Child Welfare League of America

Workshop Session C

C1 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. This workshop outlines how practitioners can work effectively with such traumatized youth, and also how to work with their families and caregivers.
Presenter: Nancy Boyd Webb, Distinguished Professor, Fordham University, Amesbury, MA

C2 A Family Systems Approach to Working with Families After Adoption

The focus for this workshop is on the ethical issues after adoption for birth, foster, and adoptive families. Highlighted are developing models for treatment, looking at these concerns as normal developmental crises, providing psychoeducation, and strategizing for strength.
Presenter: Joyce Maguire Pavao, CEO, Center for Family Connections, Cambridge, MA

C3 Creative Strategies for Building and Funding Adoption-Competent Mental Health Services

This workshop looks at the array of promising approaches to planning, funding, and developing adoption-competent mental health services that have been identified through a national search conducted by Casey Family Services. Adoptive parents and youth; diverse practitioners; state adoption, mental health, and Medicaid managers; and advocates were all involved in identifying the current mix of federal funding streams and other programs that can be implemented at the state level. One innovative adoption-focused mental health agency will be highlighted, as will implications for policy and practice.
Presenters: Sarah Greenblatt, Director, Center for Effective Child Welfare Practice, Casey Family Services, New Haven, CT; and Debbie Riley, Executive Director, Center for Adoption Support and Education, Burtonsville, MD

C4 Emerging Research and Practice Needs in a Post-Permanency World

Publicly-assisted adoptive/guardianship homes will soon surpass the number of children in foster care at a ratio of 2:1. The University of Illinois School of Social Work completed a study (in 2006) to address sustaining these families. This presentation provides study highlights and explores how research can be used to design post-permanency service systems.
Presenters: Tamara Fuller, Associate Director, and Nancy Rolock and Melinda Lis, Research Specialists, Children and Family Research Center, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL

C5 Giving Foster Teens a Voice in Permanency Outcomes

This workshop shares evidence-based lessons learned through Project Teen Plus, an innovative program with an over 70% success rate in expediting adoption of teens in the foster care system. Learn about this youth-empowering, best-practice model that can be duplicated in any region to enhance outcomes for youth.
Presenter: Sheila Suderwalla, Director of Project Teen Plus, Foster and Adoptive Care Coalition, St. Louis

C6 Keeping At-Risk Families Together: Crisis Nurseries Serving Homeless Families

Presenters discuss the implementation, funding, and program evaluation of the Family Crisis Nursery Program, an innovative onsite program in New York City transitional housing facilities. The program is designed to stabilize homeless children and their families by providing an alternative to foster care, as well as emergency assistance and crisis counseling.
Presenters: Aurora Zepeda, Executive Director, and Julie Saltzman, Program Manager, Homes for the Homeless Institute for Children and Poverty, New York

C7 Fostering Hope: Preventing Teen Pregnancy Among Youth in Foster Care

The United States continues to have the highest rates of teen pregnancy and births in the industrialized world. Youth in foster care are at significant risk for teen pregnancy. This workshop highlights the findings from focus groups and surveys conducted with Chicago area parenting and nonparenting teens in foster care, foster parents, and service providers. A pregnancy prevention model is presented and other program strategies from across the country are discussed.
Presenters: Lois Love, Uhlich Children's Advantage Network, Riverdale, IL

C8 It Just Makes Sense: The Successes and Challenges of Addressing Girls' Needs

The focus of this workshop is the South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice's successful implementation of equitable and genderresponsive services for girls in the juvenile justice system. Areas of emphasis include data on girls and their needs, implementation and continuous improvement strategies, and the development of successful partnerships to build coalitions.
Presenters: William Byars Jr., Director, and Susan Alford, Associate Deputy Director, South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice, Columbia, SC

C9 From Vision to Reality: Implementing Real Change in the Child Welfare System

This workshop explores opportunities for private providers, using evidence- based practices, to introduce real change into child welfare systems. Discussion centers on the journey from identification of unmet needs through evaluation of long-term outcomes of new services, both for children and families receiving services and for the system as a whole.
Presenters: Tim Goldsmith, Chief Clinical Officer, Bret Stockton, Business Development Manager, and Sarah Hurley, Director of Research, Youth Villages, Memphis, TN

C10 Cities Leading Collaborations for Youth in Transition

Municipal leaders-mayors and city department heads-are uniquely well-positioned to launch and lead cross-system collaborations for reengaging older youth in transition from public care systems. This workshop explores cross-system efforts in Philadelphia and seven other cities, drawing from new case studies compiled by National League of Cities.
Presenters: Andrew Moore, Senior Consultant, and Leon Andrews, Youth Development Program Director, National League of Cities- Institute for Youth, Education, and Families, Washington, DC; John Calhoun, President, HopeMatters, Washington, DC; and Laura Shubilla, President, Philadelphia Youth Network, Philadelphia

C11 Creating a Culture of Connection in Residential Treatment

This presentation explores the transformation of a residential treatment center into a trauma-informed, relationship-based treatment program. It explains the restorative approach theory of change, the new language used, specific treatment techniques, and the response to acting-out behaviors and it introduces the Risking Connection® curriculum.
Presenter: Patricia Wilcox, Vice President of Strategic Development, Klingberg Family Centers, New Britain, CT

C12 Recruitment and Retention of Native American Foster Homes: A Toolbox of Promising Practices for State, County, and Tribal Child Welfare Programs

This workshop presents a toolbox of promising practices in the recruitment and retention of American Indian/Alaska Native resource families. It is directed at those involved in state, county, and tribal child welfare programs.
Presenter: Kathy Deserly, Consultant, CWLA, Helena, MT

C13 Home Visiting Programs and Their Role in Addressing Child Welfare Issues

This workshop explores federal legislation that would support home visiting, Head Start, and early intervention and prevention programs that are currently operating across the states.
Presenters: Branden McLeod, Government Affairs Associate, CWLA, Washington, DC; and experts, advocates, and Capitol Hill staff TBA

C14 Childcare and Head Start in the 110th Congress

The new 110th Congress is likely to include a comprehensive reform of child welfare on its new agenda. This workshop reviews prospective legislative proposals that may affect how child welfare agencies will work in the future.
Presenters: John Sciamanna, Co-Director of Government Affairs, CWLA, Washington, DC; and national advocates for childcare and Head Start, and Capitol Hill staff TBA

C15 Life for Parents, Families, Advocates, State, and Providers Prior to Child Welfare Systems Change in Massachusetts

This presentation reflects on the systems change in Massachusetts, viewing the Department of Social Services, providers, families, and others in their prechange mode. Also, there is a look at the current, more family-focused, family-driven, and family-centered model.
Presenters: Andrea Watson, Founder, Parents for Residential Reform at the Federation for Children with Special Needs; and Michael McGuirk, parent, Boston

C16 Removing the Stigma of Foster Care: An Illinois Collaborative Strategy for Social Marketing

This is an introductory presentation on social marketing and a detailed case study of the development of a social-marketing campaign for foster care is provided. Participants engage in an interactive session for skill building in social marketing.
Presenters: Arleen Peterson, Project Manager, Voices for Illinois Children, Chicago; and Les Pappas, President, Better World Advertising, San Francisco

C17 Managing Workload Means Managing Intentions

This workshop provides a hands-on look at a unique and innovative workload management tool developed in British Columbia. Using the four concepts of volume, time available, time required for tasks, and management's intentions, the model demonstrates that you have a lot more control over your workload than you think.
Presenters: Jeremy Berland, Assistant Deputy Minister, University of Victoria/Ministry of Children and Family Development, and Ted Semmens, Partner, Management by Design, Victoria, BC, Canada

C18 Building an Integrated Service Approach for Children and Families Through the "Future Search" Process

The focus of this workshop is on a process for engaging diverse stakeholders in the discovery of common ground towards building an integrated system of service delivery. The process is known as Future Search. The whole system participates in exploring the past, present, and desired future as a prelude to planning.
Presenter: Leslie Rozeff, Director, Child Welfare Training Institute, University of Southern Maine, Augusta, ME

C19 Using the Child and Family Services Review Process at the State Level to Measure Performance

There has been great success measuring performance outcomes of social service providers in Wyoming, using a slightly modified version of the Federal Child and Family Services Review instrument. This workshop explores how citizen review panels and others can partner with their state social service agencies to measure services provided for children and families, while preparing for their next Federal Child and Families Services Review.
Presenters: Kelly Hamilton, Executive Director, and Glennda Lacey, Quality Assurance, Wyoming Citizen's Review Panel, Inc., Cheyenne, WY

C20 Findings from the Regional Listening Forums: Putting Change into Practice for LGBTQ Youth in Foster Care

The focus of this workshop is the findings from a series of regional listening forums concerning lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth in foster care. Actual experiences of youth are highlighted.
Presenters: Rob Woronoff, LGBTQ Program Director, CWLA, Washington, DC; and Rudy Estrada, Foster Care Attorney, Lambda Legal, New York

C21 Public/Private Partnerships Recognizing Youth Leadership

Presenters focus on the tremendous rewards for young people, families, and employees that come from public/private partnerships that recognize youth leadership. Participants learn how to adjust service delivery in order to engage young people's unique talents to advocate for their peers and promote systems change.
Presenters: Claude Robinson, Vice President of Youth Development, and Fred Long, Youth Leadership Specialist, UCAN, Chicago

C22 Reducing Disproportionality and Disparate Outcomes Using the Breakthrough Series Collaborative Methodology

This workshop explores specific strategies used by 13 public child welfare agencies to address racial disproportionality and disparate outcomes, while participating in the Casey Family Programs Breakthrough Series Collaborative (BSC). The BSC methodology, the framework for change that guides the improvement efforts of participating teams, and the specific strategies participants have used are described.
Presenters: Oronde Miller, Systems Improvement Manager, Traci Savoy, Systems Improvement Specialist, and Kristin Ward, Measurement Specialist, Casey Family Programs, Washington, DC

C23 Overview of the Family-to-Family Initiative

This session provides an overview of the Family-to-Family Initiative, a child welfare system reform effort sponsored by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Presenters include the experts responsible for administering and evaluating the initiative at the Foundation, and for analyzing the data created.
Presenters: Wanda Mial, Senior Associate, Annie E. Casey Foundation, Baltimore; and Lynn Usher, Kuralt Professor of Public Welfare, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Social Work, Chapel Hill, NC

C24 Helping Families Build Better Economic Futures

Presenters discuss projects in both urban and rural areas that are designed to help families reduce debt, while increasing assets and financial literacy, developing marketable skills, and increasing employment opportunities. Also highlighted is the essential role of partnerships in promoting family economic success activities.
Presenters: Cary Gladstone, Community Liaison, Casey Family Services, Concord, NH; Helen McCreedy, Team Leader, Casey Family Services, Lowell, MA; Robert Ehrhardt, Facilitator, Casey Family Services, Providence, RI; and Kristina Poly, Senior Program Associate, Casey Family Services, New Haven, CT

C25 What Works in Prevention and Early Intervention for Children with Developmental/Psychotic Disorders

The most current research regarding the behavioral manifestations and prevalence of developmental/psychotic disorders is the focus for this workshop. Prepare to integrate the findings about the causes of mental illness with a better understanding of risk factors and options for prevention/ early intervention. This workshop highlights the work of the CWLA 2006-2007 Gralnick Award Recipient for exemplary work in research on, treatment of, and advocacy for children and adolescents with schizophrenia.
Presenter: TBA


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