April Advanced Training

It is time again for an Advanced Training. Our next one is scheduled for Wednesday April 21 from 5:30-7:30 pm in the SPANISH FORK DCFS OFFICE (607 E Kirby Lane Spanish Fork). Please make note that this training is on a Wednesday (a week from today!!) and it is in SPANISH FORK. We had to change things up a bit to accommodate our speaker and work around meetings in Provo.

Our main presenter will be Joseph Fletcher, a therapist from Wasatch Mental Health. He will be presenting on Resolving Conflict within the Family. This was a requested topic and should be really great to help you teach conflict resolution skills specific to family relationships (siblings, parent/child, and parent/parent). We will also have a presentation from our very own Holly Jane Dixon on a peer parenting skill. We will also cover updates on coverage for my maternity leave and program announcements.

And, I will have all of the donated supplies at the training for you to check out for your families!

As always, we will be having a pot luck dinner/ treat-fest, so bring something to share (if you would like).

Please register at the right side of the blog! Thanks!

The Supplies Are In!!!!

I have great news!! The supplies I asked you about are in! The Christmas Box organization collected donations for us and we got some great stuff! We have brand new games, art supplies, books, and more. Here is a list of items that we received:

Supplies List

We also have hygiene kits for children based on age (these include toothpaste, hair brushes, diapers for little kids, etc). There is a little different process to get these, so talk to me if you are interested.

Here are the rules for getting these items:

*These are meant to be for a specific family (for them to keep), but I would be ok with you taking a supply (such as a game) to use with all of your families. You would then need to return it to DCFS when you are done with it. If you give it to a family, it is their to keep.
*These items should be given to a family for a purpose! Use them as a reward or for the parents to use as a reward, or as part of a lesson.
*You may take up to 2 items per family (usually- but talk to me if you have special circumstances).
*You have to get the items FROM ME! I am trying to protect this great resource and want to make sure that as many people can benefit from them. You will need to talk to me about setting up a time for you to come get the items from me. Or, I can have them for you by the next training (which will be at the end of April). I need to mark who is getting what.

Thanks for your help with this! I hope this can be a great thing for you and your families! Oh, and if you have any items you want to donate or know of anyone who wants to donate, I am hoping to have this be a continual thing for us to access supplies. I will continue to solicit donations to keep us stocked.

And, if you want to write a thank you note to the nice ladies at the Christmas Box house, I will take those for them!

Training April 8

Runaway and Homeless Youth: Prevalence, Programs, and Policy
April 8, 2010

Listen to a live audio webcast9 a.m. ET / 8 a.m. CT / 7 a.m. MT / 6 a.m. PTProgram length: 1.5 hours Register

Runaway and Homeless Youth: Prevalence, Programs, and PolicyA shocking percentage of American youth run away from home by age 18, according to a new snapshot of runaways to be published by the Urban Institute, and many do so before turning 14. Roughly half of all youth who leave home without parental permission or knowledge do so more than once, with girls more likely to be repeat runaways. Many runaways become homeless because family reunification is not an option. Other young people end up on the street or in a shelter because they are abandoned by their parents, are forced to leave home, age out of foster care, or are released from the juvenile justice system. Much progress has been made in recent decades to address the needs of runaways and homeless youth. What is left to be done at the federal, state, and local levels? How are service providers coping with the varied life stories of the 1.5-2 million young people who each year are homeless and unaccompanied by an adult for at least one night?

Panelists:
Patrick Boyle (moderator), editor, Youth Today
Amy Dworsky, senior researcher, Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago
Hedda McLendon, social services division deputy director, Latin American Youth Center (Washington, D.C.)
Michael Pergamit, senior research associate, Center on Labor, Human Services, and Population, Urban Institute
Bryan Samuels, commissioner, Administration on Children, Youth, and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human ServicesRegister to attend in person in Washington, DCA light breakfast will be provided at 8:30 a.m. The forum begins promptly at 9 a.m..Register to listen to the audio webcast.To join the webcast, you need a computer with a high-speed Internet connection. The audio for the webcast is available over the Internet only (no telephone connections).You will need to register on the same computer you will use to listen. You can register anytime up to and during the event. To access the webcast, you can go to the same link where you registered. The recording will be archived immediately after the event at the same link.

Foundations for Youth Training

A few of our peer parents attended the Foundations for Youth training last week and loved it! By request, I have received the presentation and am posting it here.

Foundations for Youth Presentation

This is an overview of the training:

Outcome 1: Caregivers will understand the purpose of the Transition to Adult Living initiative and their motivations for working with youth at this critical period of their lives.
Outcome 2: Caregivers will possess an understanding of adolescent development, as well as their varying needs at differing ages, and how abuse, neglect, trauma, grief and loss impact their growth and behavior.
Outcome 3: Caregivers will be able to understand youth within the context of their varying cultural experiences and can implement strategies to help support their identities.
Outcome 4: Caregivers will understand how behavior—the underlying needs and motivation to sustain them—and demonstrate the skill to implement behavioral interventions.
Outcome 5: Caregivers will be able to implement structure, rules, behavioral expectations, and boundaries in the context of building and sustaining relationships with youth.
Outcome 6: Caregivers will be able to demonstrate engagement skills critical to developing meaningful relationships with youth. These skills must be solution-focused and strengths-based.
Outcome 7: Caregivers will be able to use assessment tools to assist with identifying the youth’s strengths and areas of need.
Outcome 8: Caregivers not only will understand the importance of planning to assist youth, but know ways to involve the youth in this process in a meaningful, productive way.
Outcome 9: Caregivers will understand the importance of using a team approach to aiding a youth’s transition into adulthood. Much of this understanding relies on involving youth in the process to empower them to make important decisions about their future.
Outcome 10: Caregivers will have a good understanding of the Transition to Adult Living Goals: 1) Positive Self-Esteem, 2) Building Enduring Relationships, 3) Attaining Safe and Affordable Housing, 4) How to Access Health and Mental Health Care, and 5) Education Attainment and Employment. Caregivers will possess the skills and knowledge of the resources available to youth as they exit foster care to help them integrate these goals in preparation for their transition into adult living.

**Did you attend the training? Did you watch the presentation from the link above? Let me know what you think!!

Do You Need Supplies?

I just talked to our Christmas Box Room coordinator (this is a room where we have donated supplies for foster children) and she is willing to solicit donations for our peer parenting program!! So, can you please get me a list of items that you could use in your peer parenting lessons? This could include art supplies, board games, books, cooking supplies, or anything that you feel would help enhance your lessons. And, these items don't need to pertain to a certain current case. So, if there are things that you have thought about in the past and could use in the future, I will just have them available if anyone needs them. Make sense? Sound exciting? I know, I am pumped.

This is a great opportunity to get some help from our community because you all know we don't have a budget to buy anything and I don't want you to have to spend your money.

Please let me know ASAP by sending me an email or leaving a comment on this post!

Department of Workforce Services

The Department of Workforce Services (DWS) recently came and did a presentation for DCFS that I think was really helpful. I have provided the link to their power point presentation so you can check it out. The presentation goes over all their services (Foodstamps, Financial Assistance, Unemployment, Child Care, CHIP/PCN, and tons more). Most of our clients (and some of us!) have accessed these services and it is helpful to be aware of what DWS provides.

DWS Presentation

February Advanced Training

Thanks to all those who attended the Advanced Training last Thursday night. I think it was a great training and had a lot of really helpful information. I hope those that attended agreed. If you didn't attend: fear not. All of the info will be included in this post. PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO READ THROUGH THIS STUFF. I promise it will help you to become a better peer parent! Here is an outline of the evening, along with the materials:

1) I presented on a few tips and tricks based on the most common mistakes that I see in documentation and payments. Look through this document and see if you are making any of these mistakes:
Mistakes You Might Be Making Handout

2) We had an excellent (and vibrant) presentation from our DCFS trainer, Martin Roundy, on tools you can use to better understand your clients and get to know them better. These tools include Ecomaps, Timelines and Family Systems Maps. He also showed this tv ad that demonstrates how quickly we are to judge others. It is pretty funny, so take a look:


Here is the a link to his presentation:

Tools to Use with Families to Build Trust Presentation

I hope we can start to use these tools to better engage with our clients and better understand them. An additional tool that we didn't have time to go over is genograms. These are a more simplified version of Family Systems Maps (they just show relations versus dynamics). These can be very helpful when you just want to better understand how everyone in the family fits together. Here is link to learn about genograms:

Genogram Components

3) Debbie Robinson gave a great presentation on the skill Finances. She played a really fun game with all of us that would be fun to incorporate into your lessons. She divided us into teams and gave each team an envelope. She then asked us to bring her items (shopping card, credit card, receipt, generic item, etc) and then the first team to bring it got $10 in play money, second team got $5 and the third got $1. She then followed each item with a mini-lesson. For ex- For generic item, she talked about how much you could save by switching to generic over name brand. You can come up with your own items and little lessons, or talk with Debbie to get the exact items she used. But, it could be really fun to do with your families and get everyone involved and teach them some important lessons. Debbie also provided us with the following shopping tips to save money:

Shopping Tips Handout

Thanks to Martin and Debbie for presenting! It was great stuff! Let me know if you have any questions on any of the topics listed above!