CWLA Celebrates Kinship Care Month
CWLA
September is Kinship Care Month. Please join CWLA as we celebrate three decades of dedication to kinship caregiving families and recognize all of the relatives, members of the extended family, and tribes and clans who provide round-the-clock protecting and nurturing for children, either through informal family arrangements or child protective services. Nearly three million kinship caregivers across the country provide safety, support, cultural ties, and affection for the children in their care. Unique family circumstances cause stress for relatives, parents, and children including health and mental health challenges, financial and other burdens. Yet kinship caregivers – grandparents, aunts and uncles, siblings who are older, and members of the extended family who are not related – prevail. Let’s use Kinship Care Month to recognize their dedication! CWLA resources to support kinship caregivers include:
IN THE NEWS
Infants with history of reported maltreatment at greater risk of death from medical causes
Pediatrics
A study finds a heightened risk of death from medical causes for infants with histories of reported maltreatment, suggesting a need for ongoing care coordination between the child protection system and pediatric health providers.
Apple walks back plans for new child safety tools after privacy backlash |
Governor signs bipartisan child welfare overhaul bill |
The 4 F’s for proactive online child protection
EIN Presswire
As parents, caregivers, and allied professionals, have you ever wondered how to proactively supervise what is happening with children online? Have your children been on gaming devices, cellphones, and other digital devices and you have no knowledge as to what they are doing online?
Couple who fostered 620 kids in 56 years reveal golden rules of parenting including how to deal with jealousy & time-out
The Sun
The pair have tended to newborns, toddlers and teens – all while raising five children of their own. And Pauline, now 81, says they never forgot a youngster’s name or birthday, and always believed every foster child was as important as their own.
Juvenile cases in 2019 dropped to the lowest level in 14 years, federal data show |
Prevention education: More important than ever
Social Work Today
With trauma at unprecedented levels, it’s time everyone—from school administrators to government officials—steps up efforts to dismantle the child sexual abuse and exploitation epidemic. One of the highest forms of love is service. A form of service is protection. Without feelings of safety and security, a child cannot thrive.
MARK YOUR CALENDAR
|
CWLA SPOTLIGHT
|
|
RESOURCES & OPPORTUNITIES
|
OFA’s Peer TA Monthly Alerts highlight trending topics of interest to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) agencies and partners. Get timely resources, research, tools, strategies, and tips on innovative TANF policies and programs in this monthly digital source.
Children and families are adjusting to returning to in-person learning for the first time in many months since the COVID-19 pandemic began. This issue highlights guidance, resources, and tips that TANF agency staff can use to assist families with children transitioning back to classrooms and to enhance workforce development programs that provide job training and placement in education settings.
See select articles on helping young children and parents transition back to school, COVID-19 resources for schools, supporting early child development and learning amid the pandemic, and supporting the childcare and early education workforce.
The COVID-19 pandemic revealed structural problems encountered by Black, Latina, and Native American child care and early education providers. This report draws upon interviews with 20 experts to highlight 19 state and local policy strategies that could be implemented to address the structural inequality in this workforce. These four strategies reflect the need for a rapid crisis response; how to inform key policy responses to maximize impact; how to drive equity-based systems changes for supporting the child care and early care education workforce; and how to lay the foundation for increasing diversity in leadership roles.
This set of recordings are from a three-day workshop convened on May 20, May 25, and May 27, 2021 which explored COVID-19’s effect on students’ learning and mental health. The workshop focused on the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on children of color, children who have special health needs and learning difficulties, and children who are living in poverty. Presentations included lived experience perspectives and experts who discussed learning loss, mental health, and social-emotional learning.
Educare schools provide full-day, year-round early care and education for young children living in families from underserved communities. This brief illustrates the experiences and responses of Educare’s early childhood care and education (ECCE) staff during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as systemic inequities that Educare schools encountered. Interviews with staff from 18 Educare schools revealed three common themes: the importance of supporting the ECCE workforce’s physical and mental health and overall well-being; the redefinition of expectations and mechanisms for accountability; and the ECCE workforce’s ongoing commitment to professional development. The brief describes a set of identified challenges for each theme that the ECCE workforce encountered and overcame.
The third of a three-part series, this April 27, 2021 webinar from the Center for Health Care Strategies examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic reducing young children’s access to in-person early childhood and learning programs. Presentations covered approaches that states and communities might use to address development and learning needs as the children reenter early childhood and learning settings. Speakers included representatives from the Ohio Department of Education, the North Carolina Department of Health Benefits (Medicaid), and the Office of Head Start.
The second of a three-part series, this April 20, 2021 webinar from the Center for Health Care Strategies reviews challenges faced by families with young children in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic aftermath. Presentations covered opportunities to support families and connect them with community resources; strategies to increase parents’ knowledge of child development and communications skills while reducing their social isolation; mindfulness practices among staff at a supportive services agency; and the development of a virtual maternal-infant home visiting program. Speakers included representatives from the American Academy of Pediatrics, Families First of Boston, La Cocina of Colorado, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, and ZERO TO THREE.
This Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) webpage includes CDC and partner resources and offers guidance in reducing stress children might encounter when transitioning back to in-person learning. Also included is the link to a CDC podcast entitled Transitioning Back to School or Early Child Education.
|
Contact us at PeerTA| peerta@blhtech.com |
Amerigroup Community Care, along with Justice U and Street Grace, invite you to attend a unique training opportunity to become certified as a CSEC (Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children) informed provider while earning CEUs.
Training participants will be guided through a three-part blended learning program, with online self-paced training on Justice U, and a live, synchronous component provided by Street Grace. This training program establishes basic awareness about human trafficking, providing specific understanding about CSEC as a form of human trafficking, its impact in Georgia, and how your specific profession or role can have a direct impact on preventing and effectively addressing CSEC.
These courses are intended for the following roles and professions:
Interested in how you and your network can participate in this opportunity? Visit learnwithjusticeu.com/csecseries-georgia to sign up! *Enter code: “Amerigroup” to register for FREE.
CWLA is pleased to announce the publication of 
The CWLA Emerging Leaders Committee and the National Child Welfare Workforce Institute (NCWWI) will be offering the webinar, Empowering the Child Welfare Workforce and its Emerging Leaders, on September 28 at 4:00 pm ET. Opportunities for leadership exist at all levels – regardless of job title or years of experience. The field of child welfare continues to face challenges related to recruitment and retention of qualified and diverse staff that reflect the families served. These challenges have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the significant impact of recent and historical social and racial justice issues. While there are many reasons for challenges in the child welfare workforce, one of the more significant challenges impacting emerging leaders is lack of opportunity, support, and coaching for career advancement. This webinar will present helpful steps that emerging leaders can take to promote their own growth and development of critical leadership skills in their existing position or agency and share concrete ways that agencies can support emerging leaders. In addition to a panel discussion, there will be interactive ways to provide input on future opportunities for emerging leaders, and helpful resources that participants can use now to continue building their leadership skills. To register, 
Julie Collins, CWLA Vice President, Practice Excellence and Marcus Stallworth, CWLA Director, Training and Implementation will be presenting the workshop, COVID-19 and Its Impact on Mental Health for Populations Who are Vulnerable at 
CWLA member organization, 
