Northwest Arkansas Childrens Shelter

Foster parent training

Foster parent training

The Northwest Arkansas Children’s Shelter is eager to support foster families throughout our area. In fact, many of these families now care for and support the children we’ve come to know personally. The NWACS aims to support foster families by providing the following:

  • Trauma-informed trainings at no cost
  • Trainings in a variety of locations in Benton, Carroll, Madison and Washington counties
  • Snacks and drinks (and meals when possible) to ensure a comfortable experience
  • Certificates of completion to foster parents for continuing education credits
  • Availability for contact after the date of the training for additional support and transfer of learning

The NWACS wants to ensure that families feel equipped to understand and meet the needs of children and adolescents who have experienced maltreatment, multiple placements and early trauma. We’ll also use the feedback we receive from foster families to ensure topics they request are included in future events.

Foster Parent Training Opportunities

Navigating Grief and Loss (Virtual Training Opportunity)

Thursday, March 18, 2021
6:30 – 8:00 pm
A Google Meet link will be sent in advance to the email address provided during registration.

All those involved in foster care can experience grief and loss–the children in care, birth families, foster and adoptive parents, the biological children in foster and adoptive families. Sometimes, the intensity of grief experienced by caregivers is even more profound than first anticipated. A sudden or unexpected change, particularly strong attachment to the child, or earlier bereavement are just a few situations that can make separations even more difficult.

Included in discussion:

  • Losses foster families may grieve (eg., transitions of children, family structure as it was, time and attention, privacy when experiencing stressors, self-esteem/feeling ineffective)
  • Circumstances that can influence how foster parents grieve
  • Types of grief, including the disenfranchised grief of foster parents (not feeling able to publicly acknowledge a loss or the loss is not fully supported by others due to an expectation of emotional detachment)
  • Unresolved grief and loss and its impact on caring (eg., reexperiencing, emotional distancing/unavailability) and on reunification support
  • How children in care and biological children may experience grief during each developmental stage (grieving behaviors in children are often misunderstood)
  • Developmental grief (grief that subsides and reappears at milestones like holidays, significant events, and celebrations in the birth or foster family)
  • Enhancing support for other families affected

Foster parent training

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Certificates will be provided to participants after the training.

Stay tuned to this page and the Northwest Arkansas Children’s Shelter Facebook page for information about upcoming training sessions and registration information.

For questions or additional information, please contact Adam at (479) 795-2417 ext 315 or amartin@nwacs.org.

Austin

by Paulette Nesbitt, Title I Aide, Bentonville Public Schools The effects of childhood trauma are vast and unique to each child. In the case of Austin*, an 11-year-old attending the on-site school at the Northwest Arkansas Children’s Shelter, the physical, emotional, and social effects of trauma exposure impacted every aspect of his academic day. Initial […]

Read more about AustinImpact stories

Meet Austin

by Paulette Nesbitt, Title I Aide, Bentonville Public Schools

The effects of childhood trauma are vast and unique to each child. In the case of Austin*, an 11-year-old attending the on-site school at the Northwest Arkansas Children’s Shelter, the physical, emotional, and social effects of trauma exposure impacted every aspect of his academic day. Initial reading and math assessments placed him two years below his fifth grade level. As our Education staff worked with Austin, evidence of an undiagnosed learning disability began to reveal itself. He shared with staff that he hated to read and that it triggered his fears. A great deal of his written work was illegible, with misspelled words that were constructed by a mixture of upper and lower case letters of various sizes floating across the page. Writing struggles flowed into math accuracy. Reading struggles flowed across the academic curriculum. As our staff uncovered his academic struggles, the polite, quiet and friendly Austin began to retreat under his ever-present red hoodie and sit with his head on his desk. He would fly into angry outbursts and refused to complete his school work.

Our amazing Education team was not deterred. They recognized Austin’s unlimited potential and let him know with each word and action that he was safe and cared for here at the Shelter. Through the tenets of trauma-informed education, Austin began to believe in himself make progress. When working with a child who has experienced trauma, all the lesson plans, diagnostics, intervention tools and targeted materials of the world are useless if the teacher cannot reach the student. Through the collaborative efforts of our education team, working together with our Youth Care Specialists, Austin has emerged from the hoodie and is actively participating in school activities.

We recognize his small and big successes.
We help him recognize the traumas of his childhood may have placed him where he is today but we hold a caring expectation that giving up, quitting, or hiding is not an option.
We listen to his conversations and discover his interests.
We design and construct targeted learning materials pertaining to his interests.
We helped him overcome his reading fears by providing time for him to listen to teachers read stories of interest. Then we gave him space to independently listen to audio books. He now readily comes to the resource room for reading and writing interventions.

These are just a few of the numerous trauma-informed techniques that have placed Austin on a learning path of success. He has improved his reading assessment to an average fourth grader at the beginning of the year and his math assessment to an average mid-year fourth grade student. More important than test scores, however, he ditched the hoodie, participates in classroom coursework and his handwriting is legible with the accommodation of Redi-Space transitional notebook paper. He is improving his decoding, fluency and comprehension skills as he reads aloud daily. Currently, he is reading and learning elements of real friendship through the book Bridge to Terabithia. Now, if he comes across a word he doesn’t know, his hand automatically reaches for the dictionary. He recognizes his own improvement in his written work as he confidently pointed out, “See how all my letters are on the line and all the letters are the same size?” We are so proud of Austin and his achievements. His next book of choice is Moby Dick!

*name and image changed to protect privacy

I’m so glad that I got to spend my 12th birthday here at the Shelter. It was truly the best!

Marly, age 12

My new bed makes me happy. And I am clean and have a new shirt.

Henry, age 4

This place has made me feel the most at home. What makes it so special is the staff. I have never met such caring and dedicated staff.

Katie, age 14