Current Foster Parent Information

Specifics and Expectations About Our Resource Family Foster Parent Training:

Community Attention Foster Families (CAFF) utilizes the preferred Virginia Department of Social Services (VDSS) approved curriculum of Parent Resources for Information, Development and Education (PRIDE).  Individuals wishing to become foster parents much complete the training and abide by the contents once approved.  

Specific core competencies that the curriculums approved by VDSS must contain:

• Factors that contribute to neglect, emotional maltreatment, physical abuse, and sexual abuse and the effects thereof. Conditions and experiences that may cause developmental delays and affect attachment. 
•  Stages of typical human growth and development (defined by American Academy of Pediatrics)
• Trauma Informed Parenting education to include ACE’s (Adverse Childhood Events) Resiliency and education about Attachment based needs 
•  Concept of permanence for children and selection of the permanency goal
• Reunification as the primary child welfare goal; the process and experience of reunification. 
• Importance of visits and other contacts in strengthening relationships between the child and their birth family, including siblings. 
• Legal and social processes and implications of adoption 
• Support of older youth's transition to independent living. 
• The professional team's role in supporting the transition to permanency and preventing unplanned placement disruptions. 
• Relationship between child welfare laws, the LDSS's mandates, and how the LDSS carries out its mandates 
• Purpose of service planning 
• Impact of multiple placements on a child's development. Types of and response to loss, and the factors that influence the experience of separation, loss, and placement 
• Cultural, spiritual, social, and economic similarities and differences between a child's primary family and foster or adoptive family. 
• Preparing and Supporting children with biological family interaction. 
• Developmentally-appropriate, effective, and nonphysical disciplinary techniques. 
• Promoting a child's sense of identity, history, culture, and values. 
• Respecting children’s connections to birth family and prior foster/ adoptive families. 
• Being nonjudgmental in caring for the child and collaborating with their family and team. 
• Roles, rights, and responsibilities of foster parents and adoptive parents  
• Maintaining a home and community environment that promotes safety and well-being.

The PRIDE training that we are currently offering has components of in-person instruction and independent study through 4 Specific Learning Clusters including modules assigned on Foster Parent College.  We use a training curriculum that was designed by Consortium for Resource Adoptive and Foster Family Training (CRAFFT) and approved by Child Welfare League of America (CWLA).  Foster Parent College modules consist of 18 hours of training.  The in person/ zoom training utilizing the PRIDE curriculum to include specific CAFF and CRAFFT information consists of another 18 hours of training.

 CAFF has the flexibility to focus more heavily on the topics that we and our partner agencies of Charlottesville Department of Social Services (CDSS), Albemarle Department of Social Services (ACDSS) and  Greene Department of Social Services (GCDSS) identify as particular values, common areas of struggle and community needs.  Topics that we may focus more heavily on include: supporting birth family relationships, expectation that foster parents engage in and support these relationships, supporting reunification and relative placement, cultural awareness and engagement in supporting a family’s racial, cultural identification. We also push our families to work to support the needs of our community which may include being available for older teens, youth identifying as part of the LGBTQIA+ community, teens in crisis,  and sibling groups.  Additionally, CAFF understands the value of community support and encourage our families to make connections with other foster families through a panel of experienced foster parents during training, invitations to our parent led organization CAFF Communities, CAFF Connections Support Groups and educational learning groups such as our Transracial Foster and Adoption work-group.  We also regularly send approved families invitations to applicable post approval trainings.