Child Welfare League of America

Workshop Session A

A-1 Innovative Prevention Services with a Child Welfare Diversion Mandate

This workshop describes the developmental aspects of designing and maintaining prevention/diversion programs within a child protection mandate under the Philadelphia Department of Human Services. Such services have a family strength-based focus with expanded linkages to formal and informal community resources and an emphasis on providing early preventive supportive services. The overall goal of the workshop is to share the department's child welfare diversion model, which has elements that can be readily replicated in other cities.
Presenters: Ellen C. Walker, Divisional Director, Division of Community-Based Prevention Services; Aubrey C. Powers, Director, Office of Family Support; and Jay Henry, Director, Office of Truancy & Delinquency Prevention; Philadelphia Department of Human Services, Philadelphia, PA

A-2 Washington Update and Agenda

This workshop identifies interdynamics of the 110th Congress and the federal government in relation to child welfare services. This workshop will also name pertinent child welfare bills and public policy that was, will be, or may be proposed and/or scheduled to be reauthorized.
Presenters: John Sciamanna, Codirector, and Tim Briceland-Betts, Codirector, Government Affairs, CWLA, Arlington, VA

A-3 If These Halls Could Talk: A Program to Deal with Bullying in Our Schools

'Acts of meanness,' better known as bullying, are played out in almost every school across America each day. This workshop focuses on building positive social skills, role modeling, and the exploration of how our stereotypes affect our perceptions and relationships with each other. A wider definition of bias will be discussed, one that includes judgments about cultural and personal differences such as race, age, personal style, and looks. Participants will learn the language and the means to facilitate bias into acceptance and anguish and hurt into understanding and compassion.
Presenters: John Boiano, Director, Pulse Integration, Vernon, CT; and Lee Mun Wah, Diversity Trainer, StirFry Seminars & Consulting, Berkeley, CA

A-4 Effective Communication and Motivation: An Energizer for Supervisors and Managers

This workshop identifies the obstacles to effective communication and the components of an effective exchange. Participants walk away with insights and tools to increase their own effectiveness in understanding and being understood. Participants will learn how to identify the components of effective communication; increase their use of feedback in the workplace; and apply motivational techniques to help get them what they want.
Presenter: Beth A. Enser, Director of Training and Staff Development, The Children's Village, Echo Hills, Dobbs Ferry, New York

A-5 Extreme Jobs Require Extreme Self-Care!

Some personal skills for surviving in the job are already present. What are they? What do other people do to survive and perhaps even flourish? The purpose of this workshop is to give an overview of a one-day training that establishes and expands a child welfare worker's toolbox for survival. Participants begin to identify their own skills and learn from others to expand their survival repertoire.
Presenter: Rick Pearce, Ongoing Administrator, Montgomery County Office of Children and Youth, Montgomery County Human Services Center, Norristown, PA

A-6 Aged-Out and Homeless in Philadelphia

Seventy-seven homeless youth who aged out of foster care participated in a Philadelphia study to examine individualand systems-level factors that impacted their becoming homeless upon discharge. Presenters discuss challenges and tips on identifying and engaging these youth, how to navigate the political landscape for practical implementation of policy recommendations, and how to facilitate multisystem collaborations and multidisciplinary transition planning teams.
Presenters: Dr. Kathy Meyers,Vice President of Research; Dr. Tammy White, Director of Analytic Services; and Angela Robertson, GIS Research Associate; Philadelphia Safe and Sound, Philadelphia, PA

A-7 Engaging Juvenile Justice Clients' Families in the Treatment Process

Families often believe that JJS and treatment providers are solely responsible for the change process. The Institute for Family Centered Services has national recognition in engaging families of offenders in the Family Centered TreatmentTM model via practice-based techniques. Participants learn to engage families via "Brendtro's Circle of Courage" family-centered activity.
Presenters: William E. Painter Jr., Senior Vice President, Organizational Development, Institute for Family Centered Services, Denver, NC; and Cynthia C. Roberson, Maryland Director, State Operations, Institute for Family Centered Services, Largo, MD

A-8 Are You Being Asked to Share the Risk?

In this workshop participants understand the reasoning behind performance-based contracting, look at the "risks" for nonprofit providers, and examine the concept of "shared financial risk" and its implications for agencies to provide highly effective services. Increasingly across the U.S., public jurisdictions are requiring nonprofit agencies to enter into performance-based contracts with "shared financial risk." Look at what the future holds!
Presenter: Jeff Bormaster, Consultant, CWLA, Palm Springs, CA

A-9 Healing Adventure: Creating a Trauma-Sensitive Environment Through Behavior Management Through Adventure

Participants engage in activities used by the Children's Home RTF Inc. as part of a structured program to decrease physical restraint, increase academic and treatment outcomes, and create a trauma-sensitive environment for staff and residents. The CH-RTF began using Behavior Management Through Adventure (BMTA) as a structured program for creating a trauma-sensitive environment across all areas of the program: residential, school, and clinical treatment. Lowering occurrence of explosive behaviors, empowering residents to make good behavior and life choices, increasing staff communication, and improving student academic achievement are goals set for implementation of BMTA at the agency. Join us to learn how we are participating in BMTA to achieve our goals.
Presenters: Karen E. Wright, Executive Director; Erica Murry, Recreational Therapist; and Aaron Bennett, Senior Family Life Specialist; Children's Home RTF Inc., Chenango Forks, NY; and Carol James, Consultant and Trainer, Project Adventure, Beverly, MA

A-10 Traumatized Youth in Child Welfare: What Practitioners Need to Know and Do

Children in the child welfare system have suffered many losses and traumas that make it difficult for them to trust adults and to adjust satisfactorily in placement. The presentation outlines how practitioners can help such traumatized youth, their families, and caregivers.
Presenters: Nancy Boyd Webb, Distinguished Professor of Social Work, and James R. Dumpson, Chair in Child Welfare Studies, Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service, Amesbury, MA


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