Call for Proposals

AFFCNY's 30 annual foster care and adoption conference

The Coalition’s 30th Annual New York State Foster Care and Adoption Conference will be held on Thursday, May 30 – Saturday, June 1, 2019 at the Hilton Albany in Albany, New York

CALL FOR WORKSHOP PROPOSALS

The Adoptive and Foster Family Coalition of New York is seeking presenters for the organization’s 30th annual conference. The conference is targeted to foster, adoptive and kinship parents and the professionals who work with them. We encourage foster, kinship and adoptive parents, child welfare professionals, adoptees, birth parents, youth formerly in foster care, therapists, child advocates and researchers to submit workshop proposals for one or more of our thirty workshops.

Workshops offered on Friday, May 31st and Saturday, June 1st, are 60 to 90 minutes in length dependent on the final schedule.

We welcome all proposals and have particular interest in the following topics:

Understanding transitions as trauma triggers and stressors for children and methods to ease the stresses of all transitions for both children and families.
Ways in which adoptive, foster and kinship families can help foster and maintain their child’s connections with their families of origin and to those with whom they develop connections while in care.
Helping youth move from home to residential treatment facilities, to family-based foster care and/or back home again.
Methods to support positive communication between caregivers and parents in the face of practices within the system don’t support or actively discourage contract and collaboration.
How to parent successfully and maintain a relationship when your child does not live with you.
Finding creative, yet meaningful ways to connect with your transracially or internally adopted child’s culture, county or community.

How to use DNA testing and other technology to search for and contact missing siblings or family members or find extended family for former foster youths or older child kin placement.
Understanding and meeting the needs of youth as they age out in terms of continued services available, creating support systems and the youths’ legal rights and responsibilities.
Transitioning to independence; exploring options for college, secondary training, assisted, supported and independent living options.
Honoring the sibling connections when children are placed in separate households
Supporting kinship caregivers as they move from extended family to primary caregiver and tackle the challenges of intra-family placement.
What to prepare for when your planned closed adoption becomes open or your planned open adoption becomes closed.

Guidelines

Presentations should be interactive, engaging and incorporate audience participation and questions. Proposals should ideally should relate to the theme of the Conference and address one of the topics listed above, through the Coalition is open to other ideas. Submissions are due by Monday January 21st, 2019 FRIDAY JANUARY 25TH!! and are reviewed by Coalition staff. Prospective presenters will be notified in February

Selected presenters receive free conference registration for up to two presenters per workshop, but are expected to donate their time and expenses. Presenter registration includes conference program meals, reception, special events and discounted fees for conference program ads and exhibit tables.

Proposal Format

PRESENTER INFORMATION: Include short bio, affiliation(s) and contact info (mail, email and phone number) for each presenter. If there are online videos of other presentations, include links.

WORKSHOP OVERVIEW: Using a separate online form for each workshop proposed, provide a brief outline for each presentation. Include: workshop title, description, intended audience(s) and which areas of interest (listed above) your proposed workshop will address.

CONFIRMATION: After filling out the form and submitting, you will be taken to a new page verifying the submission. If you do not land on the thank you page, then your proposal has NOT been submitted. Please submit it again.

PLEASE NOTE: After submitting your Workshop RFP, you will be taken to a new page verifying the submission. If you do not land on the thank you page, then your proposal has NOT been submitted. Please review your form again. Required fields will be highlighted in red. Correct the form as indicated and submit it again. The system will also send you a copy of the form to the email you provided. If, after checking your spam folder, you do not have an email confirmation of your RFP, then please contact us. If you don’t have an email, then we do not have your proposal either.

Questions? Contact Claudia Corrigan D’Arcy at (646) 688-4321 or email at claudia@affcny.org.

Please share with any other groups, pages, or interested parties: AFFCNY Workshop RFP