We are excited to invite you to be a part of our first presentation of the Alaska Child Welfare Conference where the theme is “Safe, Thriving, and Connected.”
This conference seeks to improve our knowledge and skill in providing child welfare services in Alaska. Our audience is focused on four important groups: OCS employees, resource families (foster, adoptive, and kinship care families), tribal members (ICWA workers, tribal social services, tribal court personnel), and child advocates (GALs and CASAs). We all hold a piece in our State’s response to keeping children safe and have crafted the conference to hear those different voices and look at child welfare through different lenses.
Each day will start with an all-conference plenary, followed by a choice of three concurrent workshops in the morning, and three concurrent workshops in the afternoon. For the concurrent workshops, you do not need to pre-select which one to attend. You may freely select which one to attend live on the day of the conference and watch the other two recorded workshops at your own convenience. We will end each day with a thought-provoking panel, grappling with a challenging question and offering a chance to look at these challenges through the different lenses of our participants.
This conference is presented virtually, so wherever you are in Alaska, we invite you to participate. There are the themes for each day:
November 4 - Safe
November 5 - Thriving
November 6 - Connected
All sessions will be recorded and available for you to watch on this site until December 6, 2021.
Francine Eddy-Jones, Casey Family Programs
Miriam Titus, Tanana Chiefs Conference - Opening Prayer
Participants will increase their understanding about the many pathways that lead to parental misuse of opioids and other substances. The impact of opioid misuse on the parent’s ability to provide safe and responsive care will be explored along with strategies to increase safety and success with these parents and their children. Lastly, the case will be made to ensure common sense, barrier reduction, and reasonable efforts are applied in our helping responses to give these families the best opportunities to thrive.
Pamela Baston, JBS International
The 1115 Waiver can be confusing--the changes and opportunities it presents for obtaining services. Join us for this 1115 Waiver 101 session to get your questions answered.
Kristina Weltzin, Division of Behavioral Health
Bunti Reed, Division of Behavioral Health
When taking an intergenerational life-course perspective, intervention and prevention become interconnected. From prevention to response and treatment, our collective efforts matter. Whether our work focuses on the child, parent, teen, or system, we all need to understand our role in preventing or mitigating the impact of adverse childhood experiences. Anchored in data, this session will describe the connection between household challenges and adverse childhood experiences, explore the risk behind the challenge, protections, and linking strategies. We truly can make a difference by shifting the life-course trajectory of one individual/family at a time, but we have to be coordinated and focused on the headwater (root causes).
Jared Parrish, Alaska Division of Public Health
Pat Sidmore, Alaska Division of Public Health
Matt Hirschfeld, MD/PhD, Alaska Native Medical Center
Overview of the Child in Need of Aid legal process in Alaska. The presentation will include how and when other stakeholders, such as law enforcement and CAC members may interact with the process.
Carla Erickson, Alaska Department of Law
This session will explain what a Child Advocacy Center is and how tribal child welfare workers can be involved. The use of a Multidisciplinary Team will be explained including the members and their different roles in a child abuse case.
We will look at national and local prevention strategies for keeping children safe and with their families. How do we implement best practices for prevention in Alaska?
Charity Carmody, Alaska Impact Alliance
Often times within child welfare we hear the term best interests of children. This concept frequently drives services, decisions, and court orders that greatly affect the lives of children and youth in care. Hear from a panel of child welfare professionals as they discuss the questions, considerations, and determinations for what is in the best interests of children.
Kevin Campbell, Center for Family Finding and Youth Connectedness
What do older youth in foster care need to Thrive? Protective and Promotive factors are key to building the success of older youth in care. Panelists from Facing Foster Care in Alaska will share personal stories of resilience, resources available to older youth, the importance of relationships, and how to draw on lived experiences to improve direct practice and systems improvements.
Amanda Metivier, UAA Child Welfare Academy Office of Youth Empowerment
We will discuss the implementation of the Cultural Resource Guide and coordination of Cultural Support Services. Workshop attendees will learn how Cultural Support Service Providers are identified through collaboration between the Tribe, parent, and OCS, and are compensated through the Request for Funds process at OCS. Join us as we have a conversation about ways to link parents to Cultural Support Services in their community!
Casey Groat, Office of Children’s Services
Dee Pearson, Office of Children’s Services
Tisha Simmons, Office of Children’s Services
Alaska tribal organizations are developing innovative and culturally responsive approaches to supporting families, instituting wellness, recruiting and supporting resource families, and providing prevention services to the people they serve. Learn about some of the promising practices that are happening around the state developed by tribal organizations to respond to the unique needs of their communities.
Cyndi Smith, Knik Tribal Council
Charlene Naulty, Aleut Community of St Paul Island
Amalia Monreal, Central Council of Tlingit-Haida
Information on the Wellness Program at Tlingit & Haida in Juneau, Alaska, and how the program can assist in identifying youth and families that may need support to prevent or assist with involvement in child welfare. The program focuses on the well-being of the family through culturally-based programs that occur inside and outside of the school setting. Within the Wellness Program, Elders are involved to pass on culture, show support, and to give others a way to honor Elders. The Wellness Program connections between youth, family and Elders have helped our children on their journey to wellness.
Mary Johnson, Central Council of Tlingit Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska
Kyle Worl, Central Council of Tlingit Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska
Learn more about Help Me Grow Alaska, a program dedicated to promoting healthy child development statewide by providing support and information to individuals and organizations who care for and about children and young adults. The vision at Help Me Grow Alaska is to ensure that every Alaskan child reaches their full potential by building a system where every kid has what they need to grow and succeed.
Elizabeth Schultz, Help Me Grow Alaska
Overview of research focused on Indigenous child wellbeing. There were 25 self-identified Alaska Native foster care alumni, relative caregivers and foster parents who provided their knowledge, stories, and experiences of what child well-being is and should be in order to improve outcomes for Alaska Native children within child welfare. An Indigenous Connectedness Framework was updated as a result of this study and information will be shared about how the use of this framework could inform policy, practice and systemic change.
Dr. Jessica Saniguq Ullrich, University of Alaska Anchorage
Research shows that when families are engaged in their child welfare intervention, safety, permanency, and well-bring are achieved more successfully. When families are a part of the process and their voices are heard, they are more motivated to make necessary changes. How is that done despite the typically adverse working relationship families encounter in the child welfare system?
Participants will learn ways to practice wellness and incorporate these personal practices into the workday. The discussion will also focus on the importance of making the mental health of our workforce a foundational priority in our policies and practice.
Renee Rafferty, Behavioral Health Department, Providence Health System
This session will explore the historical context of inequities in the child protection system and how that influences our current biases about birth parents. We will also discuss the current conditions that are driving increased alcohol use among women/birthing people and review the basics about how FASD may manifest in both children and adults. Finally, strategies and resources that may be helpful to improve your success with adults with FASD on your caseload will be shared.
Marilyn Pierce-Bulger, Alaska Center for FASD
Overview of how families work with OCS in establishing a guardianship, when guardianship is an appropriate goal as opposed to Adoption, and ongoing supports once guardianship finalizes.
Jack Eddy, Office of Children’s Services
Overview for both state and tribal workers and best practices to allow for a transfer to tribal court in a way that reduces the trauma/stress to the children involved.
Mishal Gaede, Tanana Chiefs Conference
Brittany Madros, Tribal Government & Justice Division
Drawing from the work of Darla Henry’s 3-5-7 Model, this session will teach three key principles for preparing children for permanency. Participants will learn best practices for transitioning children in a manner to promotes safety and stability in within the new family.
Brenda Ursel, Alaska Center for Resource Families
ROCK Mat-Su and Beacon Hill share the importance of family contact and the innovative approach currently being piloted in the Mat-Su. What is best practice of family contact? How can everyone involved support family contact that is meaningful, healthy, culturally centered and best for the child?
LGBTQ+ youth are over-represented in foster care compared to their LGBTQ+ peers and have worse experiences and outcomes as discrimination, psychiatric hospitalization, criminalization, placement in congregate care and exiting care to homelessness. Participants will discuss how to have proactive conversations with youth about identity and ensure youth are safe and supported with family, in care, in school, and in the community.
The work to protect children from maltreatment is filled with great passion and commitment from people who each play different and very specific roles. How do we bring our different perspectives to the work and be heard, while still respecting each other? This panel brings those different perspectives together to address the question, “How do we disagree about the best interests of the child while still respecting each other's role in the process?”
Kim Swisher, Office of Children’s Services
Carla Erickson, Alaska Department of Law
This conference is sponsored by the UAA Alaska Child Welfare Academy, the Alaska Center for Resource Families, and the Alaska CASA Program with support from the State of Alaska Office of Children's Services, the Court Improvement Program, Friend of Alaska's Children in Care, the Office of Youth Empowerment, and Facing Foster Care in Alaska. Click on each logo to be directed to the sponsor's site.