This 90-minute in-service level course will help caregivers identify and support youth who are at risk for or are being commercially sexually exploited.  The training will provide a framework for understanding this issue that greatly impacts adolescents in the child welfare system, as well as for understanding the basic practices that support helping these youth reach positive outcomes. 

Learning Objectives:

• Know the legal definition of commercial sexual exploitation of children
• Understand how commercial sexual exploitation might happen to a youth
• Understand how experiencing commercial sexual exploitation may impact a youth
• Be able to spot signs that youth are at risk for becoming (or are) commercially sexually exploited
• Have strategies for caring for youth who are at risk for becoming (or have been) commercially sexually exploited

Participants will be engaged to consider their own thoughts, beliefs, and biases about mental illness; understand basic definitions associated with parental mental illness and child safety; and identify family assessment strategies that can focus on the intersection between parental mental illness and child safety. Additionally, ideas and tools for drafting effective case plans and objectives to achieve child safety with parental mental illness is a factor will also be discussed. Finally, participants will receive resources for services and interventions that promote the reduction of risk associated with parental mental illness and enhance protective factors for family well-being.

Support sessions are utilized to address a caregiver’s specific needs and build specific skills. Identified goals are created and progress toward those goals is measured by both the learner and the coach after the session. Prior to scheduling a support session, caregivers need to complete the class “Parenting a Native American Child: Partnering in the Interest of Culture for Caregivers (eLearning).”

This session provides in-depth support around specific topics identified by the caregiver as needed. The topics for this session may include:

1. Understanding ICWA, regulations, and expectations state staff must follow;
2. What is most important for caregivers to know (jurisdiction, Tribes’ voice in cases, connection for the child, etc.);
3. Placement preference;
4. Active Efforts;
5. QEW (Qualified Expert Witness);
6. LICWAC (Local Indian Child Welfare Advisory Committee); and
7. Permanency.

This Coaching Session for Caregivers covers the financial, legal, and emotional challenges of raising a relative’s child. Services and support when raising a relative's child can be a lifesaver. Often kinship caregivers do not access the benefits which are available to them. This coaching session will address the issues that Kinship Caregivers struggle with most at an individual level:

1. Financial Needs
2. Legal Challenges
3. Navigating public service systems
4. Needing more social services
5. Information about resources/caregiving

This class is designed for licensed and unlicensed caregivers caring for children currently or previously involved in the dependency system. Caregiver Core Training (CCT) is not a prerequisite. However, this course is supplemental to CCT for kinship caregivers, and can be a field experience during CCT.

If it’s been a while since you cared for an infant or if you’ve never cared for one before, this is the course for you. This 2.5-hour eLearning provides the basic information you’ll need to care for babies ages birth to 12 months and keep them safe. You will practice identifying the infant behaviors that are the clue to understanding your baby’s needs. You will then apply this knowledge with some of the fundamental tasks of infant care (holding, feeding, diapering, sleep and medical care) while considering how trauma may impact how you provide care in these areas. Finally, you will learn about elements of infant safety, including safe sleep and the Period of Purple Crying.

Assessment of every environment in which an infant lives and sleeps, as well as all individuals providing care, is critical to ensuring the safety of this vulnerable population. Emphasis will be placed on developmental needs, attachment, and the infant’s relationships. The focus of this course is to provide instruction around assessment of the infant’s interactions with both caregivers and the environment, identifying parent/caregiver training or support needs, and opportunities for demonstration, practice, and feedback pertaining to meeting the practice and policy requirements for this component of the Infant Safety Education and Intervention.

The Plan of Safe Care is an element of case planning for families with infants born with and affected by substance abuse or withdrawal symptoms resulting from prenatal drug exposure, or a Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, or born to a dependent youth. The Plan of Safe Care focuses on access to a network of community-based providers and support services and addresses the needs of both the infant and the family/caregiver. The focus of this course is to provide opportunities for demonstration, practice, and feedback pertaining to meeting the practice and policy requirements for this component of the Infant Safety Education and Intervention Policy.

This is Session 1.1 of the Intake In-Service course, which will support new staff working at Intake to gain the knowledge and skills they need to be effective in gathering and documenting information and in screening intakes. The course is divided into three modules which occur at different times during the employee’s first six months at Intake.

Participants will receive practical information about their main job functions, and get to practice applying many of this information. Intake staff serve as the first point of contact for community members with concerns about children, and complete the first assessments of this information to determine if and how CA may respond. These two functions are addressed and information about the role of Intake staff in assessing child safety and in educating the community is provided. The training helps new staff to understand the differences between intake types and to identify timelines associated with each. Lastly, roles and actions outside the scope of Children’s Administration Intake are discussed.

This is Session 1.3 of the Intake In-Service course, which will support new staff working at Intake to gain the knowledge and skills they need to be effective in gathering and documenting information and in screening intakes. The course is divided into three modules which occur at different times during the employee’s first six months at Intake.

This training will support you in identifying the most important information to gather from callers, and in building skills to focus and guide callers toward this important information, so the best possible screening decisions can be made.

This is Session 1.5 of the Intake In-Service course, which will support new staff working at Intake to gain the knowledge and skills they need to be effective in gathering and documenting information and in screening intakes. The course is divided into three modules which occur at different times during the employee’s first six months at Intake.

Participants in this e-learning will learn how and why to collaborate with Law Enforcement to protect children, gather information needed for good screening decisions, and meet legal and policy requirements to share specific types of reports and information. How and why to work with medical professionals to support good screening decisions and assessments of child safety is also presented. Participants will have a chance to practice both skills and receive feedback.

This is Session 2.1 of the Intake In-Service course, which will support new staff working at Intake to gain the knowledge and skills they need to be effective in gathering and documenting information and in screening intakes. The course is divided into three modules which occur at different times during the employee’s first six months at Intake.

This brief e-learning will review policy and legal requirements in screening intakes regarding currently pregnant substance using mothers and infants who were exposed to substances during gestation. Participants will consider important questions to ask callers in order to gather the most relevant information, which will support good screening decisions and capture foundational information which may be used by workers who are assigned to this family now or in the future.

In this course you will learn about the requirements of the Interstate Compact and Placement of Children (ICPC), including both sending children in foster care to other States, and receiving children in foster care from other States. In addition, you will learn how ICPC applies to ICWA cases.  Your role and responsibilities from beginning to end are covered including the home study process, completing quarterly reports, and closing cases. Details about common violations, parent visits, and how to contact the headquarters ICPC team for support and guidance are provided.

In this eLearning participants will review the stages of an adult CPS interview and the information they need to gather in each stage; read a case summary; and view an interview with the parents related to the case.

Introduction to Positive Discipline is a 2-hour in-service level training for foster, kinship and suitable adult caregivers. This introductory training will help caregivers learn the basic parenting approach of the Positive Discipline model by providing several group activities and discussions based in real life scenarios. Positive Discipline focuses on teaching valuable social and life skills to children instead of using any form of punishment, rewards, praise, permissiveness or logical consequences. Positive Discipline focuses on helping participants learn how to use effective discipline that is kind and firm, creates connection before correction, is empowering and encouraging to children to believe in their own capability, and keeps the joy in caregiving.

In addition to this introductory course, the Alliance invites caregivers to attend the full 15-hour Parenting the Positive Discipline Way training series.