SF PUBLIC FORUM

SELF-ASSESSMENT

Strengthening Families Online Self-Assessment Package

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Building Protective Factors with Families »

“Building Protective Factors with Families” is a 2-hour training that combines presentation with interactive activities and discussions to enhance participants’ understanding of the five protective factors and how they can build each protective factor through their daily contact with families.

Communicating with Families »

Being able to recognize when a family needs your support is important. Communicating with families in a respectful way is essential in building partnerships with families. This interactive workshop will help participants understand their own communication style which includes active listening and filters and barriers to effective communication. Participants will also explore valuable insights about communicating effectively with parents. Participants will have an opportunity to practice effective communication skills and develop action plans for implementing effective communication with the parents they work with.

Developing Collaborative Relationships »

Developing Collaborative Relationships is the beginning of building a team of allies, child welfare and early childhood professionals, to keep children safe and families strong. It is imperative that these professionals have an opportunity to explore the power of their collaborative relationship and the synergy that is created when working together. This training supports staff as they gain a greater understanding of the child welfare system including the various categories of child abuse and neglect, what happens to children and families when they are involved in the child welfare system, how early childhood professionals can support both the families and the child welfare professionals, and the importance of a well managed collaborative relationship. This training begins the conversations that explore assumptions, fears and hopes for working collaboratively and presents the benefits to children and families when professionals work together.

Family Development Credential (FDC) Program »

The FDC is based on a successful program researched and developed by Cornell University in New York and is being replicated in 18 other states. One of the most impressive family-support training programs in the nation, currently training more than 9,000 professionals across systems in 19 states. The FDC is a strengths-based credentialing program for professionals working directly with families, their supervisors and community leaders. The FDC is now a major Georgia initiative that provides professionals with the skills and competencies they need to empower families to attain a healthy self- reliance and interdependence with their communities. This voluntary, interagency course and credentialing program has two components, one for frontline workers and one for supervisors and leaders.

Parent Leadership Institute »

The Parent Leadership Institute (PLI) strengthens the skills and capacity of parents/families to take greater leadership roles in the systems serving their children, and to build relationships with other parents from their program/school and community. Parent Services Project works closely with local community agencies/stakeholders via an Advisory Committee for the duration of the Parent Leadership Institute – to tailor content to the interests of the local community.

Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect: Parent-Provider Partnerships in Child Care »

An interactive knowledge and skill-building training for experienced trainers. Trainers learn to implement the curriculum, Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect: Parent-Provider Partnerships in Child Care (PCAN) with child care providers and directors. Participants discover that this curriculum helps them provide child care providers with the knowledge, skills and supports to imbed the SFI protective factors in their programs. Over three days, participants are engaged in a professional development workshop that addresses relationship-based and reflective training approaches, and content on the impact of child maltreatment on very young children. Participants understand the strengths-based, family-centered approach upon which the curriculum rests, and learn about the curriculum’s theoretical, research and practice base.

Protecting Children by Strengthening Families »

The training is an 8 module, 17 hour training series for child care workers and operators in center or homebased settings. The first module is an overview and the other 7 are based in the strategies for building the protective factors. It is geared both for training workers to be intentional partners with parents in prevention of child abuse and family strengthening and to improve the quality of care provided to children.

Protective Factors Training »

As one of the twenty-one partner organizations in the Strengthening Families Illinois initiative, the Midwest Learning Center has developed a training to introduce participants to the five protective factors. This training introduces the Center for the Study of Social Policy’s logic model and begins the process of understanding the protective factors link to the prevention of child abuse and neglect, which when implemented leads to practice enhancements at early care and education centers. Both early childhood education and child welfare staff must understand why these strategies are important to the current status of their center as it relates to the prevention of child abuse and neglect This half-day training, which can be expanded to a full-day of training, is tailored to meet this objective. This training is a unique professional development experience designed to actively engage participants in the learning process. It will motivate and challenge participants by helping them make connections between the content and their work and life experiences.

Recognizing and Responding to Signs of Family Stress »

Responding to signs of child abuse and neglect is crucial —but research now allows us to start even earlier in keeping children safe and families strong. By recognizing and responding to early signs of stress, early childhood and child welfare staff can help families get the kind of support that help prevent abuse and neglect. This training will help participants get in touch with their own stress and help them recognize early signs of family stress, thus gaining a better understanding between stress and inappropriate behaviors. Strategies to manage stress will also be explored.

Strengthening Families Overview »

Practical ideas on how to align your day-to-day activities with the national Strengthening Families approach, building protective factors in your program that are based on proven strategies.