Illinois DCFS Events for Foster Parents

Parent Cafés are physically and emotionally safe spaces where parents and caregivers talk about the challenges and victories of raising a family. Through individual deep self-reflection and peer-to-peer learning, participants explore their strengths, learn about the Protective Factors, and create strategies from their own wisdom and experiences to help strengthen their families.

There are three types of Cafés:‍ ‍

• Parent and Dads Cafés based on the Strengthening Families™ Protective Factors.

• #WoWTalk (Words of Wisdom) Cafés for youth and emerging adults based on the YouthThrive™ Protective and Promotive Factors.

• Journey to Vitality Cafés—including Recovering Together Cafés—based on the domains of holistic vitality.

Format: Online or In-person

Total Training Hours: 1.5 - 2 hours

Los Cafés para Padres son espacios física y emocionalmente seguros donde los padres y cuidadores hablan sobre los desafíos y las victorias de criar una familia. A través de la autorreflexión individual profunda y el aprendizaje entre pares, los participantes exploran sus fortalezas, aprenden sobre los factores de protección y crean estrategias a partir de su propia sabiduría y experiencias para ayudar a fortalecer a sus familias.

Hay tres tipos de Cafés:

• Cafés para padres y papás basados en los Factores de Protección de Strengthening Families™.

• #WoWTalk (Palabras de Sabiduría) Cafés para jóvenes y adultos emergentes basados en los Factores de Protección y Promoción de YouthThrive™.

• Cafés Jornada a la Vitalidad, incluidos los cafés Recuperándonos Juntos, basados en los dominios de la vitalidad holística.

Formato: En línea o en Persona

Total de Horas de Entrenamiento: 1.5 - 2 horas

This 8-week parent education series is based on the Living the Protective Factors Playbook which contains 49 days of activities and weekly themes for parents to learn about, explore, and build the Strengthening Families™ Protective Factors at home. Every week for two hours, parents come together in a fun, inspirational and educational environment to share their experiences and weekly Playbook homework, learn from each other, gain insight from the group and the group leader, feel supported in their parenting, expand their repertoire of parenting strategies, and gain a deeper understanding of what gets in the way of being a strong, loving family-including childhood trauma.

Format: Online or In-Person

Total Training Hours: 16 hours

Often when children are involved with child welfare, elements of their history can be lost due to a variety of reasons—including multiple placements. Lifebooks are an essential tool in trauma-informed parenting. This training is designed to assist participants with understanding the value of a Lifebook for a child in care and the ways in which the collaborative process of developing a Lifebook can promote psychological well-being and assist with maintaining positive family ties as well as partnerships between parents with child welfare involvement and caregivers.

Format: Online or In-Person

Total Training Hours: 4 hours

Navigating the child welfare system is difficult for any parent and doing the work to get one’s children returned home is a monumental feat. When reunification is the permanency goal, maintaining strong family ties while the child is out of their parents’ home is essential. Child welfare foster parents can do a lot to facilitate the process of maintaining family connectedness. This four-hour workshop highlights the importance of maintaining family connectedness and assists child welfare front line staff with understanding how they can strengthen family ties throughout the life of a case.

Format: Online or In-person

Total Training Hours: 4 hours

Other people’s trauma impacts our well-being, regardless of whether the other people are our friends, clients, co-workers, or family members. Learning how vicarious trauma affects us is the first step to improving our well-being and ability to sustain positive relationships. This workshop begins with learning about and identifying our own signs of trauma exposure response and our emotional triggers. Participants practice strategies for de-escalating their own and others’ emotional responses in the moment. Further, they learn a framework for reading and shifting their own and others’ energy to move into a positive relational zone. This workshop offers tools for increasing awareness, skills, and tools for understanding how to best respond when trauma or trauma history is in play. The workshop concludes by making a self-care plan using the Be Strong Families Domains of Vitality so people can stay strong and attend to their relationships.

Format: Online or In-person

Total Training Hours: 6 hours