Foster Care Training

It is critical to examine our own positionality in relation to others and also consider how our dominant and subordinated statuses intersect to shape our experiences in distinctive ways. First, understanding the system of oppression, the historical underpinnings that set the foundation for the cycle and system of oppression, is the first step to dismantling it. Then, challenging the ways in which childhood socialization helped us internalize the attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors required for our subordination. This course provides participants with a “liberatory consciousness” approach to center the voices of those who are oppressed within the child welfare system. By using a four-step approach of Awareness, Analysis, Action and Allyship/Accountability, participants will come away with a beginning foundation of how to help support families in care. The course includes self-reflective explorations around their own personal story in relation to their work, reflecting on their own positionality. Examining and understanding the full context of ways families and youth experience oppression or how they internalize oppression is the first step in beginning to better serve and support our clients and colleagues in the child welfare system.