It's All Relative: Supporting Kinship Connections

Curious about how other jurisdictions encourage kinship care placements? Interested in sparking dialogue in your agency about improving kinship support? Gather your team to watch the recorded 2018 National Foster Care Month webinar, "It’s All Relative: Supporting Kinship Connections," to hear about innovative kinship programs in Ohio and Colorado. Use this discussion guide to lead your team to integrate strategies into practice for immediate improvements and to identify models you can adapt for long-term change. 

The "It’s All Relative: Supporting Kinship Connections" archived webinar brings best practice and research to life through the examples of Ohio and Colorado title IV-E waiver demonstration projects. The presenters share their challenges, successful solutions, resources, and stories of their journeys to making kinship care a first choice when children are unable to safely remain at home. 

The webinar discussion guide (PDF - 160 KB) has activities designed to help agency teams think about how they might adapt models and strategies presented in the webinar. Links in the guide point individuals and teams to additional kinship care resources to use for immediate improvements and long-term, sustainable change.

Who Should Watch?

• Administrators
• Directors
• Foster care managers 
• Kinship care managers
• Community partners 

Who You'll Hear From:

• David Kelly, Children's Bureau (CB)
• Taffy Compain, Foster Care Specialist, CB
• Tim Harless, Director of Community Outreach and Programming, Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services
• Tyler Allen, Title IV-E Waiver Administrator, Colorado Department of Human Services
• Jeannie Berzinskas, Kinship Care and Indian Child Welfare Act Program Administrator, Colorado Department of Human Services

What You'll Learn:

• Strategies and supports that encourage kinship care placements
• Highlights from leaders and families in innovative kinship programs
• Community partnerships and resources that help agencies offer this programming
• Plans for program transition from title IV-E to the Family First Prevention Services Act
• Resources, pathways, and partnership models to sustain strategies
• Financial and well-being outcome data validating strategies

Continuing Education Units

We are pleased to offer social work, clinical psychology, counseling, and marriage and family therapy continuing education units (CEUs) with our recorded webinar. After you have watched the video, you may purchase CEUs. 

* Note: The CEU sponsor, R. Cassidy Seminars, maintains responsibility for its CEU program. For more information on the licensing program and requirements, please visit the sponsor.