The School of Social Work’s Center for Excellence in Child Welfare is pleased to announce the Youth-in-Care with Disabilities Community of Practice (CoP) as part of its Youth-in-Care with Disabilities Training Project developed in support from the U.S. Department of Education’s School-Based Mental Health Grant awarded to West40 Intermediate Service Center #2 in partnership with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
We hope you will join this exciting opportunity to regularly exchange ideas, triumphs, and challenges, be supported and listened to, share wisdom with peers, and gain skills from peers that provide services and support to youth-in-care with disabilities. The CoP provides a forum to discuss and test out new ideas and implement new approaches while building long-term support from a community of colleagues. The CoP is geared toward school-based mental health professionals but is open to child welfare professionals, caregivers, and others interested in engaging together regularly for ongoing support and learning. Viewing of the project’s webinar series is high encouraged prior to participation, but is not required.
We invite you to register for the CoP and experience an authentic way of connecting on topics and themes you find meaningful in your work with youth-in-care with disabilities, such as supporting complex mental health or medical needs or transition to adulthood. We also ask that you share this registration information widely with your colleagues. Attendance is free. 1.0 CEU will be available for each session (LCSW, LSW, LCPC,LPC). You will be required to complete a 3 question post-test after each session. Attending all six sessions is highly encouraged but not required.
Session dates and times:
January 15: 12:00-1:00pm
February 12: 12:00-1:00pm
March 12: 12:00-1:00pm
April 16: 12:00-1:00pm
May 14: 12:00-1:00pm
June 11: 12:00-1:00pm
Learning Objectives:
- Knowledge Sharing and Development: Participants will share and exchange existing knowledge, experiences, and insights about supporting youth-in-care with disabilities to develop new knowledge, tools, resources, and best practices.
- Skill Enhancement and Professional Growth: Participants will develop problem-solving, critical thinking, and self-reflection skills to improve their performance in supporting youth-in-care with disabilities with complex medical or mental health needs.
- Networking and Collaboration: Participants will connect with peers and build broader professional networks through interdisciplinary discussion and support that improves the quality of services to youth-in-care with disabilities.
General Session Agenda:
- Facilitator provides review of a key topic from the webinar series.
- Participants engage in active discussion on existing knowledge, experiences, and insights on the topic.
- Participants share tools, resources, and best practices.
- Participants self-reflect on how they will apply the new knowledge and resources into their practice.
- Participants share topic ideas for future sessions.