All Haven foster families are provided an orientation and extensive training. Haven takes great pride in educating prospective foster care families to prepare them for foster care. Before submitting a formal application to become a potential foster care family, individuals are required to attend one information session on foster care with Haven. This session covers any basic questions about foster care, encourages potential parents to consider what type of child they would be a good fit for, and supports potential foster parents as they determine what is best for their family. This is the also the time to help foster parents understand how the system works and if foster care is ultimately a fit for their family.
Haven requires potential foster families to attend mandatory training covering all applicable federal and state statutes, regulations, and Haven’s philosophy. Haven Foster Families are required to completed 30 hours of foster care training. These include:
This training is sourced by “People Places: Therapeutic Foster Care Training” and includes the following sessions:
What: A 2 hour in-person or zoom training that covers Haven Foster Care’s Policy and Procedures, as well as an overview of the foster care system.
Details: The purpose of this session is to further acquaint participants with Haven’s therapeutic foster care program and to learn about the key people with whom caregivers can expect to work, beginning with the child and the child’s birth family. It also covers the history of foster care and reasons for a child’s placement and introduces topics of grief and trauma.
What: A 3 hour in-person or zoom training that offers a summary of the learning process of a child, empathy, and brain development.
Details: The purpose of this session is an introduction to all the sessions of training and the foster care core principles. There is a focus on learning and the brain, the role of modeling and relationship in learning, and learning as a developmental process. We review the Hand Model of the Brain and establish learning as the fundamental dynamic that promotes healing and defines the therapeutic caregiver’s work. The importance of empathy through this journey is discussed and well as reactivity vs. responsiveness.
What: A 3 hour in-person or zoom training that includes discussions on Loss and Separation, Attachment, Connections, and True Listening.
Details: “Loss & Separation” explores the connection children have with their families and the impact that separation from family and the effects of loss of those connections on children removed from their homes. “Attachment” introduces participants to Parent-Child Attachment and the basis of attachment theory. Connections focuses on ideas of ways to connect with children in their home. “True Listening” connects the concept of empathy to listening and begins to teach the skill through a sequence of explanation, modeling, and practice, with an added discussion of how to avoid RESSQ’ing as our first listening skill.
What: A 3 hour in-person or zoom training that includes sections on Trauma and the Brain, Trauma Triggers, Child Development, Social Stories, PART, Creating a Sense of Safety for a child in the home, and Self-Care.
Details: “Trauma and Fear” presents information on how trauma affects brain development and shapes the way a child thinks about and reacts to the world. “Trauma Triggers” shares how to look for and avoid trauma triggers for a child. “Child Development” encompasses how trauma can delay development. “Social Stories” provides different examples of social stories to help children feel more comfortable to new situations. “PART” is a program to help parents know how to Prevent, Avoid, Respond, and Therapeutically intervene when trauma responses occur. “Creating a Sense of Safety” is intended to help participants anticipate the emotional needs of children who will enter their homes. It connects information on the effects of trauma with principles to guide caregivers’ efforts to ease a child’s adjustment and create a sense of safety on the transition and includes how to create safety plans and safety mapping. “Social Stories” teaches families how to create different social stories for children in care. “Self-Care” focuses on how working with children in foster care can affect us and includes learning a breathing and visualization exercise.
What: A 3 hour in-person or zoom training that focuses on strengths of the child, growth vs. fixed mindset, praise, connections, resiliency, and executive functioning. Self-care is continued as well.
Details: This session focuses on strengths and growth vs. fixed mindset and how to increase growth mindset in a child and ourselves. The concept of “Pure Descriptive Praise” is introduced. Pure Descriptive Praise offers a practical, concrete way for parents to apply a strengths-based approach to care giving. “High Praise Rate” relates to the practice of encouraging effort by recognizing success more often than failure. “Daily Connection” discusses the importance of making daily connections with every child in your home and gives examples of how to do so. Learn about the power of Yet and increasing a child’s resiliency.
What: A 2 hour in-person or zoom training that introduces protection plans, DBT, Circle of Courage, Resiliency and Executive Functioning.
Details: Introduction to DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy) and the importance of DBT basics in parenting children of trauma. Circle of Courage and it’s four parts, Belonging, Independence, Generosity, and Mastery, is taught. The focus then moves to teaching resiliency and executive functioning in children. Trigger Protections for foster parents is also discussed and reflected on by participants.
What: A 2 hour in-person or zoom training that teaches participants an introduction to TBRI, the IDEAL response, and responsive and engagement strategies.
Details: Participants will learn the basic principles of TBRI (Trust Based Relational Intervention) and how to apply what they learn in parenting. They further their knowledge through the IDEAL Response, and Responsive and Engagement Strategies. These include touch, eye contact, behavioral matching, voice quality and play. Participants use what they learn to apply to specific situations given.
What: A 2 hour in-person or zoom training that focuses on difficult conversations, discipline, consequences, and restorative practices.
Details: This training works discusses how have difficult conversations with children and presents discipline as a teaching challenge rather than a control strategy. Next, participants learn about using discipline instead of punishments, how to establish ground rules, and the principles for the use of consequences. The goal is to teach discipline by exercising self-discipline first. Additionally restorative practices are reviewed and participants learn about “Relationship Repair” when mistakes happen between them and their foster child and how to heal from hurts. In using repair, caregivers learn how to mend hurts and model a skill the children will use in future relationships.
What: A 2 hour in-person training that discusses all the SWAN Units of Service, children in care, permanency, culture, identity, biological families and tying it all together.
Detail: Participants learn about the different SWAN Units of Service and next steps in foster care and SWAN, as well as the goal for permanency for all children in care. They learn about the different children in care and their needs, as well as the family’s own expectations. “Culture and Identity” emphasizes the importance of culture to a person’s identity. We then move on to biological family relationships, the importance of keeping family connections and biological family visits. “Tying It All Together: Endings and Beginnings” begins closure for the training experience by reviewing a child’s journey toward permanence in terms of the caregiver’s role, responsibility, and the use of the skills taught during the training.
This training is designed to educate foster parents about Pennsylvania law that aims to promote “normalcy, health development, and opportunities for children and youth,” and to teach the guidelines of the Reasonable and Prudent Parent Standard so that foster parents can make reasonable and prudent decisions for the well being of children in their care. Foster families leave with an awareness of the decision making process in parenting and normal child development. This training is required for all resource parents. The goal of the training is to empower resource parents with the authority and the willingness to make decisions for youth placed in their care and to increase the opportunities for youth in care to engage in developmentally appropriate activities. Additionally, this training seeks to reduce stigma around foster care and to provide the youth in care with all of the same opportunities as youth who remain in their homes of origin. This program is purchased from Pennsylvania Council of Children, Youth, and Family Services (PCCYFS) and is facilitated by Meghann Chiappa, Haven’s Adoption Permanency Coordinator.
This training will prepare potential foster parents “to recognize and care for a variety of first aid, breathing, and cardiac emergencies involving adults, children, and infants (American Red Cross).” Time and format vary depending on location, but all are presented by the Red Cross and provide participants with a 2 year CPR and First Aid certification upon completion.
It is important to understand that every foster parent is a mandated reporter. Mandated reporters must make an immediate and direct report of suspected child abuse to ChildLine either electronically at www.compass.state.pa.us/cwis or by calling 1-800-932-0313. If you are unsure if something should be reported, it’s best to report it. This is an on-line course you will take provided by Pennsylvania Child Welfare Resource Center. This training provides “information on the recognition of child maltreatment, the obligation or opportunity to report child maltreatment, and the procedures for making a report of child maltreatment (University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work).” Visit www.reportabusepa.pitt.edu for more information.
Resource parents are responsible for ensuring that any foster child placed in their home is taking any prescribed medication. This training reviews best practices for ensuring medication is taken properly, and it also discusses limitations on a resource parent’s ability to make decisions regarding medication. Lastly, the training covers Haven’s policies and procedures regarding medication management.
Additional training opportunities will be shared with families after the initial training is complete, as each family is required to participate in 6 hours of training on an annual basis. Haven is an educational partner with Creating a Family and provide many trainings through their platform. Haven Foster Care also hosts two get-togethers each year for all foster families as means of promoting our foster care community and frequently incorporate training as well.
