Foster Care Training

Through this experiential training, participants will gain insight into how to better support youth in their lives. It will include much of today’s widely used terminology, as well as recognizable signs of support and safe spaces. There will also be a module that explores what it might be like to identify as a youth in a supportive or unsupportive environment. The workshop concludes with helping individuals create action plans around how they can be a support to those youth they encounter in their lives and how training is a critical aspect of ensuring consistency and confidence in peer supporters. Specific training needs will be developed in association with the defined role of the youth peer supporter within the peer-to-peer program. Because individuals’ needs vary, a one-time peer-to-peer interaction might be enough for a young person to receive the necessary support and information to cope with his or her situation or to be referred to additional services. In other instances, youth may benefit from ongoing discussions about changes in their situation. We will look at how to diminish the burden on peer supporters while not limiting their effectiveness and identify ways that peer support services require an administrative structure (e.g., training, oversight) and access to the psychological health team. We will also be exploring how some programs are currently using youth mentors to address and combat issues.