Foster Care Training

Participants in this training will be encouraged to explore and discuss how cultural and community dynamics impact engagement and work with youth and one’s sense of agency in creating change in child welfare systems. Everyone is impacted by the system of racism, and therefore has to tenaciously walk against that system. The cost of institutional power dynamics can be seen and perceived by youth and families, and our awareness of the system usually also differs from their experience. Working for equity at the individual level often involves understanding the concepts, building the confidence and skills to work toward racial justice, and being accountable. Accountability is a keystone of equity work. Accountability refers to creating processes and systems that are designed to help individuals and groups to be held in check for their decisions and actions and for whether the work being done reflects and embodies equity and justice principles. Accountability and equity work can happen on multiple systems: individual, organization, system and community. This training will review the impact of racial inequity on the lives of foster youth and ways that individuals can work to be accountable to the foster youth impacted by inequity.