PRIDE Model of Practice In-Person/Online Edition

CWLA and FosterParentCollege.com have partnered to bring the in-person/online edition of the PRIDE Model of Practice featuring FosterPRIDE/AdoptPRIDE Pre-service Training and Family Assessments (Home Studies).

The PRIDE Model of Practice provides agencies with specific steps needed to ensure that resource (foster and adoptive) parents and agency staff work together to achieve the agency’s mission while developing and supporting resource parents as team members.  The in-person/online edition of  FosterPRIDE/AdoptPRIDE is the pre-service training and assessment step of the PRIDE Model of Practice. This step integrates the strengths of in-person group sessions, family assessment (home study) consultations, and online self-paced training to meet the needs of diverse families and agency resources. The  in-person/on-line approach builds upon PRIDE’s five core competency categories: protecting and nurturing children; meeting developmental needs and addressing developmental delays; supporting children’s relationships with birth families; connecting children to safe and nurturing relationships intended to last a lifetime; and working as a member of a professional team.

Administrative and practice benefits include:

  • Enhancing trauma-informed parenting information and skills
  • Focusing on the impact of fostering on birth and other children who are members of prospective foster families
  • Standardizing the content and quality of training
  • Reducing parent costs, travel, and time away from home
  • Increasing staff time to provide one-on-one support
  • Enabling parents to learn at their own pace and time
  • Providing in-depth core training without taking up in-person meeting time
  • Using proven effective training techniques
  • Demonstrating examples through interactive vignettes
  • Increasing training opportunities for staff that support implementing the Model of Practice and includes CEU credits
  • Adapting to local requirements
  • Having a Practice Handbook that directs implementation of all steps of the Model of Practice
  • Having a Trainer’s Guide for the preservice training which includes a special section to integrate family assessments
  • Having a PRIDEbook (parent resource materials) for agencies and families
  • Reemphasizing the practice of mutual assessment based on PRIDE’s five core competency categories
  • Strengthening informed decisions regarding a prospective resource family’s ability, resources, and willingness to be team members in child protection and trauma informed care of children

The in-person/online edition  of FosterPRIDE/AdoptPRIDE is organized into the following five group in-person sessions and four online clusters of courses:

Sessions, Clusters and Location
In-Person Session 1 – Agency selected group meeting site
   Connecting with the PRIDE Model of Practice

Cluster 1 – Online
   The Child Welfare Team
   Child Abuse and Neglect
   Child Development

In-Person Session 2 – Agency selected group meeting site
   Protecting and Nurturing Children

Cluster 2 – Online
   Parent-Child Attachment
   Understanding Behavior in Foster Children
   Caring for Children Who Have Been Sexually Abused

In-Person Session 3 – Agency selected group meeting site
   Meeting Children’s Developmental Needs: Loss, Trauma, and Resilience

Cluster 3 – Online
   Working Together with Primary Families
   Cultural Issues in Parenting
   Trauma Informed Parenting

In-Person Session 4 – Agency selected group meeting site
 Supporting Relationships Between Children and Their Families

Cluster 4 – Online
   Reducing Family Stress
   Impact of Fostering on Birth Children of Foster Parents
   Foster Care to Adoption

In-Person Session 5 – Agency selected group meeting site
   Making an Informed Decision

While participating in the in-person sessions and online clusters of courses, agency Family Development Specialists (staff responsible for home studies) consult with prospective resource families to discuss what they are experiencing and to complete the requirements leading to a decision regarding their ability, resources, and willingness to be team members in child protection and the trauma-informed care of children.

Learn more about the FosterPRIDE/AdoptPRIDE preservice online courses at FosterParentCollege.com.

Research Supported

Northwest Media and the State of Oregon recently completed a comparison study of in-person/online edition of preservice training with traditional in-person classroom training. The in-person/online training consisted of four classroom meetings and 10 self-paced FosterParentCollege.com courses.

  • The in-person/online program, like the traditional program, produced significant increases in both awareness and knowledge.
  • The completion rate for the in-person/online program significantly surpassed the traditional program.
  • The in-person/online program garnered very high levels of satisfaction.

Retains Parents

The in-person/online program retains potential foster parents through the training process by:

  • Reducing the number of in-person meetings
  • Reducing travel time and expense for parents
  • Encouraging parents to learn core material at their own pace
  • Providing flexible training, available 24/7, to fit parent’s schedules

In-person/online FosterPRIDE/AdoptPRIDE Resources

  • Trainer’s Guide (2019 edition) provides content and process directions for facilitating five, three-hour, in-person sessions.
    •  Section I: About the PRIDE Model of Practice
    •  Section II: Integrating Preparation and Mutual Family Assessment
    •  Section III: Training Preparation
    •  Section IV: Implementing In-person Sessions 1 – 5 (as detailed above)

The Trainer’s Guide contains a special section that guides integration of the family assessment (home study) with preservice training.  It includes examples of prospective resource families who were selected in to the agency’s program, and prospective resource families helped to select out while maintaining their dignity, respect, and the agency’s reputation in the community.

  •  PRIDEbook (2019 edition) includes resource materials for FosterPRIDE/AdoptPRIDE participants, including: competences and learning objectives for the in-persons sessions, at-home learning, and online courses;  worksheets for use during the sessions; resource readings; and PRIDE Connections worksheets that link the training experience with family assessment and at-home consultations.
  • The PRIDE Model of Practice Handbook presents the 14-step model of practice. Each of the 14 steps has a chapter that includes: its purpose; the competencies staff need to implement the step; the objectives; the process for implementation; and the resource tools to implement the step.  Of special value are steps for recruiting families, integrating family assessments (home studies) with preserving training, matching children with certified or licensed families, and ongoing teamwork with resource families to reinforce the competencies learned in preservice training after children join the families.
  • Making a Difference (also available in Spanish), a 35-minute DVD developed by San Felipe Humanitarian Alliance. It is designed for use in In-person Session One to demonstrate the PRIDE Model of Practice competencies, and help prospective resource parents differentiate between fostering and adopting so they can make a commitment to be meaningful to a child’s lifetime or make a lifetime commitment to a child.
  •  Family Forever, a 17-minute DVD developed by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, explains family foster care as a family-focused service to promote a better understanding of how the foster care team works together to support children’s relationships with their parents (for use in Session 3).
  •  Developing Family Resources (also available in Spanish), a 35-minute DVD developed by the San Felipe Humanitarian Alliance, is designed for use with staff to demonstrate how to integrate family assessments with pre-service training. It provides mutual assessment strategies to help agencies and prospective resource parents make an informed decision to select in or select out.
  • Foster PRIDE/Adopt PRIDE Program Vignettes (also available in Spanish), a 35-minute DVD which portrays 20 situations of children in foster families to demonstrate skills and promote discussion and learning.

LICENSE PROGRAM

All CWLA materials have a copyright, therefore a license is available that entitles an agency to make unlimited copies of the CWLA produced in-person/online edition of the PRIDE Model of Practice Resources.  A license is also available for the in-person/online edition of  FosterPRIDE/AdoptPRIDE Online Courses through FosterParentCollege.com that provides unlimited access to the online clusters of courses at a significantly reduced price.

Advantages of the licenses:

  • Cost-effective
  • Predictable costs that are easily anticipated and budgeted
  • Easy access to purchased resources
  • Access to new and revised resources
  • Participation in the PRIDE Model of Practice Learning Collaborative
  • Technical support and training provided by FosterParentCollege.com

To bring the In-Person/Online edition of FosterPRIDE/AdoptPRIDE and the PRIDE Model of Practice to your agency contact: Marcus Stallworth, LMSW, Director, Training and Implementation or Gaelle Augustin, Training and Administration Associate.