Contract Education currently manages contracts with social services agencies in three counties, Alameda, Solano and Mendocino, to provide child welfare staff training and support. The programs are underwritten by a grant under Title IV-E of the Social Security Act, which provides funds to the states for child welfare services.
Our Foster Care Training website features a monthly schedule of courses offered free of charge to foster and adoptive care providers by our Alameda County, Mendocino County and Solano County partner organizations that specialize in working with foster and adoptive care children and their families. The courses are designed to empower foster and adoptive care providers with tools to support the vital services they deliver.
Alameda County partner organizations include A Better Way, Alternative Family Services, Family Paths, First Place for Youth, Fred Finch Youth Center, Lincoln Child Center, Seneca Family of Agencies, Sunny Hills Services, UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland’s Center for the Vulnerable Child and Early Intervention Services, and WestCoast Children’s Clinic.
Mendocino County partner organizations include First 5 Mendocino, Mendocino County Youth Project and Redwood Community Services.
Solano County partner organizations include A Better Way, Aldea Children & Family Services, Alternative Family Services and Seneca Family of Agencies.
Training participants can choose from a wide variety of courses designed to offer important tools to support the vital serves they provide, including:
- Professionalism: Ethics and Professional Boundaries
- How to be Culturally Aware when Working with Youth in Care
- Sexual Harassment Prevention
- HIPAA
- Introduction to Cultural Accountability in Service to Children in Foster Care
- Community-based Approaches for Working with Youth and Families
- Mandated Reporting
- Endings, Transitions, Termination, and Closure
- Crisis Management and De-Escalation While Working with Youth in Foster Care
- Domestic Violence and the Impact on Young Children
- Overview of Working with Youth in Foster Care in a Certified Foster Home
- Identifying the Effects of Child Abuse on the Brain When Working with Youth in Foster Care
The department maintains a Foster Care Training website to provide curriculum and registration information to training participants.
