Center For Adoption Support And Education Inc

Counseling - as a private, nonprofit mental health support center for adoptive, kinship, and foster youth and their families, each year c.a.s.e. Provides adoption competent mental health services to over 1,706 prospective foster, kinship, and adoptive families and adoptive youth/teens, adult adoptee's and their families, in maryland, northern virginia, and washington, d.c. C.a.s.e. Addresses common developmental issues and social-emotional challenges frequently shared by foster/kinship youth, adoptee's, and their families. Post-adoption care involves early intervention measures to ensure that children and families can thrive. C.a.s.e. Staff are a multi-disciplinary team trained in c.a.s.e.'s accredited evidence-based training for adoption competency (tac) training bringing together expertise in the field of social work, family therapy, trauma informed care, expressive therapy, and education to address the unique needs of this population. C.a.s.e. Combines best practices and innovation to provide premiere counseling services to advance permanency for children and the healthy growth and development of families.wendy's wonderful kids, the dave thomas foundation for adoption has awarded c.a.s.e. A grant to implement the wendy's wonderful kids evidence-based proactive, child-focused recruitment model in the state of maryland targeted exclusively on moving the longest-waiting children from foster care into adoptive families.c.a.s.e. Has contracted with the maryland department of human services to help children aged 18 and younger who have been adopted from foster care to grow in permanent, stable, loving families. This state-wide program delivers specialized post-permanency mental health and educational services and support. In 2024, 98 families have been served.c.a.s.e. Is leading the northern post adoption case consortium initiative, partnering with children's home society of virginia, encircle through funding from the virginia department of social services to offer post-adoption case management and clinical services to help adoptive families in virginia access appropriate services and resources through community-based linkage and referral, education, and advocacy. In 2024, 224 families have been served.

Education resources and trainings - c.a.s.e.'s training programs and educational forums integrate theory, research, and best and innovative practices designed by our experts as well as national experts and those with lived experience in pre- and post-adoption support to meet the specific needs of local, national, and international foster, kinship, and adoption communities. In 2024, 8,645 registrants signed up for 10 strengthening your family webinars and four additional webinars. 978 individuals participated in 30 customized trainings, workshops and presentations provided by c.a.s.e. Staff to parents in professionals via contracting and community organizations. Three wise up! Train the trainer workshops were offered with 10 new organizations becoming licensed wise up! Sites for a total of 28 licensed sites. C.a.s.e. Also offered seven support group series for parents, or adult adoptees with 283 individuals participating. C.a.s.e. Delivered 442 in-demand educational webinars to support families and professionals. School-based mental health professionals training - in 2024, c.a.s.e. Adapted the nti training for mental health professionals to assure school-based mental health professionals, including school counselors, social workers, therapists, psychologists, and other professionals and administrators, would have the ability to understand and address the mental health and development challenges of students with experiences of adoption, foster care, and kinship care in public, private, and charter k-12 grades. Many of these students experience academic and social/peer challenges due to their early adverse experiences combined with interruptions in learning resulting from multiple moves and placement changes. This training was launched in september 2023. Implementation in local and national schools and school districts and evaluation activities are funded by private funding. To date, 1,277 school-based mental health professionals have enrolled in the training. Additionally, implementation specialists worked with school districts in illinois, oklahoma, and maryland to implement and receive coaching to integrate the training into practice.academy for elevating clinical practice in permanency (the academy) - the academy was created in 2021, then known as the national demonstration and teaching clinic (dtc), to address the combined national mental health crisis and national workforce shortage by preparing mental health professionals to serve the adoption, foster care, and kinship caregiving community more efficiently and effectively. At the academy, therapists of all levels grow and deepen in adoption specialty practice through a range of supports. These include: - newly created advanced coursework proprietary to the academy - participation in learning cohorts with their peers and advanced consultants - access to c.a.s.e.'s learning management system with a uniquely created instructional video collection, proprietary to the academy - optionally train in the simulation laboratory (currently operated through the university of oklahoma)audiences of the academy include interns, mid-level mental health clinicians, and advanced clinicians. The academy has been piloting with the intern audience at c.a.s.e. From 2022-25, through a collaboration for workforce development with the university of oklahoma 2023-25, and with three courses for advanced audiences in the fall of 2024. Demonstrable outcomes on various measures are showing promising results.

Training for adoption competency (tac) - tac is a national evidence-informed, accredited, rigorously evaluated, manualized training program, developed and owned by c.a.s.e. To provide licensed mental health professionals with the clinical skills they need to provide quality clinical services to adopted persons, birth families, prospective adoptive parents, and adoptive families and kinship families. Tac curriculum is based on 18 clinical competencies vetted nationally with a national advisory board of experts with lived and professional expertise. These competencies also provide the foundation for the definition of an adoption competent mental health professional. In 2020, tac received accreditation by the institute for credentialing excellence moving tac to the only assessment-based adoption competency certificate program. Since 2009, tac training has been replicated with 208 cohorts, training 2,864 professionals. In 2024, 22 cohorts of tac were provided by c.a.s.e. And its 19 partner agencies throughout the united states for a total of 293 students enrolled. Refer to www.adoptionsupport.org for specific localities.

Publications - c.a.s.e. Publications educate families, professionals, and the community about the unique joys and challenges of adoption. C.a.s.e. Staff members continue to author books, articles, and fact sheets to further educate parents and professionals.c.a.s.e. Publications include a monthly e-newsletter, beneath the mask: understanding adopted teens, s.a.f.e. At school, the whole me and w.i.s.e. Up! Powerbook, 52 ways to talk about adoption, and the newest publication released in 2019, beneath the mask: for teen adoptees.