Audience: child welfare judges, agency attorneys, guardians ad litem, court-appointed special advocates, and county child welfare agency staff

Best Practice Court Teams are invited to attend a two-part virtual training series to learn about innovative programs to find permanent homes for the more than 400 youth waiting in Colorado’s foster care system. This series will also highlight post-adopt support services available to ensure that these youth and their families are appropriately equipped to succeed, reducing unnecessary re-entries into foster care. See detailed session descriptions below. Continuing Legal Education credits may be available for this series — more information coming soon.

[ Registration is closed. ]

Detailed Session Descriptions:

Part 1: Finding Permanency for Children in Foster Care
Friday, October 30 | 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.

With the passage of the Families First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA), the child welfare system will need additional strategies to meet the law’s requirements to minimize congregate care placements for children in foster care.

Session participants will learn about an innovative partnership between the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, the Colorado Department of Human Services and The Adoption Exchange to find permanent homes for these children through the Wendy’s Wonderful Kids program. Adoption professionals, known as Wendy’s Wonderful Kids recruiters, use an evidence-based, child-focused model to serve youth who have been waiting in foster care the longest. To date, these recruiters have helped more than 150 children in Colorado achieve legal permanency.

Achieving legal permanency for these children ensures that they are spared from aging out without the life skills and connections needed to successfully navigate adulthood, while also meeting increasing state and federal mandates requiring permanency.

This session will discuss how Best Practice Court Teams can support permanency efforts by:

• ensuring that older youth receive appropriate evidence-based adoption recruitment services,
• believing that all children are adoptable,
• valuing permanency over placement stability,
• envisioning biological family members as an important piece of the recruitment process, and
• examining potential barriers presented by consent statutes and unpacking older youth’s resistance to adoption.

Part 2: Supporting Families Post-Permanency
Friday, November 6 | 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.

It is crucial that families providing permanency for children in foster care receive appropriate post-permanency supports to make the family successful and prevent children from returning to the child welfare system.

In this session, learn about the Post-Permanency Services and Support program available to families and professionals across the state. This collaboration between The Adoption Exchange and the Colorado Department of Human Services provides the tools and support necessary for families to successfully navigate the challenges of parenting children from “hard places.”

This program serves biological families who have reunified with their children and no longer have an open case with the Department of Human Services, kinship families who have guardianship of the children in their care, and finalized adoptive families. Session participants will learn more about the services offered to support families, including:

• TBRI® training,
• personalized coaching,
• implementation and connection groups, and
• TBRI-trained respite care for families in specified counties.