September 27-28, 2004
Holiday Inn, Mart Plaza
Chicago, IL

COMPLETED

Conference Agenda

Sunday, September 26, 2004

4:00 PM – 5:30 PM
Early Registration/Information

6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Video Night: Raising Victor Vargas (Rated R – strong language)

Peter Sollett's “Raising Victor Vargas” is the kind of sharp, tender, precise, and knowing small wonder that says more than most epics. Sollett has created a glorious, full–blooded, oft–profane, fully inhabited microcosm of life and love among teenagers on New York's Lower East Side. Sollett tells the story of Victor Vargas and his family: a younger sister, Vicki, a younger brother, Nino, and his cranky, endlessly put–upon old–school Dominican grandmother. “Raising Victor Vargas” shows affection without sentimentality and it also shows a wry acknowledgment of the complexities of a family's conflicting desires. (Review excerpted from Ray Pride on Indiewire.com)

Monday, September 27, 2004

8:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Conference Registration /Information

8:00 AM – 9:00 AM
Continental Breakfast

9:00 AM – 9:10 AM
Welcome from Jeanne Pietrzak, MSW
Director of the National Abandoned Infants Assistance Resource Center

9:10 AM – 10:00 AM
Opening Keynote by Bertice Berry, PhD

Dr. Berryis an award–winning sociologist, author, lecturer, and educator. She was the host and co–executive producer of her own nationally syndicated talk show, “The Bertice Berry Show.” She has been featured on many other television programs, including appearances on “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” In addition, she has authored numerous books. Despite all of her honors and achievements, Dr. Berry is most proud of becoming the “instant mother” to her sister’s four young children.

 

10:00 AM – 10:45 AM
Teens and Young Adults in Relative Care Speak Out
Moderator: Joseph Crumbley, DSW
Presenters: Kim Oliver and Shelonda Thompkins

10:45 AM – 11:00 AM
Break

11:00 AM – 12:30 PM
Workshop Session I

A) Next–Generation Prevention: Talking about Drugs & Alcohol with Children Affected by Parental Substance Abuse
Kim Sumner–Mayer, PhD, LMFT
Children affected by parental substance abuse face a number of prevention–related challenges. Previously learned experiences and possible genetic vulnerability combine to place these children at heightened risk for developing substance abuse problems of their own. Fortunately, kinship caregivers can serve as powerful antidotes and protective factors for these children – if they know what to do and say. This workshop will address what children need to know about their parent’s addiction, what they need to know about drugs and alcohol, and when and how to introduce these topics to children of different ages living in kinship care.

B) Mother/Daughter/Sister: Families Coping with Her Loss over Time
Elizabeth Monk, LCSW, Barbara Moore, LCSW, and Bryn Poulton, LCSW
When a parent who has had a history of substance abuse gets sick and dies from a disease like AIDS, the adjustment poses huge challenges for the children and relatives. These issues include preparing the relative for the behaviors of children that are symptoms of grief at different developmental stages; allowing kids to talk to social workers about the feelings they cannot share with grandma; struggling adolescents; preserving mother’s memory; and neutralizing the pain and balancing life with good times. A panel of social workers and family members will describe interventions that help children cope with the loss of a parent to substance abuse and AIDS.

C) Engaging African American Birth Mothers to Promote Child Well–Being
Marian S. Harris, PhD, ACSW, LICSW and Angela Coleman, MSW
This workshop will explore how culture, race, and ethnicity affect the experiences of African American mothers and their children in kinship care. An interactive group model and hands–on culturally sensitive techniques that can be used in clinical practice to engage mothers who abuse substances, children, and caregivers will be presented.

D) Raising Children Affected by Addiction: Reflections by a Child’s Mother and Her Grandmother
Glendora Patterson, PhD and Jacqueline Patterson
The presenters will describe their 12-year struggle to protect and nurture a child in their family. In addition, the workshop will discuss the emotional and risk issues characteristic of children born to addicted mothers, highlighting the mother’s dilemma, and identify supportive and counseling resources available to the kinship family. Participants will also be invited to share their questions and insights from engagement with kinship families.

E) Clinical Interventions with Children and Youth in Kinship Care
Joseph Crumbley, DSW
This workshop will provide an overview of the clinical issues affecting youth in kinship care. The workshop will highlight strategies and interventions for working with youth in kinship care, guidelines for shared/co- parenting approaches between the birth parent and caregiver, and the impact of substance abusing birth parents on youth in kinship care. A family systems approach will be used to identify interventions with the youth, involving their caregiver and birth parents. Changes in family dynamics, roles, and relationships in kinship families will be discussed.

12:30 PM – 1:45 PM
Networking luncheon, sponsored by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services
Welcoming Address by Bryan Samuels, Director DCFS

In April 2003, at the age of 36, Bryan Samuels was appointed to serve as director of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS). Before joining DCFS, Samuels was a program manager for a non–profit civic organization, Chicago Metropolis 2020. In this senior staff position, he researched and completed analysis on public policy issues, including regional equity, juvenile justice and housing issues. Samuels received his Bachelor of Arts in economics from the University of Notre Dame in 1989 and in 1992 received his Master of Arts in public policy from the University of Chicago.

1:45 PM – 3:15 PM
Workshop Session II

A) Project Healthy Grandparents: Youth Leadership Program
Theresa Ann Sipe, PhD, Susan J. Kelley, PhD, and Kim R. White, MPH
Project Healthy Grandparents’ Youth Leadership Program provides abstinence education and peer leadership skills to grandchildren being raised by grandparents. The program targets youth ages 12–16 years. Implications of the previous abuse, neglect or abandonment will be discussed, and practice and service recommendations will be provided.

B) Does the Elephant in the Living Room Move with the Children?
Sharon K. Kilpatrick, MPA, CCDCI
In the substance abuse field, the addiction is often referred to as the elephant in the living room; everyone is aware of it but no acknowledges that it is there. This workshop will address substance abuse issues as they move with the children to their new kinship homes. We will compare and contrast the developmental stages of children and look at the affect substance abuse by parents has on the kinship homes. Strategies for addressing the elephant in kinship care homes will be given.

C) Supporting the Male Role Model to Improve Children’s Well-Being
Archie Ford, CACD
This workshop will explore the role of male family members in the care of children residing with relatives. By working with the emotional and psychological experience of these men, we work to stabilize the children in their care. The presentation will include techniques for support system development, with special focus on the merits of group therapy, and the skills that men can use in their interactions with the children. The presentation will also explore how gender, culture, race, and ethnicity affect the experiences of the children in kinship care and their male role models.

D) Kinship Care: Legal and Psychosocial Issues for the Family
Linda S. Coon, JD and Dana Corman, JD, LCSW
This workshop will provide an understanding of the legal and psychosocial issues involved in kinship adoption. It will identify legal and clinical approaches to help address the needs of kin who adopt and children who are adopted. Issues to be discussed include: dual legal and familial roles and responsibilities; spoken and unspoken hopes and expectations of reuniting with birth parents; and lack of endings and new beginnings for the adults and children. The workshop will also explore the use of family mediation as a tool for planning in kinship adoption.

E) Clinical Interventions with Children and Youth in Kinship Care
Joseph Crumbley, DSW
This workshop will provide an overview of the clinical issues affecting youth in kinship care. The workshop will highlight strategies and interventions for working with youth in kinship care, guidelines for shared/co- parenting approaches between the birth parent and caregiver, and the impact of substance abusing birth parents on youth in kinship care. A family systems approach will be used to identify interventions with the youth, involving their caregiver and birth parents. Changes in family dynamics, roles, and relationships in kinship families will be discussed.

3:15 PM – 3:30 PM
Break

3:30 PM – 5:00 PM
Research Concerning Youth in Kinship Care
Moderator: Jill Deurr Berrick, PhD
Presenters: Rick Barth, PhD, James P. Gleeson, PhD, and Jill Messing, MSW

Tuesday, September 28, 2004

8:00 AM – 4:15 PM
Conference Registration/Information

8:00 AM – 9:00 AM
Continental Breakfast

9:00 AM – 10:30 AM
Multidisciplinary Services Panel
Moderator: Kim Sumner–Mayer, PhD
Presenters: Amy Jehnzen, MSW, LaSandra McGrew, MSW, and Betty Conger, MSW

10:30 AM – 10:45 AM
Break

10:45 AM – 12:15 PM
Workshop Session III

A) Kinship Care Connection: A Comprehensive School-based Intervention Connecting Caregivers, Children, and Schools
LaSandra McGrew, MSW
This workshop will focus on the development and implementation of a school–based intervention for kinship care families. It will also address the academic and psychosocial needs of children and youth in kinship care who were drug–exposed at birth. Particular attention will be given to age–appropriate strategies and best practices with children, youth, and families.

B) Home Visitation Services for Children in Kinship Care
Cheryl Groner, LISW
The Bellflower Center’s Kinship Care Home Visiting Program works with children and kinship caregivers through home visitation. This project assists the children, most of whom are affected by parental substance abuse, in working through issues, and educates grandparents on the special needs of these children. This workshop will describe the Bellflower Center in–home therapy program, present case histories, and provide the opportunity to practice several hands–on art interventions.

C) Let’s Not Keep it Secret: Caregivers’ Own Problematic Use of Substances and Effects on the Children
Kim Sumner–Mayer, PhD, LMFT and Deborah Langosch, ACSW
Research suggests that caregivers’ own problematic use of substances (including prescription medication, alcohol, and other drugs) is an underreported phenomenon, but one with serious implications for the psychosocial well–being of children living in relative care due to a parent’s substance abuse. This workshop will put caregivers’ past or present overuse into context, examine the implications for children’s well–being, and point the way toward effective intervention with caregiving families.

D) Let's Empower with the 7C's
Betty Conger, MSW
The purpose of the 7C's (I didn't Cause it. I can't Cure it. I can't Control it. I can take Care of myself by: Communicating feelings, making healthy Choices, and Celebrating me!) is to help children and adults let go of a sense of false responsibility for problems beyond their control, empower them to use safe ways to handle situations, and remember to celebrate who they are. This workshop will present hands-on activities designed to help children in kinship care, and their caregivers, learn how to communicate better, handle feelings and problems in healthy ways, and understand how to cope with addiction in the family. Participants will learn ways to interact more effectively with children to prevent substance abuse.

E) Kin: Parenting With Purpose
Annette Marie Saunders and Sharon McKinley, MSW
This workshop will present a Family Coach model, and demonstrate practical strategies that help youth and kin to address unresolved emotional issues and disruption in relationship patterns associated with the stigma and isolation associated with HIV and substance abuse. Through this program, youth participate in age appropriate activities, while kinship caregivers sharpen their parenting skills and learn how to cultivate new healthy family dynamics with the support of a trained Family Coach.

12:15 PM – 1:45 PM
Lunch (on your own)

1:45 PM – 3:15 PM
Workshop Session IV

A) Project Healthy Grandparents: Early Intervention Support Services
Deborah M. Whitley, PhD and Susan J. Kelley, PhD
Project Healthy Grandparents supports grandparent–headed families through an interdisciplinary intervention designed to improve the general well–being of grandchildren and grandparents. This presentation will describe the early intervention service provided to young grandchildren who are at risk for developmental delays, with a particular focus on the effects of parental substance abuse. Practice and service recommendations will be discussed.

B) Supporting Kinship Families through Coordinated Substance Abuse Treatment
Ellen Walker, MSW, David Dan, MSW, and Michelle Heyward, MEd
The workshop will focus on the coordinated efforts among residential substance abuse treatment programs to address the needs and concerns of children in kinship care, their caregivers, and the birth parent(s). The special initiative that this workshop will describe, Enhanced Services to Children of Women in Substance Abuse Treatment, was developed as a result of a citywide task force in Philadelphia, PA.

C) The Well–Being of Children in Relative Care: Kinship Caregiver and Birth Parents’ Views
James P. Gleeson, Chang–ming Hsieh, Jackie Robinson, Claire Seryak, and Gwen Walls Talley
This workshop presents the results of interviews with 215 informal kinship caregivers and 20 birth parents, and examines associations between the behavioral functioning of the children, caregiver stress, family functioning, social support, and financial/material resources of the caregiving family. The views of relative caregivers and birth parents are compared and discussed.

D) Multigenerational Abandonment: Impacts and Treatment for Youth in Kinship Care
Amy Jehnzen, MSW and Jennifer Gutherie, MSW
This workshop will focus on a case study involving four generations of abandonment issues within family systems and the impact on the individual. Grief, bereavement and loss issues, and the effect of substance abuse on the family system will be explored, and effective strategies for healing and treating youth in kinship care will be presented.

E) Helping Kinship Kids Cope Using Cool Creative Kid Stuff: Innovative Interventions in Working with Children in Kinship Placements
Shelly Eyre, LCSW and Beth Beck, EdD
Children in kinship placements due to parental substance abuse can often display a wide variety of emotional and behavioral problems. In this workshop, original games and commercially available materials will be used to demonstrate ways to help children in kinship care communicate and resolve the emotions they experience, and build healthy attachments. Specific issues of kinship placement will be discussed, while participants are shown simple play therapy techniques that help families deal creatively with the issues common in kinship placements.

3:15 PM – 3:30 PM
Break

3:30 PM – 4:15 PM
Closing Remarks by Sharon McDaniel, EdD

Dr. McDaniel is the President and Founder of A Second Chance, Inc., located in Pittsburgh, PA. The agency's mission is to provide a safe, secure, and nurturing environment to children who are being cared for by their relatives. Dr. McDaniel serves as Co–Chair of the Statewide Task Force of Kinship Care, is a board member of the Black Administrators in Child Welfare, and was a panel member for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services National Advisory Kinship Care Panel.