Risking Connection for Foster Parents

Risking Connection for Foster Parents is a training model that adapts the philosophy and principles of the original Risking Connection curriculum for foster parents who are caring for youth with trauma histories. This curriculum is also appropriate for teaching biological or kinship parents.

As the child welfare system relies less on residential treatment to treat their most stressed children and youth, more emphasis is being place on foster care.  In order for this to be successful, it is critical that foster parents receive sufficient training and support to keep children in their homes, limit disruptions, and promote long term healing of trauma and attachment wounds.

This training enables RC Trainers to teach the RC for Foster Parents training at your agency or school. In 2019, the RC for Foster Parents training was reorganized into eight separate 90-minute modules that can stand alone or be taught as a series during a timeframe of your choosing. The training module topics are:

Module One: The Impact of Trauma

Module Two: The Trauma Framework

Module Three: Healing Relationships

Module Four: Strengthening Attachment, the Body and Brain, and Feeling Skills

Module Five: Symptoms as Adaptations

Module Six: Crisis Management

Module Seven: Noticing our Reactions and VT

Module Eight: The Restorative Approach

Understanding trauma, how it affects children, and how they can heal helps the foster family define problem behavior differently. They learn to see that the behavior is not about them, but instead an understandable adaptation to the child’s traumatic experiences.

The sessions include engaging and participatory learning modalities such as video, application exercise, small group activities, and discussion. Every effort has been made to make the material accessible to parents.

Foster Care training is only available to our Whole System Change Model clients.