For: Respite and Child Care Providers

One of the biggest issues facing foster/adoptive parents (and really anyone who has children who with special needs) is finding quality care. While some states provide a certain number of hours of subsidized child care ("respite") per month, hiring a skilled provider remains difficult. 

For one, these children, who have experienced loss and trauma, need caregivers who are willing to commit to them and are more than just another transient adult in their lives.

Second, many foster families don't always know who will be living with them and so need providers who can care for children of various ages and with a range of needs. 

For many parents of high needs kids, taking advantage of child care or respite support comes at a "cost": children may regress behaviorally, be triggered by the absence of a familiar face, or have trouble navigating the change in environment. Meanwhile, kids who have experienced maltreatment can’t always attend typical camps and after school programs. 

The result? 

Foster parents become the only ones capable of providing the care they know these kids need— one reason burnout continues to be a leading causes of attrition in the foster parenting community!

In order to accommodate the unique challenges (including attachment issues) foster and adopted kids present, providers must possess a particular set of skills and some background knowledge about the child welfare landscape. 

Through a combination of virtual learning, discussion, case studies and experiential exercises, care providers in this course will learn:

• How to be consistent with family routines and use the family's language
• How to understand attachment and build healthy relationships with traumatized kids
• What they need to know about the foster experience in order to provide informed and sensitive care 
• How to reinforce the child's primary bond to the parent 
• Ways of managing common behavior issues associated with trauma and neglect
• How to ease the transition between multiple caregivers

When care providers are effectively trained, respite becomes a positive experience for the child and their family.

This course is a must for any provider who wants to become an indispensable resource to the kids and families who need them most. 

Why Attend?

Learn the ins and outs of trauma, neglect, and behavior management.

Learning how to serve kids with a unique set of needs. 

Become a provider of choice in the foster and adoptive community. Find ample work and job security by becoming a valuable resource for these families.