Child Welfare Trainings
This page maintains a collection of nationally offered trainings for professionals serving LGBTQ+ young people and their families in child welfare settings.
If you or your agency are interested in collaborating with us to develop customized training tailored to your jurisdiction’s policies, laws, practices, or the needs of specific populations, please complete a Technical Assistance (TA) request to get started.
Search and Engagement for LGBTQ+ Youth
This, free, 45 minute self-paced e-learning will provide information on supporting LGBTQ+ young people through the family finding and engagement process. Young LGBTQ+ people face many unique stressors that could impact their mental wellness, life outcomes, and permanent connections to others. For example, disclosing their LGBTQ+ identity to family or new connections. Likewise, the adults in the young person’s life may need additional support to help understand and support the young person’s SOGIE.
This training will provide information on those unique circumstances and how to support the young person and their network in building lifelong supportive connections.
This e-learning is brought to you by the National SOGIE Center and from the National Quality Improvement Center on Tailored Services, Placement Stability, and Permanency for LGBTQ2S Children and Youth in Foster Care. This training was developed based on the Chosen Affirming Family Finding Model, developed by Kinnect.
Free e-Learning on Serving LGBTQ+ Youth & Families in Child Welfare Setting
The National SOGIE Center and the Human Rights Campaign Foundation have partnered to launch a new interactive e-learning module on serving LGBTQ+ youth and families in child welfare settings. This training is modeled after the All Children, All Families training (below), which was evaluated through the National Quality Improvement Center on LGBTQ2S Children and Youth in Foster Care grant and has shown promising evidence of its impact. The training covers foundational knowledge on serving the population, how to create affirming environments, best practices, and terminology. The National SOGIE Center and HRC have partnered to offer this training for free.
Building Safety Training
Building Safety for Youth and Families (Building Safety) is a training designed to increase the knowledge and skills of child welfare staff in recognizing and affirming young people’s sexual orientation, gender identity, and expression and to educate staff on making referrals to local LGBTQ+-specific programs.
The Building Safety implementation guide provides agencies with the information they need for replicating the Building Safety with LGBTQ+ Youth & their Caregivers in Child Welfare training. This guide outlines recommendations for creating and maintaining an implementation team, collaborating with state and local agencies if applicable, and providing ongoing support and quality improvement for facilitators and participants of the training.
All Children - All Families National Certification & LGBTQ+ Training Program
The All Children – All Families (ACAF) training, is an evidence-informed training that helps agency staff build knowledge and skills to serve LGBTQ+ youth, families, and caregivers. The training has been evaluated and data show that this training leads to increased knowledge of LGBTQ+ topics and improved attitudes and affirming behaviors towards LGBTQ+ people. Download the information sheet to learn more!
This short data dashboard gives a snapshot of the preliminary findings of the ACAF training that should help agencies and providers determine whether this training would meet their needs and goals. For questions on the data and information represented in this dashboard, please contact the National SOGIE Center at sogiecenter@gmail.com.
This short data dashboard gives a snapshot of the preliminary findings of the ACAF Caregiver training that should help agencies and providers determine whether this training would meet their needs and goals.
All Children - All Families Caregiver Training Program
This two-hour training is designed to improve knowlege, attitudes, and skills related to caring for LGBTQ+ youth.
All Children – All Families Training of Facilitators
This comprehensive training prepares agency facilitators to train the evidence-informed ACAF Training. Facilitators will learn how to deliver the ACAF training as well as facilitate difficult conversation and help dispel myths and stereotypes associated with LGBTQ+ people. Prospective facilitators begin by observing training as participants and then complete classroom instruction with ACAF Expert Trainers. Prospective facilitators conduct teach-back presentations and receive feedback from ACAF Expert Trainers to ensure a firm grasp of content and teaching methods. Following completion of full program and achievement of baseline fidelity levels, participants conduct co- trainings with expert trainers as a final step to full certification to deliver content to the organization’s specific training audience. Download the information sheet to learn more!
