Massachusetts Families For Kids (MFFK) works collaboratively with all parties in the child welfare system including DSS, the courts, legislature, private child welfare agencies, parents and youth on behalf of system change toward more timely and stable permanency outcomes for children in foster care. MFFK is guided by the belief that all children deserve a permanent home with a secure and loving family. This vision is central to all of MFFK's education and advocacy efforts as well as new program initiatives. The program's goals are to increase the number of children able to achieve permanency each year, and to decrease the length of time those children wait for a permanency goal to be determined and achieved.
The MFFK division consists of the following programs:
For a list of training/education opportunities for professionals, parents and youth offered by MFFK click here.
The following is a list of training/education opportunities for professionals, parents and youth offered by Massachusetts Families for Kids. Any training topic can be formatted to suit your group’s needs.
Please contact MFFK Program Director Julia Pearson at 617-445-6655, ext.. 346, or email jpearson@csrox.org regarding Permanency Mediation, or MFFK Program Director Edwin Gonzalez at 413-586-2303, or email egonzalez@csrox.org regarding Lifelong Family Connections or the Speak Out Team .
Please register prior to the day of workshop. Contact: MFFK at (617) 989-9425, or e-mail kryer@csrox.org. Light snacks and beverages will be provided.
Fee: All Seminars are FREE OF CHARGE for Permanency Mediators $25 for all others. Workshops are open to Permanency Mediators, Lifelong Family Connection Specialists, Social Workers, Attorneys, Court Personnel, and Child Welfare Professionals. Certificate of Attendance will be provided.
Lifelong Family Connections For Adolescents In Foster Care
Like any one of us, teens need a family relationship to count on if they are to thrive and succeed. This training shares a youth-centered approach to finding permanency—whether achieved through reunification, adoption, guardianship, kinship or another creative arrangement. Three key lessons are shared: youth need and want to be involved in making decisions about their lives; independent living and permanency are compatible concurrent goals; and many people can make lifelong commitments to adolescents if only they are asked to and provided with appropriate supports. Customized full or half-day sessions on identifying, engaging and supporting lifelong family connections for adolescents in foster care are available, including lecture, group discussion, role play, audio/video presentations, handouts, and/or young adult panel presentation.
Training Objectives:
—Increased awareness of the essential need for a lifelong family connection for every adolescent no matter what his or her age, special need or complex circumstance;
—Youth perspectives and insights on permanency for adolescents;
—Practical tools in engaging adolescents and talking to them about permanency;
—Increased skill in identifying and engaging connections from within a youth’s network of past and current relationships; and
—Ability to guide a youth-centered permanency planning team process.
Cooperative Adoption Planning ©
This is a comprehensive four-day curriculum training in using a permanency mediation model as an alternative to court proceedings in contested termination of parental rights cases. This model allows birthparents to be involved in planning for a child’s future even when they are unable to be a full-time parent. Birthparents and permanent parents are supported in working together to develop an alternative permanent plan for a child that typically involves some level of open adoption. This curriculum can be adapted to a one-day overview or a two-day training package, including lecture, video, small group exercises, large group discussion, role-play, handouts, and/or panel presentation.
Training Objectives:
—Greater sensitivity to how the temporary nature of foster care is a serious risk to child development and the importance of child-centered permanency planning;
—Understanding of the benefits of a concurrent and cooperative planning process between birth parents and permanent parents;
—Understanding of the unique characteristics of this model of mediation; and
—Practical skills in conducting individual interviews with birth parents and permanent parents, leading joint sessions with all parties, facilitating team meetings, negotiating terms and writing a child-specific permanent plan.
Family Consultation Team© (FCT) Mediation
Comprehensive two-day training curriculum in a child-centered team approach to permanency planning that actively engages birth and extended family members in developing a plan that focuses on safety, support, continuity of relationships and timely permanence. This curriculum incorporates the principles of family group decision-making, dependency mediation and concurrent planning. Sessions include lecture, video, small group exercises, large group discussion, role-play, handouts, and/or adult or youth panel presentation.
Training Objectives:
—Greater understanding of the philosophy and practice of family group decision-making, dependency mediation and concurrent planning approaches;
—Increased ability to maintain neutrality and child-centered focus in guiding the permanency planning process; and
—Practical skills in engaging birth and extended family members, identifying safety parameters, individual caucusing, facilitating team meetings, negotiating a written plan.
Foster/Adoptive Family Diversity And The Impact On Learning
Designed for school administrators, teachers, as well as guidance and support staff, this workshop offers insights and practical suggestions for academically engaging students being raised in foster, adoptive, guardianship and kinship families. These uniquely blended families often reflect diverse races and cultures, along with varying family structures and students must learn to negotiate their own complex identities within them. School personnel learn how to take an active role in supporting and understanding the student’s development. This training also offers a general perspective on cultural competence and trauma and loss that can be generalized to the broader student population. The training can be a full day, half-day or conducted as a series, and is co-presented by MFFK staff and youth/young adults. It can include any combination of lecture, group discussion, audio/video materials, handouts, and/or panel presentation.
Training Objectives:
—Greater understanding of and sensitivity to the impact of family structure, race and culture on learning, especially from the perspective of children in adoptive, guardian and kinship situations;
—Increased ability to recognize and respond to the needs of children/youth struggling with identity issues;
—Practical solutions to value-laden class assignments and questions perceived as provocative;
—Youth perspectives on characteristics of teachers and methods that were most successful; and
—Strategies and tools for enhancing cultural competence and sensitivity to diversity.
Issues Of Race And Culture In Adoption
Designed for both social workers and parents, this workshop offers insights into what it’s like for youth to “feel different.” It also offers effective strategies and suggestions related to being a multicultural family. This training can be a full or half-day and is co-presented by MFFK staff along with youth/young adult Speak Out Team members. It can include any combination of lecture, group discussion, audio/video presentations, handouts and/or panel presentation.
Training Objectives:
—Increased understanding of and sensitivity to the impact of race and culture in adoption;
—Increased ability to recognize and respond to the needs of children/youth adopted into families of a different race or culture;
—Strategies for expanding cultural competence; and
—Practical suggestions for increasing recruitment of families of color.
Kidspeak: What The World Needs To Know About Foster Care And Adoption
A training focusing on the impact of foster care and adoption from a young person’s point of view. It covers such issues as transitioning between placements, the importance of attachments, transcultural placements, and openness concerning family of origin. This training is a half-day and co-presented by MFFK staff along with youth/young adult Speak Out Team members, or it can also be offered as a stand-alone panel presentation. It includes lecture, group discussion, audio/video presentations, handouts and/or panel presentation.
Training Objectives:
—Increased understanding of and sensitivity to issues of foster care and adoption through the eyes of youth and young adults who have experienced it;
—Stronger awareness of the impact of policies and practices on the lives of children and families;
—Honest perspectives on the need for ongoing reform within the foster care system;
—Practical suggestions for working with children/youth in foster/adoptive families; and
—Potential for networking with other state Speak Out Teams.
Foster/Adoptive Parent Leadership And Advocacy
Training for foster/adoptive/kinship/guardianship parents on: development of parent-led support groups, addressing issues of group identity, advocacy on a personal level as well as for larger populations, special education and counseling issues. This training can be a full or half-day and is presented by an MFFK staff facilitator. Includes lecture, group discussion, audio/video, handouts, and/or panel presentation.
Training Objectives:
—Knowledge of the stages of development and evolutionary process of support groups;
—Methods of organizing constituents around a system issue for change;
—Increased knowledge of the types of support groups and the functions of each; and
—Practical tips and tools regarding group membership, leadership, creating and implementing an advocacy message.
In Their Own Words: Foster And Adoptive Youth As Advocates
Training on the development, promotion and maintenance of a public speaking team of adopted/foster youth. Engaging youth and young adults in a Speak Out Team provides an increased sense of belonging while simultaneously giving them the skills to advocate for themselves and others. Speak Out teams are highly effective in raising public awareness, guiding improvements in practice and promoting system change. This training can be either a full or half-day co-presented by MFFK staff along with youth and young adult Speak Out Team members. It includes lecture, group discussion, audio/video materials, handouts, and/or panel presentation.
Training Objectives:
—Greater understanding of the importance of empowering youth and young adults to “speak out” about their experiences in the system;
—Increased understanding of the critical need to use the experiences of youth and young adults to shape system reform;
—Increased understanding of the healing power of “telling one’s story,” and
—Practical steps/tools for developing “Speak Out Team” capacity in your agency or state.
Youth Advocacy: It’s All About You!
This is a full-day experiential workshop for adolescents that emphasizes personal strengths, skills and communication as a means to advocacy on a personal level as well as for larger populations. MFFK staff along with Speak Out Team members co-present using a collage or lecture, role-play and case examples.
Training Objectives:
—Develop strategies for self-advocacy;
—Explore existing skills in communication and develop a plan for expanding them;
—Establish a commitment to speak out on child welfare issues from a youth point-of-view; and
—Demonstrate the effectiveness of being an advocate among peers, parents and professionals.
Mediation Conference: Who’s At The Table and How are They Impacted by Domestic Violence
Additional Resources:
"We’ve Got Something to Say" Booklet
Monograph of artwork, poetry and narratives written and produced by members of the Massachusetts Families for Kids Speak Out Team, a group of youth and young adults that have all experienced foster care and/or adoption.
$3.00 each ($2.00 each for orders over 100)
“We’ve Got Something to Say” Video – 10 minute/26 minute versions
Shorter video includes interviews with a diverse group from the Massachusetts Families for Kids Speak Out Team, youth and young adult who have all experienced foster care and/or adoption. The longer video builds on those interviews and also includes an interview with the team facilitator and greater detail regarding the history, design and purpose of the Speak Out Team.
$50.00 (each VHS cassette includes both short and long versions)