At Foster Parent College we strive to give foster, adoptive, and kinship parents the knowledge and tools they need to raise children who will thrive in today's world. To support resource parents who learn better in Spanish, over the past 4 years, we have been working to ensure that all of our pre-service courses are available in Spanish.
Our latest course to be translated, Respaldar la normalidad (Supporting Normalcy) is available on the FosterParentCollege.com website. To see all of the courses available in Spanish, or to watch previews visit: fosterparentcollege.com/info/full-list.jsp#spanCourses
Strength-Based Child Welfare Words and Expressions
What do the terms "caregivers," "selecting in," and "family time" all have in common? They are all terms designed to focus on a child's and family's strengths.
To continue the push toward strength-based language and practice, FosterParentCollege.com has added a new free resource to our website — CWLA's list of strength-based words. Use of these words and expressions is encouraged instead of traditional terms that focus on deficits (such as "hard-to-place children," "removal," and "substitute care").
Children's Typical and Problematic Sexual Behaviors
Sexual development, like physical or cognitive development, is a natural part of growing up. However, when children in care demonstrate a sexual behavior it can be confusing or alarming for resource parents.
Foster Parent College has teamed up with Dr. Jane Silovsky of the National Center on the Sexual Behavior of Youth to develop our most recent advanced parenting workshop. In this workshop, we help caregivers differentiate sexual behavior that is typical from that which is concerning or problematic. Then we provide strategies for dealing with the range of sexual behaviors.
This course is in the final stage of production and will soon enter the study phase. Parents who are interested in participating in our research studies, can join our volunteer list from their personal home page, or by logging into FPC then visiting fosterparentcollege.com/study/volunteer.jsp.
Administrators: Do You Know How to Change a Parent's Password?
Foster Parent College's online management system allows agency administrators to register, enroll, and manage resource parents' accounts. A common question our support staff receives about managing parent accounts is how to change a parent's password. Here's how, in 8 easy steps:
Log in to FosterParentCollege.com.
From your navigation page, click on the name of the group to which the parent belongs.
Click open.
Click on the Members tab, then the Directory subtab.
Click on the name (not the email address) of the member whose information you wish to edit.
Click Edit under the member's name.
Update the appropriate information.
Click save.
Remember, agency administrators and staff at Foster Parent College cannot see passwords. We can only reset them. If you create a new password for parents, you will need to email it to them.
If you have other questions about the account management system, consider joining one of our webinars. You can find a schedule here: fosterparentcollege.com/info/webinar-schedules.jsp. You can also find tutorials on the Admin Home Page, under the Website Training & Help tab.
Upcoming Courses
To provide resource parents with the information they need to support children in their care, FosterParentCollege.com is continually creating new courses and updating existing ones. We are currently working on these courses:
Problematic Sexual Behaviors: Advanced Parenting Workshop (completing production)
Children Entering Care: Mental Health Issues (in production)
Children with Autism, 2nd Edition (being scripted)
Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in Care (in scripting)
Trauma-Sensitive De-escalation Techniques (scripting has begun)
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (scripting has begun)
Being a Kinship Caregiver (scripting has begun)
College Readiness (this two-course series will enter the scripting phase soon)
Supporting the National Foster Parent Association
In 2011, Foster Parent College and the National Foster Parent Association (NFPA) formed a strategic alliance. Under this agreement, when visitors on the NFPA website follow a link to FosterParentCollege.com and purchase a training, FPC will donate 10% of the purchase price to NFPA. Additionally, when a foster parent registers for a new FosterParentCollege.com account through the NFPA link, that parent is considered an NFPA-affiliated member for life, and every purchase made by that parent and paid for with a credit card will lead to a 10% donation to NFPA. Since creating this strategic alliance, we have donated over $2,200 to NFPA.
About FosterParentCollege.com
Since 2004, FosterParentCollege.com has provided online, interactive courses designed specifically for resource parents and families. Today, 65 courses are available on the FosterParentCollege.com website — including 14 in Spanish. Dedicated to providing evidence-based training, we regularly study our courses, and the California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare (CEBC) has rated both our in-service and blended pre-service training.