Voices of Lived Expertise Virtual Training Series

Join Families Rising for a four-part virtual training series that delves deep into the difficult truths of adoption and the foster care system. Designed to equip professionals and caregivers with essential knowledge and tools, each session is thoughtfully delivered by subject matter experts with lived expertise as adoptees or individuals who spent time in foster or kinship care. All sessions are recorded, and registrants will have access to the recordings for 90 days.

Truth, Healing, and Reconciliation in Indian Child Welfare: Sandy Whitehawk

October 16, 2024
1:00-2:30 pm Eastern time zone (12:00-1:30 pm Central)

Learn about the results of the largest study of mental health outcomes of adoptees and former foster youth. This session also covers preliminary findings from the first study on Native American birth mothers and the process of truth, healing, and reconciliation. We will explore how these insights can address gaps in understanding within the workplace and how to create a plan to provide better support.

Empowering Partnerships: Enhancing Collaboration Between Staff with Lived Expertise and Supervisors in Child Welfare: Phoenix Santiago

November 6, 2024
1:00-2:30 pm Eastern time zone (12:00-1:30 pm Central)

This interactive training provides a deeper understanding of the challenges faced by child welfare staff with lived expertise and is designed to strengthen the collaboration between staff and their supervisors. Backed by the Action Research Project (ARP), we will unearth best practices for both staff and their supervisors focused on wellness, overcoming imposter syndrome, and maintaining professional boundaries. Attendees will receive guidance on effective strategies for supporting staff members, including regular check-ins, advocating for lived expertise, and creating safe workplace environments.

Living in the FASD Lane: Rebecca Tillou

November 12, 2024
1:00-2:30 pm Eastern time zone (12:00-1:30 pm Central)

Gain first hand insight and practical strategies to help children and individuals with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders navigate social boundaries, abstract concepts, and impulsivity so they can discover the driving force within them to enjoy a successful life. Rebecca Tillou will share her journey navigating life with FASD and how she found both professional and personal success.

Navigating Identity: Insights from Lived Experts in Adoption, Foster, and Kinship Care

November 21, 2024
1:00-2:30 pm Eastern time zone (12:00-1:30 pm Central)

Join Families Rising board members as they share their lived expertise as adoptees or individuals who spent time in foster or kinship care. The panel will explore ideas and strategies that caregivers and professionals can use to better support youth as they navigate developing all aspects of their identities including their cultural and racial identities. Panelists—Dr. JaeRan Kim, Jarel Skinner-Melendez, Nathan Ross, and David Simmons—will share personal insights into the strategies that were helpful for them, as well as those they wish had been used during their own journeys. This session is essential for anyone dedicated to understanding and supporting the complex identity development of youth who are adopted or in foster or kinship care.

Speaker Bios

• Sandra White Hawk is a Sicangu Lakota adoptee from the Rosebud Reservation, South Dakota. Sandy has worked tirelessly as a multi-national spokesperson and advocate for adoptees through her work educating caregivers and professionals who serve youth in foster care. She is an Indian Child Welfare consultant and trainer for the Tribal Training Certificate Program at UMD, an organizer of Truth Healing Reconciliation Community Forums, and serves on the boards for the Legal Rights Center of Minneapolis and the Association for American Indian Affairs.
• Phoenix Santiago, MSW (She/Her/Hers) is the Youth Engagement Manager for the New England Association of Child Welfare Commissioners and Directors at the Baker Center. Phoenix facilitates the National Youth Engagement Advisory Council and provides technical assistance to 8 pilot sites in the Quality Improvement Center on Engaging Youth in Finding Permanency (QIC-EY). Phoenix has been engaging youth and lived experts since discovering her passion through her own lived experience and professional interactions within the child welfare ecosystem. Phoenix has experience as frontline worker, program planner and implementer, evaluator, and community organizer.
• Rebecca Tillou is an adult adoptee who navigates life with a Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. Rebecca is a wife, a theater mom, a beagle mama, and has worked as a medical claims adjuster fighting fraud for 10 years. Rebecca is a runner and is the inspiration behind Run FASD which helps to promote awareness of FASD across the world. She is the author of “Tenacity,” an inspirational book about her adoption journey.

PLEASE NOTE: If you are not sent to a confirmation web page after clicking the Submit button, you must review and update the highlighted fields and click submit again. You will receive an immediate email confirmation of your registration.

Rates are in US dollars. (Canadian residents choose “Canadian Currency” as your payment method then follow instructions in your confirmation email).

Minnesotans: Thanks to the Minnesota Department of Human Services, scholarships are available for 100 foster, adoptive, and kinship parents and child welfare professionals from Minnesota to receive the recordings for free. When you register below and the scholarship criteria will appear.