Professional Training

The target group for this training session is individuals who will be responsible for training newly recruited foster and adoptive parents in each of the eight regions of North Dakota . Training teams already exist in the regions so new trainers will become an integral part of the existing teams.

Foster/Adopt PRIDE recognizes that recruiting, training, supporting and retaining foster families and adoptive families for their important work is an enormous responsibility and challenge for child welfare agencies that provide family foster care and adoption services. Fulfilling this responsibility and meeting this challenge requires a comprehensive competency-based program for the pre-service training and assessment of prospective foster parents and adoptive parents.

Foster parents and adoptive parents for children and youth with special if not extraordinary needs take on a complex range of responsibilities and challenges that only a small number of individuals and families in our communities are willing and able to fulfill. They open their homes, their hearts and use their skills and resources to provide a service for troubled infants, children and youth and their families--often at great personal and other expense.

Specifically, they are responsible for a set of competencies (objectives) that include the following categories:

• Protecting and nurturing children;
• Meeting the developmental needs of children and addressing their developmental delays, with an emphasis on building positive self-esteem, supporting cultural and spiritual identity, providing positive guidance using appropriate discipline, supporting intellectual growth and development, and encouraging positive social relationships;
• Supporting relationships between children and their families;
• Promoting permanency planning leading first to family reunification, or other safe, nurturing relationships intended to last a lifetime; and;
• Working as a member of a professional team.

The Foster/Adopt PRIDE program is designed to help prospective foster parents and adoptive parents, in collaboration with the agency, make an informed decision about their willingness and ability to work together to meet the above responsibilities.

The purpose of Train-The-Trainer for Foster/Adopt PRIDE trainers is to build on your expertise and provide you with support to meet the goal and objectives of the Foster/Adopt PRIDE program.