Target Audience: caseworkers; case aides; supervisors; state staff; foster, kinship, and adoptive families

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are traumatic events occurring before age 18 and include all types of abuse and neglect, as well as parental mental illness, substance use, divorce, incarceration, and domestic violence. The repeated stress of these experiences has proven effects on the development of the brain, with the impact occurring over a lifetime. People who experienced high levels of trauma as children are at a much higher risk for health issues, such as heart disease and lung cancer. 

The long-term impact of adverse childhood experiences gained wider acceptance through the landmark CDC-Kaiser Permanente ACE Study. In this interactive Web-based training, you’ll explore the study and lessons learned. You’ll also gain an understanding of how toxic stress can impact brain development and, in turn, long-term health and well-being outcomes. Furthermore, you will begin to explore prevention and intervention strategies to help mitigate the impact of ACEs. 

Target Audience: Change of venue coordinators

This WBT is specifically for change of venue (COV) coordinators. This brief video provides an overview of statute and Volume 7 administrative rules as they relate to the COV process. It shows step-by-step how to complete a COV as the sending or receiving county coordinator, and it reviews the role and responsibilities of COV coordinators.

Target audience: caseworkers; supervisors; foster, kinship, and adoptive parents

This interactive, self-guided online course is designed to help child welfare professionals and foster, kinship, and adoptive parents understand the impact of trauma on the development of infants and toddlers who have experienced child abuse and neglect.

Target audience: caseworkers; supervisors; foster, kinship, and adoptive parents

Target audience: caseworkers, supervisors, or any county staff responsible for completing the IV-E related Trails data entry

Target Audience: all audiences

How familiar are you with Family First? The Family First Prevention Services Act of 2018, dubbed Family First, overhauled federal child welfare funding—but it reaches far beyond funding. With an emphasis on evidence-based and trauma-informed services and preventing out-of-home and out-of-family placements, Family First has implications beyond child welfare and into the juvenile justice system, courts, service providers, and community partners. In this introductory Web-based training, you will review the purpose of Family First, how it impacts service provision and placements, and much more.

Target audience: caseworkers and supervisors

This web-based training highlights key elements of four key federal laws: the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA), the Multiethnic Placement Act (MEPA), and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Target Audience: caseworkers

This brief Web-based training provides an overview of individualized safety planning with families. You will finish the training with an understanding of the basic principles of safety planning, how to involve a family in the creation of the safety plan, and when and where to document the safety plan in Trails. If you are completing this training as part of the PIP requirements, follow-up activities to this training include a facilitated discussion within teams regarding safety planning and a tool for supervisors and caseworkers to use during supervision to ensure safety plans are supporting children and families effectively.

Target Audience: all child welfare staff

Becoming an adult can be challenging, especially for young people who have experienced foster care. Colorado’s child welfare system is familiar with serving older youth, but the Foster Youth in Transition Program is a new program. Legislative changes in 2021 recognized that foster youth need more during this transition, and the program was created in response to enhance the support these youth receive and the way we partner with them. In this Web-based training, you’ll be introduced to the Foster Youth in Transition Program. This module is a guide to eligibility, entry into the program, and the court process. You’ll explore casework tools such as the Voluntary Services Agreement, Roadmap to Success, Emancipation Transition Plans, and Supervised Independent Living Placement, which support youth in developing skills for adulthood. You will also understand the purpose of and how to prepare for a Transition Hearing and an Emancipation Discharge Hearing. You’ll leave this course with the confidence and know-how to partner with youth and set them up for a future of success.