Support Group Leaders

There are many foster, adoptive and kinship support groups held throughout Iowa. Those support groups would not exist without the hard work and dedication of the support group leaders. IFAPA provides support to the support group leaders in the following ways:

 

How to Make Your Support Group an IFAPA Affiliate

IFAPA will provide a grant in the amount of $100 to new foster/adoptive/kinship support groups when they become an affiliate and $100 per year thereafter, as funds allow. Applications received after November 30, 2010 will receive a $50 grant and can can apply for the full grant amount in the next fiscal year (after July 1st). The affiliate must complete an application every year in order to continue receiving funding.

If you would like to receive a support group grant and take advantage of IFAPA's support group resources, please complete the AFFILIATE APPLICATION and print off a copy of our SUPPORT GROUP AFFILIATE RESPONSIBILITIES.

 

IFAPA Staff Are Here to Help You Make Your Support Group a Success!

Once you have become an IFAPA-affiliated support group, here's a list of ways IFAPA can help you with your support group:

 

Support Group Listserv

IFAPA maintains a listserv exclusively for support group leaders across the state to connect and exchange information. The listserv is available to share ideas, provide notice of events and training opportunities, and to ask and respond to questions about support group facilitation. All members have the opportunity to post information or questions. Members also have the opportunity to share their expertise by answering questions or responding to information submitted by other listserv members.

IFAPA staff member Nancy Magnall is the listserv moderator. All postings come to her for approval and she forwards them to the other members of the group. If you are in a leadership role with a foster/adoptive parent support group and would like to become a member of the IFAPA support group listserv, send an e-mail to magnall_ifapa@yahoo.com and you will be added to the membership list.


Support Group Training Opportunities

IFAPA offers training opportunities to assist support group leaders plan for upcoming support group meetings. Some trainings are lead by an instructor provided by IFAPA and some are DVD/VHS trainings. Each of the following trainings have been approved for foster parent credit. To schedule one of these trainings for a support group, contact the IFAPA Training Coordinator, Jesica Culp, at jculp@ifapa.org or 800-277-8145 ext. 2. To have your support group training posted on the IFAPA website, complete this form.

INSTRUCTOR-LED TRAININGS BY IFAPA:

Each course has been approved for 2 hours of foster parent credit.

Confidentiality Training
This training is available to support groups in certain areas of the state. It provides an overview of Iowa’s Confidentiality Laws, Best Practices for Foster Parents, Penalties for Breaching Confidentiality and Liability Issues. Participants will learn about foster parents rights and responsibilities regarding confidentiality, as well as attaining and releasing information.

Building Bridges: Helping Your Foster or Adoptive Child Succeed in School
Obtaining a good, basic education is essential to living an independent fulfilled life. Yet many children reach adulthood without this important ingredient for success. For a variety of reasons, children who are in foster care or who have been adopted often face extra educational challenges.

Basic Educational Advocacy
This module will give you the basic information you need to be a better educational advocate for your foster/adoptive child. You will learn the importance of educational advocacy for all children, but especially for foster/adopted children. You’ll also learn how to create relationships with school staff and others who can help; how to communicate your ideas in ways that allow others to understand them; how to be manage student records and be prepared for meetings; and how to find resources, support and help for your child.

Building on Strengths: Training Modules (9 topics to choose from)

Boundaries
This training will teach you to:

Professional Relationships
This training will teach you to:

Placement Practices
This training will teach you to:

The Foster Family's System
This training will teach you to:

Behavioral Emergencies
In this training you will learn to:

Documentation
In this training you will learn:

Foundation for Discipline
In this training you will learn:

Discipline Strategies
In this training you will learn:

Recognizing Risks
In this training you will:

To schedule one of these trainings for a support group, contact the IFAPA Training Coordinator, Jesica Culp, at jculp@ifapa.org or 800-277-8145 ext. 2. To have your support group training posted on the IFAPA website, complete this form.

 

DVD OR VHS TRAININGS BY IFAPA:

The following topics are DVD or VHS 2-hour trainings with discussion guides. No instructor is leading these topics, so support group leaders will facilitate these discussions. Each course has been approved for 2 hours of foster parent credit.

Creating Sexual Safety in Foster Care & Adoption - DVD
by Dr. Wayne Duehn
Current estimates of sexual abuse among children in placement range from 75 to 85%. Given this high number, it is important that foster and adoptive parents understand their role in the healing process. During this training parents will develop knowledge and skills to create a healing environment to counteract the trauma experienced by children who have been sexually abused. This trauma impacts their thinking, their behaviors, and their self-esteem. Parents will learn how to become THE CENTRAL INGREDIENT in the recovery of these children and their special needs. During this class, parents will have the opportunity to learn the dynamics of sexual abuse, the special needs of children who have been sexually abused, and specific parenting skills. They will have the chance to practice skills, watch video demonstrations, have group discussions, and role plays, and share their own experiences.

Separation and Loss Issues for Foster Families - VHS
by Dr. Vera Fahlberg
Dr. Fahlberg talks with foster parents, foster teenagers, and adults who spent their teen years in foster care. The pain of separation and loss is the universal experience of every foster child. They offer insight on how the foster care system could lessen the impact of transition and strengthen a child’s relationships with both foster and birth parents.

Building Brilliant Brains Through Bonding - DVD
by Nancy Thomas of Families by Design in Colorado
This tape is filled with ideas to understand and activate the brain. It is especially geared toward children with emotional illness such as Reactive Attachment Disorder. Humor and insight combined to make this film clear and compelling. Come, join Nancy Thomas and her special guest Lawrence Van Bloem of the Cascade Center in Orem, Utah as they share the insights gained from combined 50 years of working with difficult children with broken hearts and wounded minds. Learn the secrets to success in healing the brain of a traumatized child!

Parenting the Explosive Child - DVD
by Ross W. Greene, Ph.D. and Stuart Ablon, Ph.D
Explosive and noncompliant children and adolescents present significant challenges to parents and cause distress to all family members. Such children tend to be quite misunderstood and their behavioral challenges are often poorly addressed by traditional discipline strategies which conceive such challenges as attention-seeking, willful, and manipulative. Research suggests that such children may actually lack cognitive skills essential to handling frustration, solving problems, and mastering situations requiring flexibility and adaptability. In other words, the difficulties of these children may be best understood as a learning disability. Naturally, if a child is lacking crucial cognitive skills, the goal for parents and other adults is to teach those skills. In this two-hour program, Dr. Ross Greene (author of The Explosive Child) and his colleague, Dr. Stuart Ablon, help parents understand the specific cognitive skill deficits that can impair a child's capacities for flexibility and frustration tolerance and provide step-by-step guidance on their approach -- known as Collaborative Problem Solving (CPS) -- for teaching these skills. This video features live interviews with parents of behaviorally challenging children and provides answers to many of the common questions parents have about the CPS approach.

Aging Out - VHS
Aging Out is a compelling film that follows young people as they exit foster care and become parents, battle drug addiction, face homelessness, and even end up in jail. Despite their struggles, the film also shows these youth using the resiliency they developed during their years “in the system.” It also forces us to consider the strengths and weaknesses of the public systems that serve these youth, as well as the roles that private citizens and organizations can play. This film was created by award-winning producers and directors Roger Weisberg and Vanessa Roth, with support from the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative. Aging Out is a production of Public Policy Productions for Thirteen/WNET New York.

Methamphetamine Exposed Children: Symptoms & Intervention - VHS
by Dr. Rizwan Shah (This training is 3 hours, 3 hours of foster parent credit)
During our 2004 State Conference, we videotaped a 3 hour training session on children exposed to Methamphetamines presented by Dr. Rizwan Shah. Dr. Shah is a leading expert in this area. This 3 hour training by videotape is available to support groups to check out from IFAPA for training credit. In this video training, Dr. Shah provides an in-depth training focusing on the effects and symptoms of methamphetamine exposure on children’s development. It will also explore interventions available to parents and caregivers.

Working with Birth Parents 1: Visitation - DVD
by Charley Joyce, LICSW
Working with Birth Parents 1: Visitation explains why birth parent visits are both turbulent and disturbing; yet it emphasizes why they are nevertheless beneficial to the child. Charley Joyce, LICSW, presents insightful explanations and provides practical suggestions for making visitation more positive. This course suggests ways for foster parents to clarify their roles in the visitation process and who to turn to for support. Using realistic cases, common problems are explored and solved with recommendations for younger and older children.

Reactive Attachment Disorder - DVD
by Dr. Richard Delaney
Reactive Attachment Disorder may be a common term these days, but that doesn't mean it's easy for parents to understand, let alone know how to care for a child with RAD. In this course, Dr. Richard Delaney explores the symptoms and types of RAD with a parent support group and offers strategies for dealing with the complex and challenging disorder. Topics covered include: the difference between a healthy attachment — where children feel safe, secure and loved — and an unhealthy attachment, emotionally promiscuous RAD, hyper-vigilant RAD, RAD and other diagnoses.

DVD Library of Various Behavior Issues
by Dr. Richard Delaney
Dr. Delaney, author and well-known psychologist and foster parenting expert, has created several topics, each running approximately 40 minutes, along with a summary, an interactive question and answer section, and certificates of credit. Dramatic vignettes, interviews with parents and instruction from nationally recognized child welfare experts present effective and practical messages focusing on specific behavior problems.

The DVD Library includes:

To schedule one of these trainings for a support group, contact the IFAPA Training Coordinator, Jesica Culp, at jculp@ifapa.org or 800-277-8145 ext. 2.

 

Other Support Group Training Suggestions

Support group leaders are often looking for suggestions of trainings and trainers they can access locally to supplement the trainings offered by IFAPA. Here is a list of suggestions of local resources that have been utilized by various support groups around the state. Your local ISU Extension Office, local AEA, area therapists, and medical personnel are often great resources for group trainings. View other support group training suggestions.

 

Additional Support

Nancy Magnall, one of IFAPA's Resource Information Specialists, has over 13 years of experience facilitating her own local support group. If you have additional questions about operating a support group, contact Nancy at 877-467-4100 or magnall_ifapa@msn.com.

 

 

 

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