Program Summary:  This is a thought-provoking course on transracial adoption and parenting and includes two readings:  Transracial Adoption as Oppression:  Modern Practice in Context and Parenting in Racially, Culturally, and Ethnically Diverse Adoptive Families.

The first reading explores transracial adoption in the context of its oppressive history.  The reading highlights the cycles of harm and trauma experienced by children of color from past to present, offering examples that include the Orphan Train Movement, Indian Boarding Schools, slavery, the foster care system, and private adoption.  The coercion of biological mothers, the commodification of children, and the lack of culturally competent services are critiqued.  Recommendations for practice are offered and include culturally competent services, the recruitment of racially diverse prospective parents, the promotion of bi-culturalism, and listening to the voices of adoptees.

The second reading examines parenting in racially, culturally, and ethnically diverse adoptive families.  The reading offers considerations for starting a multicultural family, strategies for embracing life as a racially, culturally, and ethnically diverse family, and how to prepare children for racism.

This course is recommended for social workers and counselors and is appropriate for beginning and intermediate levels of practice.   Read the complete description of this course…..

Program Summary:  This course explores culturally specific and responsive strategies for working with immigrant and refugee families.  The course highlights the unique strengths of immigrant and refugee families, including a focus on family, education, work, faith, and community.  The course also examines specific challenges faced by immigrant and refugee families, including difficulties with acculturation, language, economic hardship, legal concerns, and trauma.  The course offers an overview of possible concrete supports and eligibility.

This course is recommended for social workers and counselors and is appropriate for beginning and intermediate levels of practice.  
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Program Summary:  This course highlights current research on the impact of child maltreatment on a child’s developing brain.  The course offers an overview of brain development and explores concepts of ‘serve and return’, attachment, sensitive periods, plasticity, and stress responses.  The course describes the effects of maltreatment on behavioral, social, and emotional functioning and the impact of resilience.  Implications for practice are discussed.

This course is recommended for social workers and counselors and is appropriate for beginning and intermediate levels of practice.  
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Program Summary:  This thought-provoking course explores the relationship between social work and the child welfare system and critiques the federal Title IV-E training program and the ethical conflicts involved in training MSW students to regulate families.  The course examines the forces of racism, classism, misogyny, and injustice within the child welfare system.  The course suggests that the relationship between child welfare and social work must be reimagined and recreated in a new way that will allow social workers to meet the needs of children and families while also upholding the ethical principle of social justice.

Social justice is a core value of the social work profession, and the NASW Code of Ethics establishes the ethical principle to challenge social injustice.

Value: Social Justice
Ethical Principle: Social workers challenge social injustice.  Social workers pursue social change, particularly with and on behalf of vulnerable and oppressed individuals and groups of people.  Social workers’ social change efforts are focused primarily on issues of poverty, unemployment, discrimination, and other forms of social injustice.  These activities seek to promote sensitivity to and knowledge about oppression and cultural and ethnic diversity.  Social workers strive to ensure access to needed information, services, and resources; equality of opportunity; and meaningful participation in decision making for all people.  NASW Code of Ethics

This course is recommended for social workers and is appropriate for beginning and intermediate levels of practice.  This course is not recommended for NBCC ethics credit.
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Program Summary:   This course examines the benefits and challenges of family therapy in SUD treatment.  The course explores how substance misuse can impact family systems, how family systems can impact substance misuse, and and the value of family involvement in SUD treatment.   Common family dynamics and terminology are discussed including rules, roles, boundaries, and power structures.  An overview of different family counseling approaches is given.

This course is recommended for social workers, counselors, and therapists.

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Program Summary:   This course examines supportive practices for working with LGBTQ+ families in foster care and adoption and offers guidance for building trusting and successful relationships. The course describes the advantages and challenges of engaging, recruiting, and helping LGBTQ+  families and aims to strengthen cultural competence for child welfare professionals.  Suggestions for creating a welcoming and affirming agency are given.

This course is recommended for social workers and counselors and is appropriate for beginning and intermediate levels of practice.   Read the complete description of this course…..

Program Summary:   This course offers an overview of marijuana use during pregnancy and includes a discussion of contributing socioeconomic, personal, and risk factors.  Potential harms are examined.  The course explores broader evidence-based practices that focus on preventing substance misuse, including SBIRT, integrated clinics, health communication campaigns, contingency management, postpartum home visits, and policies.  Six effective prevention programs are highlighted.

This course is recommended for social workers and counselors and is appropriate for beginning and intermediate levels of practice.  

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Program Summary:  This course explores family counseling in SUD treatment and provides an overview of family-based counseling interventions.  Common family characteristics are examined using a systems perspective.  Four main family-based models are discussed in this course: the chronic disease model disease, family systems theory, cognitive-behavioral theory, and multidimensional family therapy.  Benefits and challenges of family counseling in SUD treatment are discussed.

This course is recommended for social workers, counselors, and therapists and it is appropriate for beginning and intermediate levels of practice.  

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Program Summary:  This course explores the importance of preparing and supporting parents, children, and youth for adoption.  It offers guidance and strategies for those who work with adoptive families and includes information on trauma, attachment, self care, financial considerations, and preplacement visits.  The course also explores the impact of adoption and 7 core issues including loss, rejection, shame, grief, identity, intimacy, and mastery and control.

This course is recommended for social workers, counselors, and therapists and it is appropriate for beginning and intermediate levels of practice.   Read the complete description of this course…..