Events & Outreach
Past Events
Panel discussion from Unplanned Parenthood II: Grandparents and Others
Raising Children of Kin, October, 2003
Discipline Issues in Somali Families: Challenges and Responsibilities
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
2:30pm to 4:03pm
Hubert H. Humphrey Center, Humphrey Forum
West Bank Campus,
University of Minnesota
A discussion about whether child welfare mandates are congruent with cultural factors.
Rural Counties Forum
In These Distressing Times: Fresh Responses to Vulnerable Children
in High-Risk Families: A Prevention Focus
Date: Thursday, June 4, 2009
Time: 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Place: The Owatonna Arts Center
435 Garden View Lane
Owatonna, Minnesota 55060
Read more about the Rural Counties Forum
In These Troubled Times: Fresh Approaches to Vulnerable Children in High-Risk Families
Of Special Interest—Child Well-Being as a Focus of Attention:
Responding to children in anxious times; Improving school readiness and educational success for vulnerable children, including children in immigrant families.
Read more about this conference.
The 10th Annual ITV/VPC
Conference:
Adolescents Aging out of Foster Care
Download CW360° "Permanency or Aging Out: Adolescents in the Child Welfare System"
Keynote Presenter:
Mark Courtney, Professor, School of Social Work at the University of Washington and Executive Director of Partners for Our Children
Invited Panelists:
- Michelle Chalmers, Co-Executive Officer of Ampersand Families
- Claire Hill, Consultant, Adolescent Services, MN Department of Human Services
- Elizabeth Hinz, Liaison for Homeless and Highly Mobile Students for the Minneapolis School District
Read more about the 10th Annual ITV/VPC conference
Familyconnect: Making Family Visits work for Children in Foster Care
October 22, 2008: Coordinating productive family visits that are safe AND relationship building is complicated. Family Alternatives, a private foster care agency presented their research and best practice findings after a two year pilot project on family visiting. Through qualitative interviews in two Minnesota counties, this unique project captured the voices of children in foster care, birth parents, foster parents and social workers. Key elements of helping families maintain and strengthen their relationships while living apart were explored and an interactive family visiting guide was developed based on the information gathered. Familyconnect: Making Family Visits work for Children in Foster Care
2009 Lessons from the Field: Autism Series
The Center for Excellence in Children’s Mental Health, in conjunction with University and community partners, is once again sponsoring a series of workshops focusing on bridging the gap from research to practice in children’s mental health. This year’s Lessons from the Field series will focus on Autism Spectrum Disorders. On November 21, 2008, the first workshop in the series, Foundations of Autism, will be held on the University of Minnesota metro campus and broadcast to over 35 host sites around the state. Visit our web-site at www.cmh.umn.edu for a list of locations or to register for this event. Additional workshops in the series are in the planning stages and will be posted as soon as they are finalized. Please pass this announcement on to your colleagues and others in your community that might find it of interest.
Read more about the 2009 Lessons from the Field: Autism Series
Working with Involuntary Clients: Advances in Theory
September 15, 2008: Ron Rooney and Chris Trotter are the authors of the two most prominent books on work with involuntary clients in the world. Rooney’s Strategies for Work with Involuntary Clients is coming out in a 2nd edition in the fall of 2008. Trotter’s Working with Involuntary Clients 2nd edition came out in 2006. This conference presented key ideas of the two approaches as well as presentations of adaptations to specific populations by co-authors of Rooney’s 2008 book. Working with Involuntary Clients: Advances in Theory
Addressing the Best Interests of Children in Immigrant and Refugee Families: Rising to the Challenge
May 1, 2008: Addressing the Best Interests of Children in Immigrant and Refugee Families: Rising to the Challenge
Children of Incarcerated Parents
April 16, 2008-This conference included a presentation from Creasie Finney Hairston, M.S.S.A., PhD —the Dean and a professor of social work at Jane Addams College of Social Work at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Dean Hairston’s current research and many of her publications focus on the impact of incarceration and reentry on families and children, and the impact of child welfare policies on children. She edited, with Cynthia Seymour, Children with Parents in Prison: Child Welfare Policy, Program, and Practice Issues (2001). Dr. Hairston was followed by a panel discussion of practitioners who implement programs for children of incarcerated parents. For more information please visit Children of Incarcerated Parents.
Beggars and Choosers: Motherhood is NOT a class privilege in America
April 7 and 8, 2008-This event was a gallery opening and lecture event that was co-sponsored by the Center, School of Social Work, and the University Libraries. Click here for more information.
Responding to Immigrant Families and Children: Rising to the Challenge
June 28, 2007-The project, “New Populations in Rural Counties: Implications for Child Welfare,” is intended to provide ways in which to improve responses to vulnerable children in immigrant and refugee families. The project will focus on several rural counties which have had an upsurge of settlements of new populations. The goal of the project is to learn enough to improve services, recommend best practices, and provide ways in which we can emphasize prevention so that children can be safe and secure, even when traumatic circumstances of uncertain citizenship prevail.
Evidence-Based Practice in Child Welfare in the Context of Cultural Competence
June 11, 2007-An invitational forum was held to discuss the intersection of evidence-based practice (EBP) and cultural competence. The goal of the meeting was to produce a plan to address this problem nationally and to craft pragmatic strategies that could be immediately applied in practice and policy. ecause of the great presentations and discussions the participants provided, some wonderful information is now available. From videos of the speakers and panelists to an audio slide presentation of the final discussion to documents on how we organized the meeting – everything is located in the Evidence Based Practice page.
8th Annual ITV/VPC Conference-March 28, 2007
The Signs of Safety Approach to Child Protection Casework-The Signs of Safety approach to child protection casework was developed through the 1990’s in Western Australia. Created by Andrew Turnell and Steve Edwards, this approach focuses on the question, “how can the worker actually build partnerships with parents in situations of suspected or substantiated child abuse?” This is a partnership- and collaboration-grounded, strengths-based, safety-organized approach to child protection work. In addition, the Signs of Safety approach is designed to assist professionals at all stages of the child protection process.