialized population per the Foster Parent Training Regulation Amendment Act of 2018. Participants will receive information regarding the children’s unique development needs, quality parenting practice, and ways to best support children who are older youth, have experience commercial sexual exploitation, self-identify as LGBTQ, have a disability, are pregnant or parenting, or who have a history of violent behavior.

COMMON CHILDHOOD DISORDERS - This session will introduce resource parents to common childhood psychological and behavioral disorders in child welfare, as well as distinguishing features of the disorders. Specific diagnostic techniques and strategies for treating childhood disorders will be reviewed.

CULTURAL HUMILITY - This session will provide Agency resource parents with foundational knowledge of implicit bias and privilege. The session will also focus on the impact of oppression in the lives of the children and families served by the Agency. It will include ways in which Agency resource parents can work to radically transform how they support the children and families.

MODULE 3 – ADDRESSING BEHAVIORS (9 HOURS) – This module focuses on taking the learning from Module 1 and Module 2 and applying it to positive parenting and trauma-informed de-escalation. The session will provide opportunities for participants to assess their parenting style and support the alignment of parenting with de-escalation through a trauma-informed lens.

POSITIVE PARENTING - This session introduces participants to the major theories behind positive parenting. Participants explore ways in which parenting is both rewarding and challenging, while also bringing together the knowledge and the mindset for parents to meet these challenges. Participants will further explore how rewards increase for parents who are able to promote children's natural potential for optimal outcomes. This session also covers children's emotional intelligence as well as their cognitive abilities, both critically important to their well-being and success.

TRAUMA-INFORMED DE-ESCALATION - The purpose of this training is to reduce the risk of physical injury to the child development professional, the resource parent, and the youth or adult being engaged. The session offers a trauma-informed perspective as a means to engage with an individual during a potentially dangerous or threatening situation. Participants will learn about the brain’s response to trauma, techniques to verbally de-escalate a child or youth, and develop plans to address emotional and behavioral dysregulation.

MODULE 4 – STAYING CONNECTED (9 HOURS) - This module turns the participants’ focus away from the work of parenting toward the parent’s well-being. Recognizing the need for continued tangible support, Module 4 will highlight what the participant can expect from CFSA and reiterate the importance of understanding the impact of secondary traumatic stress and grief. Participants will learn how building a positive personal support network can aid in finding a safe space to recharge.

SPECIALIZED SUPPORT FOR TIPP - Each TIPP has an assigned resource parent support worker (RPSW) dedicated solely to the support of that individual TIPP. The RPSW serves as an advocate for the TIPP and the point of contact for all matters related to the resource parent community. This discussion will highlight all aspects of support each TIPP can expect from CFSA team.

UNDERSTANDING & ADDRESSING PRIMARY AND SECONDARY TRAUMATIC STRESS - Engaging in the support of children and youth who have experienced trauma leaves the individual TIPP and others at a greater risk of experiencing primary and secondary traumatic stress (STS). This session will provide a clear definition of vicarious trauma while also allowing the participant the opportunity to better understand the impact of secondary traumatic stress. Participants will walk away from the session with tangible next steps to address their experience of STS which will ultimately enhance their work as a TIPP.

UNDERSTANDING THE DYNAMICS OF GRIEF & LOSS - This training will explore the grief and loss process in children and adolescents. Participants will learn the common characteristics of a grieving person and what grief "looks like" throughout the different developmental stages of a child and adolescent. Participants will also learn different tools to use with grieving children and adolescents to facilitate emotional expression.

BUILDING A POSITIVE PERSONAL SUPPORT NETWORK - This workshop will highlight the importance of having a support network made of different people who help participants to see problems in several different ways. Participants will examine how this network can offer advice, physical resources, perspective, and feedback to bolster resolve and to help provide direction during the fostering journey. Participants will also examine the Strengthening Families Protective Factors Framework and highlight how positive social supports enhance family resilience and increases one’s sense of belonging, feelings of self-worth and feelings of security. Self-assessment tools will be incorporated to determine the areas where positive entities can add value.

SUPERVISORY IN-SERVICE COURSES

MASTERING THE ART OF CHILD WELFARE SUPERVISION 2.0: The purpose of the mandatory MACWS 2.0 is to review best practices in clinical supervision while reinvigorating CFSA management’s approach to their important roles within the Agency.

MACWS 2.0 is presented in eight sessions with each session lasting between two and six hours. The sessions are separated by tiers. All sessions in Tier One must be completed prior to attendance to Tier Two and Tier Three sessions.

TIER ONE

YOUR FULL POTENTIAL: This session focuses on supporting supervisors to get back to the basics of best practice as clinical supervisors. There is a focus on recalling why each supervisor has entered the field of social work and why they have ultimately accepted the role of a clinical supervisor. The session is framed on developing a mission and a vision statement in regard to each participant’s clinical social work career and receiving encouragement and support from fellow colleagues and peers.

CRITICAL THINKING AND THE PARADIGM SHIFT: This session provides the foundation of MACWS 2.0, by orienting supervisors to the CFSA definition of CRITICAL THINKING while also introducing the FOUR CORE COMPETENCIES supervisors should be supervising towards. The session also focuses on the organizational culture change from the focus on LaShawn outcomes to integration of the outcomes into child welfare best practices.

THE CLINICAL SUPERVISION TOOLBOX: Clinical supervision is a critical tool used in the development of social workers in the child welfare workforce. Within child welfare practice there continues to be a growing need for clinical supervision that encompasses all facets of effective and efficient learning. These facets include administrative, educational, and reflective supervision. The session focuses on critically analyzing the three types of clinical supervision, adhering to the NASW code and expectations of supervisors, developing a supervision agenda, and exploring tools that can be added to the clinical supervisor’s tool box to support staff and colleagues.

TIER TWO

CONSULTATION AND INFORMATION SHARING FRAMEWORK™ (CISF) AND CLINICAL SUPERVISION: This session focuses on how supervisors can utilize CISF™ in clinical supervision, thus modeling the framework in such a way that supervisees will be able to understand each component when working with families.

PURPOSE-CONTENT-ASSESSMENT-PLAN (PCAP) AND CLINICAL SUPERVISION: A MODEL FOR DOCUMENTATION: This four-hour in-service session introduces supervisory social workers to the new PCAP format for writing contact notes. Supervisory social workers examine the rationale for transitioning a new documentation format that supports the application of critical thinking across case practice activities. Participants learn the technical components of PCAP, including the process and content expectations of documenting client contacts, visitation, case planning activities, supervisory consultations, and case reviews. PCAP-based documentation effectively communicates a coherent and clinical narrative of client engagement, assessment, and progress towards safe case closure. Supervisory social workers will have the opportunity to analyze and critique examples of case documentation. In addition, participants will practice coaching one another in the development of the technical and clinical skills needed to effectively document case practice activities.

SUPPORTIVE SUPERVISION: ENHANCING WORKER RESILIENCE: This session re-introduces the SHER Model,[1] examining the common signs of and symptoms of secondary traumatic stress and countertransference and burnout that workers may experience as a result of exposure to child welfare stressors.

TIER THREE

ENGAGEMENT & TEAMING: SUPPORTING ORGANIZATIONAL WELL-BEING THROUGH CLINICAL SUPERVISION: This six-hour session helps supervisory social workers understand the importance of worker engagement and its impact on outcomes for children and families. Supervisory social workers discover their individual management styles and explore how they affect worker engagement, effectiveness, and satisfaction that support the personal growth and professional development of their staff. Supervisory social workers learn how to help their teams understand the role of each team member and how the team’s functionality impacts outcomes for children and families. Additionally, they learn how to identify their own leadership style, how to examine the work styles of their staff and colleagues, and how to develop and incorporate leadership plans for themselves and their staff. They also learn how to process feedback from their team’s perception of their leadership.

QUALITY SERVICE REVIEWS (QSR) AND CLINICAL SUPERVISION: This session introduces CFSA’s new supervisory QSR tool and walks participants through the QSR process, particularly for supervisors. Participants will have the opportunity to discuss concerns regarding the QSR process and be given tools to enhance their QSR outcomes. Particular focus is placed on how supervisors can benefit from QSR scores to model and coach their supervisees on engagement and teaming with families. The session includes practical, detailed steps that supervisors can take to ensure that engagement and teaming are occurring. Participants also identify practical ways that supervisors can personally support organizational change through exploration and empowerment of leadership skills and opportunities with colleagues and their staff. Supervisors will be equipped with skills to strengthen their supportive supervision skills.