Child Welfare Training Toolshop®

A trio of top-quality training programs for every person involved in Child Welfare:
Primary Parents, Substitute Caregivers, and Staff

Consistent Quality Parent Training Helps ALL Team Members Succeed

Parents who become involved in the child welfare system are going through life-changing challenges. Those don’t change overnight. They require support, resources, and education to resolve the causes of what happened and prevent similar events from happening in the future.

While child welfare staff and caregivers are mandated to get training, ongoing, primary parents are often referred to a wide variety of parenting classes, which may or may not be effective. Certainly, most are not trauma-informed or able to be customized to their needs, with pre-post skill assessments that demonstrate positive skill improvement.

This inconsistency in the quality of training one parent might receive compared to other parents and to other child welfare team members adds to the disadvantages primary parents face.

Ideally, the parent training offered to primary parents would be reliably effective and consistent with what staff and caregivers receive.

Now, you can do just that. Here you can tap into a team of highly-skilled professionals who educate parents and the professionals who work with parents. Each trainer offers trauma-informed research-based programs and has decades of experience in the child welfare field.

Consistent Quality Training for Each Team Member Gets Everyone "On the Same Page"

Most primary parents don't have access to the specialized training needed to parent children with adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) --- and family crises that result in outside intervention or separation are certainly adverse experiences! If primary parents are to provide the kind of care their children need, especially if there was severe trauma, they need access to quality programs that teach concepts and skills consistent with what other team members are learning.

That requires top-quality trainers with decades of experience teaching parents of diverse backgrounds and learning abilities research-based, trauma-informed, basic-to-advanced concepts and simple-to-complex skills in ways that are easy to understand and learn. Your average community parenting class is not going to provide that! But you can get that here, supported by 30+ years of outstanding outcome results! (See below.)

Case goals will be better achieved if all team members are “on the same page,” supporting each other on common goals, using research-based, proven-effective methods, all in the best interests of the child.

Conflicting Information Confuses Parents & Sabotages Positive Working Relationships

It's challenging enough for parents who become involved in the protective service system. Even those who want to cooperate and try to do what they are told can get frustrated when they get conflicting information and advice.

For example, other parents (including staff) might give advice based on "what worked for me," which might not be research-based, trauma-informed, or effective. Even more problematic and confusing are the "evidence-based" parenting programs that have studies showing their program gets short-term results, but what they teach is not supported by research and actually gets negative long-term outcomes!

The best examples of this are parenting programs that teach "behavior modification" or external motivators and "reinforcements." These will "work" in the short-run, but decades of research consistently show they are ineffective and counter-productive long-term, creating expectations of and a dependency on external motivators. These quick fixes destroy self-motivation, self-responsibility, self-discipline and many other positive qualities most parents want their children to develop. Some research even shows they can be harmful or abusive! (Learn more here.) With children who are already vulnerable or exploited, it's important for adults to avoid making them more bribe-able.

These two completely opposite approaches can be found in "evidence-based" parenting programs. So if some members of the child welfare team (primary parents, substitute caregivers, or staff) attend training that teaches the one approach while other members attend training that teaches the other, they will be in direct conflict with each other and it will negatively affect their relationship and outcomes.

It's important for all members of the child welfare team to learn how to avoid these quick fixes and instead use language and action skills that research shows consistently have positive short- and long-term outcomes with both children and adults. So choosing a program that can train all team members in these methods is important.

Choose the Team Member You ARE or Want to Train

Now it's clear how important it is to train each team member in similar concepts and skills, so they are all on the same page, using the same processes and skills to cooperatively work together towards common goals.

Unlike all other programs, the Universal Blueprint® offers one core system that is both an effective parenting skills program and, with a few tweaks, can be used to improve any relationship, even between adults! So it not only helps all team players get on the same page around parenting, but shows improves communication and collaborative problem-solve with the other adults on the team. Plus, there are additional optional training programs that teach specialized content and skills or focus on issues unique to each person's role on the child welfare team, to customize training.

Primary Parents (usually Bio/Birth)

Parents who become involved with the child welfare system often don't understand what the system is, how it works, what their rights are, and what they need to DO to prevent removal or achieve reunification. They are frequently required to "take a parenting class," but access to classes and the quality of the programs varies greatly.

Ideally, all Primary Parents attend the CORE series: "Primary Parents TIPS training (Trauma-Informed Parenting Skills)." Then, optional courses can be "electives" that are bundled to create customized training packages based on the parent's special case challenges, like recovery, infants, etc. Group or one-on-one coaching is also an optional add-on.

See Programs for Primary Parents

Foster-Adoptive Parents & Kinship Caregivers

Foster parents and kinship caregivers are the first substitute caregivers children encounter when removed from their primary parents, which is always traumatic. Adoptive parents provide permanent long-term care should reunification not be possible.

All are responsible for providing a safe, nurturing, healing environment for children, and cooperatively working with other team members on case plan goals. Given the advanced care they need to provide, they need the highest level of parenting skill expertise, including advanced research-based, trauma-informed parenting skills. Then, depending on the type of care they are providing, they can benefit from additional programs related to the special issues related to being a kinship, foster, or adoptive parent.

See Programs for Other Caregivers

Child Welfare Professionals

Child welfare staff are responsible for coordinating case planning and services for the primary parents and overseeing the placement and ongoing care of the children involved.

They are often in the position of having to give parenting advice to parents of diverse backgrounds and needs. Yet, very few degree programs teach research-based effective parenting skills. So, all staff needs to know basic, effective parenting skills they can suggest during home visits. They also need to have a plan to follow, to provide customized recommendations that meet each parent and child's needs.

Staff can choose from our Basic or Advanced CORE programs and get additional training on special issues they may encounter.

See Programs for Child Welfare Pros

Thousands of Parents and Staff Have Attended our CORE Programs for 30+ years

The Parents Toolshop®: The Universal Blueprint® for Building a Healthy Family is the "core" program each child welfare team member receives in The Child Welfare Toolshop®. It's "secret-sauce system" can also be tweaked to be effective in improving adult relationships, too! (See details about the system at the Relationship Toolshop® e-library.)

The original parenting program was developed in Dayton, Ohio through a United Way grant that provided a PhD Evaluation Specialist who specifically custom-designed outcome evaluation tools specifically for the program.

The first 10 years the program was offered to low-income, high-risk parents. Word quickly spread and thousands of parents from the general community wanted to attend, so extra trainers were added to accommodate the waiting lists. All the parents achieved outstanding results.
For 20 years, thousands of foster-adoptive parents and caseworkers have attended hundreds of workshops based on the core program through the Ohio Child Welfare Training Program, with rave reviews and evaluation ratings.
For 10 years, the San Diego (CA) Foster Adoptive Kinship Caregiver Education (FAKCE) program has featured the author in person and virtually, and certified several of its training staff to provide ongoing in-person programming.
For 10 years hundreds of primary parents involved with protective services in Montgomery County Ohio completed the 16-hour core series as part of their case plan to achieve reunification, as funding has allowed.
For 30+ years, thousands of parents worldwide have attended the core programs with Certified Parents Toolshop® trainers who contract with protective service agencies.

In programs specifically offered to primary parents involved with protective services and child welfare staff, evaluation results have remained consistent for over 30 years:

100% rated it “Good” or “Excellent.” (76% of staff and 80% of primary parents rated the program “Excellent.”)
Almost 90% said they gained new knowledge. (92% of primary parents and 86% of staff.)
100% of the primary parents said they used the skills with their custodial children (with whom they could practice the skills) and saw improvements.
100% said they would recommend the program to others. *

* This last statistic has remained steady for all populations in all Toolshop® programs for over 30 years!!

ALL Participants Consistently Achieve Positive Results

In almost 10 years of programs with primary parents involved with protective services, pre-post skill assessments show consistently positive results:

67% graduated from the 8-week 16-hour program.
The average pre-class skill assessment score was 5.06 out of 11 or below the midpoint and just outside the “more unskilled than skilled” range.
The average post-class skill assessment score was 7.01 out of 11, not only above the midpoint but just on inside the “more skillful than unskilled” range.
100% of participants increased their skills, with the average increase being 1.90 points.

For comparative reference, here are the same outcomes for 21 staff who completed a two-day, 12-hour training:

100% graduated.
The average pre-class skill assessment score was 5.17 out of 11 or below the midpoint and just outside the “more unskilled than skilled” range.
The average post-class skill assessment score was 6.71 out of 11, not only above the midpoint but just on inside the “more skillful than unskilled” range.
This represents an increase of 1.54 points

Note: the staff training was 12 hours over 2 days versus 16-hours over 8 weeks for the parents, which shows how practice makes a big difference in outcomes. Yet, with practice, the primary parents were able to achieve skill levels almost as high as the staff's! This shows the core skills can be learned by all team members, bringing them all to a similar skill level, at least above the midpoint in the "More Skilled" range. From there, they can improve teamwork and increase the chances of reunification when poor parenting skills are an identified risk factor.

Certify Your Staff or Use Our Child Welfare Training Bureau

If you want to offer any or all of the Child Welfare Toolshop® CORE programs at your site on an ongoing basis, consider certifying one or more staff. You can get detailed information about the curriculum and trainer certification process here. It can be completely done online or if you have a group of 4+ staff you want certified, we'll travel to you.

Our child welfare trainer bureau members come from all over the U.S., so they primarily provide training online. Each is a qualified trauma-informed trainer with decades of experience working with primary parents and other child welfare team members.

State: many of our trainers and their workshops are already approved for the Ohio Child Welfare Training Program where they train the county foster parents and caseworkers. All are available to serve primary parents in Ohio, private foster care agencies, and other team members outside Ohio.
National: Many of our trainers are members of the National Parenting Education Network, which has established competencies for both professional and para-professional parenting educators that we follow.
Global: "Certified Family Life Educator" is an international credential through National Council on Family Relations. Many of our trainers hold this credential, which is obtained by demonstrating mastery of 10 content areas deemed necessary for quality family life education practice.

ALL Programs are Available Live & Online, In-person & Virtual

ALL our programs are available in all the following formats. Just follow these guidelines to access each format:

Online Courses: Find a course you want to attend and register! You get immediate access and a certificate of completion!
- Explore our site, using the links below to start your decision-making. Look for course thumbnails and click for more info. Agencies and funders can receive coupon codes or a special account so their participants attend at a discount or for free.
- Join our mailing list to get our monthly newsletter with our live event schedules to refer participants.
- Join one of our free membership communities to get immediate access to some courses at no charge and discounts on others!
Live Online: sign up for the courses in "pre-launch" mode (no payment, just a field for email signup), or those that show dates/times of the next program. You can also request a live online training by our training team for your team members, including primary parents.
Live In-person:
- Join our mailing list for live training events offered to the public , online, around the USA and world.
- Certify your staff so they can offer the core curricula live, in-person, on an ongoing basis at your agency.
  Note: all certified group facilitators also receive Parents Toolshop® Coach Certification, so they can provide ongoing group and individual support. Plus, parents who have learning difficulties, can provide one-on-one training, virtually or in person.
- Contract with one of our Certified Trainers to provide one or more programs live online or in-person at your location. Just use this Speaker Request Form.

Access Funding Sources for Free Access to Trainees

There are often federal, state, county, and private funding sources available to counties and private agencies to hire our trainers, certify local trainers, and/or to grant free access to these online programs. If funding is only available to non-profits, we have relationships with universities and non-profit agencies who will serve as the grant administrator so our programs can be funded.

The Parents Toolshop®, which is the core program from which all our other programs have been developed, "checks all the boxes” and qualifies as a “promising research-based” program, using the “Parenting Curriculum Decision-Making Checklist, by Head Start and U.S. Dept. of HHS. Here are links to data describing specifically how and why it qualifies in a 1 page summary or detailed report. You can use these documents to apply for grants and/or contact us to provide additional information and support in receiving funding.

Explore Program Offerings for Each Team Member

Here are quick links, again, to each programs' "home page."

See Programs for Primary Parents

See Programs for Other Caregivers

See Programs for Child Welfare Pros

Here's What Agency Personnel Say About These Training Programs

See more testimonials for each of the three trainee populations at their program-description pages.

There are many parenting classes in the Dayton area and we fund most of them. Our statistics show that none have even come close to achieving the results Parent’s Toolshop® classes achieve on a consistent basis.
– – Linda Taylor, Community Initiatives Funding, United Way of Greater Dayton, Ohio

We have sponsored Parent’s Toolshop® classes for over five years. They are helpful and the tools used in class can be good resources to use after completion of the program. The pre and post test is very thorough as well as the individual reports after completion. I would highly recommend this class to any parents needing ideas for better parenting.
– – Stacia Burlingame, Montgomery County Children Services, Dayton, Ohio

Donna Merrill, LSW

Website

We serve over 1000 children who live in out-of-home-care settings and a large number of children who are living in their own homes where there are parenting and other safety issues. Many of the families we serve lack the basic parenting skills necessary to provide adequate parenting to their children. The Parents Toolshop® class was perfect for our families. The response was very favorable and the class was well attended. The documented outcomes and attendees’ evaluations were also all positive

Lindsay Wirt, Intern for Mont. Co. Children's Services,

I wanted to thank you for allowing me to attend your classes as part of my internship. I have thoroughly enjoyed being a part of the class and learning from you. You are an excellent teacher and speaker. I know I have gained skills that I will carry with me throughout my life. Your kindness and personal investment in me has been encouraging. I have learned from you at a professional level as well and have observed your interactions with clients. You treat them with dignity and respect and that was valuable to see in action. Thank you for your commitment to making healthier families. I know you are touching many!

Naomi Ewald, Social Worker

Whenever my husband (a Juvenile Court employee) or I (a protective service worker) want to refer a parent to parenting classes, We always refer them to Parent’s Toolshop® classes. Often, parents are resistant to going. I tell them to just attend one session and if they don’t like it, we’ll find some other way for them to get the parenting information they need. Every parent who attends comes back after the first session so excited. They all say, “I love it!” Many want to attend the class more than once or attend other classes that are part of the Toolshop® program offerings. Now I want to take to the class to see what everyone’s talking about!