The Foster Parents Toolshop® Action Guide follows the same chapters as the universal books, offering special trauma-informed content, resources, and information to support you in the special challenges you and your children may face. It’s an ever-evolving resource, as we collect stories, examples, resources, suggestions, and additional information from trauma-informed experts and caregivers like you.

Learn important information about adolescent substance abuse including how drugs work in the teen brain, warning signs every parent should know, assessments needed for a comprehensive diagnosis, how eating disorders and self-injury can accompany a child’s substance use, what drugs today’s teens are using and how to protect your child from using substances like alcohol and drugs. 

How can you help your child calm down when you are angry yourself? What if what works for you doesn't work for your child? Wouldn't it be great to figure out before you are angry where you each can go and what you each can do to calm down.

This workshop discusses how to build strong family foundations by focusing on identifying values, communication, and having intentional conversations to enhance the family unit.  Participants receive the Creating the Family Manual  e-book for guided application. 

Plan an Individualized Effective Response to Any Parenting Challenge, with Any Child — in Minutes! All you need to know is what type of problem you are facing and what you want to accomplish. The Hintbook will take you to the best tools for that situation! Need a different response for different situations or children? Just answer the questions based on that situation, at that moment, with that child. Then click...

Feeling stressed? Relief is literally at your fingertips! Almost everyone is feeling super-stressed these days, with all the stressors that are impacting our health, economy, children and family relationships, communities, country, and world. Such prolonged stress takes its toll on your physical, emotional and mental health, while drama can drain you or even trigger old traumas, hurts, fears and phobias. This webi...

Get a quick introduction to the Universal Blueprint® for Parenting Success System's effective parenting plan and trauma-informed parenting.

Picky eaters can be found anywhere, of any age. There are practical, fun things you can do --- that are amazingly simply --- to encourage healthy eating and prevent or stop common food issues most parents face, like picky eaters, playing with food instead of eating it, not sitting still at the table, and slow eaters. In addition, foster-adoptive children can have more complex food issues due to neglect and trauma...

In addition to the common sleep issues any child can have, children who have experienced trauma often have trauma-related issues, like night terrors, insomnia, and trauma triggers. This webinar builds on the universal trainings Parents Toolshop® offers on "Halting Bedtime Hassles," to address  sleep issues that are specifically related to trauma. This webinar explains:How trauma affects the body and sleep cycles...

Trauma can cause children to shut down emotionally, or become emotionally numb, which can lead to long-term problems, like using drugs and alcohol to numb emotional pain, depression, self-harming, and even mental health issues. Once children learn how to work through their emotions, they can heal from trauma and become more resilient. Join Heather McCall, CFLE, to learn more about how trauma impacts emotional dev...

Resilience used to be a word only associated with trauma, but prolonged adversity or toxic stress can get programmed into the body like a trauma. This edu-taining webinar takes the 6 biggest stressors almost everyone has experienced in 2020, looks at the effects such stressors are causing, then reveals the 7 C's of Resilience, and how to foster these in yourself and your children in these 6 key stress areas. (Fr...

Are bio parent visits re-traumatizing your foster child? Do they grieve their loss every time? Do they get anxious before the visit or have meltdowns and act out after visits, or take a few days (or more) to re-adjust, all in time to visit again!  While every bio parent rightfully has the right to visit their children, it can be upsetting for all involved. In this 1-hour course, you will learn some helpful tips t...

 Having a full toolkit of skills to manage behavior and comfort and support kids during the “feelings overload” that can occur at the time of visitation is an important part of being a confident foster parent with a (mostly) relaxed and happy kid. Visits trigger all sorts of memories and reactions, and foster parents need the emotional bandwidth to help kids to identify emotions, express them, soothe themselves an...

Cooperation with Child Protective Service Agencies is required of Foster Parents. Foster Parents rely upon the Child Protective Services Agencies to provide guidance. Often, Foster Parents disagree with policies or decisions made by Child Protective Services Agencies and do not know where to turn for help.  Understanding the Legal Framework of Child Protection Service Agencies will provide Foster Parents: help un...

As a Foster Parent, knowing your legal responsibilities and complying with the law is required. Just as important is understanding your legal rights. Knowing the difference between what you have to do, and what you are allowed to do is invaluable information as you navigate the child welfare system.  In this webinar, guest expert, Attorney Peggy Replogle, presents the practical, easy-to-understand basics of lega...

How would you like to have a system for getting kids up and out in the morning hassle-free? This 1-hour, 8-part interview by Dayton Public Schools of Jody Johnston Pawel, LSW, CFLE, CTSS, author of The Parent's Toolshop® includes: Intro Universal Blueprint® Parenting Success System  Getting Kids Up Keep Kids Moving Kids Not Ready On Time   Child Forgets Things  Missing Bus or Carpool  Truancy  When Nothing Works...

Security through bonding and attachment is the first foundational developmental task upon which all other human development builds on. As social beings, humans need nurturing touch throughout the lifespan, for healthy psychological, social, emotional development and healthy interpersonal relationships.  Parenting children with histories of trauma can be tricky for many reasons, especially when it comes to navigat...

Jody Johnston Pawel, LSW, CFLE and special guest expert David Zidar, LISW-S will discuss the most common symptoms of ADD/ADHD, and offer practical skills parents can teach their children to help them improve problem areas such as: What can parents do to help improve their ADD child's difficulty in paying attention? How can parents help their ADHD child mange their hyperactivity? How can parents teach their ADD/AD...

Attachment is the first and most important developmental stage, because it’s the foundation for all other development. So when children have disorganized attachment, are unable to bond, or experience trauma at a young age (especially physical or emotional neglect), they can develop a condition called Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD). Children with RAD often seem to be withdrawn, lack empathy, and experience and...

Chances are, your children are “digital natives,” born in the information age with potentially-constant access to the internet, social media and screens. Do you wonder how you and your children can use technology in healthy ways? Get practical strategies and communication tips from Amy Alamar, EdD in this one-hour webinar. See free preview or listen to audio below. Or get video course by clicking this button:

Are you ready for one of THOSE conversations?  Suicidal thoughts, cutting, self-harm in other forms. No matter how long you have parented, these conversations can take the wind out of your sails. Plan in advance so you have the internal and external resources to be a support to your teen without being swamped yourself. 

We will introduce our peer mentors program as well as Ohio Reach resources for foster parents who have older kids. After the short presentation, there will be a live panel made up of former foster youth talking about ways a foster parent can make a young person feel more welcome and set up for success when they enter their home. 

REGISTER to ATTEND THIS WEBINAR LIVE on Weds. April 21st from 12 noon to 1 p.m. Eastern Daylight Savings Time. If the goal of effective discipline is to help children and youth to become self-directing, then parents and caregivers have to teach kids to THINK!  This seminar presents the participants with strategies, through multiple examples and skills practice, which will prove to be immediately useful for discip...

In this webinar, you will discover... What to do if your foster or adoptive child went online seeking their birth parents and family members --- or how to prevent this. Why children with a trauma history have an increased risk of future violations, such as cyber-bullying and child trafficking, and how to keep them safe.  Featuring an interview with Tina Fiegel, MS, Ed.

Given the stress of everyday life these days, parents and children are more stressed than ever. It’s important for children to know how to handle stress and express their anger in constructive ways. So how do you teach these skills to children?  Although valued at over $97 + bonuses, these teachings are so important for all parents to know, we are practically giving it away for only...

Do you have a child who is emotionally distressed and “triggered” frequently from past sexual trauma? This unique presentation, taught by a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, will give you some “insider’s” insight into the world of the trauma survivor and offer three simple suggestions for how you can support healing and recovery in the children you love. 

Register to attend the LIVE webinar on Tuesday, June 22nd, from 12 noon to 1 p.m. EDT.  OR to access the recording/course for credit. It’s important for foster and adoptive families and professionals who are part of the foster care system to better understand how effective placement moves and transitions can positively impact a child and family’s future success. Because children in foster care are often faced wit...

We will explore the various types of adoption and what it means to adopt transracially (also interchangeably referred to as transcultural adoption). We will discuss considerations such as: transracial adoption preparationunderstanding beliefs and attiudes around race, ethnicity, and culture in our societyextended family, community, social circle, and lifestyle nurturing a healthy identity for your child and famil...

Mutilating, cutting, burning and other forms of self-injurious behavior by youth are often seen by professionals and others as suicide-related behaviors. This webinar explains how such behaviors are often the result of past trauma or abuse. Learn the causes and scope of these behaviors and how to respond helpfully. When you attend this webinar, you will:1.      Examine some of the statistics related to both suicid...

Featuring Robert Rhoton Psy D., LPC, D.A.A.E.T.S., CEO of Arizona Trauma Institute, LLC Trauma is an emotional response to an intense activation of the child’s nervous system, this can happen from an event, more commonly from environments of Toxic Stress and repeated adversity. The harm can be physical or emotional, real or perceived.  Unfortunately the largest contributor to trauma, toxic stress and adversity is...

 Drug addiction is sending more children into the foster care system. In Ohio, about half of all children who enter foster care have drug addicted parents. Being in foster care is a predictive factor for addiction. In this session we will look at the link between trauma and addiction, and discuss therapeutic responses that promote resilience rather than re-traumatization. 

Children in custody come into care with a repertoire of maladaptive behaviors.  Often they behave in a manner that was adaptive in their birth family but is maladaptive in your family.  It looks like bad behavior.  If you misinterpret this as the bad behavior it appears to be at 1st blush, and respond with punishment the cost will be damage to the goal of developing a healthy attachment: the child’s greatest need...