On-demand Training for Certified Caregivers

​​​​​Video Summary: This video features a discussion between two professionals. They talk about the need for supports and services to provide a supportive and healing environment for children who have experienced trauma, loss or separation. The video highlights staying engaged and continuing to seek out supports and services. It also highlights some strategies parents who are fostering or adopting can use to stay engaged and connected with services.​

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Online Training Summary: If you are interested in becoming a resource parent, or have been newly certified, learn more about the role of a resource parent in caring for tweens and teens, discussions you may have with teens, and considerations to help a teen learn daily living skills that prepare them for launch into adulthood.

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​Online Training Summary: If you are interested in becoming a resource parent, or have been newly certified, learn more about the role of a resource parent in understanding, acknowledging, and supporting all identities of a child you may be caring for.

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​Online training summary: In this module of the Being a Resource Parent Series, we cover what it means to be a resource parent and how being a resource parent impacts your entire family. We address the added stress that comes with fostering, the grief and loss felt by the care-giving family as children enter and leave your home and the importance of self-care, utilizing supports, assistance and resources to empower you with information needed to be a successful resource family.

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Online Training Summary: If you are interested in becoming a resource parent, or have been newly certified, learn more about the role of the resource parent in applying the Reasonable and Prudent Parenting Standard. This standard allows resource parents to make day-to-day parenting decisions. Learn more in this module about the Reasonable Prudent Parenting Standard, and how this also applies to managing challenging behaviors.​​​

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​​​​​​Podcast Summary: Meet Kelscey Martin. My Story Podcast is a short podcast that features a young adult who was in foster care or has been adopted. They talk about building resilience based on their life experience. These podcasts let foster and adoptive parents hear directly from someone who has lived experience. 

Video Summary: This video defines resiliency as the ability to bounce back from hard times. It highlights how the parent-child relationship is critical to building resiliency. Children who have experienced trauma do not just “bounce back." They need positive experiences and attuned caregiving to build resilience. The video emphasizes the importance of proactively teaching and modeling coping and social skills. The video highlights the Building Blocks of Resiliency.

An important note is that children's resilience is very connected to their parent or caretaker's resilience.​

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​​Video Summary: This video is about the importance of parental resilience for parents who are fostering or adopting children who have experienced trauma, separation and loss. The video provides tips on how parents can build their own resiliency while staying committed to meeting the child's needs. It also provides an overview of why maintaining physical, emotional and spiritual well-being is important to parents who are fostering or adopting.​

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​​Course Description: This course will define the Child Adolescent Needs Strengths (CANS) assessment, summarize how a CANS assessment is used, identify the CANS contact at ODHS and critique how the CANS assessment impacts supports.​

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​​Video Summary: This video summarizes some of the common thoughts and feelings experienced by children and adolescents in adoptive families. Adults who were adopted discuss their own personal experiences while also speaking on a more global level. One adoptee who has adopted children also shares that perspective. Suggestions are provided on how parents can assist and support their children with challenging emotions from a developmental perspective and determine when professional assistance is indicated.

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​​Podcast Summary: Meet Ashley Ash. My Story Podcast is a short podcast that features a young adult who was in foster care and/or has been adopted who is talking about the theme based on their life experience.  These podcasts provide foster and adoptive parents with the ability to hear directly from somebody who has lived experience.​

Video Summary: The Education video centers around two family's journeys as they navigate the education system in support of a child in their home who is experiencing the effects of trauma at school. We learn, through the families' experiences and from key experts, how trauma, separation and loss may affect academic and social development; ways to collaborate with schools and advocate for children; the basic services and supports available for children with educational needs such as IEPs and 504 plans; and strategies for helping children who are struggling.

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​​​​Podcast Summary - My Story: My Story Podcast is a short podcast that features a young adult who was in foster care and/or has been adopted who is talking about the theme based on their life experience. These podcasts provide foster and adoptive parents with the ability to hear directly from somebody who has lived experience.

Podcast Summary - Elizabeth Richmond: Elizabeth and her husband have been foster parents for 26 years, having fostered over 30 children and adopting three children from foster care. After several years of struggling to get the services that children in their care needed, Elizabeth became an active advocate for children in Illinois. She was an initial member of the Statewide Foster Care Advisory Council, and served as Chair for two years. Elizabeth is currently the Co-Chair of the Illinois Adoption Advisory Council, a group she was instrumental in creating. Additionally, Elizabeth is a preservice trainer where she provides foster and adoptive parents with a realistic understanding of the joys and struggles they will encounter parenting children from foster care system. Elizabeth works for the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services as a Lead Foster Parent Support Specialist providing support service to foster and adoptive families.

​​​Video summary: This video provides a realistic view of how family life will be impacted by fostering or adopting. Parents who are fostering or adopting will learn strategies for making the home environment responsive to the needs of children, while also attending to the long-term needs of the family as a whole. The video will highlight some of the challenges that might arise from fostering or adopting as well as the rewards that come with this responsibility.

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​Video Summary: Provides prospective​​ adoptive families a brief overview of the common paths toward adoptions, opportunities for reflection and information on next steps.​

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​​Podcast Summary: Meet Mercedes Zhaler. My Story Podcast is a short podcast that features a young adult who was in foster care and/or has been adopted who is talking about the theme based on their life experience.  These podcasts provide foster and adoptive parents with the ability to hear directly from somebody who has lived experience.​

Video Summary: The Life Story: Birth and Adoption Story video draws from the experiences and knowledge of foster and adoptive parents, adult adoptees, and experts to teach viewers the importance of talking to children about their stories, especially those aspects of a child's story that happened prior to being placed in a foster or adoptive family.  The video introduces specific ways that parents can help children understand their past, including a better understanding of the reasons the children were placed in a foster or adoptive home. Foster and adoptive parents will learn strategies for helping children create life books.  The idea of preventing children from learning difficult information about their past is addressed, and viewers learn how sharing this information can lead to healing, secure identity formation, and healthy relationships with birth family members.

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​​​Podcast Summary: Meet Christina Guillotte. This short My Story Podcast features a young adult who was in foster care and/or has been adopted who is talking about the theme based on their life experience.  These podcasts provide foster and adoptive parents with the ability to hear directly from somebody who has lived experience.​

Video Summary: The Managing Placement Transitions video demonstrates the important role that foster parents play in supporting children as they transition into and out of their home.  Foster parents with extensive experience helping young people in foster care make smooth, supported transitions share their insights.  Some of the skills and strategies covered include: making children feel welcome and connected, effective communication with children about the why, where, when, and how of transitions, maintaining flexibility in working to meet the child's needs and how to maintain ongoing connections with children.  Viewers are reminded about self-care for foster parents to address feelings of loss they may experience when children leave their home.  The video shows how managing transitions is related to helping to successfully achieve permanence for children, including the importance of partnering with workers and others to reduce the number of transitions.

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​​Course description: Children who have experienced trauma have unique feeding and nutrition challenges that can impact their growth, development and overall health. Understanding these challenges and addressing them with trauma-informed strategies allows caregivers the opportunity to improve nutrition and mealtimes and create resilience in the children in their care.

The course is self-paced and introduces the six principles of trauma-informed feeding and nutrition; discusses nutrition and mealtime challenges specific to children who have experienced trauma and offers guidance in addressing these challenges using trauma-informed principles.

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Note:​ After completion, please contact your certifier to add this Oregon State University course to your Workday Learning transcript.​

​Online Training Summary: Whether it is called co-parenting, shared parenting, partnership parenting, resource (foster) parents are expected to partner with the child's parents to facilitate reunification when possible. In this course, we discuss ways to develop a healthy relationship. This course is from Creating a Family, and includes instructors Carrie Sgarlata, an educator, mom, resource mom, and resource parent trainer and recruiter; and Andrea Leaman, a social worker with the Foster Care Licensing and Placement Program with Children’s Wisconsin Community Services and trainer in partnership parenting.

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​Online Training Summary:  ear from Amanda Purvis, a Training Specialist at the Karyn Purvis Center for Child Development, about practical tips for disciplining while maintaining attachment. Amanda is a social worker, and a parent to five children, some of whom have experienced early life trauma. This course is from Creating a Family. 

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​​Podcast Summary: Meet Kwam Green. Mystory is a short podcast that features a young adult who was in foster care and/or has been adopted who is talking about the theme based on their life experience.  These podcasts provide foster and adoptive parents with the ability to hear directly from somebody who has lived experience.​

Video Summary: This video centers on a family's experience in helping their child effectively transition to adulthood. The video introduces strategies for to assist youth in understanding personal finances, connecting with medical providers, finding adult support services, and developing readiness skills for college or work. The video hi​ghlights how to help youth make these transitions when their emotional development may not match their chronological age. Former foster and adopted youth share difficulties they faced in their transition to adulthood. Key experts provide further insight into unique challenges for adolescents who have experienced trauma, separation and loss and one family explains how they helped youth in their home weather these challenges. The video demonstrates how critical and rewarding it is for parents who are fostering or adopting to embrace their role in ensuring that youth develop skills that will help them prepare for adulthood.

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​​​Podcast Summary: Meet Ashlei Steinbruegge. My Story is a short podcast featuring a young adult who was in foster care and/or has been adopted who is talking about the theme based on their life experience.  These podcasts provide foster and adoptive parents with the ability to hear directly from somebody who has lived experience.

Video Summary: This video highlights the perspectives of two parents who had their children removed and placed in the child welfare system.  They share key tips on how to engage parents in visits and how to help parents feel comfortable and empowered to interact with their children. The video also highlights the experience of a family as they prepare and manage for visits with the child's parents. The family shares their perspectives related to preparing children for visits, supporting the children's parents during visits, co-parenting and how to help children after visits.  The video helps parents who are fostering or adopting to identify each participant's feelings and concerns and how these may be noticeable in behavior before, during and after a visit.

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​​Podcast Summary - My Story: Meet Jennifer Rhodes. My Story is a short podcast featuring a young adult who was in foster care and/or has been adopted who is talking about the theme based on their life experience.  These podcasts provide foster and adoptive parents with the ability to hear directly from somebody who has lived experience.​

Podcast Summary - Bruce Perry, MD, PhD: Dr Perry is the Founder and Senior Fellow of The ChildTrauma Academy, a not-for-profit organization based in Houston, TX (www.ChildTrauma.org), and adjunct Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago. In this podcast he discusses how childhood experiences, including neglect and traumatic stress, change the biology of the brain – and, thereby, the health of the child.

Podcast Summary: The Emotional Container in Real Life

Video Summary: This video summarizes the phases of crisis and provides foster and adoptive parents with an understanding of each phase of crisis.  Adoptive parents and professionals discuss the fright, flight or freeze acute stress response. They share their insights about how to prevent children from escalating by identifying and proactively managing triggers as well as setting up the environment to ensure children feel physically and psychologically safe.  Parents also hear about how their reactions can impact crisis situations.  Since not all crisis can be prevented, the video also provides practical information on how parents can ensure that both the children and themselves remain safe during the crisis phase.

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​Video Summary: The Sensory Integration video centers on a family's journey as they navigate daily life parenting children with sensory needs.  Viewers get a peek into the morning, after-school, and sleep routines for children with sensory needs and hear about techniques for helping children stay regulated.  Parents and experts talk how early childhood trauma may impact a child's ability to process, organize, and act upon sensory stimuli.  Viewers will learn how to become sensory detectives, how to safely and appropriately meet the child's sensory needs in the home, school, and community, and how to use sensory strategies to positively impact caregiver/child attachment.

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​​​​Podcast Summary: Meet Jarel Melendez. Mystory Podcast is a short podcast that features a young adult who was in foster care and/or has been adopted who is talking about the theme based on their life experience.  These podcasts provide foster and adoptive parents with the ability to hear directly from somebody who has lived experience.​

Video Summary: The Sexual Development and Identity video provides an overview of healthy sexual development and how parent who are fostering or adopting can help children navigate through this development. The video highlights an adoptive parent who has helped numerous children transition through adolescence including one of her children’s changing SOGIE over time (SOGIE stands for sexual orientation, gender identity and expression. SOGIE is a term that includes all types of sexual orientation and gender identities and expressions).  We learn through the families’ experiences and from key experts how parents can best support and accept children as they come to understand who they are. The video summarizes the importance of parents who are fostering or adopting being supportive and accepting of the youth’s sexual development and formation of a strong, positive SOGIE. Viewers hear about basic se​rvices and supports available for youth as they explore, as well as strategies for protecting them as they go out into the world.

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​​Podcast Summary: Mystory Podcast is a short podcast that features a young adult who was in foster care and/or has been adopted who is talking about the theme based on their life experience. These podcasts provide foster and adoptive parents with the ability to hear directly from somebody who has lived experience.

Video Summary: This video describes the impact that sexual abuse or inappropriate exposure to sexual activity can have on a child and how this can impact the child's behavior and healthy sexual development. We hear the story of one family's journey as they found out about their daughter's sexual abuse and how they set up a safe, nurturing home that allowed her to heal and thrive. Parents who are fostering or adopting will learn how therapy can help children recover from sexual abuse and help parents provide the necessary supports to prevent re-abuse and re-enactment of the abuse on other children. The video describes the needs of children who have been sexually abused, shares why children often do not disclose sexual abuse, and talks about the impact of sexual abuse on healthy sexual development.​ Parents will hear how they can maximize protective factors to minimize future risk for children who have experienced sexual trauma, and how they can create a home atmosphere that can be physically and emotionally safe for children.

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​​Podcast Summary: This podcast is brought to you by the ODHS Child Welfare Division. The podcast covers a variety of topics related to Oregon's Child Welfare system and is designed to help current resource parents and people interested in learning more about foster care.​

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Note: After listening to a Foster Points Podcast episode, please contact your certifier to ensure you receive training credit hours for each episode as applicable.

​​​Online Training Summary:  Learn more about applying the guiding principles of Trust-Based Relational Intervention® (TBRI) to typical parenting situations. This course is from Creating a Family, and includes instructor Kari Dady, a Regional Training & Consultation Specialist with the Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development. Kari is also an adoptive parent who uses the TBRI® approach daily in their family.

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​​Online Training Summary: This training will cover what the rules are for resource parent certification rules, why the rules are important, and how to interpret the rules.

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Online Training Summary:  Learn more about Trust-Based Relational Intervention®️ (TBRI) from the perspective of the book, The Connected Parent, by Dr. Karyn Purvis and Lisa Qualls, with great assistance from Emmelie Pickett. This is a course from Creating a Family, where  authors Lisa Qualls and Emmelie Pickett share their thoughts about connected parenting and provide tangible tools on how to use TBRI®️ with your family.

This course covers the following learning objectives:

• Understanding the foundations of attachment.
• List ways to implement Trust-Based Relational Intervention®️.
  
• Understand how to cope with chronic fear in your children.
• Describe how to discipline the TBRI®️ way.
• Understanding how sensory issues can be confused with attachment issues.
  
  This course is only audio (similar to a podcast).
  
  
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​​​Video Summary: Learn from Abraham Bearpaw of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma as he discusses wellness that incorporates gratitude, mindfulness and self-care using traditional Cherokee practices for adults and children. 

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