training

Illinois teachers and others who look after children in a nonparental role may soon have to be taught how to recognize and eliminate their own racial and ethnic biases as mandated reporters of potential child abuse and neglect.

Direct care staff who work with youth are our most immediate front line of support for youth who require additional adult intervention in school-based and residential environments. However, through no fault of their own, these individuals are on average the most undertrained, undersupervised, underpaid and seemingly undervalued paid professionals our youth come in contact with.

Two federally funded training programs on adoption and guardianship competency are now available for free to help professionals involved in finding permanent homes for children who the courts have ruled cannot return to their parents.

Los Angeles County leaders want more probation officers to pursue social work degrees, and more social workers to pursue careers in probation. A motion approved by a 5-0 vote of the county’s Board of Supervisors on Tuesday ordered the study of a plan to incentivize the pursuit of social work degrees by probation staff, along with recommendations for recruiting more degree-holding social workers into the department.

A new program has been announced that is designed to help juvenile justice leaders rethink what their probation services look like and how it interacts with young people. The Transforming Juvenile Probation certificate program will be November 4-8 in Washington, D.C.

In 2013, more than 20,000 teens and young adults in Los Angeles received services through Youth@Work’s Work-Based Learning Program, which provides youth in the county with subsidized work experiences and trainings.

In the past two years, the Baltimore-based Annie E. Casey Foundation piloted a curriculum aimed at training frontline and mid-level juvenile justice managers on youth development, a strategy focused on building the assets of youth and families (as opposed to just seeking to address deficits).

Due to their emotional vulnerability and lack of general stability, children involved with the child welfare system are more likely to be targeted by human traffickers, according to a recent report from the Children’s Bureau.

In “California Bill Aims to Create Better Foster Homes,” Holden Slattery reports on new legislation (AB 507) that would require social workers to help foster parents develop training plans tailored to the needs of the children in their homes.