The Sarasota non-profit was part of the Florida Foster & Adoptive Parent Association event
[SARASOTA, FL, JUNE 2022] — Sarasota-based non-profit organization, All Star Children’s Foundation, participated in the 2022 Florida Foster & Adoptive Parent Association (FAPA) Annual Education Conference in Orlando on June 10th and 11th. All Star was among over 300 foster, adoptive, kinship caregivers and child welfare professionals in attendance at the state-wide event.
All Star’s Clinical Director, Chelsea Hernandez, LCSW was among the presenters at the conference. Ms. Hernandez led a workshop titled, “Trauma-Informed Interaction Skills for Fostering Safe, Supportive Relationships with Children.” This presentation discussed the importance of quality caregiver-child relationships and psychological safety among children who have experienced trauma. Attendees participated in hands-on experiential activities to help them learn and practice a variety of skills designed to promote engagement and calm, positive interactions between children and adults.
“Participants were engaged, excited to practice applicable skills, and planned on implementing five minutes a day of trauma-informed, relationship-building skills with their children,” said Ms. Hernandez. “I spoke with one participant after the workshop who has been fostering for 30 years who said she was excited to practice her skills and was already planning what her ‘five minutes’ a day would look like!”
According to Safe Children’s Coalition, there are over 1,400 children current in out-of-home care in the 12th judicial circuit (Sarasota, Manatee, and DeSoto counties).
All Star Children’s Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to healing the effects of trauma suffered by children in foster care. All Star’s campus, located at 3300 17th Street in Sarasota, FL, is a nurturing community consisting of a clinical treatment center, six family foster homes, and inspirational green spaces featuring a playground, gardens, and a clubhouse. Children on the All Star campus receive evidence-based interventions that not only help children cope with trauma they have experienced, but strengthen and build supportive, safe, and healing relationships with the adults in their lives. An important part of All Star’s approach is to measure and evaluate outcomes and develop models that can be adopted by foster care systems around the state and country. All Star is building brighter futures for children in foster care through innovation, science, and compassion. This project has been partially funded under an agreement with the State of Florida, Department of Children and Families. Visit www.allstarchildren.org.…]
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If you would like more information about this topic, please call Stephen Fancher at 941-259-3706 or email StephenF@AllStarChildren.org.