Training Resources

The following agencies provide a regular variety of training classes with many offering CEU certificates. Please visit these websites for a complete schedule of upcoming classes:

Youth Care Professionals Training Institute (at ACH Child and Family Services)

www.youthcaretrainings.org or http://www.achservices.org

American Red Cross Dallas:

http://www.redcrossdallas.org/site/PageServer?pagename=dac_takeaclass

Cal Farley's: http://www.calfarley.org/services/Pages/ResourcesProfessionals.aspx

DePelchin Children's Center:

http://www.depelchin.org/fw/main/Professional-Training-62.html 

Texas Trainer Registry

If you are an Early Childhood Care Provider, Educator, or Center Director and interested in locating training opportunities for yourself or your staff, the Texas Trainer Registry is a great avenue for finding quality, current, and effective professional development. Over 350 trainers and over 900 trainings available now! Visit Texas Trainer Registry. 

Overview of Evidence-Based Practice
This PowerPoint presentation was given to the National Association of State Foster Care Managers in October, 2007 by Charles Wilson, Executive Director of the Chadwick Center for Children and Families, and sponsored by the California Child Welfare Clearinghouse. read more

Child Welfare Partnership Training Materials
This training partnership is a collaboration among the Portland State University Graduate School of Social Work, the School of Extended Studies, and the Department of Human Services. One of the available services is online training for Oregon Department of Human Services staff. Materials for training courses are available online. read more 

New! On the Children's Bureau Site
The Children's Bureau website carries information on child welfare programs, funding, monitoring, training and technical assistance, laws, statistics, research, Federal reporting, and much more.
http://cbexpress.acf.hhs.gov/articles.cfm?article_id=1438#1

Research Center Focuses on Families Affected by Substance Abuse
The Child Welfare, Drug Abuse and Intergenerational Risk Research Center (CWDAIR) focuses on the design, development, and delivery of coordinated, evidence-based services for families in the child welfare system with drug abuse and co-existing problems, especially HIV/AIDS.
http://cbexpress.acf.hhs.gov/articles.cfm?article_id=1438#2

The Source Focuses on Trauma-Informed Services
The summer 2007 issue of the National Abandoned Infants Assistance Resource Center's The Source is a special issue on trauma-informed services for families affected by substance abuse and/or HIV.
http://cbexpress.acf.hhs.gov/articles.cfm?article_id=1442#1

Supervisory Training Curriculum
Child welfare professionals interested in supervisory training resources can benefit from a new curriculum developed by Charmaine Brittain and produced by the National Child Welfare Resource Center for Organizational Improvement.
http://cbexpress.acf.hhs.gov/articles.cfm?article_id=1442#2

Educational Collaborations with States
Now available in our teleconference archive is our September 17 call. The audio of these calls for the state foster care and adoption managers, as well as handout materials, are available for anyone to listen to or download to your IPod or via RSS feed.
http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/socwork/nrcfcpp/teleconferences/index.html

Teleconference: Involving Families in the CFSR Process
Child welfare agencies are finding that it is challenging but potentially very effective to engage key stakeholders in building stronger systems to serve children and families.
http://muskie.usm.maine.edu/helpkids/tele.htm

Preparing Youth for Permanent Family Connections - Preparing Everyone for Permanency Family Connections
This one-day curriculum from the Bay Area Academy in California is designed to train child welfare professionals in preparing youth for permanent placements. It provides step-by-step instructions for providing training that addresses: the definition of permanence as it pertains to youth in foster care; assessing whether a "permanency orientation" has been incorporated into personal and agency practices; critical stages of youth development that impact the ability to think, communicate, and make decisions about permanence; respectful and effective approaches to communicating with youth and their surrounding support systems regarding permanence, including respectful listening, engagement, and follow-up; the development of youth-specific permanency plans in collaboration with youth; appropriate strategies to assist youth in preparing for family living; and meaningful records-search when reviewing a case record. Exercises are included to foster understanding of key concepts.
http://bayareaacademy.org/downloads/Youth%20Perm%20Curriculum-2.pdf

Online Adoption Courses
Two new online courses developed by Adopting Learning Partners are designed to educate prospective adoptive parents about specific child populations. http://cbexpress.acf.hhs.gov/articles.cfm?article_id=1390#2

Workbook Series on Staff Training
A series of six workbooks from the training program Staff Retention in Child and Family Services is now available online. The training is part of Developing Models of Effective Child Welfare Staff Recruitment and Retention Training developed by Michigan State University. http://cbexpress.acf.hhs.gov/index.cfm?event=website.viewArticles&issueid=86&articleID=1742&keywords=Workbook%20Series%20on%20Staff%20Training

LINKS (Lifecourse Interventions to Nurture Kids Successfully)
This database from Child Trends now features descriptions of over 200 evaluated programs that enhance children's development. Each program description includes a brief summary of the type of program, its target population, its intended outcomes, and what experimental evaluations have found the program's impacts to be.
http://www.childtrends.org/_catdisp_page.cfm?LID=C69A59D5-7C1A-47C1-AB7C751AD5A71718