Event Tag: difficult conversations
Undertaking Life Story Work with Teenagers: the Need for Dedicated Approach
Who this is for
Adoption practitioners and managers (Voluntary Adoption Agencies, Regional Adoption Agencies, Local Authorities, and independent social workers), children’s social care services, children and family social workers, foster carers, kinship carers, designated teachers, and other professionals working with children and families.
Details
In many cases life story work is undertaken at the point to permanence and there are varying standards across the services.
During this practice webinar, you will hear from senior adoption practitioners at Family Care Adoption Services considering how young people not living with their birth families can benefit from Life Story work, and how the work can improve a young person’s sense of identity and promote a positive sense of worth.
“Well presented Course and source of information that the Presenters were clearly passionate about, which is very inspiring.” – attendee, 2021
Family Care Adoption Services are very excited at the prospect of a young person and significant people in their life, including siblings and birth families, being able to contribute to their life story. This means giving young people a living chronology of their life story, family history and ultimately a true sense of their identity.
Through discussion of the Life Story process, a range of effective communication methods will be explored. Practical suggestions and ideas for working directly with young people will be discussed, which can help individuals’ piece together and develop a coherent understanding of their own histories and provide truthful answers to the many questions they have about their lives.
Consideration will be given to how to share information about difficult topics and support carers and/or adoptive parents gain confidence in discussing these issues.
“There was a lot of attendees from different profession backgrounds and with personal experience. Good to share ideas and also speak with practioners on the other side of what my role is who complete life story work later down the line.” – attendee, 2021
Learning outcomes
- consider how young people not living with their birth families can benefit from Life Story Work
- learn how the work can improve a young person’s sense of identity and promote a positive sense of worth
- a range of effective communication methods will be explored
- practical suggestions and ideas for working directly with young people
- share information about difficult topics
About the trainer
Sarah Johnston is a Social Work practitioner and the Project Co-Ordinator of the Life Story Project at Family Care Adoption Services. The project carries out Life Story work with care experienced young people aged 11-22 alongside their parents/carers. Life Story books are created with each young person, incorporating their personal thoughts, reflections, memories and artwork. Sarah has over 6 years’ experience of carrying out Life Story work with fostered and adopted teenagers, and facilitating workshops on this subject.
Instructions
A member of staff will be in touch with attendees one week prior to the event to share a pre-event delegate pack.
If you have any questions regarding this webinar, please contact us at info@cvaa.org.uk. We will aim to answer your query within two working days.
CVAA accept online payments only. In case you do not have instant access to your company card, we suggest using your personal card instead to book a training event and claim it back with your agency in your expenses. Requesting an invoice to pay for our standard practice events is not possible.
Life Story Work: Considering Best Practice and Learning from the Lived Experience
Who this is for
Adoption Practitioners, Managers, Social Workers (Voluntary Adoption Agencies, Regional Adoption Agencies and Local Authorities), Children’s Social Workers, Support Workers and Independent Professionals.
Details
A child’s life story considering best practice and learning from lived experiences, will allow adoption professionals to explore their knowledge on how to support children with life story work throughout their life. It will explore child appropriate language on how to speak about difficult topics including, domestic abuse, neglect, physical abuse and other topics that may be challenging.
This will follow the child’s journey from the conclusion from care proceedings to the final adoption order.
The training session will aim to explore a child’s journey through adoption with support from the Child and Family Workers within the Cumbrian children’s adopt team. We will be exploring the importance of relationship building with children, birth family, foster carers and adopters, while discussing life story tools to support communication and openness within families.
During the training we will share best practice and also look at tools used within the Cumbrian team and how this has supported children, foster families and adoptive families during the adoption process.
Learning outcomes
- Exploring and sharing best practice in how we work with children with their birth family, within their foster family and then supporting them moving onto their adoptive family
- Exploring how we support children to understand their life story within their foster home, along with supporting adopters to understand their child’s life story and how to support them to share this with their children
- Sharing practical tools that families have found useful
- Explore examples of the work we have completed
- Looking and reflection on feedback Cumbria County Council have had from adopters, children and foster carers
About the trainers
Kayleigh Ward is a Child and Family Worker who currently resides with the children’s adoption team within Cumbria. Kayleigh has over 5 years’ experience working with children within child protection to adoption. She also has recently completed an advance certificate in therapeutic life story work to further her development to continue to support children. Kayleigh has completed over 80 life story books and has supported over 10 children to move on from foster care to adoption, along with supporting their birth families and adoptive families to understand the child’s life story so far.
Kim Conyers is a Social Worker who currently resides with the childrens’ adoption team within Cumbria. Kim has over 6 years of supporting children within support and protection and adoption. Kim is currently completing her level 2 in BUSS training. Kim has a wealth of knowledge on supporting adoptive families and continues within the team to share her lived experiences and knowledge.
Instructions
A member of staff will be in touch with attendees one week prior to the event to share a pre-event delegate pack. If you have any questions regarding this webinar, please contact us at info@cvaa.org.uk. We will aim to answer your query within two working days.
CVAA accept online payments only. In case you do not have instant access to your company card, we suggest using your personal card instead to book a training event and claim it back with your agency in your expenses. Requesting an invoice to pay for our standard practice events is not possible.