CWLA 2016 NATIONAL CONFERENCE:
In partnership with Children and Family Futures
ADVANCING EXCELLENCE IN PRACTICE AND POLICY:
WHAT WORKS FOR FAMILIES AFFECTED BY SUBSTANCE USE
Hyatt Regency, Orange County, California
August 1 – 3, 2016
Overview
The 2016 National Conference: Advancing Excellence in Practice and Policy: What Works for Families Affected by Substance Use held in Orange County, California was a wonderful and enjoyable time together, and an excellent opportunity to network for the 500+ attendees representing a variety of service providers and professionals, including: public and private child welfare and substance abuse treatment providers; juvenile and family court judges and attorneys; law enforcement; prosecutors; probation officers; prevention specialists; maternal and child health agencies; mental health providers, physicians; nurses; researchers and evaluators; educators; tribal communities; and community organizations serving children, youth and families.
The 2016 CWLA National Conference was dedicated entirely to the critical topic of substance use and its affects on children, youth, and families involved with child welfare. Substance use has a significant impact on all child welfare practice areas, and is a major reason that children come into the child welfare system and have trouble returning home. The conference successfully created a national awareness through shared knowledge and multidisciplinary collaborative advances in best practices, research, and policy that can only lead to improving the outcomes and increased well-being for this population of children, youth, and families.
Thank you to everyone who joined us in Orange County for this wonderful learning and sharing experience. Special thanks to our great partner, Children and Family Futures, for the help and assistance we received from their amazing team. Thank you also to our 22 sponsors for supporting such an important and timely conference for the benefit of the 500+ attendees from various service areas. Thank you to every presenter for the wonderful presentations and materials distributed during the workshops. Thank you to all plenary speakers for providing information and experiences on the conference theme and topic. Thank you also to the 30 vendors exhibiting materials and resources to support every ones continuous great work.
This conference experience is not over. Welcome to our post conference site where you can revisit and visit (if you didn’t make it to Orange County) our plenary speakers, download materials for some of the incredible workshops, and celebrate our award winners. You can also take a look at the conference photos and view the conference program.
More photos from the plenary sessions and award presentations are below.
Plenary Sessions & Speakers
Plenary Speakers
Monday, August 1, 2016
Ta’Kijah Randolph is a Bay Area native, hailing from Pittsburg, California. Born into a world of dysfunction, Ta’Kijah has always been a resilient individual. A life of hardship gave her the skills to endure everything the world had to offer. She started as an intern in the Washington, DC office of Representative Karen Bass (D-CA), and was offered the staff assistant position in the office. Ta’Kijah is currently the Legislative Correspondent for Representative Bass and co-lead on the Congressional Caucus on Foster Youth. She hopes to continue her advocacy work for minority communities—including foster youth.
Nancy K. Young is the Executive Director of Children and Family Futures (CFF), a California-based research and pol- icy institute whose mission is to improve safety, permanency, well- being, and recovery outcomes for children, parents, and families affected by trauma, substance use, and mental disorders. Since 2002, she has served as the director of the federally funded National Center on Substance Abuse and Child Welfare, and has served as the Director of the Administration for Children and Families technical assistance program for the Regional Partnership Grants since 2007.
Tuesday, August 2, 2016
Samantha Fellows, B.S.Ed., OCPSA, is currently a Prevention Specialist for The Recovery Center in Lancaster, Ohio. She has worked in the education system for 15 years. She is involved in area service and believes in giving back what was so freely given to her. With the help of those who loved her, treatment centers, and a 12-step program, she no longer looks to live in the shadow. She has passionately embarked on the journey to heal that darkness and now works to help others do the same.
Mary Chaliman is the Manager of the Protect MiFamily Project and the Child Welfare Medical Unit in the Office of Child Welfare Policy and Programs for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. She is also Project Manager for the Protect MiFamily, Michigan’s federally approved title IV-E waiver child welfare demonstration project. Twelve years ago, when sub- stance use touched her family, Mary became the relative caregiver, licensed foster parent, and, eventually, the adoptive parent of her granddaughter.
Nominated by President Obama and confirmed by the United States Senate, Rafael López is the Commissioner of the Administration on Children, Youth and Families (ACYF) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Mr. López is a results-driven leader with experience in helping lead complex organizations in the public and social sectors, where he has served in numerous roles at the city, county, and state levels focused on improving the lives of children, families, and communities.
Dr. Kimberly A. Johnson began her tenure as Director of the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) in February 2016. Previously, Dr. Johnson was the Deputy Director for Operations of CHESS/ NIATx, a research center at the University of Wisconsin, Madison that focuses on systems improvement in behavioral health and the development of mobile applications for patient self-management. Dr. Johnson was also co-director of the national coordinating office of the Addiction Technology Transfer Center.
Wednesday, August 3, 2016
Ben Maloney is in recovery from addiction after using for more than half his life. He completed the STARS Program, Celebrating Families and Dependency Drug Court and reunified with his kids in early 2016. He is now proud to be a nurturing father to his five children. For him, it’s all about staying this way.
David Sheff is the author of Beautiful Boy: A Father’s Journey Through His Son’s Addiction, an award-winning #1 New York Times bestseller that recounts Sheff’s harrowing struggle to help his son Nic overcome his methamphetamine addiction. His latest, Clean: Overcoming Addiction and Ending America’s Greatest Tragedy, is a myth-shattering look at drug use and treatment. Mr. Sheff’s ongoing research and reports on the science of addiction earned him a place on Time magazine’s list of the world’s most influential people.
Awards
Awards
CWLA’s Anna Quindlen Award for Excellence in Journalism on Behalf of Children and Families
CWLA annually honors journalists in both print and broadcast who have provided constructive, informative reporting that advances awareness, understanding, and action to meet the needs of children and families who are vulnerable. The CWLA Awards program is designed to encourage excellence and innovation in serving children and families who are vulnerable and to acknowledge the various stakeholder groups that are committed to advancing excellence in child welfare.
AWARDEE
Evy Ramos, News Anchor for WOAI-TV in San Antonio, TX
Ms. Ramos has an overwhelming desire to highlight the best of people, especially parents who overcome the obstacles and hurdles of life in the child protective service (CPS) system. Her community has trust and confidence in the news stories she produces and presents as a prime-time news anchor for WOAI-TV in San Antonio, TX. News stories that she presents with sensitivity from talking with the Commissioner of the Texas Department of Family & Protective Services, Judge John Specia, to a foster parent with many years of experience in the local foster care system, and to the many parents who overcame their addiction and dysfunction to regain their children having been removed by CPS. She is regarded for her high standards of professional journalism and more importantly, for understanding her professional role and community responsibility of presenting positive and heartwarming stories in the child protective service system.
Children and Family Future’s 2016 National Collaborative Excellence Awards
Children and Family Futures is pleased to recognize outstanding individuals with a demonstrated commitment to improving cross-systems collaborative practice to effectively address substance use disorders among parents, children and families involved in child welfare, substance use treatment and judicial systems. The individuals being recognized were nominated by their peers and the awardees were selected by a peer review team.
Selected excerpts of nomination essays are highlighted below for the selected awardees.
AWARDEES
Roger Heideman, JD, Lancaster County Family Treatment Drug Court, Nebraska— Judge Heideman leads collaborative efforts to create a family drug court that continually evolves to meet the needs of parents, children, and families. As a result of his efforts, children are reaching permanency faster, have reduced rates of reentry, and have access to evidence-based trauma services and parents receive quality substance use disorder treatment and have better quality parenting time.
Patricia Carey, Tompkins County Department of Social Services, New York — Ms. Carey is devoted to improving practice and providing resources to support parents, children, and families. As a result of her collaborative efforts, Ms. Carey successfully reorganized the Thompkins County Department of Social Services (DSS) to provide a dedicated unit to work with the Thompkins Family Treatment Court.
Edwina Chappell, PhD, Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, Tennessee — Dr. Chappell is committed to Tennessee’s most marginalized and underserved parents, children and families. She has successfully led collaborative efforts through a grassroots approach to building partnerships among key stakeholders in her community.
Sharon Burke, MD, Children’s Specialized Hospital, New Jersey — Dr. Burke’s approach to collaboration is based on trust, respect and evidence-based education. She strives to expand the understanding of the complex nature of substance use disorders and has successfully engaged various child welfare systems to improve the outcomes for women and children affected by prenatal substance exposure.
Karol Kumpfer, PhD, University of Utah, Utah— Dr. Kumpfer is a research psychologist and a Professor of Health Promotion and Education at the University of Utah specializing in research and dissemination of evidence-based family strengthening interventions. Dr. Kumpfer’s research has led to interventions that reduce child maltreatment and neglect by improving parenting skills, family relations, and children’s outcomes.
Workshops
Workshops
Monday, August 1, 2016
A1 – Working Across Systems to Improve the Outcomes of Child Welfare-Involved Parents with Substance Use Disorders
Workshop Presentation
A2 – Statewide System Reform: The New York Experience
A3 – Prescription Painkillers: The Latest (and Greatest) Threat to Child Welfare
A4 – The Importance of Relationships in Family drug Court: Enhancing Well-Being for Children and Families Using a Team Approach
A5 – Fetal Alcohol Spectrum disorders: Collaboration of National, State and Community Groups in Lifespan Prevention and Interventions
Workshop Presentation
A6 – Preventing neglect, Abuse, and Abandonment Among Families Impacted by HIV and Substance Abuse: A Multi- Disciplinary Approach Infused with Trauma-Informed Practices
A7 – Developing a Program for Substance-Exposed Newborns and Their Families: Lessons from Project NESST (Newborns Exposed to Substances: Support and Therapy)
Workshop Presentation
A8 – Child Welfare Policy in Washington, DC: A Look to the Fall and Next Administration
A9 – Supervising with Substance
B1 – Partnering with Courts to Better Address Substance Use in Dependency and Neglect Cases
B2 – The Mommies Program: A Gender-Responsive Program for Pregnant and Parenting Women with Substance Use Disorders
Workshop Presentation
B3 – The Connecticut Family Stability Project: Financing a Service for Families Impacted by Substance Use
B4 – A Team Approach to Trauma- Informed Care with Substance Use, Abuse, and Addiction
B5 – Increasing Family Treatment drug Courts Outcomes: Development of a Pre-Dependency Drug Court and Enhanced Family Services
Workshop Presentation
B6 – Implementing, Evaluating and Sustaining a Parent Mentor Program: Lessons Learned
Workshop Presentation
B7 – From Script to Choices: Empowering Children Impacted by Familial Addiction
B8 – Even With a Substance Abuse History, Fathers Play a Key Role in the lives of Their Children
C1 – Children Affected by Substance Abuse (CASA): A Cross-Sector, Community Collaboration Model
C2 – Impact from Infancy: Shaping a Coordinated Child Welfare System Response for Maltreated Children Birth to Five
Workshop Presentation
C3 – Implementing Evidence-Based Practices across Systems and Settings to Enhance Services for Substance-Abuse Effected Families: Process, Outcomes, and Cost Savings
Workshop Presentation
C5 – Project Connect: Keeping Children Safe by Strengthening Substance-Affected Families
C6 – Family-Based Recovery: An Innovative In-Home Substance Abuse Treatment Model for Families with Young Children
C7 – Kinship Navigation Services: Diverting Youth Affected by Substance Abuse from Child Welfare to Kinship Care
C8 – Recovering Families: A Tool for Parents in Recovery and Their Children
Workshop Presentation
Workshop Handouts
C9 – Successful Substance Abuse and Therapeutic Program Elements for Young Children and Their Families in Child Welfare: The Sobriety Treatment and Recovery Teams Program
Workshop Presentation
C10 – An Intensive Case Management Approach for Addressing Co-Occurring Substance Abuse and Trauma Exposure among urban native Families
Workshop Presentation
C11 -Substance-Exposed Infants: New Strategies for Preparing Resource Parents through Integration of Online Learning and In-Person Group Sessions
Tuesday, August 2, 2016
D1 – Making It Work without a Family Drug Court: Connecticut’s Approach to Parental Substance Abuse in the Child Welfare System
Workshop Presentation
D2 – Cross-System Strategies for Engaging and Retaining Families Involved in the Child Welfare System and Affected by Substance Use Disorders
D3 – Effective Collaboration: Lessons from the Regional Partnership Grant Program
Workshop Presentation
D4 – Improving Family Outcomes through Strategic Partnerships to Implement Supportive Housing and Wraparound Services
D5 – Specialty Court Potluck: How Effective Multi-Disciplinary Teams Improve the Lives of Children in the Legal System
D6 – What Happens After Treatment and Recovery Programs End: A Study of Long-Term Outcomes for Women in Recovery
D7 – Substance Use: Prenatal and Postnatal Services in Family Preservation
Workshop Presentation
D8 – Understanding and Treating Addicted Youth
E1 – CWLA’s Kinship Traditions of Caring and Collaborating Model of Practice: Supporting Kinship Families Impacted by Substance Abuse
E2 – Integrated Housing and Service Models for Child Welfare-Involved Families Affected by Homelessness and Substance use
E3 – Integrating Child Welfare and Behavioral Health Services for our Children, Families and Communities: Strategies and Models That Work
E4 – Utilizing Family Dependency Courts and The Circle of Security Parenting Program to Support Child Welfare Outcomes
E5 – Working With Adult Survivors of Childhood Abuse and Neglect
E6 – Collaborative Approach to Integrating Recovery Peer Support in Child Welfare Systems
Workshop Presentation #1
Workshop Presentation #2
E7 – Innovative Care Models: Integrated Prenatal Care and Substance Use Treatment
Workshop Presentation
Workshop Handout
E8 – The Benefits and Challenges in Providing Multiple Evidence- Based, Trauma-Informed Services to Substance Abusing Families in Rural Child Welfare Programs
Workshop Presentation
F1 – So How Do You Know They Are Ready? Key Considerations for Assessing Families in Recovery for Reunification
Workshop Presentation
F2 – A Journey to Family Recovery: Pima County Family Drug Court
Workshop Presentation
F4 – Building a Better Courtroom: Courtrooms that Work for Families
F5 – The Intersection of Substance Abuse and Intimate Partner Violence: Innovative Programs at the Connecticut Department of Children and Families
F6 – It Takes a Village: Keeping Families Together Using a Community Ecological and Strengths-Based Approach
Workshop Presentation
F7 – Relationship-Focused Intervention Improves Maternal Substance use, and Maternal and Early Childhood Mental Health
F8 – Protecting Our Most Vulnerable: Effective Strategies in the Early Identification, Screening Guidelines, and Child Welfare Interventions of Infants Exposed to Prenatal Substance Use
Workshop Presentation #1
Workshop Presentation #2
F9 – Beyond Sobriety: How to Effectively Treat Clients with Co-Occurring Disorders
Workshop Presentation
F10 – Expanding and Enhancing Services to Children and Their Families Affected by Substance Use Disorders in Family Drug Courts: Outcomes and Lessons Learned from the Children Affected by Methamphetamine Grant
Workshop Presentation
F11 – A View from the Bench: What Juvenile Court Judges Want to Know to Reunify Families When Substance Abuse is a Protective Issue
Workshop Presentation
F12 – Serving Veterans and Military Families Affected by Substance Use Disorders and Child Maltreatment
Workshop Presentation
Wednesday, August 3, 2016
G1 – Embracing the Strengths and Meeting the Needs of Families Impacted by Substance Use Disorders
Workshop Presentation
G2 – Community Responses to Opiate use: Challenges and Opportunities in the Northern Shenandoah Valley
G3 – Ready, Set, Go! Planning Strategies to Adopt and Install a Parenting Program for Substance-Affected Families
G4 – Peer Support in Substance Abuse Recovery
Workshop Presentation
Workshop Handouts
G5 – Integrating youth with Substance use Challenges into a Mature System of Care
Workshop Presentation
G6 – Integration as Prevention: Addressing the Reproductive Health Needs of Women in Substance Use Disorder Treatment
G7 – Using Big data to Support Effective Program and Service Delivery Planning
G8 – Changing the Odds — Celebrating Families!, ¡Celebrando Familias!
G9 – Navigating the Future of Child Welfare and Substance use: Accreditation Has a Critical Role
Workshop Presentation
G10 – Fathers for Change: Statewide Implementation of an Integrated Intervention for Co-Occurring Substance Use and Intimate Partner Violence
Ask the Expert Sessions
Expert 1 – Taking What Works to Scale
Presentation
Expert 2 – Enabling Family Success: Addressing Substance Use Disorders with Kinship and Adoptive Parents
Presentation
Expert 3 – Infants with Prenatal Substance Exposure: Developing a Plan of Safe Care for Infants, Mothers and their Caregivers
Presentation
Expert 4 – Inspiring Outcomes: Lessons Learned from Family Drug Courts
Presentation
Expert 5 – Barriers and Pathways to Substance Abuse Treatment for Parents in Child Welfare
Expert 6 – The Effects of Substance Use on the Brain: Addiction 101
Expert 7 – Medication-Assisted Treatment for Pregnant Women with Opioid Use Disorders
Presentation
Expert 8 – Children’s Services and Parenting Interventions for Families Affected by Substance use and Child Welfare
Presentation
Expert 9 – Effective Communication and Coordination between Substance Use disorder Treatment and Child Welfare Systems: Common Challenges and Solutions
Presentation
Expert 10 – Understanding the Interplay between Prenatal Substance Exposure, Biological Vulnerabilities and Childhood Trauma
Expert 11 – Improving Identification: Lessons Learned from the Collaborative ACF-CDC Exploratory Project
Expert 12 – Moving Toward Excellence in Child Welfare through Accreditation
Super Sessions
Super Sessions
Monday, August 1, 2016
Addiction, Treatment, and Recovery: Implications for Child Welfare Policy and Practice
Super Session Presentation
Developing a Plan of Safe Care for Infants with Prenatal Substance Exposure, their Mothers and Caregivers: Collaborative Approaches Learned in a Six-Site Initiative
Super Session Presentation #1
Super Session Presentation #2
Tuesday, August 2, 2016
Inspiring Outcomes: Lessons Learned from Family Drug Courts
Super Session Presentation
Effective Practice and Clinical Strategies Across the Continuum of Child Welfare Services for Addressing the Needs of Children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders and Other Conditions Related to Prenatal Substance Exposure
Super Session Presentation #1
Super Session Presentation #2
Wednesday, August 3, 2016
Developing a Teen-Focused Framework for System Linkages between Child Welfare and Substance Abuse Treatment Organizations: A Participant-Informed Roundtable
Super Session Presentation