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January 23, 2025

Creating a kin-first system: Opening doors and removing barriers

  • Thursday, January 23, 2025 
    1 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. Eastern time 
    Webinar on Zoom

    Join us for a free webinar to explore the importance of prioritizing kinship care and to learn strategies and tools for supporting kinship providers. 

    Register for the webinar

    Learning objectives

    • Understand the benefits of supporting and prioritizing relatives and fictive kin as first placements and permanency options, utilizing a customer service approach  
    • Identify barriers that relatives and fictive kin providers experience in the processes for placement consideration, foster care/kinship licensing, fostering and adopting  
    • Recognize caregiver trauma and burnout and the impact it can have on placement stability for relatives and fictive kin providers  
    • Learn strategies and tools for supporting kinship providers 
    • Hear from Ali Caliendo of Foster Kinship about her organization’s evidence-based Kinship Navigator Model and lessons learned in training, licensing, and supporting kinship providers   
    • Hear from Dawn Barton of South Carolina Department of Social Services about the agency’s work with this model and its efforts to prioritize kin-first placements 

    Presenters

    Katie Amelse 
    National Child Welfare Advisor 
    National Center for Diligent Recruitment 

    Guest speakers

    Ali Caliendo 
    Executive Director 
    Foster Kinship 

    Dawn Barton 
    Director of Permanency Management 
    South Carolina Department of Social Services

    Audience

    This webinar is open to all audiences. This webinar will be especially helpful for child welfare professionals involved in recruitment, support, and retention of adoptive, foster, and kinship families, as well as administrators who shape child welfare policies, procedures, and implementation. 

    The webinar may also be of interest to private agencies and nonprofit organizations that partner with child welfare systems on diligent recruitment work.