2004: Everyday Heroes
Workshop Period 1 • 10:30-12:00 Noon
1. Supporting Your Child's Grief - Ways to help adopted and foster children work through grief and the pain of loss. Support for parents' own emotional reactions to children's losses. Deborah Gray
2. "Adoption Now": Partnership for Permanency - A partnership to achieve the adoptions of thousands of NYS foster children: the vision, the goals, the progress, the future. Janet Fink, Office of Court Administration; Jeanette Ruiz, NYC Administration for Children's Services; Cheryl Larrier and Maryjane Link, NYS Office of Children and Family Services
3. The Right to Information: What Are the Limits? - The laws governing access to identifying and non-identifying information for adoptees, and how the Adoption Information Registry works. Peter Carucci, NYS Department of Health; John Stupp, NYS Office of Children and Family Services
4. Facilitating Interjurisdictional Placements - Exploring the barriers to adoptive placements across state and county lines, and how they can be overcome. Madelyn Freundlich, Children's Rights, Inc.
5. Hip Hop Culture: A Consideration in Permanency Planning - Understanding this cultural phenomenon, its influence on today's youth, their values, attitude, sexuality, relationships, language, and dress. Sheila Malone, Scott McLaughlin, and Dave Bomar, National Resource Center for Special Needs Adoption
Workshop Period 2 • 1:45-3:15 p.m.
6. Working with Complicated Children - Understanding challenges to the development of children who have endured maltreatment and trauma. Ways to foster positive identity and encourage emotional growth. Deborah Gray
7. The Adoptive Family Grows Up - A long view on the impact of adoption, and the developmental stages of adoptive families. Maris Blechner, Family Focus Adoption Services
8. What Do Foster Parents Want? - New findings from a statewide survey of NYS foster parents and caseworkers, concerning support and training needs. Renee Hallock, NYS Office of Children and Family Services, Moderator; Carol VanValkenburg, Professional Development Program SUNY Albany; Jere Wrightsman, Center for Development of Human Services.
9. Empowered Transition: Theory, Practice, and Models - Part I - Successful techniques for moving children into adoptive families, with an emphasis on the decision-making role of the child. Jack Brennan and Tito del Pilar, Family Focus Adoption Services
10. Demystifying Suicide - A parent and mental health professional shares the journey through suicide to recovery, including a discussion of risk factors and strategies for prevention. Brian Barr, NYS Office of Children and Family Services
Workshop Period 3 • 3:35-5:05 p.m.
11. Relaxing the Grip of Anxiety and Control - How to help children who use controlling behaviors due to high degrees of anxiety, and assist them to develop healthy patterns of behavior. Deborah Gray
12. Mediation for Child Permanency - A discussion of NYS's mediation pilot projects, how they developed, how to access the service, and how to develop a program in your community. Frank Woods, NYS Unified Court System
13. Foster Parent to Adoptive Parent: Speeding the Process - From deciding to adopt through finalization, how the law and casework practice interconnect to support families through the process and speed adoptions. Michael Neff
14. Empowered Transition: Theory, Practice, and Models - Part II
Continuation of Workshop #9. Successful techniques for moving children into adoptive families, with an emphasis on the decision-making role of the child. Jack Brennan and Tito del Pilar, Family Focus Adoption Services
15. The Adoption Option for Teens - An innovative model program to achieve permanency for foster care youth ages 14-21, featuring an adolescent permanency specialist, an adoption mentoring program, and much more! Barry Chaffkin, April Dinwoodie, and Doris Laurenceau, Harlem Dowling-Westside Center for Children and Family Services
Workshop Period 4 • 8:30-9:50 a.m.
16. Shrink Tank Part I: Recognizing Problems -The ten hallmark behavior problems seen in foster and adopted children from troubled backgrounds, including exposure to child abuse, neglect, and sexual exploitation. Richard Delaney
Link to Foster Parent College on-line Training
17. Tackling the Tough Issues - Ways to explain difficult birth family history to children in honest and age-appropriate ways. Maris Blechner, Family Focus Adoption Services
18. Issues of Open Adoption - Considering or managing an open adoption and meeting a child's needs now and in the future. Sue Badeau
19. NYS Parent Groups: Models of Success - Parent group leaders share strategies for working cooperatively with agencies and developing and strengthening services for foster and adoptive parents. Panel. Susan Collins, NYS Citizens' Coalition for Children, Moderator; Jeanette Lomando, Foster Parent Advisory Council of Suffolk County; Anne Marie Purdy, Dare to Care Foster & Adoptive Parents Association of Broome County; Millanese Williams, Onondaga County Foster & Adoptive Parents Association
20. How Are We Doing? An Update on NYS's PIP - A report on NYS's progress in implementing its Program Improvement Plan to provide better service for children and families. Larry Brown, NYS Office of Children and Family Services
Workshop Period 5 • 10:05-11:25 a.m.
21. Shrink Tank Part II: Understanding Problems - Deciphering the "language" of problem behaviors through the use of six keys to understanding emotional age, emotional flash points, living history, body-mind issues, emotional ties, and mental blueprint of the world. Richard Delaney
22. Handling the Dragons (Stress) in Our Lives: How to keep stress from managing us. Practical advice for leashing the dragons and keeping them in their place. Maris Blechner, Family Focus Adoption Services
23. Challenges of Blended Families - Issues that surface in families with both birth and adopted or foster children. Ways to balance the needs of all the children in the family. Sue Badeau
Preparing ALL of Your Family for Adoption
Talking to Kids About Open Adoption
24. Permanency Options for Teens in Group Care - The results of a major study of teens in group care, with a focus on permanency and transitioning from foster care. Madelyn Freundlich, Children's Rights, Inc.
25. AdoptUSKids: "Answering the Call" - Announcing NYS's plan for participation in AdoptUSKids' new national adoptive and foster parent recruitment campaign! Marc Minick, NYS Office of Children and Family Services; Rachel Pratt, NYC Administration for Children's Services; Judith Ashton, NYS Citizens' Coalition for Children; Mary Lou Edgar, AdoptUSKids
Workshop 6 • 11:40-1:00 p.m.
26. Shrink Tank Part III: Dealing with Problems - Strategic approaches to dealing with hallmark behavior problems through the use of the six keys to understanding. How to arrive at strategies that work. Richard Delaney
27. Birth Parents Speak - Parents whose children are or were in foster care share their experiences, and the things they'd like to see changed. Panel
28. NY's Longest Waiting Children - Successful strategies and an overview of lessons learned from a federally-funded project to find homes for foster children who wait the longest for adoptive families. Anne Furman and Sue Badeau, NYS Office of Children & Family Services
29. Resolving a Crisis Before It Gets Out of Hand - How to help children manage their own behaviors in escalating situations. Some reasons why children may "lose it." Andrea Mooney, Cornell University Law School
30. Education Issues and Options - Advocating for a child with special needs in the educational setting, and a look at entitlements, evaluation, special ed issues, and Medicaid waivers. Tina Beauparent and Mary Jo Hebert, Parent to Parent of New York State
