Workshop Period 1
Thursday, August 4
10:30 am – Noon

1A — From Chaos to Calm

Sometimes in adoption, all goes well and as planned. Sometimes we parents are faced with challenges we could never have anticipated. Parenting children with disruptive behaviors and attachment challenges often leaves us feeling scared, frustrated, hopeless, and sometimes even helpless. Join a fellow foster/adoptive parent, therapist, consultant, and trainer for this educational, motivational, and inspirational workshop that will provide you with the tools necessary to transition your home from chaos to calm today!

Juli Alvarado, coaching for LIFE!, Colorado

1B — Beneath the Mask: Understanding Adopted Teens

Everyone has a disguise, especially adopted adolescents. Teens use masks to hide, protect themselves, and forget the pain. Participants will gain a deeper understanding of the complexities of adolescence for the adopted teen, and how identity, abandonment, grief and loss, and relinquishment issues affect personal and family development. Therapists and clinicians will learn the six most common adoption stuck-spots, a step-by-step assessment on adoption, clinical interventions strategies, and therapy tools.

Debbie Riley, The Center for Adoption Support and Education, Maryland

1C — Creating Sexual Safety in Adoption and Foster Care

In this session, workers will develop knowledge and skills to help parents address the needs of adopted children who have been sexually abused. Discover how to enable parents to create a healing milieu to counteract the negative impact of trauma on a child’s psychosocial and cognitive development, and to enhance positive self-esteem. Learn how to help adoptive families become the central ingredient in their children’s recovery.

Wayne Duehn, School of Social Work, University of Texas at Arlington (retired)

1D — Redefining the Golden Years: Parenting Adopted Children as Adults

Some adoptive parents think that the work of parenting and addressing adoption-related issues ends when children turn 18 or move out but, in reality, it only changes. Many of our children have experienced traumatic events and coped with various special needs. Often their adult relationships with family, friends, employers, and others are affected, and they need our support.

Suzanne Dosh, The Adoption Exchange, Colorado • Kathy Searle, The Adoption Exchange, Utah

1E — Out-of-Home Placement Issues with Adopted Youth

Join this advanced, interactive discussion about what happens when an adopted child or youth needs support that cannot be provided in the home. Far too often, parents are investigated, have a child protective case opened, need to relinquish parental rights, or are otherwise treated like the enemy. In this discussion, we’ll explore how to address this challenging problem.

Deborah Cave, Colorado Coalition of Adoptive Families • Lacey Berumen, NAMI Colorado • Lori Ross, Midwest Foster Care & Adoption Association, Missouri

1F — Outgoing Adoption: It’s Controversial but the World Is a Small Place

The current climate has created new opportunities for children to find adoptive families abroad. This workshop will explore the regulations and preparation for handling outgoing adoptions. Often, people question why or how children from the U.S. are adopted in another country. This session will answer these questions and discuss how birth parents who place children outside of the U.S. are creating forever families. Hague and non-Hague adoptions will be discussed.

Michael Goldstein, The Law Offices of Michael S. Goldstein, Esq., New York • Joy Goldstein, Forever Families through Adoption, New York

1G — Indian Child Welfare Act: Compliance and Policy

Since 1978, the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) has governed how Native American children in the U.S. are cared for in the child welfare system. The speaker will share the principles of the act and discuss how these principles can assure appropriate care for all native and aboriginal children. Many of these principles can also apply to best practices with non-Indian families.

Terry Cross, National Indian Child Welfare Association, Oregon

1H — Got Ethics? When the Social Worker Gets Lost in Social Work

In this interactive, reflective session, participants will explore social workers’ professional commitment to the social work code of ethics and develop strategies to translate this commitment into action. Please bring a photo of yourself at your social work graduation.

Michelle Moline, Nebraska Children’s Home Society • Jessyca Vandercoy, Right Turn, Nebraska

1I — Capturing the Full Voices of Children and Youth

This workshop will present the findings of The Video Project: Seeing the Voices of Children and Youth, Setting the Record Straight. In this project, youth are guided to realize and disclose their own truths and create a more accurate, holistic picture of themselves. The presenters will describe the process, share videos, and highlight the experience of social worker and youth participants. In addition to being healing, the process empowers youth to tell their own stories and helps them prepare for (re)connections to family.

Robert Lewis, independent consultant, Massachusetts • Kashawn Little, adoptee, North Carolina • Tricia Buddy, Jefferson County, Colorado

1J — Matching Matters: Making the Most out of a Child’s First Placement

In this advanced discussion, participants will explore the importance of a child’s first placement in care. So often these first placements are made with little thought about how well the family and child are matched, even though many children go on to be adopted by their first foster parent. Join us to discuss the importance of the first placement, especially as it relates to meeting a child’s racial and cultural needs.

Ruth McRoy, Boston College Graduate School of Social Work, Massachusetts • Adam Pertman, Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, New York • Addie Williams, Spaulding for Children, Michigan

1K — The Effects of Drugs on Your Kids

Drug abuse has a devastating effect on families, whether the user is a child or parent. Children of drug abusers may be burdened for life by the short- and long-term medical consequences of their parents’ drug use, and by the ongoing psychological problems of drug addiction. This workshop provides valuable training to help identify substance abuse and create a better understanding of the effects illicit drug use has on the newborn, child, and adolescent. Participants will leave with an understanding of how drug use affects us all.

Lynn Riemer, ACT on Drugs, Colorado • Ron Holmes, pediatrician, Colorado

1L — Open Adoption Opens Hearts

This workshop profiles two families’ open adoption experiences. A birth mother and the woman who adopted her son will share their journey, which began on opposite sides of a courtroom. They developed a strong bond and learned about love, trust, patience, and understanding. In the second story, a parent and an adopted teen share how they gradually opened an adoption from foster care. The presentation will include practical information for parents considering connecting with their children’s birth family.

Terri Kirby, adoptive parent, Colorado • Lisa Rankins, birth mother, Colorado • Jennifer Gerrits, Saint John Adoptive Parents Association, New Brunswick • Michelle Gerrits, adopted person, New Brunswick

Institutes
Thursday, August 4
1:15 – 5:00 pm

INST-01 — Trauma-Informed Adoption Practices: The Healing Power of Adoptive Families

This workshop will explore the cutting edge of recent findings related to the effects of trauma on the neurobiology of the developing brain. This information forms the basis for developing trauma-informed treatment strategies that provide safety, a sense of belonging, and resiliency, while also promoting recovery. Participants will receive tools that guide the process of trauma resolution and gather tips to use with families.

Wayne Duehn, School of Social Work, University of Texas at Arlington (retired) • Sherry Anderson, Three Rivers Adoption Council, Pennsylvania

INST-02 — Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder: Reasons, Not Excuses, for Behaviors

Children with FASD often struggle with behavior. This workshop will explore the connection between brain and behavior in order to help caregivers and professionals develop more effective intervention strategies. Participants will also consider the importance of helping the person with FASD learn about their disability and the reasons (not excuses!) why they struggle.

Kari Fletcher, North American Council on Adoptable Children, Minnesota • Eileen Bisgard, NOFAS Colorado

INST-03 — Give Me a Break: AdoptUSKids’ Efforts to Create Effective Respite Programs

AdoptUSKids has been helping parent groups and associations develop respite programs across the country for the past four years. Come hear about the respite programs’ results, and learn what the research has said about the need for respite and the impact that respite has on families’ cohesiveness.

Diane Martin-Hushman, North American Council on Adoptable Children, Minnesota • Denise Leffingwell, The Adoption Exchange, Colorado • Nancy Magnall, Iowa Foster and Adoptive Parents Association

INST-04 — Behavior Detectives: Helping Parents and Professionals to be Super Sleuths and Solve the Mystery of Children’s Misbehavior

Most parents have questions about their children’s behavior. In fact, most parents worry, fret, or puzzle about their children, at times blaming themselves or wondering where they’ve gone wrong. Parents and professionals alike need to ask the right questions and find the correct answers that will help address children’s behavior. This workshop will provide thoughtful solutions and interventions for behaviors such as lying, cheating, stealing, and negative attention seeking.

Richard Delaney, Hawaii Behavioral Health, Texas • Frank Kunstal, psychologist, Colorado

INST-05 — Meeting the Needs of Families after Adoption: How Do We Advance the Field of Post-Adoption Services?

?This workshop discusses critical issues affecting the field of post-adoption services, reviews research related to families’ needs after adoption, and looks at model programs and interventions around the country. Participants will generate ideas for advancing post-adoption services nationally.

Kim Stevens, North American Council on Adoptable Children, Massachusetts • Maura Klene, Rocky Mountain FAS/ARND Resource Center, Colorado • Susan Livingston Smith, Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, North Carolina

INST-06 — Understanding the Medical and Mental Health Needs of Children Who Experienced Institutionalization or Trauma

Children who are internationally adopted are at risk for experiencing fear, grief, loss, stress, and trauma. These experiences can affect the brain architecture over time and increase the risk of mental health issues or disorders, and may also affect health outcomes in adulthood. Understanding these issues can help guide therapeutic intervention.

Julie Keck & Heike Minnich, Riley International Adoption Clinic at Indiana University Health

INST-07 — Can Adoptees and Adoptive Parents be Allies? The Pact Camp Model

Pact Camp creates a critical partnership between adoptive parents and adult adoptees of color to address the issues of race and adoption facing both parents and children. Using Pact Camp as a model for effective parent education and adoptee community building, we will describe the commitment it takes to work together to decrease the sense of isolation that many adopted children and adoptive parents experience.

John Raible, University of Nebraska College of Education and Human Services • Rhonda Roorda, author/speaker, Michigan • Beth Hall, Pact, An Adoption Alliance, California

INST-08 — Organizational Stress: Awakening to Self, Awakening to Systems, Awakening to Support

This workshop explores adoption service organizations and programs as living systems. Organizations or programs that seek to help heal a family system will soon learn that they must address their own systems issues to be effective. Too often, we treat the business system as a machine, ignoring the fact that chronic stress, continuous change, and endless demands that can never be met will begin to deteriorate the core, soul, and spirit of the adoption agency, just as they will lead to the deterioration of a family system under the same pressures.

Juli Alvarado, coaching for LIFE!, Colorado

INST-09 — Recruiting at Least One Permanent Parent for Every Emerging Adult in Foster Care

Now that many states are allowing youth to stay in foster care until their 21st birthdays, we need a variety of strategies to recruit parents for these emerging adults. This session will present strategies such as using mentors and volunteers to recruit lifetime families, using family-finding techniques, bringing in constructive adults who are already a part of the youth’s life, and creating opportunities for youth to share time and space with prospective and waiting parents.

Pat O’Brien, You Gotta Believe!, New York

INST-10 — Reaching for the Rainbow: Expanding Permanency Options by Improving Recruitment and Retention of LGBT Parents

Research and real-life success stories confirm that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) parents can provide safe, loving, stable families for children and youth. Learn how to reach out to the LGBT community and create a welcoming climate to expand your pool of qualified families. The institute will cover assessing your agency’s current climate, identifying agency strengths and challenges, identifying barriers facing LGBT families, implementing best practices in recruitment and retention of LGBT families, and removing bias in family assessments and placement decisions.

Lori Ross, Midwest Foster Care & Adoption Alliance, Missouri • Ellen Kahn, Human Rights Campaign, District of Columbia

INST-11 — Forming Adoptee and Adoptive Family Identity: Psychological and Communication Perspectives

This workshop will examine identity formation for adoptees and their families. In addition to discussing identity formation in general, the presenters will explore the unique features of adoptee identity development. They will also cover how adoptee identity may be affected by the separation and individuation process in adolescence, how families influence and are influenced by these issues, and the difficulties some adoptees experience due to their having multiple identities.

Gregory Keck, Attachment and Bonding Center of Ohio • Robert Ballard, University of Waterloo, Ontario

INST-12 — The Role of Kinship Care in Child Welfare

Designed for child welfare professionals, this workshop provides up-to-date information about the increasing role of kinship care in our child welfare system, implementation of the federal Fostering Connections Act, and strategies for locating, assessing, and engaging kinship caregivers. Permanency planning and adoption preparation of kin caregivers will be addressed. The presenters will also describe their Family Connections grant, and present preliminary evaluation findings and promising practices related to family engagement and kinship support.

Karen Alvord, Beverly Johnson, & Josephine Jones, Lilliput Children’s Services, California • Bell Darsie, Stanford Home for Children, California

Workshop Period 2
Friday, August 5
10:30 am – 12:30 pm

2A — Adoption-Friendly Mental Health Practice: All Families Are Not the Same

Designed to help clinicians and other professionals understand foster, kinship, and adoptive families and their experiences with mental health services, this session will demonstrate why adoption-competent therapy is critical. Although children adopted from care are disproportionately represented in mental health systems, it can be difficult for families to find mental health providers with the expertise to treat adoption-related issues. Participants will receive resources to advance competence and will learn where to find training and support throughout Colorado.

Denise Leffingwell & Lisa Tokpa, The Adoption Exchange, Colorado

2B — Parenting from the Trenches

See your kids in a whole new light! This workshop offers a toolbox of strategies for parenting children and teens. Topics include developing trust and attachment while helping children learn to manage their own behaviors, building self-esteem, and maintaining your sanity. The presenter will give special attention to the unique world of teens.

Denise Goodman, trainer/consultant, Ohio

2C — Adoption Assistance for Special Needs Adoption

In this session, you will learn the basics of adoption assistance for children adopted from foster care, including eligibility, benefits, taxes, and more. Participants will receive state- and province-specific information plus concrete strategies to better advocate for foster and adopted children who have special needs. The workshop will also include an overview of the U.S. federal adoption tax credit.

Josh Kroll, North American Council on Adoptable Children, Minnesota

2D — The Effects of Domestic Abuse on Children and Youth in Care

Domestic abuse or family violence has a major impact on all family members—especially children and youth. Through visual tools and real examples, you’ll learn how to know if a child has been exposed to violence, the impact at various developmental stages and how violence affects children’s future relationships with foster and adoptive families. The presenter will discuss a case scenario and offer best practice treatment options for the family.

Mary M. McGowan, North American Council on Adoptable Children, Minnesota

2E — Working with Gay and Lesbian Adoptive Parents during the Homestudy

This workshop will cover sensitive ways to work with gay and lesbian adoptive parents during the homestudy process, from recruitment through finalization. The presenter will explore the unique aspects of gay and lesbian parenting, common issues that arise, resource information, and specific examples of appropriate homestudy questions. This workshop will also provide strategies for effectively working with gay and lesbian adoptive parents.

Donna Ibbotson, Lilliput Children’s Services, California

2F — International Adoption Basics for Agencies: Useful Medical and Developmental Information through the First Year after Adoption

This workshop will familiarize adoption agency staff with basic medical and developmental information for internationally adopted children. The presenter will cover travel information, post-adoptive medical screening and treatment, medical records, transitions, developmental screening, and more.

Elaine Schulte, Department of Pediatrics, The Cleveland Clinic, Ohio

2G — Who Owns Our Children’s Culture?

Can children of diverse cultures truly have the best of both worlds? Everywhere we look, adoption materials encourage us to adopt the culture as well as the child. Is that truly possible? If not, then what? This workshop will provide tools, resources, and support strategies to encourage the healthy development of the unique culture of adoption.

Astrid Dabbeni, Adoption Mosaic, Oregon

2H — Wendy’s Wonderful Kids: Evaluation of a National Campaign for Older Child Adoption

CANCELED

2I — Using Social Media to Engage and Support Families: What AdoptUSKids Has Learned

Facebook, Twitter, and other social media are effective tools for providing customer service and support in the recruitment and retention of foster and adoptive families. AdoptUSKids’ presenters will share their successes and mistakes in establishing a conversation using social media.

Kathy Ledesma & Stephanie Johnson Pettaway, AdoptUSKids, Maryland • Helen Owens, AdoptUSKids, Washington State

2J — Finding a Permanent Family before the Child Is Legally Free:
The Québec Model

This workshop will elicit exchanges about research and practice of adoption of children from the child welfare system in Québec. The program, called the “mixed bank,” is comparable to concurrent planning and foster-to-adopt programs. This workshop presents the mixed bank’s evolution and guiding principles. Then, by presenting research findings about how these adoptive families are doing, the presenters will lead a discussion about the benefits and pitfalls of such a program.

Genevieve Page, University of Montreal, Québec • Helene Tremblay, Centre Jeunesse de la Montérégie, Québec

2K — “I Hate You!” Decoding and Responding to Dysregulated Behaviors in Wounded Children [CANCELED]

2K — Supporting Foster and Adoptive Families through a Crisis [REPLACEMENT SESSION] -

When a child who has experienced abuse, neglect, or trauma enters a foster or adoptive family, the family will be transformed. Most often, this transformation is positive for the whole family. Occasionally, however, the challenge of keeping the child in the home feels insurmountable. This interactive workshop addresses what happens in these foster/adoptive families and how workers can be prepared to guide families from the pain to the other side. This workshop tackles tough and realistic issues faced by families and helps professionals fully understand these issues. Participants will leave the workshop with practical tools to help families assess the impact of fostering or adopting and find strategies to overcome a crisis.  

Jayne Schooler & Betsy Keefer Smalley, Institute for Human Services, Ohio

2L — Kinship Care as a Permanency Option for Children and Youth

This interactive session will engage participants in dialogue about kinship care in Colorado and the benefits of using kinship placements to achieve permanency for children and youth. Topics include the definition of kinship care, challenges and benefits of kinship care, strategies implemented in Colorado, and discussion of subsequent plans.

Jeannie Berzinskas & Sharen Ford, Colorado Department of Human Services

 

Workshop Period 3
Friday, August 5
1:45 – 3:15 pm

3A — The Microscope with a Wide-Angle Lens: A Complete Look at Your Adopted Child Using a Bio-Psycho-Social Model

This workshop will address how the bio-psycho-social assessment of troubled adopted children and youth permits adoptive parents to be better advocates, more informed treatment team members in working with helping professionals, and more knowledgeable observers and caregivers of their children.

James Kagan, pediatrician/psychiatrist, Colorado • Richard Delaney, Hawaii Behavioral Health, Texas

3B — The Other Attachment Disorder

Much has been written about reactive attachment disorder (RAD). However, many children with early childhood trauma do not have full-blown RAD, but do have attachment issues. This presentation will explore how attachments issues come about, what they may look like, and how parents and helping professionals can work with children to help healing occur.

Jan Tomski, Adoptive Family Resources, Colorado

3C — Effective Adoption Support Groups for Families

This training will explore the effect of support groups on both adoptive and pre-adoptive parents and the children in their care. Come learn how supportive it is for a family to meet with others who are having the same experiences and feelings. We’ll discuss how separate parent and child support groups help parents and children stay together and work through the hard times.

Ardell Brackley, Children’s Friend & Service, Massachusetts • Michelle Hirst, Children’s Friend & Service, Rhode Island • Bernadette Hicks, Adoption Rhode Island

3D — Experiencing the World through the Eyes of a Child with Autism Spectrum Disorder

To help participants experience the brain of a child with autism spectrum disorder, the presenter will provide experiences and visuals that show what it is like to have a differently wired brain. Attendees will learn how children with autism experience the social world we live in and the type of parenting it takes to help them navigate through it. Some traditional and non-traditional treatment methods will be explored.

Diane Hansen, Adams County Human Services Department, Colorado

3E — The Role of the Guardian ad Litem/Child’s Attorney

GALs and children’s attorneys are often influential in permanency decisions. Using both a national and state-specific perspective, this session will provide an overview of the role of the GAL/attorney, explain how it differs from that of other professionals, describe professional expectations, and discuss beneficial ways that parents and workers can interact with the GAL/attorney. Plenty of time will be allotted for questions and discussion.

Linda Weinerman, Colorado Office of the Child’s Representative • Maureen Farrell-Stevenson, National Association of Counsel for Children, Colorado

3F — Dissolved and Disrupted Adoptions: Adoption Subsidies and Other International Issues

Disrupted and dissolved adoptions present unique challenges for the families, agencies, and children involved. This workshop will identify some of the causes and legal issues, suggest preventive strategies, and provide ideas for appropriate, ethical, and compassionate case management when an adoption ends. In particular, the presenters will focus on when and how to obtain adoption assistance for children who experience a dissolved adoption and are later adopted by another family.

Seth Grob & Alison Davis, American Academy of Adoption Attorneys, Colorado

3G — Love Is Not Enough: Understanding and Working with Transracially Adopted Children

Many adoptees must define who they are without basic knowledge of where they came from. Adoptees must figure out how they are alike and different from both their adoptive and birth parents. Participants will learn the complexities of identity formation for children adopted transracially, and will cover intervention strategies to help parents and children navigate the multi-cultural landscape. In addition, the presenters will summarize findings from a national study of transracial adoptive families.

Debbie Riley, The Center for Adoption Support and Education, Maryland • Leigh Leslie, University of Maryland, Department of Family Science

3H — It Takes a Community: Building a Strong Public/Private
Child Welfare Partnership

Public agencies have mandates, expertise, and institutional resources; private agencies have flexibility to try innovative approaches and respond creatively to emerging needs. Together, the private and public sector can build strong and sustainable collaborative programs that prepare and support families through adoption. This workshop will describe a successful private/public adoption agency partnership in California, and offer a toolkit to manage the challenges and opportunities in public/private collaboration.

Karen Alvord & Carol Ramirez, Lilliput Children’s Services, California • Lois Rutten, Contra Costa County Children and Family Services, California

3I — Hitting The Mark! Targeted Recruitment Strategies

This session will help participants gain skills they need to design recruitment campaigns that educate their communities about the need for foster and adoptive parents. The speaker will pay special attention to recruitment strategies that focus on teens, children with special needs, sibling groups, children of color, and other target communities.

Denise Goodman, trainer/consultant, Ohio

3K — Parenting Adopted Adolescents: Understanding and Appreciating Their Journeys

Filled with information about typical adolescent development, this session explores how adopted adolescents may deal with developmental issues such as separation and individuation, identity formation, and sexuality. Parents will gain insight into how to help an adolescent make transitions, and professionals will get information they need to work with adopted adolescents and their families.

Gregory Keck, Attachment and Bonding Center of Ohio

3L — Supporting Adoptees through Search and Information Seeking

This workshop will help adoptees, adoptive parents, and adoption professionals understand the developmental issues involved in search and information-seeking from the perspective of adopted persons. In addition, participants will explore adopted persons’ motivations and expectations with regard to search and search outcomes, and gain practical ideas for supporting all members of the adoption triad as they search.

Susan Cutler Egbert, Utah State University

 

Workshop Period 4
Friday, August 5
3:45– 5:15 pm

4A — “Why Is My Child on All These Meds?”

In this workshop, the presenter will discuss evaluation for psychoactive medications, indications for and main categories of these medications, usual dosage ranges, and side effects. He will also cover potential problems resulting from overdosing and drug interactions.

James Kagan, pediatrician/psychiatrist, Colorado

4B — The Laughter Factor: How to Ease the Stresses, Tensions, and Pains of Parenting and Everyday Life

Laughing is one of the healthiest things one can do when facing the deep stresses, tensions, and pains of everyday life and parenting in particular. While highlighting how one can bring more laughter into one’s life, the session will also make the case that laughter is an essential ingredient in preventing parent burnout for those raising even the most difficult of children.

Pat O’Brien, You Gotta Believe!, New York

4C — Adoption Competency for Mental Health Practitioners

Adoptive families need access to adoption-competent mental health professionals who are able to see beyond diagnosis. Learn about adoption-competent models, approaches, and strategies that really work for adoptive and foster families.

Kim Stevens, North American Council on Adoptable Children, Massachusetts • Diane Martin-Hushman, North American Council on Adoptable Children, Minnesota

4D — Dividing the Child: When Attachments Are Adjudicated

The presenters will discuss children’s attachments created by casework and court decisions. Using current research in attachment and child development, the session will offer participants ways to guide and inform decision makers. The speakers will also emphasize parental attachment to the child, and the fit between the child’s needs and parental strengths. In addition to offering tips on crafting a report that can educate and persuade, the speakers will address contested adoptions, the Indian Child Welfare Act, and responding to abuse allegations in adoptions.

Barbara Rila, My Tree Post Adoption Program, Texas • Michael Pines, psychologist, Connecticut • Cathy Chalmers, therapist, Oklahoma

4E — How Research Translates into Policy

See how research becomes policy through personal work in the areas of post-adoption, identity, parental preparation and transracial adoptions. This session will highlight research from the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute as well as other leading researchers in the United States.

Adam Pertman, Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, New York • Ruth McRoy, Boston College Graduate School of Social Work, Massachusetts

4F — This Is Me: Going beyond Culture Camp

In response to the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute’s “Beyond Culture Camp: Promoting Healthy Identity Formation in Adoption,” Colorado Heritage Camps created the This Is Me™ program. This program offers experiences that not only promote cultural socialization, but also give adoptees additional support on racial and cultural identification, and comfort. This Is Me™ includes activities for high school teens that help them develop a positive bicultural identity. Come learn why and how this program works, and how you can implement it in your adoption support group, culture camp, or home.

Pam Sweetser, Colorado Heritage Camps • Emily Quinn, adoptee, Colorado • Fran Campbell, cultural advisor, Colorado

4G — Raising Your Latino Adopted Child with Cultural Pride

This workshop will present universal Latino values and offer suggestions on how to integrate these values into family practices, traditions, and parenting.

Maria Quintanilla, Latino Family Institute, California

4H — Building and Implementing a Customer Service Culture
in Child Welfare

This workshop applies lessons learned about customer service from world-class leaders in business, child welfare, and AdoptUSKids. The presenters will discuss the relevance of best practices in customer service for engaging, supporting, and retaining families for children, including birth and resource families, and will present a leadership model for improving internal and external customer service. Participants will be ready to start on their own path of developing and sustaining customer service standards and initiatives.

Tamika Williams & Sherri Black, AdoptUSKids, Kansas • Judith McKenzie, National Resource Center for Recruitment and Retention of Foster and Adoptive Parents at AdoptUSKids, Michigan

4I — Working with Faith-Based Partners to Achieve Permanency Goals for Children and Youth

In this session, you will learn about successful joint efforts in Colorado and other states like Arkansas and Florida. Hear how state child welfare programs and their faith-based partners are successfully overcoming obstacles, confronting realities, taking joint responsibility, and applying innovative and successful solutions for their children.

Sharen Ford, Colorado Department of Human Services • Chris Padbury, national adoption advocate, Colorado

4J — Innovations at Work: Using Family Group Decision Making in Adoptions

The Adoption and Safe Families Act inspired child welfare practitioners across the country to test innovative methods of expediting and sustaining permanency for foster children. Family Group Decision Making (FGDM) is an innovative method than can be used to address the emerging strengths, needs, and challenges of birth families and adoptive families. Participants will learn about FGDM and its application for post-adoption services.

Anita Horner, American Humane Association, Colorado

4K — Helping Children Heal from Trauma: What Parents and Caregivers Need to Know

Every child entering foster care has experienced some amount of trauma—if nothing else, removal from home and placement into care. Parenting a traumatized child can be challenging and stressful. The better a parent is equipped to cope with the emotional, behavioral, and verbal responses of children and youth to placement in foster care, the greater the child or youth’s opportunity to heal. The presenter will engage participants in a discussion of the strengths and challenges of traumatized foster children and will share strategies for helping professionals and parents become more trauma-informed.

Sue Badeau, Casey Family Programs, Pennsylvania

4L — Love Locked Inside: Information, Tools, and Support for Parenting Children with an Incarcerated Parent

This workshop will cover issues facing children of incarcerated parents, including their complex ambiguous loss, factors that affect the level of attachment and depth of relationship they have with their parent, their feelings about this separation and relationship, and the implications of these feelings on their own risk and protective factors. In addition, the speakers will discuss how adoptive parents can support children by talking with them openly and facilitating an ongoing relationship with the incarcerated parent.

Tanya Krupat, The Osborne Association, New York • Barry Chaffkin, Changing the World One Child at a Time, New York

 

Workshop Period 5
Saturday, August 6
8:30 – 10:30 am

5A — Traumatology: The Study of Trauma and How it Affects Children

This presentation defines trauma on a psychological, social, emotional, physical, and cognitive level. Within this framework, the workshop will then explore how to parent adopted children with trauma histories. In addition, the speaker will introduce intervention strategies that serve as tools for parents and clinicians who work with adoptive families.

Debi Grebenik, Maple Star Colorado

5B — What Can You Do about Attachment Problems?

This presentation will discuss the problems with attachment disorder definitions and the lack of evidence-based treatments for attachment problems. It will continue with a discussion of the steps that all participants in the child welfare system can take to prevent attachment problems and ameliorate them when they do occur. Although solutions to the most serious attachment problems aren’t currently known, the speakers will point out promising directions.

Betsy Rogers, Early Childhood and Family Center, Colorado • Deneen Kelly, Arapahoe and Jefferson Counties Collaborative Foster Care Program, Colorado • Frank Bennett, Colorado Coalition of Adoptive Families

5C — Building the Foundation of the Family: How Relationship Strengthening Helps Adoptive Families Thrive

This interactive workshop will share data, stories, and lessons learned from the Colorado Coalition of Adoptive Families’ five-year federal demonstration grant that focused on strengthening couples’ relationships as part of post-adoption services. Join us for great discussion, videos from our project, and resources for offering parent support in your community. The workshop demonstrates how emphasis on supporting parents as a couple is a wise investment.

Kathryn Trujillo, The Adoption Exchange, Colorado • Richard Delaney, Hawaii Behavioral Health, Texas

5D — Diagnostic Conundrums

Rather than describing specific diagnoses, this session looks at the issue of diagnosis in general. The speaker will cover the use and misuse of labels, such as bipolar and reactive attachment disorder, and the need to understand how various influences interact (like developmental delays, identity issues, and chemical exposure in utero) and to determine, in individual cases, which factors are salient and which are not. Finally, the session will help parents become expert advocates who maintain a whole picture of their child and resist diagnostic fragmentation by specialists.

John Sobraske, adoption psychotherapist, New York

5E — Eliminating Geographic Barriers to Youth Permanency

The Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 prohibited the delay or denial of an adoptive placement based on the geographic location of the adoptive family. In 2000, a national adoption exchange (which, in 2002, became AdoptUSKids) was created to expand permanency options. The 2008 Fostering Connections Act encouraged pursuit of permanency for foster youth through age 21. In this workshop, the presenters will explore the multi-faceted tools and services of AdoptUSKids that support interjurisdictional placement options for youth, as well as legislation that backs these efforts.

Kelly DeLany, AdoptUSKids, Oregon • Sherri Black, AdoptUSKids, Kansas • Joe Kroll, North American Council on Adoptable Children, Minnesota

5F — Let’s Talk about Teen Pregnancy, Options, and Adoption—From One Birth Parent to Another

The presenter will share her story about what it was like to be a pregnant teen, to go through the adoption process, and to be a mother of a son whom she is parenting and another whom she placed for adoption. She will discuss how to get through the tough times and how birth parents can support one another.

Nicole Holliday, birth parent/pregnancy counselor, Illinois

5G — Is Love Enough in a Transracial Adoption?

This workshop will focus on the intersection of race and culture on adoption, including the special challenges, preparation, and training that should be considered when raising a child of another race. It is essential for children to have a sense of racial pride, connection, and cultural education so that they don’t grow up feeling disconnected from their heritage. Parents with children of a different race must be prepared to help their children deal with the reality of race and racism. Children benefit when their parents understand, through their own experience, the importance of maintaining cultural traditions and historical ties.

Maya Wheeler & Donna Parrish, American Humane Association, Colorado

5H — Adoption from a Distance: What the Children Have Taught Us

Based on years of intensive placements of older children and teens from far away counties into potential adoptive families, this 24-year-old, high-energy adoption agency offers a close look at the process. The speaker will share lessons learned, effective adoption practices, and successful decision-making related to the placement of this special population who are the future of permanency planning.

Maris Blechner, Family Focus Adoption Services, New York

5I — Successful Diligent Recruitment of African American Families

The Multiethnic Placement Act/Interethnic Adoption Provisions (MEPA/IEP) require states to develop plans that “provide for the diligent recruitment of potential foster and adoptive families that reflect the ethnic and racial diversity of children in the state for whom foster and adoptive homes are needed.” In this session, Adoption Opportunity grantees will share tools for following the law and successfully recruiting foster and adoptive families of color.

presenters to be announced

5J — Creating and Supporting Concurrent Families: A Therapeutic Model that Creates Partnerships between Birth and Adoptive Families

Agencies often find themselves searching for ways to identify and support families in concurrent planning. How do providers identify children’s needs while balancing their caregivers’ needs? For prospective adopters, concurrent planning can seem frightening and emotionally driven. Birth parents are faced with completing required services while struggling with the potential loss of their children. Participants will learn 10 qualities successful concurrent families must have, acquire tools to build relationships between birth and adoptive parents, investigate cooperative parenting strategies, and understand therapeutic services that may assist in this work.

Edythe Swidler & Abby Rued, Lilliput Children’s Services, California

5K — Preparing Children for Adoption

To successfully prepare a child for permanence, the adoption worker must gather appropriate history and communicate that history for future planning. Participants will look at how to determine the appropriate level of openness, the child’s current and future needs, and facilitate closure. This workshop will outline these tasks in detail with strategies to accomplish each.

Betsy Keefer Smalley & Lois Tyler, Institute for Human Services, Ohio

5L — It’s All Relationships!

Grandparents/parents, daughter, and teenagers talk about the importance of relationships across the generations. What we all need in each other is a sense of family as we affirm each other, accept, cry, and laugh together. Learn how to develop family togetherness in spite of challenges.

Diane Martin-Hushman, North American Council on Adoptable Children, Minnesota • Joy Hushman, adoptee, Texas

 

Workshop Period 6
Saturday, August 6
10:45 am – 12:15 pm

6A — Inducement: Understanding the Acting-Out Behavior of Your Adopted Children

In an adoption world where disruption looms all too often, this workshop offers a positive approach for workers and families. Here is a way to make sense of—and deal with—some of the negative feelings that adopted children can make their parents feel. Understanding this dynamic, as well as other parent-child interactions unique to adopted children and their new families, can help turn a crisis into an opportunity for true communication and strengthened commitment.

Maris Blechner, Family Focus Adoption Services, New York

6B — Laughing in the Face of Danger: Dads Talk

During this session, two experienced fathers share stories, insights, and advice from a man’s point of view about adoption, foster care, and parenting in general. With a combined 45 years of parenting and 30 children between them, these two dads have learned not to take things too seriously—at least not all the time! Get renewed, share successes and challenges, have a laugh, and more. Dads only, please!

Buddy Stevens, adoptive parent, Massachusetts • Randy Ross, adoptive parent, Missouri

6C — For the Love of My Child: Estate Planning for Parents of Children with Special Needs

The workshop will discuss the legal steps that parents of disabled children must take to ensure that their children will be cared for if the parents become disabled or pass away, and to ensure that the children remain eligible for all public benefits. Using information relevant to people from all states, the presenter will discuss special needs trusts, disability planning, and guardianship.

Steven Owens, Steven R. Owens Attorney and Counselor at Law, Colorado

6D — Advanced Parenting: Understanding Trauma and Activities That Heal

This session offers an overview of trauma (definitions, causes, and current perspectives) while focusing on issues that affect adoptive families. The presenters will cover behavioral challenges, school difficulties, and family regulation, and will present activities that enrich attachment, and brain development, and create change. Attendees will be able to begin implementing tools immediately.

Kay Dechario & Kelly Winters, Center for Child and Family Therapy, Colorado

6E — Implementing the Fostering Connections Act in Your State

Parents and young people have shaped significant federal legislation recently, including the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act. This session will help you be part of implementing the Fostering Connections Act in your state—estimating how much your state will receive when it increases adoptions and places previously non-IV-E-eligible children for adoption.

Joe Kroll, North American Council on Adoptable Children, Minnesota

6F — Family Diversity in Education: Foster Care, Kinship Care, Adoption and the Schools

Children in adoptive, foster, and kinship families have unique experiences and needs—often founded on separation, grief, loss, and trauma. These needs and experiences can negatively affect their development and ability to learn and feel safe in a school setting. Families and child advocates can educate the schools and partner with them to reduce potentially traumatic school assignments, uncaring remarks, educational gaps, and conflicts.

Shelly Linenberger & Emily Tracy, The Adoption Exchange, Colorado

6G — Wholeness: The Forbidden Fruit

This session uses a spiritual approach to explore racism in society and how it affects adoptive families. The presenter will cover white privilege, best interests of children, and the origin of racism. Attendees will explore their own thoughts and beliefs, and will learn how to expose and dispel racism. Together, participants will seek to answer the question: “How do we heal racism and move forward for the sake of our children?”

Linda I. Brown, Brown Legacy Foundation, Georgia

6H — AdoptUSKids: A Study of Collaboration

This workshop studies the unique collaboration responsible for AdoptUSKids’ success since 2002. AdoptUSKids has become a model collaboration by engaging more than 500 organizations in the first intergovernmental/public-private national adoption initiative. The collaboration has achieved dramatic outcomes: adoptions of 13,000+ photolisted children; state systemic reform; and creating a decision-making paradigm of consensus-building across agency and management structures. All the while, we have taken collaboration beyond support to a rare operational level, while working across huge geographic areas.

Kathy Ledesma, AdoptUSKids, Maryland • Dixie Van de Flier Davis, The Adoption Exchange, Colorado

6I — The Art and the Science of Matching: Training Caseworkers to Match for Permanency

Caseworkers face many challenges, including finding the right adoptive family for each child in their care. Using specially designed tools and techniques that take some of the guesswork out of matching, Adopt America Network is training workers and supervisors to review homestudies and apply strategic decision-making to achieve permanency and reduce disruptions.

Wendy Spoerl, Adopt America Network, Ohio • Claudia Fletcher, Adopt America Network, Minnesota • Brenda Lund, Texas Department of Family and Protective Services

6J — “I’ll Tell You When You Are Older Because...”

Children do best when they know the truth about their lives, but sharingdifficult information is not easy. This workshop will give you the tools to discuss the most challenging situations (abuse, parental incarceration, death, HIV, incest, termination of parental rights) with children of all ages. Please bring your own challenging questions to the session. No topic is off limits!

Barry Chaffkin, April Dinwoodie, & Doris Laurenceau, Changing the World One Child at a Time, New York

6K — Forgiveness: How Foster and Adoptive Parents Can Learn to Forgive

Participants will learn the emotional, physical, and social implications of learning to forgive. Based on research conducted at the University of Wisconsin, the workshop sheds light on how different groups approach forgiveness, the health effects of holding a grudge, and areas of forgiveness that most people do not consider.

Roxanne Thompson, Adoptive Family Resources, Colorado • Eric Smith, Mental Health Center of Denver, Colorado

6L — Kinship from Start to Finish

Discover how El Paso County DHS focuses on safety and permanency in kinship placements. Learn how we train relatives to facilitate visitation, and how we explore the financial options that kin may choose. Hear about the unusual features of our program including Strengths, Safety and Permanency Assessments, the 20-year plan, and our vision for kinship adoption links. Follow us down the road to achieving permanency and financial security without requiring relatives to spend down their retirement income.

Elizabeth Fredrickson & Sue Eilertsen, El Paso County Department of Human Services, Colorado