Alliance Course Catalog

Area Administrators need to achieve competency in understanding the child welfare practice as well as in the higher levels of systems management. This course provides Area Administrators with an introduction of baseline competencies for middle managers in public child welfare, and opportunities to develop and practice new skills regarding these competencies. Managing self, managing others, managing systems and managing outward are the four main themes integrated throughout this course.

Day 1: Foundations for Managers in Child Welfare
Day 2: Effective Relationships as a Manager
Day 3: Strategies for Effective Organizational Communication
Day 4: Growing and Sustaining Effective Internal and External Teams
Day 5: Essentials for Resource Management
Day 6: Strategic Thinking and Planning Tools for the Manager

This eLearning primarily features a video of a popular Child Protection Medical Consultation (MedCon) presentation for Regional Core Training. The video showcases two respected and well-known child abuse pediatricians, Dr. Rebecca Wiester and Dr. Joyce Gilbert. Dr. Wiester and Dr. Gilbert discuss important aspects of Physical Abuse, Sexual Abuse, and Neglect within the context of their expertise as child protection medial consultants.

Viewers are walked through recognizing sentinel injuries; understanding Abusive Head Trauma and its connection to the Period of PURPLE Crying; identifying when to seek medical consultation, how to submit a referral, and what information to provide; and how to locate important county protocols and policy resources online. Viewers will also be provided with a helpful Notes Worksheet, which will guide them through capturing important information needed in practice, and to pass the quiz at the end. This eLearning also provides a Facilitator Guide and can be viewed either individually, or facilitated for a small group viewing.

Coaching sessions are an opportunity for participants to receive training and support on critical topics that is flexible enough to respond to their current needs.  Coaching sessions can involve one or several workers, and may be delivered in person, on the phone or by other real time collaboration (face-time, etc).  Preferably, they allow material to be understood within a context of an actual case, and completion of current work.

This coaching session opportunity for staff will aim at compliance with ICWA, give recommendations for working with Tribes and Tribal families, revisit the Federal Act, State ICW codes and current policies/procedures when ICWA applies or is being considered.  

This session will revisit current practices in Department of Children, Youth, and Families, specialized units and steps available for staff, including tailored topics such as:

1. Initial Intake (ICW Procedures at initial contact) 
2. Tribal/State Agreements 
3. Inquiry and Verification of Child’s Indian Status 
4. Disclosure of Confidential Records/Information to Tribes
5. Child Protective Services for Indian Children 
6. Casework Activities for Court Proceedings – forms Legal Notice, FamLink Response from NAIR eLearning, Monthly Progress report 
7. Indian Child Placement Preferences and Relative Search
8. Adoption
9. Interstate Compact on the Placement of Indian Children
10. Local Indian Child Welfare Advisory Committees 
11. Payments for Services for Children in Tribal Care or Custody
12. Casework Services for Children and Families of Non-Federally Recognized Tribes and Canadian First Nations

Children and youth in care who identify as LGBTQ+ face challenges that can affect their quality of life far beyond their experiences in the child welfare system. Because of this, it is especially important that Licensing Division Foster Care employees can assess providers’ and caregivers’ ability to provide a welcoming and affirming environment for LGBTQ+ children and youth.

The training first takes you through an exercise that allows you to reflect on possible personal biases that may affect your evaluation of prospective caregivers, children and youth during the licensing process. You will then go through a learning around SOGIE/LGBTQ+ terminology and discuss how to talk to children, youth and providers about LGBTQ+ culture, a critical component of interviewing.

A key component of the course is the focus on being able to review and apply the laws and minimum licensing requirements around assessing a provider’s ability (not just willingness) to care and support children and youth who identify as LGBTQ+, as well as the provider’s level of knowledge pertaining to LGBTQ+ children and youth, and their interest in expanding that knowledge as needed. This learning includes defining welcoming and affirming environments. You will learn characteristics of those spaces, such as open conversations with children and youth, and talk about how to support caregivers in providing positive and affirming surroundings.

Finally, you will dive in for a deep look at nondiscrimination-focused RCWs, WACs, and Policies, Practices and Procedures, and discuss how to apply them in licensing and investigations. You will have an opportunity to build skills formulating and applying questions based on current licensing standards and mandates.

At the close of the training, you will have a personal and professional action plan that outlines what you have studied and the steps you will take to best engage with, learn from and advocate for your clients.

Drug testing practices and their use in child welfare assessment of safety and risk is covered in this course.  Participants learn the guidelines for the frequency and duration of testing, practices at drug collection sites, detection of adulterated samples and interpreting drug test results. Participants will know what to test and how to include this in the assessments of parents involved in the child welfare system, focusing on the behavior of parents, and knowing what a drug test can tell us is emphasized.

Collaboration and mentorship are central tenets of leadership, and coaching provides an opportunity to help supervisors identify practice barriers that have direct impact to the children and families you serve. In this course, you will learn how to build coaching capacity into your work supervising staff. At the center of this is the Learner Centered Coaching model, which enhances practice skills and self-efficacy of DCYF supervisors. It aims to reduce trauma response in the child welfare practice environment by highlighting positive regard, cultural humility and a trauma-informed lens.

This training will provide a foundational picture of how to utilize coaching in supervision. The introduction covers identification of behaviors that create a sense of psychological safety for individuals on your team, a must-have for success. The core of the training will highlight the principles of complex skill development in adults, as well as, the Learner Centered Coaching model itself, including the principles, values and behaviors that make up a “coaching stance” and the five steps of learner centered coaching. Throughout the course you will be asked to consider what you might do differently in your ongoing staff development work, and the individual skills you might be using at each step in the coaching process.

The education in this training goes beyond the webinar. Before your training is complete, you will have a chance to apply this information by using handouts and reflection worksheets to consider how you will integrate coaching into your work. You will also submit a coaching plan and begin the coaching process with two of your staff members. And to encourage your long-term professional development, you will be supported after you complete the course, through individualized coaching and resources to help you develop and enhance your coaching skills as you move forward.

This in-service level training will teach participants the steps for identifying Indian Children, address practical steps to input information into FamLink, and give CA staff tips on completing Ancestry Charts and submitting referrals to the Native American Inquiry Request (NAIR) unit to fulfill the requirements of the Federal ICWA, State Law and Department of Children, Youth, and Families policies.

The NCAST Parent-Child Interaction (PCI) Feeding Scales are designed for parents/caregivers and children age birth-1 year (12 months). The PCI Feeding Scales are an assessment tool which provides valid and reliable measurements of parent-child interactions. When used in child-welfare, these scales can provide recommendations for services to strengthen parent-child interactions, and serve as reliable pre-/post- measures of progress made through service engagement.

Once individuals become certified to use the PCI Feeding Scales, they must prove reliable through annual re-certification. This one-day course provides participants with the opportunity to achieve annual reliability in the use of this tool. Re-certification will allow individuals to maintain certification in the use of the PCI Feeding Scales.

Current Certification as an NCAST Assessor

Las personas que toman este curso digital aprenderán sobre su rol como denunciadores de abuso por mandato cuando se sospecha abuso o negligencia infantil y los pasos para reportar estas preocupaciones. Este entrenamiento provee información sobre los indicadores que pueden indicar que abuso o negligencia infantil está ocurriendo y las situaciones comunes que en que es necesario llamar a la agencia correspondiente para hacer una denuncia. Las personas tomando este curso también aprenderán a considerar el impacto de los prejuicios culturales cuando se hacen estas denuncias y el problema de disparidad racial representada en el sistema. También este curso explica los requisitos federales para reconocer el linaje de un niño/a con una tribu indígena o su afiliación a una tribu reconocida federalmente. Finalmente, este curso también repasa los pasos para comunicarse con la Administración de Protección Infantil y hacer una denuncia, la información que se necesita, y lo que ocurre una vez que la denuncia ha sido hecha e investigada. 

The RIGHT RESPONSE Level 3 Workshop is primarily prevention training.  This 11-hour certification provides basic fundamental skills including Prevention, De-escalation, Postvention, and Physical Safety skills. Attendees learn about self-awareness, reflective thinking skills, positive behavior support, basic and advanced de-escalation skills, self-protection, and proactive alternatives which can prevent dangerous incidents and increase safety.

Attendees that complete the workshop receive a 2 year certification.

Since 1993, Service Alternatives has been researching and developing best practices in the management of behavior and aggression problems in families, schools, group homes, hospitals, camps, detention centers and beyond.  Together, the staff team at Service Alternatives Training Institute has more than 200 years of experience within the company.    

This 3-hour course will help DCYF social workers and supervisors who do ongoing work in the child welfare system with identification of and responses to secondary trauma. The training will increase knowledge and understanding of the levels of secondary trauma, its impact, and how to manage the impact in our environment.

Phoebe Mulligan, LICSW serves as the Clinical Program Director at HopeSparks Family Services in Pierce County.  Through her role as Clinical Director, Ms. Mulligan is committed to creating a team of therapists that are culturally responsive; current on best practices in the field; and building integrated systems that seek to respond holistically to children and adults who have been victims of trauma. Ms. Mulligan is regularly invited to speak regionally on Evidence-Based Practices (EBP), effects of trauma on children and adults; and as an expert on anxiety and trauma.  Her audiences range from clinicians to judges and she is often a guest lecturer in social work master's programs. A graduate of Social Work program at the University of Washington, Seattle, Ms. Mulligan is passionate about reframing the legal paradigm of response to child trauma victims to be child-centric and creating systemic partnerships that remove barriers for children.

Christina R Fajardo, MA, LMHC is a licensed Mental Health Counselor and a Child & Family Therapist at HopeSparks, Tacoma, WA. She is responsible for providing individual/ family counseling using evidence based and best practices for mental health treatment of children and families. She is a certified instructor for the Incredible Years parenting program. 

Coaching is an important piece of ongoing professional growth, presenting opportunities for personalized skill development and self-assessment. As a supervisor, this takes on added significance as the learnings are applicable to both you and your staff. “Supervisor Reflective Workshops” give you the chance to discuss with your peers coaching successes and barriers, helping you grow and improve.

The workshops are intended to be attended after the completion of the “Learner Centered Coaching Skills for Supervisors and Area Administrators” course and support the integration of the model into supervisory practice. The sessions provide an opportunity for peer discussion around implementation of coaching with your teams. You may work through practice barriers together, or hear how coaching is applied and supports clinical supervision.

Enhanced skill-development opportunities such as how to assess for identified practice barriers, the use of reflective questions, motivational Interviewing strategies/techniques, providing feedback and the use of tools in coaching will be facilitated based on feedback and requests made from each independent group. These workshops will also provide an opportunity for you to think about coaching support you may want to identify and work on with your assigned Alliance coach.

Trauma Informed Engagement is a 6-hour course applying lessons from trauma studies to child welfare practice for children, youth, and adults. Participants will discuss practice guidelines crucial to trauma informed practice in any setting. Participants will learn to distinguish trauma from other adversities and suffering; describe the characteristics, dynamics and effects of trauma; and emphasize the ways in which chronic trauma and complex trauma compromise normal functioning. Participants will learn to recognize and respond to situations involving the loss of control of body, mind, and emotions associated with trauma. Participants will practice, and commit to trauma informed engagement strategies, utilizing themes of empowerment, advocacy, and building resilience in children, youth, and adults.