PAS Staff Training Picks: 2022
Each year, adoptive parents must complete 12 hours of ongoing training to maintain their certification. We want our families to ENJOY learning and exploring adoption and parenting related topics. We asked our staff to each nominate one training resource that they recommended to you for this year…. Check out our list of recommended training resources and let us know what you think.
Meaghan Recommends: Transactional vs. Ethical Adoption Podcast by Searching for More Arlington Diocese Podcast
I emailed this one out to all of our families in December but just wanted to remind everyone of this resource. My hope is that it will equip families working with us with tools to speak to the importance of ethical adoption practices and how important they are.
Required for: All Domestic Infant (Pool) families and Waiting Child Families; recommended for all adoptive families
Savannah Recommends: “Building a Strong and Healthy Marriage” Podcast by Adoption Hacks
“I love that they talk about ways to create and sustain a strong and healthy marriage in adoptive/foster families. I figured this could be a good one for families because it looks at things you can struggle with within your marriage during the process and different tools/resources for couples throughout the adoption both before and after placement.”
Recommended for: All married adoptive families
Jena Recommends Unexpected Stresses on Newly Adopted Families
Host Dawn Davenport, Executive Director of Creating a Family, the national adoption and foster care education and support nonprofit, interviews Jennifer McCallum, Lead Post Adoption Counselor at Buckner Children & Family Services, and Dr. Lark Eshleman, a consultant and educator whose expertise is working with children and families who have experienced early emotional trauma, attachment difficulties, neglect and abuse.
This podcast explores various stressors that adoptive families can face and techniques and ideas for support and managing these stressors.
Recommended for: All adoptive families (they go into both infant and older child adoption)
Katherine Recommends: Reactive Attachment Disorder Series (Part 1 and Part 2)
We see the diagnosis of Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) through foster care adoption and international adoption in particular, but this can be hard for families to conceptualize and difficult for workers to explain in just one conversation. This webinar series offers a deeper definition of RAD as well as the impact on the family. The presenter emphasizes the importance of both parents understanding trauma-informed parenting and a child’s stress responses and triggers. In Part Two, the presenter shares ways to support your child and family and provides specific strategies/responses as well as the importance of a family’s support system. I loved how this training highlights how vital it is for us as adults to reflect on our own pasts and adjust our parenting in order to best support a child! The mind shift of combatting the child’s history/trauma as a TEAM is powerful. Some books the presenter recommends are “The Body Keeps Score” by Bessel van der Kolk and “Attached” by Amir Levine. Another great thing? All webinars are free, recorded, and accessible through the Raise the Future website.
Recommended for: Waiting Child families (foster care adoption), although this training includes good reminders for all adoptive families.
Bridget Recommends: Creating a Family Website & Newsletter (Click here to subscribe)
“I really like all the options that are available on Creating a Family because they have different education mediums: blog posts, podcast, and online training webinars ($10-$20). I’ve referred to all of them for different things”
Recommended for: All Adoptive Families
Jena Also Recommends Together: A Conversation with the Adoption Triad
"I just listened to this amazing podcast by Empowered to Connect that I hope we ALL can listen to because it talks about how adoption culture, Christian culture, regular culture, agencies, etc. view and talk about each member of the adoption triad. I was challenged and enlightened and view our adoption triad in a new light. It brings a lot of awareness to things we may do subconsciously.
Recommended for: Adoption Staff and Families