Foster Care Training in Alameda, Contra Costa, Solano
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Foster Care Training - Public and Private
AFS provides free, comprehensive foster care training to public and private agencies and individuals on a variety of topics related to foster care, mental health and family support. Contracted by Chabot-Las Positas Community College District, every class is led by certified personnel who conform to best practices.
Examples of training subjects include:
- pre-service training for adoptive and foster parents
- working within the child welfare system
- foster and adoptive parent orientation
- trauma-informed parenting
- de-escalation techniques
- First Aid/CPR
- cultural competency
- compassion fatigue
FAQs on Training for Resource Families and Professionals
Who are these service trainings open to?
Trainings are primarily open to current and applying foster and adoptive parents (Resource Parents), kinship caregivers, mental health and child welfare service providers, staff at accredited foster family agencies and individuals in need of continuing education and requisite training hours (CEUs).
Where are training sessions located?
Training classes are available in the following counties: Alameda, Contra Costa and Solano. Please see below for our training calendar and to register for an upcoming session.
How often does service training occur?
We aim to provide training sessions at least once a month, if not more frequently. For specific dates and information about classes and training sessions coming up, please see below for our detailed training calendar.
Get in Touch
Interested in learning more about service training and upcoming foster care training sessions and classes? Contact us via email at traininginfo@afs4kids.org o
Helpful Links
To learn more about foster care, mental health and the Resource Parent application process, be sure to check out these helpful links:
- Foster Care Training website for Chabot-Las Positas Community College District.
- How to Become a Resource Parent through AFS
- Resource Parent Application
- All About the AFS Adoption Process
- Current Job Openings with AFS
Training Calendar
Sign up for any class via email at: traininginfo@afs4kids.org
Please include the training, date and city in the subject line.
CPR and First Aid Training
Health & Safety
DISTANCE LEARNING
2/24/2021
6:00 PM - 9:00 PM
This training will give participants an understanding of First Aid & CPR training - referring to medical attention that is usually administered immediately after an injury occurs and at the location where it occurred. Trainer will discuss applying first aid consists of a one-time, short-term treatment and requires minimal technology or training to administer. First aid can include cleaning minor cuts, scrapes, or scratches; treating a minor burn; applying bandages and dressings; the use of non-prescription medicine; draining blisters; removing debris from the eyes; massage; and administering fluids to relieve heat stress.
Exploring Foster Care and Adoption
For Caregivers
DISTANCE LEARNING
2/25/2021
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
This training is designed to introduce prospective Resource Families to the Child Welfare System and the role of a resource parent. Participants will receive an overview of the steps to becoming a resource parent with Alternative Family Services.
Resourse Family Pre Approval Training - Session 5&6
SPANISH
For Caregivers
DISTANCE LEARNING
2/27/2021
9:00 AM - 3:30 PM
This training is the fifth and six sessions addressing issues surrounding growing a healthy child in the supportive family setting. Children’s rights are spelled out in regards to treatment within the family and community, including understanding SOGIE, sexual health education and reproductive rights, and educational rights. Also addressing importance of maintaining confidentiality in all aspects of Resource Parenting, identifying all members of the professional team vs. those who are minor players and whom we keep informed on a need-to know basis. Responsibility for respecting the child’s right to confidentiality about his or her case, family of origin, reason for community care, etc. This session also addresses child’s potential need for psychotropic medication. Handling of records around prescribing, managing and administration of psychotropic medications. Last of all, this session addresses transitions, as all foster youth experience transitions as part of growing up. Transitions include reunification, adoption or guardianship, transitional living situations or aging out of the system. Included in this session are helpful advice and support for Resource Parents as they embark on their parenting journey.
Resourse Family Pre Approval Training - Session 3&4
For Caregivers
DISTANCE LEARNING
2/27/2021
10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
This training is designed to prepare resource families to work with youth in the foster care system. Participants will receive a better understanding of the foster care system structure and explore how to provide a well-planned, safe, and secure environment designed to meet children's individual and unique needs, and how to create an environment that promotes children's social emotional, cognitive, and physical development. Participants will continue to review; Interim Licensing Standard, Child Growth and Development, Medication Guidelines, Discipline, Working with Biological Families and understanding the Effects of Trauma.
CPR and First Aid Training
Health & Safety
DISTANCE LEARNING
2/27/2021
10:00 AM - 1:00 PM
This training will give participants an understanding of First Aid & CPR training - referring to medical attention that is usually administered immediately after an injury occurs and at the location where it occurred. Trainer will discuss applying first aid consists of a one-time, short-term treatment and requires minimal technology or training to administer. First aid can include cleaning minor cuts, scrapes, or scratches; treating a minor burn; applying bandages and dressings; the use of non-prescription medicine; draining blisters; removing debris from the eyes; massage; and administering fluids to relieve heat stress.
Exploring Foster Care and Adoption
For Caregivers
DISTANCE LEARNING
3/4/2021
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
This training is designed to introduce prospective Resource Families to the Child Welfare System and the role of a resource parent. Participants will receive an overview of the steps to becoming a resource parent with Alternative Family Services.
ABC's of Infant Care
For Caregivers
DISTANCE LEARNING
3/8/2021
5:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Presenter will review the basic care and precautions while caring for infants in the foster care system. Covering best practices in sleep rules when caring for infants. Presenter will discuss new crib standards, crib recalls, safety hazards and how they affect a safe sleeping environment, addressing the proper way to feed and burp a new born infant and how to make certain the infant is consuming the proper amount formula, basic diaper rash symptoms and how to properly treat and prevent rashes. Presenter will discuss teething, infant development stages and milestone, well baby checkups, and immunizations. The basic side effects from prenatal drug exposure will be reviewed and how it can prevent the child from reaching age appropriate milestones, creating significantly more health issues and caregiving demands.
Understanding the Covid-19 Virus & Vaccinations
Health & Safety
DISTANCE LEARNING
3/9/2021
10:00 AM - 11:30 AM
Dr. Thompson will provide information about the Covid-19 Virus and discuss how vaccination combats illness. She will deliver a clear understanding of how COVID-19 vaccines work and how it helps to look at how our bodies fight illness. She will review how germs, such as the virus that causes COVID-19, invade human bodies, how they attack and multiply. This invasion, called an infection, is what causes illness and how the immune system uses several tools to fight infection.
Dr. Thompson will discuss how vaccines help people develop immunity to a virus or other germ. A vaccine introduces a less harmful part of that germ, or something created to look or behave like, it into a person’s body. The body’s immune system develops antibodies that fight that particular germ and keep the person from getting sick from it. Later, if the person encounters that germ again, their immune system can “recognize” it and “remember” how to fight it off.
CPR and First Aid Training- Spanish
Health & Safety
DISTANCE LEARNING
3/10/2021
6:00 PM - 9:00 PM
This training will give participants an understanding of First Aid & CPR training - referring to medical attention that is usually administered immediately after an injury occurs and at the location where it occurred. Trainer will discuss applying first aid consists of a one-time, short-term treatment and requires minimal technology or training to administer. First aid can include cleaning minor cuts, scrapes, or scratches; treating a minor burn; applying bandages and dressings; the use of non-prescription medicine; draining blisters; removing debris from the eyes; massage; and administering fluids to relieve heat stress.
Exploring Foster Care and Adoption
For Caregivers
DISTANCE LEARNING
3/11/2021
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
This training is designed to introduce prospective Resource Families to the Child Welfare System and the role of a resource parent. Participants will receive an overview of the steps to becoming a resource parent with Alternative Family Services.
Trauma Informed Parenting- " Parenting in Oz " Part 1
Trauma Impact
DISTANCE LEARNING
3/13/2021
10:00 AM - 1:30 PM
“Parenting In OZ!” is an experiential, memorable, trauma-informed, parenting curriculum designed to help parents and staff understand and respond therapeutically to the acting-out behaviors often exhibited by children who have experienced the trauma of neglect, abuse, and loss. Utilizing the vivid imagery from “The Wizard of OZ” and the emergency room, this unique training is an entertaining, multi-sensory approach to working with trauma that both professionals and parents cannot help but remember and integrate into their work. Trauma informed parenting is a paradigm shift for many parents who have often been trained to utilize tools designed to bring external controls to address or remediate problematic behaviors within a particular environment.
CPR and First Aid Training
Health & Safety
DISTANCE LEARNING
3/13/2021
10:00 AM - 1:00 PM
This training will give participants an understanding of First Aid & CPR training - referring to medical attention that is usually administered immediately after an injury occurs and at the location where it occurred. Trainer will discuss applying first aid consists of a one-time, short-term treatment and requires minimal technology or training to administer. First aid can include cleaning minor cuts, scrapes, or scratches; treating a minor burn; applying bandages and dressings; the use of non-prescription medicine; draining blisters; removing debris from the eyes; massage; and administering fluids to relieve heat stress.
How to Ensure Safety When Providing Services to Youth During a Pandemic
For Caregivers
DISTANCE LEARNING
3/18/2021
10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Instructors will define the words: COVID-19, pandemic, transmission, isolation and precautions. Additionally, instructors will lead discussion of symptoms and testing as well as what it means to have a positive result. Instructors will talk about risk factors in foster youth who may have been neglected, who don’t understand precautions or who were present in places where the virus has subsequently been detected.
Resourse Family Pre Approval Training - Session 1&2
For Caregivers
DISTANCE LEARNING
3/20/2021
10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
This training is designed to prepare resource families to work with youth in the foster care system. Participants will receive a better understanding of the foster care system structure and explore how to provide a well-planned, safe, and secure environment designed to meet children's individual and unique needs, and how to create an environment that promotes children's social emotional, cognitive, and physical development. Participants will continue to review; Interim Licensing Standard, Child Growth and Development, Medication Guidelines, Discipline, Working with Biological Families and understanding the Effects of Trauma.
Trauma Informed Parenting- " Parenting in Oz " Part 2
Trauma Impact
DISTANCE LEARNING
3/20/2021
10:00 AM - 1:30 PM
“Parenting In OZ!” is an experiential, memorable, trauma-informed, parenting curriculum designed to help parents and staff understand and respond therapeutically to the acting-out behaviors often exhibited by children who have experienced the trauma of neglect, abuse, and loss. Utilizing the vivid imagery from “The Wizard of OZ” and the emergency room, this unique training is an entertaining, multi-sensory approach to working with trauma that both professionals and parents cannot help but remember and integrate into their work. Trauma informed parenting is a paradigm shift for many parents who have often been trained to utilize tools designed to bring external controls to address or remediate problematic behaviors within a particular environment.
How to Ensure Safety When Providing Services to Youth During a Pandemic
For Caregivers
DISTANCE LEARNING
3/24/2021
5:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Instructors will define the words: COVID-19, pandemic, transmission, isolation and precautions. Additionally, instructors will lead discussion of symptoms and testing as well as what it means to have a positive result. Instructors will talk about risk factors in foster youth who may have been neglected, who don’t understand precautions or who were present in places where the virus has subsequently been detected.
CPR and First Aid Training
Health & Safety
DISTANCE LEARNING
3/24/2021
6:00 PM - 9:00 PM
This training will give participants an understanding of First Aid & CPR training - referring to medical attention that is usually administered immediately after an injury occurs and at the location where it occurred. Trainer will discuss applying first aid consists of a one-time, short-term treatment and requires minimal technology or training to administer. First aid can include cleaning minor cuts, scrapes, or scratches; treating a minor burn; applying bandages and dressings; the use of non-prescription medicine; draining blisters; removing debris from the eyes; massage; and administering fluids to relieve heat stress.
Exploring Foster Care and Adoption
For Caregivers
DISTANCE LEARNING
3/25/2021
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
This training is designed to introduce prospective Resource Families to the Child Welfare System and the role of a resource parent. Participants will receive an overview of the steps to becoming a resource parent with Alternative Family Services.
How to Ensure Safety When Providing Services to Youth During a Pandemic
For Caregivers
DISTANCE LEARNING
3/26/2021
10:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Instructors will define the words: COVID-19, pandemic, transmission, isolation and precautions. Additionally, instructors will lead discussion of symptoms and testing as well as what it means to have a positive result. Instructors will talk about risk factors in foster youth who may have been neglected, who don’t understand precautions or who were present in places where the virus has subsequently been detected.
How to Ensure Safety When Providing Services to Youth During a Pandemic- Spanish
For Caregivers
DISTANCE LEARNING
3/26/2021
10:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Instructors will define the words: COVID-19, pandemic, transmission, isolation and precautions. Additionally, instructors will lead discussion of symptoms and testing as well as what it means to have a positive result. Instructors will talk about risk factors in foster youth who may have been neglected, who don’t understand precautions or who were present in places where the virus has subsequently been detected.
Resourse Family Pre Approval Training - Session 3&4
For Caregivers
DISTANCE LEARNING
3/27/2021
10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
This training is designed to prepare resource families to work with youth in the foster care system. Participants will receive a better understanding of the foster care system structure and explore how to provide a well-planned, safe, and secure environment designed to meet children's individual and unique needs, and how to create an environment that promotes children's social emotional, cognitive, and physical development. Participants will continue to review; Interim Licensing Standard, Child Growth and Development, Medication Guidelines, Discipline, Working with Biological Families and understanding the Effects of Trauma.
CPR and First Aid Training
Health & Safety
DISTANCE LEARNING
3/27/2021
10:00 AM - 1:00 PM
This training will give participants an understanding of First Aid & CPR training - referring to medical attention that is usually administered immediately after an injury occurs and at the location where it occurred. Trainer will discuss applying first aid consists of a one-time, short-term treatment and requires minimal technology or training to administer. First aid can include cleaning minor cuts, scrapes, or scratches; treating a minor burn; applying bandages and dressings; the use of non-prescription medicine; draining blisters; removing debris from the eyes; massage; and administering fluids to relieve heat stress.