Foster Care Training

As we wind down the calendar year, many of us, including our system-involved youth clients, find ourselves at work parties and family gatherings. While these are hopefully fun times of connection, they may also inspire apprehension, anxiety, and other negative feelings as we anticipate potentially difficult or painful interactions. It’s common to hear or engage in conversation about foods, bodies, health, and how ‘good’ we have been as part of the annual traditions and connection rituals for many of us and the communities in which we find ourselves. Shame, exclusion, exhaustion, and more can overwhelm us, whether we are the direct targets of such comments or not, and take us out of the experience, interrupt our joy, impact our health, and disrupt our connections. How can we navigate these interactions differently, with an awareness that will allow us to truly connect and make space for each other to be in healthier community? In this half-day interactive workshop, we will review what anti-fat bias is to understand its pervasive nature and how we interact with anti-fat bias as a system of oppression. Attendees will have a supported space to examine their own socialization and early memories with a focus on anti-fat bias to share and process experiences and their impacts, learning from each other as we collaborate to imagine more supportive experiences. Together, we will learn with and from each other to witness and be witnessed, better align our actions with our intentions, practice having collaborative conversations, and consider ways to recognize, discuss, and challenge anti-fat bias in our daily interactions in our personal and professional lives.