Learning Opportunities to Support Caregivers
Foster Parent Fundamentals. Healing. Hope.
13.5 hours
Before the placement of a child or youth in your home, the State of Colorado requires you to complete initial training in a statewide core curriculum. Anyone planning to operate a foster family home in Colorado must achieve a total of 27 hours of pre-certification training, including completion of an initial 12 hours of training prior to a child or youth being placed in your home, as well as certification in first aid (or the equivalent) and CPR for the ages of children or youth in your care. The CWTS Foster Parent Fundamentals hybrid course fulfills this initial 12-hour requirement, providing you with 13.5 hours of training.
This rigorous and strengths-based hybrid learning experience will engage you in informative Web-based trainings and critical-thinking scenarios in the classroom to prepare you to provide exceptional care for children and youth from trauma backgrounds and diverse cultural experiences.
The state requires you to take the following WBTs in addition to Foster Parent Fundamentals to complete your learning:
- The Reasonable and Prudent Parent Standard (1.5 hours)
- Safe Sleep: Creating Safe Sleep Environments for Infants (2 hours)
- Child Development and the Effects of Trauma: The Essentials (2 hours)
- Mandatory Reporter Training (2 hours)
- One of the following courses (select the course that corresponds best to the ages of children/youth you would like to foster. If you’re unsure, just pick one and you can choose others later (1.5 hours each)
COMING SOON…
- Kinship Caregiver Fundamentals. Healing. Hope. (13.5 hours)
- Spanish Foster Parent Fundamentals. Healing. Hope. (13.5 hours)
- Spanish Mandatory Reporter Training (2 hours)
Ongoing Education for Caregivers
21 hours
TBRI® is an attachment-based, trauma-informed intervention that is designed to meet the complex needs of vulnerable children. TBRI uses Empowering Principles to address physical needs, Connecting Principles for attachment needs, and Correcting Principles to disarm fear-based behaviors. Although the intervention is based on years of attachment, sensory processing, and neuroscience research, the heartbeat of TBRI is connection.
13.5 hours
Many families underestimate the impact of bringing a new child/youth into their homes and families. The impact can be significantly reduced by understanding the cycle of change and preparing your family for potential challenges BEFORE the arrival of the new member and before the family is faced with the challenges.
6.5 hours
Loss is naturally expressed as grief, and our children and youth in care experience many losses. When the normal and healthy experience of grieving is interrupted, it can take the form of behavior that caregivers find confusing and difficult to manage. Take this course to deeply understand loss and grief and how to support your child’s natural grieving process.
1.5 hours
Being a resource caregiver brings both triumphs and challenges, and it’s not always easy to find supports who understand what you and your family are experiencing. Join us for biweekly topic-based sessions to share resources, support, parenting revelations, and tips for navigating child welfare processes. Register for as many of the individual sessions as you’d like.
9 hours
Kinship care is an important and necessary option for children and youth to have the best opportunity at permanency. But kinship care does not come without challenges. Families are often given minimal notice to open their doors for the kin children, certification is not always necessary (so providers miss vital training opportunities), and the family risks greater splintering. Learn how to identify supports and build strategies for navigating new family dynamics.
2.75 hours
This All Children-All Families training session was developed specifically for resource parents to support ongoing learning related to building safety and trust with youth with diverse sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression (SOGIE). Review key terms, research on the impact of caregiver response, and steps every caregiver can take to welcome and affirm LGBTQ youth.
4 hours
In this introductory course, you’ll learn to distinguish between the concepts of race, culture, ethnicity, and nationality, look at how differences in cultural beliefs and values can lead to misconceptions about others, and get support as you explore personal biases and how to minimize their impact on the kids in your care. You’ll leave this course with greater confidence to start incorporating a child’s or youth’s culture into your caregiving to promote their development and positive self-esteem and to help them adjust in their foster home and community.
1.5 hours
Read, watch, or listen to a media resource—from articles and poems to podcasts, songs, and TedTalks—then join small groups to engage in brave, thoughtful discussions that move us toward race equity, in child welfare and the world. Check out a wide variety of topics available for you to explore and participate in these courageous conversations.
5 hours
Kids in care have disproportionately high rates of emotional and mental health challenges and are prescribed high rates of psychotropic medications. Foster parents, caseworkers, GALs, and prescribers are critically important in ensuring the appropriate use of these. This ECHO series brings together all of the players to share perspectives, try out resources, and build the relationships necessary to help assure the safe prescribing of psychotropic medications for children and youth in care.
Legalized Marijuana: Considerations for Child Safety (WBT)
2 hours
Colorado’s legalization of marijuana has brought with it many questions about its impact on children and families. This Web-based training will give you the opportunity to start exploring cannabis’s impact on child safety. This interactive learning experience provides an overview of Colorado’s marijuana laws, an introduction to marijuana and its effects on the body and behavior, and a summary of existing research on the impacts on infants, children, teens, and adults.
COMING SOON…
- Legal Prep for Foster Parents
- Healing-Centered, Trauma-Informed Yoga for Caregivers