Professional Workshops

Exchange Family Center offers professional training for social service and community service professionals. We offer single session workshops, as well as ongoing training and coaching sessions. Standard available topics are listed below, but customized training is available as well.

Toxic Stress and Early Brain Development
This session will provide an overview of what the American Academy of Pediatrics terms “toxic stress” and how the neurobiology of stress and trauma can create long-term problems in children’s development, affecting attention, memory, and impulse control.
 
Buffering Stress through Responsive Relationships
We will explore how caring adults can protect children from the effects of toxic stress by providing 1) protection, 2) structure, 3) comfort, and 4) coaching. This session includes specific strategies for fostering protective relationships, as well as how to help at-risk children develop emotional and behavioral self-regulation. (Part 2 – can be offered with or after Toxic Stress training)
 
Community Resiliency Model®
The Community Resiliency Model® (CRM) is a groundbreaking wellness initiative that teaches participants practical skills to increase personal resilience and empower communities.

CRM participants build resilience by learning about:

• the impact of stress on their bodies and brains

• self-regulation skills for rapid relief of stress-related symptoms

• an increased sense of control over future wellness

CRM was created by the Trauma Resource Institute in part as a response to the public health crisis of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and is easily learned and accessible regardless of age, culture, or educational level.

Attachment Theory and
Evidence-Based Practice
The quality of early parent-child attachments has been shown to affect the long-term mental health of both children and parents. In recent years there has been an emergence of evidence-based practices which use parent-child attachment as a theoretical framework to address child mental health and behavioral concerns. Examples include Child Parent Psychotherapy, Parent-Child Interaction Therapy, and the Incredible Years which target an array of needs including attention difficulties, non-compliance, aggression, and trauma. This workshop will summarize the theory of parent-child attachment and link how those concepts are found in the above mentioned evidence-based practices. In addition they will focus on teaching some of the hands on techniques that are essential components to the models.

Engaging Parents in Language Development
Vocabulary size from birth to age 3 is related to achievement in 3rd grade. Even with high quality child care, children will not be successful in school unless they are exposed to language at home. This workshop will explore the importance of and how to engage parents in supporting language development at home, especially parents who are not English speakers. We will review research related to second language learners and their outcomes when they learn in one or two languages. We will discuss how to present this research to parents to help them be motivated to try new ways of interacting with their children to support language development. Finally, we will learn a simple, well-researched model (from Language is the Key developed by the Washington Language Institute) for helping parents learn to speak more with their children and help develop their language skills. We will explore how to use this model for literate and illiterate parents and for English and non-English speakers. Finally we will practice using this model to insure the participants leave ready to implement the skills with the families they work with.
 
How to Pick an Evidence-Based Program that Fits your Agency
This workshop is an open discussion with participants about how to select an Evidence-Based Model that fits your agency, target population, and community. The facilitator will lead the group through a list of questions to help the attendees consider ways a particular model may or may not fit their needs.  Examples of evidence-based models which vary in their target (abuse, neglect, general parenting skills), age range, format (group vs home based), length, cost of training, cost of materials, fidelity monitoring/licensing costs will be provided. The group will also discuss exploring models’ success with specific populations (low-income families, low-literacy participants, Spanish-speakers, African Americans), goodness of fit with what the agency is currently doing, and being aware of other community agencies and what services they offer to avoid redundancy or gaps.

Strategies for Working with
Latino Families
This workshop provides an opportunity to explore strengths and needs of Latinos in North Carolina.  Although every family is unique, culture has a significant impact on our values and beliefs. During the workshop, providers will develop ideas for an agency plan for how to reach out to the Latino community, adapt existing programs to be culturally sensitive, and develop new programs to meet community needs.

Engaging LGBTQ Youth and Families—How Do You Show
You’re an Ally
This introductory workshop begins with an exploration of appropriate vocabulary, including: sexual orientation, gay, lesbian, bisexual, homosexual, same-sex couple, co-parents, transgender, transsexual, butch, and femme. Next will be an interactive activity to address myths, facts, and questions about LBGTQ people and families. The workshop will spend the remaining time on exploring concrete steps to make services welcoming to LGBTQ youth and families and to assist participants in considering next steps they can take in their work environment.
 
Telephone Engagement
This workshop explores five crucial steps (based on the research of Mary McKay) that need to occur in an initial phone contact to increase the rate of attendance at the first appointment and to engage parents in a way that they return after the first visit. 

Lessons from the Coached
Implementation science has identified coaching as key to skill development and model fidelity. There are many ways to provide coaching.  Come explore how coaching characteristics impact practitioners’ fidelity, feelings, and time. Discuss how to make your coaching sessions positive and strengths-based, while still holding people to high standards. We will explore how to use coaching to help staff fulfill their potential.

The Impact of Family Structure through the Lens of Culture and Sexual Orientation
Every family is unique; what may be generally true for a type of family may not be specifically true for the family you are meeting with.  However, by familiarizing yourself with the typical strengths and struggles related to family structure, you may be able to be better prepared with thoughtful questions in the moment.  Single parent, two parent, divorced, and blended families will be discussed in general terms and then from the perspective of the impact of race, religion, country of origin, and sexual orientation on those families.  
 
Recognizing, Reporting and Preventing Child Abuse
The impact of child abuse and neglect lasts a life time.  By understanding risk and protective factors, we can both identify vulnerable families and improve children’s lives now and as adults.  In this workshop you will learn about what puts a family at risk, how to decrease the risk, and what to do if you suspect abuse or neglect.  We will conclude with information about how to make a report, what will happen after that report, and other community resources that can support struggling families.
If you are interested in other training for parents or professionals at the Exchange Family Center, please contact us about your specific needs.