Trainings

Looking to help strengthen families in Colorado?
Wanting to create environments where all children thrive?
We’ve got a training just for you.

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Trainings for
Everyone

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Professionals

Trainings for Child
Welfare Professionals

Illuminate Colorado’s trainings cover a range of topics.

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    Protective Factors

    Move from knowledge to action in the community to strengthen families.

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    Sexual Behaviors

    Understand healthy, problematic, and abusive sexual behaviors in children. 

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    Create Safe Spaces

    Get effective strategies for adults to protect children and prevent child abuse.

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    Signs & Behaviors of Child Abuse

    Understand the signs of child abuse in order to intervene and react responsibly.

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    Substance Use

    Learn about the impacts and implications of substance use on families. 

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    Conversation Guidance

    Get comfortable having conversations with families and friends to strengthen families.

In addition to our trainings, Illuminate Colorado also offers mindfulness practices and yoga classes that promote self-awareness and self-management skills for adults, families, professionals, and children.

Trainings for Everyone

Illuminate Colorado works to ensure that every child had a bright childhood. One of the ways we do this is by educating and empowering adults. Our certified staff offer evidence-based trainings and ongoing support to increase Colorado’s capacity to create safe spaces where children can thrive.


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HOPE: Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences
What to Expect When Talking the "Talk"
Lines in the Sand
Stewards of Children®

HOPE: Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences

HOPE offers a paradigm shift in the way practitioners approach their work with families and children, from one that emphasizes deficits and problems, to one that actively seeks out strengths and assets. The course presents background information on the health effects of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and the research showing how key positive childhood experiences (PCEs) prevent and mitigate the effects of ACEs and toxic stress resulting in improved health outcomes.

Training Details

Class Length: 90 Minutes to 2 Hours

Class Format: Live Virtual Training

How to Sign Up for the Training

To register for this training, please contact Missy Berglund at mberglund@illuminatecolorado.org.

Questions?

If you have any questions or would like more information, contact Missy Berglund at mberglund@illuminatecolorado.org.

What to Expect When Talking the "Talk"

This course is designed to support caregivers, parents, educators, and professionals in becoming an askable adult through increased understanding of how to support positive sexual development in toddlers, children and youth. From exploring how development progresses, to knowing how to respond to questions that make you squirm, we will focus on how your role in a child’s life and your influence can impact a child’s sexual development, even before you think it is time for “the TALK.”

You will learn to:

  • be able to identify how their own sense of self influences the messages they share about sexual development.
  • have an accurate understanding of what information is beneficial for youth to have around their sexual development
  • be prepared to have crucial conversations about sexual development

This training is part of the Tipping Point initiative. Learn more about the Tipping Point at TipColorado.org.

Training Details

Class Length: 4 Hours (The training can be delivered as one 4 hour session or as two 2 hour sessions, depending on need.)

Class Format: Live Virtual Training

*In person options available based on trainer availability. Please Contact Sadie for more info.

How to Sign Up for the Training

Check out Illuminate Colorado's event calendar to sign up for an upcoming training.

Not finding any trainings that work for you on the calendar? Reach out and we can help!

Questions?

If you have any questions or would like more information, contact Sadie Rose Pace at space@illuminatecolorado.org.

Lines in the Sand: Identifying and Addressing Boundary Violations

By setting clear boundaries and limits, we can reduce the risk of child sexual abuse. Clear boundaries and limits are something we learn over time, through interaction and accepted patterns of behavior. How do we ensure that when our boundaries, or those of children and youth are violated, we stop a negative pattern of behavior from being normalized? Through education, vigilance and clear communication, we can minimize opportunity for child and youth victimization. This course will increase understanding of your own boundaries and prepare you to set clear expectations that lead to greater community safety.

Illuminate Colorado receives funding from the Colorado Department of Early Childhood to develop a spectrum of trainings to support community members in reducing the prevalence of Child Sexual Abuse. Lines in the Sand: Identifying and Addressing Boundary Violations was developed to add to the spectrum of Child Sexual Abuse prevention courses available in the community. This course provides important context about setting boundaries and identifying behaviors that have been identified within the sexual grooming model.

You will learn to:

  • Recognize important types of boundaries for physical safety
  • Identify grooming behavior patterns that can lead to sexual abuse
  • Respond to boundary violations and articulate clear boundaries and expectations

This training is part of the Tipping Point initiative. Learn more about the Tipping Point at TipColorado.org.

Training Details

Class Length: 2 Hours

Class Format: Live Virtual Training

*In person options available based on trainer availability. Please Contact Sadie for more info.

How to Sign Up for the Training

Check out Illuminate Colorado's event calendar to sign up for an upcoming training.

Not finding any trainings that work for you on the calendar? Reach out and we can help!

Questions?

If you have any questions or would like more information, contact Sadie Rose Pace at space@illuminatecolorado.org.

Stewards of Children®

If enough adults in a community take this FREE two-hour interactive online training then, together, we can create a new standard of child safety in your community and throughout Colorado. Stewards of Children® is an evidence-informed, award-winning two-hour training that teaches adults to prevent, recognize and react responsibly to child sexual abuse.

Created by Darkness 2 Light, and managed in Colorado by Illuminate Colorado, Stewards of Children® is the only evidence-informed, adult-focused child sexual abuse prevention training in the United States proven to increase knowledge and change behavior.

 

You will learn:

  • Simple, effective strategies for protecting children from child sexual abuse.
  • The importance of talking about the prevention of child sexual abuse with children as well as your coworkers and neighbors.
  • The types of situations in which child sexual abuse can occur.
  • Signs of child sexual abuse in order to intervene and react responsibly.
  • Facts about the problem of child sexual abuse in Colorado today.

This training is part of the Tipping Point initiative. Learn more about the Tipping Point at TipColorado.org.

Training Details

Class Length: 2 Hours

Class Format: Live Virtual Training

*In person options are available based on trainer availability. Spanish language classes are also available. Please contact Sadie for more info.

How to Sign Up for the Training

Check out Illuminate Colorado's event calendar to sign up for an upcoming training.

Not finding any trainings that work for you on the calendar? Reach out and we can help!

Questions?

If you have any questions or would like more information, contact Sadie Rose Pace at space@illuminatecolorado.org.

Trainings for Professionals

Whether you are looking to strengthen families in your work or in your community, Illuminate Colorado can support all professionals working with children and families in Colorado.


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Bringing the Protective Factors Framework to Life in Your Work
Youth Thrive
Smart Choices Safe Kids Conversation Guide for Professionals on Substance Use, Children & Families

Bringing the Protective Factors Framework to Life in Your Work

Strengthening Families™ is a research-informed approach to increase family strengths, enhance child development and reduce the likelihood of child abuse and neglect. It is based on engaging families, programs and communities in building five key protective factors.

Created by the Children’s Trust Fund Alliance, this seven course training empowers community members to move from knowledge to action in the community after an in-depth exploration of the Five Protective Factors:

    • Parental Resilience
    • Social Connection
    • Knowledge of Parenting and Child Development
    • Concrete Support in Times of Need
    • Children’s Social and Emotional Competence.
Training Details
Class Length: Typically seven 2-hour sessions, but length of sessions can be adaptable to organizational needs.

Class Format: Live Virtual Training

The Strengthening Families™ approach and protective factors framework was introduced in 2003 by the Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP). The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation funded the original research with CSSP and also funded the Children’s Trust Fund Alliance to engage its network of children’s trust and prevention funds to demonstrate unique and innovative ways to implement the protective factors framework.

This Alliance Training of Trainers curriculum, Bringing the Protective Factors Framework To Life In Your Work, provides experienced trainers with an array of resources for in-person and virtual delivery, with activities and materials to meet diverse training needs and enhance adult learning experiences. The multi-day training offers networking and learning opportunities with other qualified trainers.

As the state intermediary for Bringing the Protective Factors Framework to Life in Your Work, Illuminate supports and coordinates the more than 60 certified trainers across Colorado with technical assistance and mini-grant funding that can be used to support trainer time, child care, food and materials, when available, to promote the Protective Factors in the community.

Bringing the Protective Factors Framework to Life in Your Work Online Curriculum  

Introduction/Strengthening Families™ 101

  • Background information on the Strengthening Families™ Protective Factors approach
  • Introduction of the protective factors framework
  • Strength-based work with families
  • Introduction of the Strengthening Families™ Protective Factors Framework Self-Assessment
  • Appropriate as a stand-alone orientation to the framework

The Five Protective Factors Courses

  • Purpose and learning objectives for each course
  • Definition and explanation of the protective factor
  • Definition and explanation of program strategy (or strategies) and everyday actions
  • Quizzes, activities and reflective questions
  • Real-life parent stories, documenting the power of building protective factors
  • Engaging mix of written text, video and audio examples
  • Individualized Action Plan (IAP) work
  • A direct link in the Websites and Resources section to the Strengthening Families™ Self-Assessment for that protective factor

Moving from Knowledge to Action

  • Recap of the curriculum, using the logic model as a visual summary
  • Introduction to the systems concepts of the Strengthening Families™ “Core Functions” and their ability to impact change at a systems level
  • Review of the user’s portfolio and Individualized Action Plan (IAP)
  • Add user reflections and update the IAP to reflect progress made while completing the curriculum

Learn more and sign up today!

How to Sign Up for the Training
To register for this training, please contact Missy Berglund at mberglund@illuminatecolorado.org.
Questions?
If you have any questions or would like more information, contact Missy Berglund at mberglund@illuminatecolorado.org.

Youth Thrive

Youth Thrive™ helps anyone who has contact with young people ages 11-26 apply new knowledge of adolescence to their interactions with youth.

This training teaches anyone who is concerned about teenagers and young adults a new approach, developed by the Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP), that uses the latest science to identify protective and promotive factors known to increase the likelihood that adolescents can develop into healthy, thriving adults.

Relevant to everyone who works with young people including: public system administrators, supervisors and caseworkers in child welfare, juvenile justice, homeless or mental health agencies, judges and legal advocates, staff at private agencies and nonprofits youth-serving organizations, educators, parents, caregivers, law enforcement and others.

The Youth Thrive training organized into seven modules, delivered over 3-4 days, includes:

    • Context and information on current ideas, best practices and trends in adolescent development.
    • Activities that allow participants to experience and explore the use of new concepts.
    • Reflective exercises to think through how to integrate new ideas into existing programs
      and practices.
Training Details

Class Length:

Class Format: Live Virtual Training

Youth Thrive is a framework that functions as a ‘lens’ for assessing current efforts and for making changes to the policies, programs, training, services, partnerships, and systems that impact young people.

CSSP reviewed and synthesized extensive research on positive youth development, resilience, neuroscience and brain development, stress and the impact of trauma to identify and define these five protective and promotive factors:

Resilience: Managing stress and functioning well when faced with challenges.

Social Connections: Having healthy, lasting relationships with people, places, and communities.

Knowledge of Adolescent Development: Understanding the unique changes and assets of adolescence; implementing youth-friendly policies and practices.

Concrete Support in Times of Need: Making sure youth receive high-quality, equitable, respectful services to meet basic needs (e.g., physical & mental health care, housing, legal services, education, nutrition, income); learning self-advocacy or leadership skills.

Cognitive and Social-Emotional Competence: Acquiring communication and thinking skills and attitudes to form an interdependent and positive identity.

The overarching goal of the Youth Thrive framework is to achieve positive outcomes by mitigating risk and enhancing healthy development and well-being of young people. Illuminate supports and coordinates with youth-serving programs across Colorado with technical assistance and mini-grant funding that can be used to support trainer time, child care, food and materials, when available, to promote the Protective Factors in the community. 

How to Sign Up for the Training

Check out Illuminate Colorado's event calendar to sign up for an upcoming training.

Not finding any trainings that work for you on the calendar? Reach out and we can help!

Questions?

If you have any questions or would like more information, contact Missy Berglund at mberglund@illuminatecolorado.org.

Smart Choices Safe Kids Conversation Guide for Professionals on Substance Use, Children & Families

The Smart Choices Safe Kids Conversation Guide Conversation Guide for Professionals on Substance Use, Children & Families is a tool for professionals to provide direction on strengths-based conversations with families on substances and substance use, including sections on safe storage, safe and engaged caregiving and the Strengthening Families Protective Factors.

This virtual 4-hr training includes video vignettes, interactive activities and opportunities to practice universal, transparent conversations about safety. Training participants will receive safe-storage bags and family handouts in English and Spanish as well as a copy of this Smart Conversation Guide.

Training Details

Class Length: 4 Hours

Class Format: Live Virtual Training

This training for family strengthening and child maltreatment prevention professionals working in governmental and community-based organizations in early childhood, public health, home visitation and family support programs supports professionals in starting and continuing their conversations with families to strengthen child and family well-being. 

The training addresses the proper utilization of the Smart Choices Safe Kids Conversation Guide and explores stigma, bias, boundaries, screening tools and resource/referral options.

Following the training, participants will have access to all course materials and ongoing consultation with Illuminate Colorado.

How to Sign Up for the Training

Check out Illuminate Colorado's event calendar to sign up for an upcoming training.

Not finding any trainings that work for you on the calendar? Reach out and we can help!

Questions?

If you have any questions or would like more information, contact Jason Read at jread@illuminatecolorado.org.

Trainings for Child Welfare Professionals

In partnership with the Kempe Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Children and the Colorado Department of Human Services, Illuminate Colorado offers a variety of courses for caseworkers and supervisors on child welfare practice and family engagement through the Colorado Welfare Training System (CWTS).

You can access multiple web-based trainings and easily search for upcoming sessions of seminars to meet your learning needs at coloradocwts.com.


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CWTS Full Day Trainings

All Families Have Strengths
Impacts and Implications of Prenatal Substance Exposure
Building Safety When Parents Use Substances
Enhancing Practice With Families Impacted by Substance Use
Marijuana, Children and Families
Supporting Families When Children and Youth Display Problematic Sexual Behaviors
Harnessing Protective Factors With Families
The Birds, The Bees and The Stork
Ensuring Colorado Youth Thrive

All Families Have Strengths

Approaching families from a strength based perspective is crucial to our work and impact on the well-being of families. Knowing and understanding what strengths actually create protection for children is more difficult to operationalize. Knowing how to identify relevant family strengths can be even more difficult when we all have implicit bias. 

Through the use of the Center for the Study of Social Policies Protective Factor Framework, workers are able to talk in depth about the strengths that are already present. Workers will be able to identify the five protective factors, the behaviors associated with each, and simple ways to support families in harnessing them to minimize risk.

Questions? Contact Missy Berglund at mberglund@illuminatecolorado.org.

Impacts and Implications of Prenatal Substance Exposure

This interactive one-day classroom course is designed to give you a better understanding of the impacts of prenatal exposure to substances on a fetus, an infant, a child and an adolescent.

You’ll cycle through six stations, gaining knowledge about how different substances specifically affect development, and you’ll categorize nine brain processes and associated behaviors that may be affected by prenatal exposures to understand the impacts on children and youth throughout their lifetime.

Through hands-on activities, you will apply your learnings directly to case scenarios to give you opportunities to consider the application to your practice.

Upon completion of this course, you will comprehend the short- and long-term impacts on brain development and functioning, as well the unique challenges associated with maternal substance abuse and the implications for child safety. Additionally, you will be armed with knowledge to identify children and adolescents who have experienced prenatal substance exposure and the confidence to move forward with these cases.

Questions? Contact Jason Read at jread@illuminatecolorado.org.

Building Safety When Parents Use Substances

This interactive one-day classroom course gives you the foundation you will need in order to identify when substance use is impacting child safety. You’ll also learn how to build a consistent response when working with families impacted by substance use.

A best-practice response is contingent upon familiarity with the dynamics of substance use, abuse, and addiction. So we’ll familiarize you with those dynamics and give you the opportunity to consider the impacts of substance use on child welfare practice—from screening to assessment to an ongoing case. You’ll leave informed and equipped to enhance safety-building practices with families when substance use is a factor.

Questions? Contact Jason Read at jread@illuminatecolorado.org.

Enhancing Practice With Families Impacted by Substance Use

Assessing for risk and safety when parental substance use is present can be complex and calls for increased comfort in talking with families about their substance use and possible impacts on children. 

This interactive two-day training, suitable for new caseworkers, experienced caseworkers, and supervisors alike, offers advanced skill building. Teams or units are also invited to attend together. We’ll combine instruction with an emphasis on sharing successes and overcoming challenges through practical experiences and live simulations with professional actors.

Questions? Contact Jason Read at jread@illuminatecolorado.org.

Marijuana, Children and Families

Colorado is one of only a few states in the nation to have enacted laws allowing both medical and recreational marijuana use and cultivation. As our state embarks on this path, it is critical that those of us who work in child welfare be well informed. In order to make the best decisions regarding the safety of and risks to children, we need to understand both the laws and the possible hazards marijuana poses to children. 

In this classroom course, you’ll engage in scenario-based learning and discussion of the complexities inherent in this changed legal landscape. The knowledge and skills you acquire in this learning experience will help guide your decision making in difficult cases and assist in individualized case planning with families to build child safety and promote healthy families. Through this course, you’ll start to recognize your own values and beliefs about marijuana, enhance your competencies for responding to challenging situations, and leverage existing knowledge and practice approaches.

Questions? Contact Jason Read at jread@illuminatecolorado.org.

Supporting Families When Children and Youth Display Problematic Sexual Behaviors

When children or youth engage in problematic sexual behavior, developing a plan to support the child and family can be complicated. In this course, learners will gain an understanding of what constitutes problematic sexual behavior, how to recognize it, and how to support families before and after adjudication.

This interactive one-day classroom course will explore complex situations to safely analyze common concepts and practices, including 24/7 line of sight, informed supervision, and working within a treatment team.

Questions? Contact Jason Read at jread@illuminatecolorado.org.

Harnessing Protective Factors With Families

Knowing and understanding how the protective factors are applicable within our work with families means creating better outcomes for families. This class will build on All Families Have Strengths and give workers the opportunity to practice how they will support families as they identify and build their protective factors. By increasing our capacity to integrate family centered coaching techniques into our work with families, we can transform the experience of families involved and become partners.  

Through self-reflection and practice, workers will deepen their capacity to connect with families seeking to actively build their resilience, knowledge and ability to enact the protective factors and capacities with the children in their lives.

Questions? Contact Missy Berglund at mberglund@illuminatecolorado.org.

The Birds, The Bees and The Stork

Talking about sexual development and sexuality doesn’t have to be awkward or difficult. In this interactive one-day classroom course facilitated by Illuminate Colorado, learners will gain an increased understanding of healthy sexual development in children and youth. 

Through activities and discussion, learners will be able to identify developmentally expected behaviors and distinguish those from concerning behaviors. As part of the course, learners will explore how to do the following:

  • Create and promote healthy boundaries and structures,
  • Talk about sexuality with various audiences, including children, youth, and caregivers, and
  • Make informed decisions to promote healthy sexual development and prevent concerning behaviors.

Questions? Contact Jason Read at jread@illuminatecolorado.org.

Ensuring Colorado Youth Thrive

Of the three child welfare pillars, the well-being of children and youth is often neglected. Yet young people who have emerged from their experience in this system say it is the most crucial to them. Focusing more intentionally on the social, emotional, behavioral, physical, and spiritual health of youth requires valuing their hopes and aspirations and understanding the impact of trauma (including trauma from racism, from the rejection of an individual’s sexual orientation, gender expression, or gender identity, or from other oppressive beliefs, policies, and practices that harm youth and families).

Virtual Training Seminar

Training Hours: 6.5

Classroom Training Length: 1 Day

Recommended Prerequisite: All Families Have Strengths

Target Audience: Caseworkers, GALs, Resource Parents, Community Partners

In this Youth Thrive training, developed by a national team that includes members with lived experience in the foster system, you’ll learn the Youth Thrive Framework, which helps professionals assist youth to take advantage of opportunities, pursue their interests, and find support when challenges arise. You’ll encounter tools for working with youth who have high levels of traumatic stress and complex trauma, and you’ll leave this learning experience confident you know what’s needed to support the developmental needs of young people and how to maximize their opportunities for productive and healthy lives.

Questions? Contact Missy Berglund at mberglund@illuminatecolorado.org.

CWTS ECHO Trainings

ECHO: In Depth With Substance Use
ECHO: Infant Early Childhood Mental Health
ECHO: The Opioids Crisis
ECHO: What Fathers Face in Child Welfare
ECHO: Trauma-Informed Yoga Series for Child Welfare Professionals
ECHO: A Closer Look at Sexually Acting Out Youth

ECHO: In Depth With Substance Use

In this virtual series of six 60-minute case-based learning experiences, you’ll explore the following:
  • Indications of substance use and how to identify substances, paraphernalia, and a person under the influence
  • What drug tests really reveal—and the complications associated with interpreting test results
  • Treatment evaluations and the importance of supporting families in accessing the right level of treatment at the right time
  • Facts and myths about medication-assisted treatment
  • Approaches for supporting families in recovery and working to prevent relapse
  • Various decision points in the life of a child welfare case and how to assess and ensure for parental capacity at each point

Questions? Contact Missy Berglund at mberglund@illuminatecolorado.org.

ECHO: Infant Early Childhood Mental Health

Infant early childhood mental health—whether typical or disrupted—has lifelong implications for a child’s capacity to relate to their environment.

In this series of five 60-minute interactive ECHO sessions, you’ll expand your knowledge and understanding of issues related to early childhood mental health.

You’ll explore how brain development, attachment, and toxic stress affect children, and you’ll consider how negative impacts can be mitigated, including resilience building and where child welfare practice can intervene to support families.

Questions? Contact Missy Berglund at mberglund@illuminatecolorado.org.

ECHO: The Opioids Crisis

Infant early childhood mental health—whether typical or disrupted—has lifelong implications for a child’s capacity to relate to their environment.

In this series of five 60-minute interactive ECHO sessions, you’ll expand your knowledge and understanding of issues related to early childhood mental health.

You’ll explore how brain development, attachment, and toxic stress affect children, and you’ll consider how negative impacts can be mitigated, including resilience building and where child welfare practice can intervene to support families.

Questions? Contact Missy Berglund at mberglund@illuminatecolorado.org.

ECHO: What Fathers Face in Child Welfare

When it comes to parenting, fathers can sometimes get a bad rap. From exaggerated father archetypes in film and television—aggressive, abusive, emotionally unavailable dads and absent fathers—to bias around gender roles and social norms, fathers are not always set up to succeed. But the positive impact of male caregivers and father figures in the lives of their children is undeniable.

Through six intimate conversations with Colorado fathers, leading researchers, and fatherhood program practitioners, you’ll explore how bias toward dads can show up in child welfare outcomes and active ways to shift outcomes toward lasting well-being for children and youth.

You’ll learn how to better engage and support fathers in the following sessions:

Benefit of Fathers in Child Development. The vast majority of fathers are present in their children’s lives and their positive impact over the lifespan can’t be overstated. Explore how you can support fathers in creating the unique developmental impacts they are best at.

Anti-Father Bias in Action: One Father’s Experience. Hear from fathers who fought to be involved in their children’s child welfare cases and what they saw that caused them to make fatherhood engagement their passion. Hear how they continue to support fathers that are in the very situation they once found themselves in and how workers can change their life trajectory.

Building Protective Factors with Fathers. Protective factors reduce the likelihood of abuse and neglect in all families. Explore how workers can overcome the power imbalance and impact of social norms fathers frequently face when attempting to build the protective factors in their own lives.

Parenting Time and Courts. Many parents are unsure of the role of existing parenting time plans when child welfare enters their lives. Hear from fatherhood advocates about how building meaningful parenting time plans is crucial for children.

Navigating Child Support. Child Support Services statewide include fatherhood-specific programming that often aligns with components of child welfare case plans. Hear strategies to build and leverage cross-program collaboration to achieve timely reunification and lasting permanency.

Creating Father-Friendly Experiences in Child Welfare Settings. Shifting the experiences fathers have when working with child welfare systems takes practice. Explore how counties statewide have made small shifts to create big impact. From outreach to decision making, caseworker relationship building with fathers is achievable and possible through intentional action.

Questions? Contact Missy Berglund at mberglund@illuminatecolorado.org.

ECHO: Trauma-Informed Yoga Series for Child Welfare Professionals

Secondary traumatic stress is a typical experience among child welfare professionals, and burnout is not uncommon. You can mitigate the impacts of stress and be at your best in the field when you rely on self-care strategies that work for YOU—practices that bolster your resilience and promote your overall well-being. This uniquely structured Zoom-based learning series will set you up with proven techniques for reducing stress across all areas of your life, professional and personal.

In five 90-minute sessions, led by a certified yoga instructor who is a former child welfare caseworker, you’ll learn research-based, trauma-informed yoga and mindfulness practices. Each class starts with 30 minutes geared toward learning; then you’ll spend 60 minutes putting your learning into practice on the mat.

Each session has its own focus:

  • Defining yoga and its benefits
  • The nervous system
  • Self-awareness
  • Postures, breathing, and mindfulness
  • Establishing a routine to prevent stress and manage symptoms

Over five weeks, you’ll both experience AND create the kind of supportive organizational climate that can help alleviate burnout: one that promotes peer relationships, normalizes asking for and receiving help, offers supports for secondary trauma, uses a trauma-informed lens to better support the workforce, and integrates self-care plans for all staff.

No prior experience with yoga is necessary. All yoga and postures are optional, as there is an overall focus on self-care and taking care of one’s body.

Important disclosure: This course requires learners to sign liability waivers in order to register due to the physical demands of the course. This course is taught via Zoom from a privately owned yoga studio, which will also require learners to sign a liability waiver.

Questions? Contact Sarah Crisafi at scrisafi@illuminatecolorado.org.

ECHO: A Closer Look at Sexually Acting Out Youth

Through 5, 1-hour sessions, learners will take a closer look at the impacts and implications of child sexual abuse, with an emphasis on youth offenders.

Starting with a shared understanding of sexual abuse, and an exploration of treatment options, learners will then take a dive into cultural, generational and Trauma Informed Safety Planning. Sexual abuse can impact generations within families. To conclude the series, learners will explore supports for parents and caregivers who were sexually abused as children as this can often impact the support of the children involved in current cases.

Questions? Contact Missy Berglund at mberglund@illuminatecolorado.org.

CWTS Web-Based Trainings

ACES: What’s in a Score
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder
Legalized Marijuana: Considerations for Child Safety
Plans of Safe Care
The Substance Use Puzzle: Putting Together the Pieces
The Toxicology Resource Guide: An Online Resource for Child Welfare Professionals

ACES: What’s in a Score

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are traumatic events occurring before age 18 and include all types of abuse and neglect, as well as parental mental illness, substance use, divorce, incarceration, and domestic violence. The repeated stress of these experiences has proven effects on the development of the brain, with the impact occurring over a lifetime. People who experienced high levels of trauma as children are at a much higher risk for health issues, such as heart disease and lung cancer. The long-term impact of adverse childhood experiences gained wider acceptance through the landmark CDC-Kaiser Permanente ACE Study.

In this interactive Web-based training, you’ll explore the study and lessons learned. You’ll also gain an understanding of how toxic stress can impact brain development and, in turn, long-term health and well-being outcomes. Furthermore, you will begin to explore prevention and intervention strategies to help mitigate the impact of ACEs.

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) affect nearly 30 percent of children and youth in the foster care and adoption system and 15 to 25 percent of those in the juvenile justice system. Do you know how to support children, youth, and families who are impacted by them?

This Web-based training, with customized content for both caseworkers and caregivers, explores the research around the impacts of fetal alcohol exposure and how FASD affects behavior and functioning. You’ll examine what FASD looks like to adults and think about what it feels like to an affected child or youth. Using case scenarios, you’ll explore practical strategies and interventions for supporting these children and youth at home, in school, and in the community.

Whether you’re a caregiver or a caseworker, your involvement with children or youth with FASD will be even more successful when you hone the skills for supporting them in managing their behavior and negotiating their daily life and know how to access community resources and specialized services.

Legalized Marijuana: Considerations for Child Safety

The legalization of marijuana for both medical and recreational use in Colorado has brought with it many questions about its impact on children and families. In this interactive learning experience, learners will explore to what extent marijuana use or cultivation may affect child safety. 

This web-based training 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.

Plans of Safe Care

Training Hours: 1

Target Audience: hotline workers, hotline supervisors, hospital mandatory reporters

The birth of a new baby is a joyous occasion—but it is also a critical time for infants who are affected by prenatal substance exposure and for their caregivers. Plans of Safe Care is an interactive learning experience for hospital mandatory reporters and screeners who are vital to the creation of plans of safe care. These plans lay the foundation for the family’s immediate and future safety and well-being.

Through this self-paced Web-based training, learners will come to:

  • recognize the prevalence of prenatal substance exposure,
  • understand the impacts of such exposure on infants and the affected caregivers—both in the short and longer term,
  • summarize the federal requirements related to plans of safe care for infants affected by substance use or withdrawal symptoms and their caregivers, and
  • enhance their practice related to this requirement when they make or field mandatory reporter calls to child welfare.

The Substance Use Puzzle: Putting Together the Pieces

Issues of substance use and abuse within families can be a complex puzzle. Its various pieces—a family’s struggles, needs, strengths, and supports—cohere to form a unique picture of the impact of substance use on parental functioning and parenting capacity. Through this interactive web-based training, learners will better understand all of the pieces of this puzzle and how they fit together. 

Learners will gain insight into the different substances of use/abuse and their effects, the role of drug testing, the science of addiction, and substance use treatment. And they’ll explore how all of these connect to reveal the impact of substance use on children and families.

The Toxicology Resource Guide: An Online Resource for Child Welfare Professionals

Training Hours: 0.5
Target Audience: caseworkers, supervisors, managers
This Web-based video module is designed to help caseworkers learn about the Toxicology Resource Guide. The Toxicology Resource Guide is an online resource developed to support Colorado child welfare professionals in understanding substances, possible effects, and the utility and application of toxicology testing to enhance practice.

This guide can also help in determining the following:

  • What substance a caregiver might be using
  • Signs and symptoms associated with substance use
  • How long a substance might be in a caregiver’s system
  • Possible health impacts from prenatal use and breastfeeding
  • If a toxicology test is warranted:
    • Which test
    • How to be fiscally responsible
    • What toxicology results may or may not tell us

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