Foster Care Training

This interactive training targeted at caregivers and professionals emphasizes the importance of providing a trauma-informed, harm reduction model when working with birth families and youth. The focus of this training will be understanding trauma-informed care, harm reduction and cultural humility, and how these frameworks are essential in building healthy relationships with birth families and youth. We will discuss setting boundaries, vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue, building rapport with caregivers, and how to incorporate knowledge and strategies in serving youth impacted by addiction. This training will include some local and online resources to continue to provide support to youth with accessible tools and referral sources. This training will address specific issues faced by youth locally in terms of regional substance use concerns as well as harm reduction services in the region. Participants in this training will be able to define concepts and understand trauma-informed care and a harm reduction model. This training will utilize strength-based, culturally-humble and trauma-informed philosophy in order to best understand how substance use, dependency and abuse impact birth families and youth, family systems as well as those working with them, caregivers and professionals. Participants in this training will learn to respond to substance use in a way that leverages youth and family strengths, relationships, community resources and support that lead to the best outcomes for young people/ best outcomes for reunification.