18th Annual Foster Care and Adoption Conference

Thursday, May 10 – Saturday, May 12, 2007 • Albany Marriott

2007 new york foster care and adoption conference

Click to view the Coalition’s 2007 Conference Brochure

The theme of our 18th annual statewide conference, Making Dreams Come True, speaks to the hopes, vision, and wishes of all parties to an adoption and those who impact their lives—waiting children; prospective parents; adoptive and foster parents who want the very best outcomes for their children; the children’s hopes for the present and future; agency, state, legal, and other helping professionals who wish to make good decisions to benefit children and families and achieve professional goals. Our plenary speakers and the workshop presenters were selected because the knowledge and expertise they will share can help make dreams come true.

Additional features included  a half-day Institute on Thursday afternoon presented by Michael Sanders, a specialist in effective recruitment and retention of adoptive and foster parents and a showing of  “Unconditional Commitment: The Only Love that Matters…to Teens,” a new film produced by You Gotta Believe!.

2007 Conference Workshops

The following contains workshop descriptions and links to workshop handouts from the Coalition’s 2007 Foster Care and Adoption Conference. Audio versions of the 2007 workshop presentations can be purchased though this form.

1. Transracial Adoption: Guidelines for Parents and Practice – Understanding the special needs of children in transracial/transcultural adoptive and foster families. Developing goals and tasks for effective parenting.Joseph Crumbley

2. Parenting the Hurt Child – How the hurt begins, psychological intersections between parent and child, and ways to promote growth and attachment. Gregory Keck, Attachment and Bonding Center of Ohio.

3. Love Locked Inside: “My Parents Are in Prison” – Strategies for improved practice and better outcomes for children whose parents are incarcerated-video conferencing, visits, and ways to negotiate both the child welfare and criminal justice systems. Barry Chaffkin, Tanya Krupat, CT Wocat.

4. Support and Services for Children with Developmental Disabilities – How to initiate a request for assistance, determining eligibility, Medicaid Service Coordination, and other information to benefit children with developmental disabilities. Janice Fitzgerald, Mary Jo Hebert, Parent to Parent of NYS. 

5. Searching for Birth Relatives: Lessons Learned – A Korean born adoptee and adoption professional offers insights on searching and proposes answers to 10 “moment of truth” questions adoptees should ask themselves first. Hollee McGinnis, Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute

6. Parenting the Sexually Abused Child – Identifying behaviors of sexually abused children and youth, understanding the impact on relationships, and formulating goals, methods, and parenting tasks. Joseph Crumbley

7. Developmental Issues in Adolescents – Recognizing interruptions in the normal developmental process, strategies for limit setting, consequencing, and managing difficult behavior. Gregory Keck, Attachment and Bonding Center of Ohio

8. A New Sibling’s Effect on the Family – Emotional and behavioral changes in the adopted, foster, or birth children already in the family when there is a new addition. Sue Badeau, Badeau Consulting. Workshop Handouts

 9. Childhood Depression – How depression differs from normal sadness, signs to look for, when to seek help, effective treatments, ways to cope, and hope for the future. Laurie Flynn, Columbia University

10. Hispanic Family Recruitment in the 21st Century: A Latino Perspective – A look at changing demographics, ways to reach out to Latino communities, and how to respond in welcoming and culturally respectful ways. Ernesto Loperena, NY Council on Adoptable Children. 

11. Rules and Rituals: Tools to Strengthen Families – All families develop rules to live by and rituals to enrich family life. How are they different and the same in birth, foster, and adoptive families? Maris Blechner, Family Focus Adoption Services

12. Children with Attachment Difficulties – Attachment theory in normal development, symptoms of attachment difficulties, and effective parenting strategies. Gregory Keck, Attachment and Bonding Center of Ohio. 

13. Improving Outcomes for Children in Family Court – Family Court initiatives to improve the education and health of foster children and access to records, an update on the Family Court Improvement Project, and future plans. Kathleen DeCataldo, Permanent Judicial Commission on Justice for Children

 14. Fostering Resiliency – Helping children and youth build on their survivor skills and discover, develop and constructively use their natural and emerging strengths and abilities. Barbara Jaklitsch, Center for Development of Human Services

15. Adoption and Other Options for Teens – A model program for teen permanence that looks at working with ambivalent teens and creative options for finding families. Barry Chaffkin, April Dinwoodie, Doris Laurenceau, CT Wocat

16. Abuse Allegations: Not IF, But WHEN – Why allegations happen, steps adoptive and foster families can take–before, during and after, and how agencies can support families through the investigative process. Maris Blechner, Family Focus Adoption Services

17. “What My White Parents Didn’t Know and Why I Turned Out OK Anyway” – An interactive workshop that will help you examine culture/race and its impact on adoption, with helpful hints from two adult transracial adoptees. April Dinwoodie, Doris Laurenceau, Barry Chaffkin, CT Wocat

18. Supporting Families after Adoption – Benefits to families that receive post adoption services and ways to support the development of new services. Panel. Cheryl Larrier, NYS Office of Children and Family Services, Moderator

19. “You Can’t Make Me!” – Dealing with defiant and obstinate children, setting boundaries, enforcing limits, and consequences for unacceptable behavior. Sue Badeau, Badeau Consulting. 

20. A Child’s Trauma and the Impact on the Adoptive Family – Learning from recent studies on trauma, this session will discuss the findings from the perspective of parents raising adopted children with a history of trauma. Tito Del Pilar 21. Adoption Subsidy Refresher – A review of adoption subsidies, including process and procedures, rates beyond basic, documentation needed, post adoption upgrades, and Fair Hearings. Michael Neff. 

22. Family Team Meetings: An Approach to Engaging Families – How to build relationships with families whose children are at risk of or in foster care, involve all team members, overcome challenges, and achieve positive outcomes. Nancy McKee, NYS Office of Children and Family Services. Workshop Handouts:

23. Fathers Roundtable: A workshop for men only to share feelings, doubts, and fears related to parenting, adoption, or foster care. A no holds barred, supportive workshop where there are no wrong answers. Panel. Alan Wasserman, Adoptive Parents Committee, Moderator

24. Welcoming All Families – What skills and competencies are needed to work effectively with the gay and lesbian community? A discussion of key issues and guidelines for best practices. Ellen Kahn, Human Rights Campaign.

25. Getting Kids to Talk about Adoption through Games – Ideas for helping children create games with adoption themes. Then have fun playing games with some of our game creators! Suzanne d’Aversa, Parsons Child and Family Center

26. Kinship Caregivers: Rights and Resources – Legal issues facing relative caregivers, and resources across NYS that include housing, case management, and legal assistance. Gerard Wallace, Albany Law School

27. How Children Grieve – The effects of loss and separation on children and youth, how they express their grief, and ways to help. Sue Badeau, Badeau Consulting.

28. Improving “Customer Service” – What we’ve learned from AdoptUsKids national recruitment efforts and from prospective adoptive parents in a new nationwide study of barriers to adoption. Sarah Gerstenzang, The Collaboration to AdoptUsKids.

29. Video Game Wars: The Battle to Get Them Turned Off! – Why do video games have such a hold over adopted/foster children? An inside view of the gaming world and tips on dealing with video game players. Tito Del Pilar

30. Special Needs: What’s a Parent To Do? – Understanding your child’s rights to educational and therapeutic services and protecting her or his ability to receive a free and appropriate public education. Nancy Maurer, Albany Law School

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Want or need more information? Contact us at info@affcny.org or call our main office at (646) 688-4321.