BPNN 2016 Virtual Convening

  • Goals
  • November 3rd
  • November 9th

Virtual Convening Goals

  • Share and learn about new ideas and resources that states and local communities are using to effectively support parent partnerships in policy and systems reforms
  • Develop knowledge and discuss strategies to support parents in speaking with policymakers to shape policies and practices that affect children and families.
  • Hear from keynote speakers on national trends, national initiatives and research about ways parents can share their ideas and develop solutions with staff, key community stakeholders and policymakers on preventive practices and policies that strengthen families and communities.

Watch the Webinar Recording

This convening featured three presentations:

  • Building Resilience in Your Family and Other Families in Your Community
    Presentation begins at 8:29 minutes into the recording
    Presented by Pat Stanislaski
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    Pat Stanislaski

    Pat StanislaskiPat Stanislaski is the Director of Partnering for Prevention, LLC, a consulting firm which provides training in a variety of topics addressing the prevention of child abuse and neglect with a specialty on resilience, and strengthening families and communities. She is also the Senior Consultant with the National Alliance of Children’s Trust and Prevention Funds. In this role she is the lead trainer and curriculum developer for the Alliance’s comprehensive suite of training materials that supports implementation of the Strengthening Families™ Protective Factors Framework in multiple settings. Ms. Stanislaski is frequently called upon to make keynote presentations at state, national and international conferences focusing on children and families.

    Ms. Stanislaski has held many leadership roles. She is the former administrator of the New Jersey Department of Children & Families, a multi-million dollar state entity that provides child abuse and neglect prevention services for children and families. She worked with Prevent Child Abuse New Jersey where she developed the Standards for Prevention Programs curriculum and has trained providers statewide. Ms. Stanislaski is the founder and former Executive Director of the New Jersey Child Assault Prevention (CAP) Project and the National / International Center for Assault Prevention (NCAP / ICAP).

    As the former Director of the Office of Early Childhood Services at the New Jersey Department of Children & Families, she organized, trained and supervised the statewide implementation of Strengthening Families through Early Care & Education (SFECE) in over 180 child care centers and developed the first SFECE Statewide Parent Leadership Teams. She also supervised Statewide Home Visitation programs (Healthy Families, Nurse-Family Partnerships and Parents-As-Teachers) reaching 2,500 families across the state. In addition, under her leadership, her Division was selected as a recipient of the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) Home Visitation grant to develop, initiate and expand infrastructure building using the NJ Comprehensive HV System model.

    Ms. Stanislaski is the former Director of the New Jersey Children’s Trust Fund. She provided leadership and support to 15 programs totaling over $2.5 million in prevention programming statewide. She also supervised the implementation of New Jersey’s Safe Haven Program which, over the years, has resulted in safe harbor for many New Jersey infants.

    , Director, Partnering for Prevention, LLC and Senior Consultant, National Alliance of Children’s Trust and Prevention Funds
    • In this presentation, you have the opportunity to learn more about resilience: how we define it, what we know about it, some scientific connections to resilience and which protective factors encourage or support it in our families and - therefore - in our communities.
  • Building Protective Factors to Strengthen Families and Promote Well-Being: New Tools and Resources
    Presentation begins at 41:14 minutes into the recording
    Presented by Kara Georgi
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    Kara Georgi

    KaraKara Georgi lives in Auburn, New York with her two children and her encouraging husband. After several years of teaching Pre-K to grade 6, she stepped out of the classroom to raise her children. Ms. Georgi currently works as a parent representative for a local group called ABC Cayuga and she co-creates blog posts offering a parent perspective and managing its social media platforms. She is also a parent host for local and statewide Community Cafés and very active in helping families who have children with special needs, specifically with Sensory Processing Disorder. While working with Early Intervention, for one of her children, Ms. Georgi completed multiple Early Intervention Parent trainings and New York State Partners in Policymaking to better educate herself about disability policy and how to share her testimony in a meaningful way. She also recently started working under a federal grant as a Parent Education Specialist for Central New York helping families navigate the special education process.

    In addition, Ms. Georgi is an Alliance Certified Trainer for the in-person protective factors training and she is excited about using the training in her community. She has plans to bring it to one of her local elementary schools this fall and is passionate about strengthening families in her community. Ms. Georgi is an active member of the Birth Parent National Network and the Co-Chair of the Alliance National Parent Partnership Council.

    (NY) and Janae Moss
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    Janae Moss

    Janae MossJanae Moss has experienced parenting on many different levels, including adoption, foster care, step parenting and as mother to her own biological children. All total, she has six daughters and one son. Through the years, she has become increasingly devoted to helping parents get support in every way possible. Through "Help Me Grow," she identified the perfect vehicle for her passion and was excited to help lead as a parent champion. She enjoys spreading the word about the many amazing services available to parents, through her blog (MyMommyStyle.com), educational family events and in the business (Tribalry.com) and non-profit communities. Currently, Ms. Moss serves as a "Parent Champion" of Help Me Grow Utah and is on the executive board of United Way of Utah County. She recently started The Parents Council of Utah, which is a growing group of parents that are being trained in Strengthening Families and in using the Community Café model to lead discussions in their community. Ms. Moss is an active member of the Birth Parent National Network and the Co-Chair of the Alliance National Parent Partnership Council.

    (UT), Alliance National Parent Partnership Council and Birth Parent National Network
    • Presenters will share new tools and ideas for making the protective factors a part of your everyday life. and also discuss supporting and sustaining strong parent partnerships. The ANPPC, works in partnership with the Alliance and Children’s Trust Funds to support and sustain strong parent partnerships in preventing child abuse and neglect. The ANPPC has developed a variety of innovative “Need 2 Know” parent tools and the presenters will discuss how you can use them in your everyday work and in strengthening families and promoting well-being. We also hope to gather your ideas in developing future tools.
  • Implementing Parent Partner Programs to Support Reunification and Introducing the Parent Partner Program Navigator
    Presentation begins at 1:09:16 minutes into the recordiing
    Presented by Corey Best
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    Corey Best

    Corey BestCorey Best is a dedicated, single dad of one son and a well-respected family advocate in Florida. During his early years as a parent, he struggled with substance abuse issues, was unable to care for his child and became involved with the child welfare system. He successfully turned his life around through utilization of various community resources and learned how to build protective factors in his life and today his son is thriving. Mr. Best is a Family Engagement Manager with the Healthy Start Coalition of Flagler and Volusia Counties. Over the past year, he helped developed a parent partner program in his local community. He mentors families with challenges such as substance abuse, domestic violence and mental health issues and helps them to navigate the child welfare system, utilize their parent voices and help them learn to effectively advocate for themselves and their families. He conducts educational sessions on the protective factors, and hosts Community Cafés. He is especially committed to helping fathers involved with the child welfare system gain access to the services and supports they need. He is an active member of the Birth Parent National Network, a Family Consultant with the Center for States and also an Alliance Certified Trainers for the in-person protective factors training. Mr. Best is the recipient of the 2016 Casey Excellence for Children Award.

    (FL) and Denise Moore
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    Denise Moore

    Denise MooreDenise Moore successfully turned her life around and reunified with her five children after overcoming the challenges of substance abuse for many years. What she learned through these difficult experiences motivated her to assist and provide hope to other parents involved with the child welfare system. Today Ms. Moore works as the Des Moines Service Area Parent Partner Coordinator for Children and Families of Iowa. She is also a Family Consultant with the Center for States, certified facilitator for Casey Family Programs Strategic Sharing, a Master Trainer for Building a Better Future, a Trainer for Breaking Barriers: Working More Effectively with Birth Parents (foster parent curriculum), a Family Team Facilitator, and a Youth Transition Decision-Making Team Facilitator for the State of Iowa. She also obtained her Bachelors of Science Degree in Human Services from Upper Iowa University. Ms. Moore is a member of Iowa Child Welfare Advisory Committee, Iowa Children's Justice Advisory Committee, Iowa Cultural Equity Alliance, and the Iowa Statewide Parent Partner Steering Committee. She is also a founding member of the Birth Parent National Network (BPNN). Ms. Moore was awarded the Casey Excellence for Children Birth Parent of the Year Award in 2011. She has gained the admiration of parents, frontline workers and administrators alike as she helps to guide the child welfare system toward improved outcomes for children and families.

    (IA), Birth Parent National Network
    • Parent partner programs are recognized across the country as an effective approach for providing support and mentoring to parents involved with the child welfare system. Presenters will share their experiences in implementing this type of program at the local and statewide levels. Presenters will also introduce participants to the Parent Partner Program Navigator, a web-based tool designed to assist parent partner leaders and child welfare staff and in designing and implementing parent partner programs.

Download the Agenda

Watch the Webinar Recording

Go to the webinar recording

This session focused on four topics:

  • Keynote: Foster Parents and Birth Parents Partnering Together for Public Policy Change; presented by Jennifer Rodriguez, J.D.
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    Jennifer Rodriguez, J.D.

    Jennifer RodriguezJennifer Rodriguez, J.D., is Executive Director of the Youth Law Center (YLC), a position she has held since 2012. As a former foster youth who also spent time in juvenile justice institutions, Jennifer has spent most of her life advocating for changes in systems, and has become recognized for her dedication to reforming systems to centrally focus on the needs of children. Jennifer’s advocacy has resulted in significant national policy, practice and culture changes around the fundamental needs of youth and formally including system involved youth as part of all policy processes. Jennifer works on both child welfare and juvenile justice projects at YLC, with a special focus on ensuring children and youth involved in both systems receive the parenting necessary to heal and thrive and live in conditions that meet their developmental and emotional needs. Before coming to the Youth Law Center, Jennifer served for seven years at the California Youth Connection, a nationally-recognized foster youth advocacy organization, leading efforts resulting in major legislative accomplishments for California foster youth, including stronger educational rights, higher education funding, increased funding for transition services, and promotion of normalcy and permanence for teenagers. Jennifer received her GED from San Jose Job Corps, her BA from UC Davis, and her JD from King Hall School of Law at UC Davis in 2004.

    , Executive Director, Youth Law Center
      Presentation found at 7:22 minutes into webinar recording
    • When foster parents and birth parents partner together, they can have a significant impact in the care and well-being of the children and youth who are placed in out-of-home care. Ms. Rodriguez will discuss the importance of building strong partnerships between foster parents and birth parents to provide quality parenting and nurturance for children and youth in foster and/or kinship care placements. She will also address the important roles that foster parents and birth parents can take on as partners to make powerful public policy change and systems reform for families and communities nationwide. In this presentation, you will have the opportunity to learn more about the Quality Parenting Initiative (QPI) and how Birth Parent National Network (BPNN) parents and QPI foster parents involved in the Quality Parenting Initiative (QPI) will begin working together to make public policy changes for children placed in out-of-home care.
  • Building Healthy Families and Communities through Prevention and Early Intervention Strategies: New Tools and Resources
     Presentation found at 47:35 minutes into webinar recording.
    Presented by Sandra Killett
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    Sandra Killett

    Sandra KillettSandra Killett is a passionate and well-respected Social Justice Organizer and Parent Advocate in New York City who strongly believes in using a strength-based approach in working with families involved in the child welfare system. Her goal is to prevent the unnecessary removal of children from their families and communities. She is a single mother who has raised two sons on her own, who are now 24 and 21 years of age. She dealt with some very difficult challenges when her oldest son was removed from the home for 1.5 years due to behavioral issues and was extremely disappointed when the child welfare system did not first offer her intensive home-based family support services prior to removing her son. Because of her perseverance and strong advocacy skills, she was successful in reuniting with her son. Today, both of her sons are doing well and pursuing their life goals. Ms. Killett is the former Executive Director of Child Welfare Organizing Project and has over 25 years of advocacy and organizing experience in NYC. She has mobilized parents to use their voices to transform the child welfare system and its policies. She has presented on multiple occasions to the Senate Finance Committee, House Ways and Means Committee and to individual policymakers. She serves on numerous boards and committees such as the Community Voices Heard to address socioeconomic issues for families involved with the child welfare system, and the Birth Parent National Network. She established the Undoing Racism Committee to examine racial disproportionality in the child welfare system and she serves on the Disproportionate Minority Representation Committee at the Bronx and Manhattan Family Courts. She received numerous awards including the Casey Excellence for Children Award in 2015 for her leadership and dedication to improving outcomes for families.

    (NY), Corey Best
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    Corey Best

    Corey BestCorey Best is a dedicated, single dad of one son and a well-respected family advocate in Florida. During his early years as a parent, he struggled with substance abuse issues, was unable to care for his child and became involved with the child welfare system. He successfully turned his life around through utilization of various community resources and learned how to build protective factors in his life and today his son is thriving. Mr. Best is a Family Engagement Manager with the Healthy Start Coalition of Flagler and Volusia Counties. Over the past year, he helped developed a parent partner program in his local community. He mentors families with challenges such as substance abuse, domestic violence and mental health issues and helps them to navigate the child welfare system, utilize their parent voices and help them learn to effectively advocate for themselves and their families. He conducts educational sessions on the protective factors, and hosts Community Cafés. He is especially committed to helping fathers involved with the child welfare system gain access to the services and supports they need. He is an active member of the Birth Parent National Network, a Family Consultant with the Center for States and also an Alliance Certified Trainers for the in-person protective factors training. Mr. Best is the recipient of the 2016 Casey Excellence for Children Award.

    (FL) and Jeremiah Donier
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    Jeremiah Donier

    Jeremiah DonierJeremiah Donier is a devoted husband and father who resides in the Greater Seattle area with his wife and two daughters ages 10 and 5 years. When he first became a father, Mr. Donier struggled with very difficult emotional challenges. In December 2005 his oldest daughter was placed in protective custody by child protective services due to allegations of physical abuse, and she remained in foster care for the next 13 months. During his initial involvement with the child welfare system, he states, “I was angry, scared, and overwhelmed because I lacked basic nurturing skills.” Shortly after their daughter was taken, he and his wife became involved in a program that offered wrap-around services, parent training, individual, couples, and group therapy, plus parent-child attachment assessments through the Circle of Security.

    Through participation in intensive counseling and family services, Mr. Donier was able to focus on his own emotional issues (anger, fear and sadness), which were triggered by traumatic memories from his own childhood. His counselor helped him find healthy ways to express his emotional needs, while also learning to care for, and make meaningful connections with his child. When his child was about one year old, he started in-home visits, began to express his feelings of anger more appropriately and learned to nurture his child in new ways. Eventually his child was returned home and the case was closed successfully. Today Mr. Donier inspires other parents in his community to succeed. He became a child welfare advocate with the WA State Parent Ally Committee and helped establish the Spokane Parent Advocacy Network. He is also a strong father advocate and is a trained facilitator in Bringing Back the Dads and the Nurturing Fathers Programs. He is an active member of the Birth Parent National Network.

    (WA), Birth Parent National Network
    • Three Birth Parent National Network members will offer their perspectives and recommendations on key messages to share with policymakers and community leaders about the importance of building healthy families and communities through prevention and early intervention strategies. Participants will have the opportunity to learn about new tools to help raise awareness about the importance of families having access to and be encouraged to use a wide range of community-based options to strengthen their families in a preventative way and to help reduce the number of children entering into foster care. We also hope to gather your ideas for developing future tools.
  • Keeping Families Strong When Substance Abuse is an Issue: New tools and Resources
     Presentation found at 1:11:39 minutes into webinar recording.
    Presented by Sherry Tomlinson
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    Sherry Tomlinson

    Sherry TomlinsonSherry Tomlinson is a devoted mother of one son who resides in Kansas. She started off her career as a child protective services worker and remained in this role for 15 years. During this period of time, she dealt with some very difficult personal issues relating to domestic violence and developed an addiction to drugs. She subsequently left her job, and due to her addiction, her son was removed from her care on two separate occasions by law enforcement and placed in kinship/relative care over the next 6 years. Ms. Tomlinson became actively involved in a recovery program and worked hard to take all necessary steps to get her son back home. Her son was eventually returned home and the hard work of repairing their relationship began. Her son is now an adult and she states that “our relationship is better than it has ever been.” Ms. Tomlinson has been sober for over 16 years. Following the return of her son, she became a strong and well-respected leader and advocate for families. She has served as the chairperson for her county Family Advisory Council which is a local group of concerned parents and family partners that develop strategies to help families with resources, transportation, information and support. She volunteers as a facilitator of a weekly women’s addiction support group at the local jail to help mothers who have lost custody of their children due to drug addiction. She was a founding member along with a dedicated group of other family and community partners who worked on the development of the Kansas State Family Advisory Network. She later served as the President of this advisory network. She has served as a consultant for the National Resource Center for Permanency and Family Connections and is currently a Family Engagement Consultant for the Capacity Building Center for States. She also currently serves as a member of the Birth Parent National Network.

    (KS) and Timothy Phipps
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    Timothy Phipps

    Timothy PhippsTimothy Phipps is a father of a 29-year-old son and a 19-year old-daughter. He is a strong and well-respected father advocate who resides in Portland, Oregon. As a single father, he became involved in the child welfare system because of his alcohol and drug addiction and his inability to provide a safe and healthy environment for his daughter. He successfully turned his life around after participating in intensive inpatient treatment services, a parent support group, numerous parenting classes, relapse prevention, anger management and healthy relationships. He has now been clean and sober for over six years and continues to be actively involved in recovery. He was reunited with his daughter six years ago and is very committed to providing his daughter with a caring and safe home environment. Timothy currently works as a Parent Mentor with Morrison Child and Family Services. In this role, he provides one-on-one mentoring and facilitates a weekly parent support group for fathers involved in the child welfare system to help them regain custody of their children, whenever possible, or rebuild healthy consistent relationships with them. He is a founding member and Co-Chair of the Fathers Advisory Board in Multnomah County and a founding member and Co-Chair of the Parent Advisory Council in the State of Oregon. Timothy also presents at the core training for new child welfare caseworkers. Mr. Phipps is dedicated to making systems changes to help fathers engage in services once they enter the child welfare system. He is strongly committed to “helping fathers learn to advocate for themselves and their children; work to successfully achieve their case plans; build healthy, natural support systems; and become positive role models for their families and communities.” He received the Casey Excellence Award for Children in 2015 for his leadership and dedication to improving outcomes for families. He is a member of the Birth Parent National Network.

    (OR), Birth Parent National Network
    • Two Birth Parent National Network members will highlight a new factsheet that focuses on raising awareness and knowledge of addiction issues from the parent’s perspective and also looks at re-conceptualizing addiction in the context of protective factors. This new resource is designed for use by child welfare practitioners, administrators and service providers to promote the importance of effective substance abuse treatment and prevention services so that families will have access to and be encouraged to engage in a variety of treatment options so their families can remain together, or be reunited if children are already in foster care. Plans are to produce a second factsheet that addresses practice principles to guide work with families experiencing substance abuse issues and to develop some high level policy recommendations. We hope to gather your ideas for developing future resources as well.
  • New Research Topic: A Study on Parent Involvement at an Agency Level in Child Welfare: Perspectives of Parent Partners at Multiple US Sites
     Presentation found at 1:37:52 minutes into webinar recording.
    Presented by Jeri Damman
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    Jeri Damman

    Jeri Damman is a PhD student at the School of Social Welfare, University of Kansas. Her area of interest is parent involvement strategies in child welfare and her dissertation work focuses on the agency-level involvement of birth parents to promote child welfare service improvement and reform. Ms. Damman is a graduate research assistant and has experience teaching at the BSW and MSW Levels. She has over 15 years of direct practice and administrative experience in England and the United States working primarily with high risk families. She has a BSW from KU and MSc from the University of Oxford, England. Ms. Damman is a very active member of the Birth Parent National Network.

    , PhD Candidate, University of Kansas, School of Social Work
    • Ms. Damman will talk about conducting a research project on how birth parents with previous child welfare service experience are being involved at an agency-level as parent partners in child welfare agencies. An example of this agency-level involvement is attendance in meetings, committees, forums, or other events to share the parent perspective in order to improve current child welfare practices and services. It is this agency-level involvement that is the focus of this study. This study will be the first in a developing a research agenda that will begin to build an evidence base for meaningful and effective parent involvement practices beyond the case level. This presentation will provide you with an opportunity to influence this future research agenda and to learn how parent involvement research has the potential to strengthen practice and policy.

Download the Agenda

Watch the Webinar Recording

 

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