Foster Care Training

Exploring change as both a process and an ongoing practice is a journey of reflecting on personal experiences throughout our lives and the institutions we exist within. By using the Four Levels framework, participants will spend each session of the series at one of the levels: personal, interpersonal, institutional, and cultural. PERSONAL LEVEL: Understanding Identity and Socialization By starting with ourselves as individuals, we can take intentional steps to identify experiences and systems that impact our roles and identities. We will challenge the ways we have been socialized and professionalized to maintain the status quo and how this extends into our work with youth and families in care. INTERPERSONAL LEVEL: Exploring Interpersonal Behavior Our unconscious biases and prejudices impact how we show up in relationships with others. We will discuss behavioral traps to be aware of and alternative behaviors to improve our interpersonal relationships and communication as child welfare professionals. INSTITUTIONAL LEVEL: Identifying Systemic Harm Understanding our history and the implications of legalized discrimination and segregation are key to understanding our present-day outcomes. Through the use of multimedia focused on recent local and national events in this political climate, participants will be able to relate content to their daily lives in the world and examine how current events are impacting the system-involved youth we serve. CULTURAL LEVEL: Deepening awareness of cultural scripts Naming and recognizing the underlying assumptions that shape our behaviors, along with identifying what we perceive as “normal,” unifies all three other levels of this series. Essentially, understanding the invisible influences””the air we breathe”is crucial. This 4-part workshop series provides participants with an opportunity to share challenging conversations and social experiences as practitioners providing support for system-involved youth. There will be opportunities to start from a culturally humble place of self-reflection, gain practical approaches about how to engage with colleagues and institutions we work within, and considerations for how to share more openly about identity and power.