Foster and Adoption Assessor Workshops - Tier One and Tier Two

TO REGISTER - CLICK ON THE BOX TO THE LEFT OF THE WORKSHOP TITLE  - Scroll below table for descriptions

Achieving Permanency Through Intra-Agency Collaboration
In this workshop on interagency collaboration, participants will learn strategies to enhance team building among caregivers and other professionals involved in case planning; the components of successful collaboration; similarities and difference between the roles and perspective of public and private agencies; the reasons why collaborative efforts sometimes fail; and ways to identify and eliminate or reduce barriers to collaboration.

PreFinalization 215
House Bill 419 was passed in an effort to standardize the following adoption related tasks: the procedures and criteria for certifying a home for adoption; working with birthparents prior to surrendering the child; assessing adoptive homes prior to finalization; placement practices and post-adoption services.  In this workshop participants will learn strategies for assessing the adjustment and attachment of the child and family prior to finalization.  Also suggested will be the stages of disruption and strategies to avoid adoption disruption and finally techniques to strengthen the adoptive placement.

Adoption Assistance
House Bill 419 was passed in an effort to standardize the following adoption related tasks: the procedures and criteria for certifying a home for adoption; working with birthparents prior to surrendering the child; assessing adoptive homes prior to finalization; placement practices and post-adoption services.  In this workshop the following will be covered:  the value of subsidies to families, children and the child welfare system; information regarding rules and procedures for accessing adoption subsidies as well as strategies to maximize resources for adoptive families.

Post Finalization 224
House Bill 419 was passed in an effort to standardize the following adoption related tasks: the procedures and criteria for certifying a home for adoption; working with birthparents prior to surrendering the child; assessing adoptive homes prior to finalization; placement practices and post-adoption services.  In this workshop the following will be covered: the need for past adoption services; the components of such services, and the Ohio statute regarding release of information and strategies for implementing post adoption services.

Birthparent Services - 211
House Bill 419 was passed in an effort to standardize the following adoption related tasks: the procedures and criteria for certifying a home for adoption; working with birthparents prior to surrendering the child; assessing adoptive homes prior to finalization; placement practices and post-adoption services. In this workshop the following will be covered:  counseling methods in all phases of adoption planning with birth parents/family; how to facilitate closure; good-byes and grief work; methods of gathering and reporting social/medical histories; Ohio rules/laws regarding open records and open adoptions.

Placement Activities
House Bill 419 was passed in an effort to standardize the following adoption related tasks: the procedures and criteria for certifying a home for adoption; working with birthparents prior to surrendering the child; assessing adoptive homes prior to finalization; placement practices and post-adoption services.  In this three hour workshop, (one module of six), the participant will learn placement strategies to maximize success and minimize trauma to the child, foster family and adoptive family.

Cultural Issues
Beginning in June of 1998, ODJFS rules required an advanced level of training for all Adoption Assessors in Ohio.  A series of advanced level workshops has been developed by the Ohio Child Welfare Training Program.  This workshop will address the importance of cultural continuity in permanency planning, identification and preservation of the child's cultural identity as well as strategies to identify, engage, and assess prospective adoptive families within their cultural context.  This training will also develop the worker's skill in assisting families in making accurate assessment to parent transculturally.

Inter-Agency Collaboration
Beginning in June of 1998, ODJFS rules required an advanced level of training for all Adoption Assessors in Ohio.  A series of advanced level workshops has been developed by the Ohio Child Welfare Training Program.  In this workshop on inter-agency collaboration, participants will learn strategies to enhance team building among caregiver and other professionals involved in case planning; the components of successful collaboration; similarities and differences between roles and perspective of public and private agencies; the reasons why collaborative efforts sometimes fail; and ways to identify and eliminate or reduce barriers to collaboration.

Openness In Adoption
Beginning in June of 1998, ODJFS rules required an advanced level of training for all Adoption Assessors in Ohio.   This two-day workshop will examine the continuum of openness and the various styles of adoption that can occur along that continuum.  The historical perspective of openness will be presented as well as reasons of supporting openness within current adoption practice.  Trainees will learn about the advantages while minimizing the liabilities.  Participants will also learn techniques to handle open adoptions that finalized as closed and techniques to cope with conflict within open adoptive relationships.

Gathering and Documenting Background Information
Beginning in June of 1998, ODJFS rules required an advanced level of training for all Adoption Assessors in Ohio.  This workshop will examine the importance of honesty in disclosure of information to adoptive families as well as the ethical and legal consequences of wrongful adoption (misrepresentation; internal concealment or negligent disclosure).  Participants will learn what information adoptive families need and creative ways to assess that information.  Finally, participants will learn how and when to share information effectively with adoptive parents.

Family and Child Assessment
House Bill 419 was passed in an effort to standardize the following adoption related tasks: the procedures and criteria for certifying a home for adoption; working with birthparents prior to surrendering the child; assessing adoptive homes prior to finalization; placement practices and post-adoption services. This twelve-hour workshop will address homestudy assessments of the families using group and individual methods; the family dynamics and characteristics that increase the likelihood of long-term placement success and methods for assessing children's social and emotional functioning and readiness for adoption.