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C1       Creating a Web of Support and Community: The Child and Family Team in Partnership with Transition Age Youth
  • Rebecca Buchmiller, Manager, CDSS Integrated Services Unit
What is a Child and Family Team (CFT)?  We will discuss what it is and how is it part of the process where the youth or young adult participates in the development of their team, case planning, permanency connections, coordination, and communication.  We will show how the CFT is a group of individuals who are invested in the youth's or young adult's success towards permanency and self-sufficiency, and we will identify how to engage youth or young adults in building their team and identifying people who are important to them.  Youth and young adults will learn the importance of CFT meetings and how to access them for placement concerns, transitioning to self-sufficiency and maintaining life long connections.

C2       Permanency Options for Older Youth

  • Angie Schwartz, Vice President, Policy and Advocacy, Alliance for Children's Rights
  • Cynthia Billey, Foster Care Adoptions Program Director, Alliance for Children's Rights
The primary goal of our child welfare system is to reunify children with their families or, if that’s not possible, to connect children to permanent and loving families through adoption or guardianship. Recent reform efforts have focused on how to enhance permanency outcomes for older foster and probation youth, even into adulthood, so that no youth leaves the system without a permanent family or a responsible caring adult in his or her life. This workshop will detail these reforms and best practices that promote permanency for older youth in the foster care and probation systems.


C3       Who am I?: Helping TAY Find Their Identity Through Significant Mental Health Challenges
  • Bruce Adams, Felton Early Psychosis Division Associate Director, Felton Institute
  • Emily Mann, (re)MIND/BEAM Bilingual Therapist, Felton Institute
  • Adriana Furuzawa, Felton Early Psychosis Division Director, Felton Institute
While there can be numerous challenges being a transition age youth, adding mental health challenges into the equation can be devastating. Attendees will learn how certain symptoms of psychosis, mania, depression, and anxiety may impact the youth’s transitional period in life, identity formation, and self-discovery as well as what specific tools, worksheets, and phone apps can help youth find stability in their mental health. From these tools, the youth will gain knowledge to support their own recovery, self-awareness, and coping skills and ultimately help them manage their triggers and mood.

C4       The State of Transitional Housing for Current & Former Foster Youth: Success, Challenges & Opportunities
  • Simone Tureck Lee, Director of Housing & Health, John Burton Advocates for Youth
  • Transitional housing provider
  • Transitional housing youth participant
This workshop will provide a comprehensive depiction of our state's supportive transitional housing programs serving over 3,200 current and former foster youth as of July 1, 2019. Presenters will highlight the most inquired about findings from the 2018-19 THP-NMD & THP-Plus Annual Report. Transitional housing providers and youth participants will share on-the-ground information about successes and challenges of the programs in supporting youth in transition to adulthood. Join this workshop to engage in discussion about approaches to improving outcomes among current and former foster youth in a number of areas including housing/placement, education, reproductive and sexual health, and more.

C5       Taking Back Our Children- Identifying, Educating and Partnering to Empower our CSE Youth
REPEATED IN "B" group

  • Danielle Nieto, Social Work Supervisor, County of Fresno Department of Social Services
  • Melissa Chacon, Social Work Practitioner, County of Fresno Dept of Social Services
  • Nichole Castanon-Bletz, Social Worker III, County of Fresno Dept of Social Services
  • Ivette Medina Rocha, Social Worker III, County of Fresno Department of Social Services
Come to this workshop and learn how to identify youth who are at risk or have been victimized by commercial sex trafficking. We will show how to support and stabilize CSE youth, by providing information on trauma informed best practice.   We will also provide basic information to more advanced techniques on how to intertwine a web of support to help youth either leave the life or be prepared to protect themselves from it.  Child welfare social workers will share tips that have proved helpful in providing support with this population.  We will also discuss how to partner with community partners as well as give an overview of the work being done in Fresno County and how to implement and duplicate some of this work. 

C6       Making the Invisible Visible: Resources for Underserved TAY Survivors of Human Trafficking
  • Melissa J. Gomez, Preventing and Addressing Child Trafficking (PACT) Project Director, Child and Family Policy Institute of California
  • Russell G. Wilson, Anti-Trafficking Expert, Researcher, PACT Consultant, Child and Family Policy Institute of California
  • Jamelia Hinds, PACT Consultant, Child and Family Policy Institute of California
During this workshop interact with Preventing and Addressing Child Trafficking (PACT) Consultant Leadership Team and Project Director. We will share lessons learned in our work supporting a cohort of ten-child welfare county agencies; and draw from lived experience to explore the journey of victim, to survivor and eventually self-actualized “thriver.” Promising methods of engagement will be shared; highlighting strategies for serving boys/men and key signs to recognize youth who are being labor trafficked – populations who often express “invisibility” and lack of support in the aftermath of trauma.

C7       Growing Up in the Age of Social Media and How To Handle It
  • Samantha Smith, Senior Advocate Supervisor, Yolo County CASA
  • Vanessa Hernandez, Advocate Supervisor, Yolo County CASA
Attendees can anticipate a fun, interactive workshop discussing some of the most heavily utilized social media platforms, the impact of these platforms, and how to teach TAY youth how to use them to their advantage. We will also discuss impactful academic studies regarding social media and it's impact on adolescent development. Participate in our “social currency” game, which will illustrate how social currency can be leveraged negatively or positively on a given person and how social media can impact the amount of social currency one has. Leave with  handouts including a cheat-sheet to help identify different social media platforms

C8       CA Foster Youth Initiative AmeriCorps Project – Building Webs of Support, Overcoming Challenges & Superheroes Created
  • Cherie Schroeder, CA Foster Youth Initiative, Project Lead, Child Abuse Prevention Center, Sacramento
  • Kelly Hood, Youth Engagement Project, Director, Child Family Policy Institute of CA
  • Robin Smith, Director, Glenn County Office of Education, Foster Youth Services
  • Holly Siino, Equity Specialist, YESS ILP Programs, Foundation for CA Community Colleges
The Child Abuse Prevention Center has an exciting opportunity to better support California’s current and former foster youth - The CA Foster Youth AmeriCorps Initiative.  Its goal is to improve life outcomes and focus on achievement for foster youth by establishing stronger academic and technology competency, supporting placement and educational stability, building leadership, life skills, employment and extracurricular opportunities through expanded AmeriCorps service mentors.  Join us to implement this opportunity building a continuum of care that up-lifts foster youth as they traverse challenges into adulthood providing guidance of a peer mentor - a CA Foster Youth Initiative AmeriCorps service member.
           
  46 millis