Workforce Training Schedule_May 2025
Training Locations
Regions 1/2 Training Hub: 316 W. Boone, Suite 180, Spokane
Regions 3/4 Training Hub: 4045 Delridge Way SW, Seattle
Regions 5/6 Training Hub: 6860 Capitol Blvd., Tumwater
For social workers, difficult conversations are part of a broad landscape of interactions necessary to achieve the best outcomes for children, youth and families. This new training, “Advanced Guidelines for Difficult Conversations,” will give you the tools to feel prepared to manage these exchanges effectively and with respect.
9 a.m.-4 p.m. May 27
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In this course, you will learn about present danger. You will apply your understanding of this concept to many scenarios, building a robust understanding of what is and is not present danger. A framework for assessing for and responding to present danger across cultural difference is provided, and you will apply this framework to practice scenarios, helping prepare you to serve families more equitably.
5:30-7:30 p.m. May 6
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Afterhours Core 1.3 Child Safety: Protective Actions
In this course, you will learn how protective actions help ensure the safety of children in present danger. You will learn what components protective actions must include for you to feel confident in their being effective. Of particular importance, you will consider how you decide whether a specific adult can be relied upon to participate and provide safety to the child. Finally, you will put everything you have learned about child safety into practice as you consider a scenario and determine whether present danger exists and, if so, what protective actions might be effective.
5:30-7:30 p.m. May 8
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In this course, you will practice distinguishing between medical child abuse, medical neglect, starvation and failure to thrive. You will learn the indicators and dynamics of child torture and how these differ from what is typically seen in neglect or chronic maltreatment cases.
5:30-7:30 p.m. May 13
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Afterhours Core 2.3 Physical Abuse: Serious Physical Abuse
In this session, you will learn about indicators and dynamics of serious physical abuse which produces injuries that require medical care and can cause long-term consequences or death. You will have a chance to apply this information to scenarios and discuss the best ways to move forward in situations when serious physical abuse is suspected.
5:30-7:30 p.m. May 15
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Afterhours Core 3.2 Maltreatment and Placement: Neglect and Sexual Abuse
In this course, you will practice distinguishing between medical child abuse, medical neglect, starvation and failure to thrive. You will learn the indicators and dynamics of child torture and how these differ from what is typically seen in neglect or chronic maltreatment cases. You will learn more about how to talk with children, including skills for responding when a child spontaneously discloses abuse.
5:30-7:30 p.m. May 20
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Afterhours Core 3.3 Maltreatment and Placement: Trauma Informed Placements
Afterhours staff respond in crises and emergencies – situations that are likely to be traumatic for everyone involved. In this course, you will consider ways to reduce the traumatic impact of removal from the home and placement into a new care setting.
5:30-7:30 p.m. May 22
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Afterhours Core 4.2 Caring for Children: Trauma Informed Care and Following ICWA
In this course, you will review several principles of trauma-informed care and consider how these apply to your routine interactions with children awaiting placement. Significant time is spent addressing children who have challenging behaviors or exceptional care needs. You also will discuss your takeaways from the eLearning related to the Indian Child Welfare act and apply what you learned to your role in afterhours.
5:30-7:30 p.m. May 27
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In this course, you will identify and discuss possible worker safety threats, both in homes and while supervising youth, and options to promote everyone’s safety. You will learn how to document your work in case notes. In particular, you will learn about including relevant, objective information in your documentation and avoiding bias. You will also receive guidance on coding case notes correctly. Specific requirements related to caring for infants and assessing and supporting their caregivers is reviewed, including policy related to safe sleep, period of purple crying, and the plan of safe care.
5:30-7:30 p.m. May 29
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In this training, you’ll consider how to best explain the safety threat that’s keeping a child in out-of-home care and think about how this threat impacts child safety during family time. You’ll practice applying the threshold questions to decisions about family time and articulating to the court why you are recommending a specific level of supervision, even when the child needs to remain out of the home.
9 a.m.-4 p.m. May 1
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Child and Family Welfare Services In-Service
This two-day in-service training will prepare new CFWS caseworkers and experienced CFWS caseworkers who wish to improve their practice to engage parents and families from the point of transfer or case assignment. Participants will learn how to make the most of the first meeting and monthly visits with the parent in building a working relationship geared toward safe reunification and timely permanency.
9 a.m.-4 p.m. May 19 and 20
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In this course, you’ll learn more about the policy and legal guidance for child welfare work with families experiencing domestic violence. More importantly, you’ll learn the best practices for this work and get to practice applying these best practices.
8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. May 6, 7, 8 and 9
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This training is designed for both new and experienced FRS case workers who wish to learn more about the Family Reconciliation Services (FRS) program. The course is structured to support the steps of an FRS case from intake to case closure with the goal of increasing opportunities for statewide consistency in practice when serving families seeking FRS services. You will also explore strategies to engage families to complete a family assessment. Working through a case scenario, you will think through service and legal recommendations.
9 a.m.-12 p.m. May 27
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Family Voluntary Services In-Service
This two-day in-service training will prepare new Family Voluntary Services (FVS) caseworkers and experienced FVS caseworkers who wish to improve their practice to engage parents and families from the point of transfer or case assignment. You will learn how to make the most of the first meeting and monthly visits with the parent in building a working relationship geared to reducing or mitigating safety threats and risk. You will be provided opportunity to improve the quality of case plans by linking services to behavior changes and you will learn policy expectations and good practice strategies for family engagement.
9 a.m.-4 p.m. May 28 and 29
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Harm Reduction and Safety Planning With Substance Using Families
This course will provide you with an understanding of substance use and when it affects the safety of children in the family, how to safety plan with families who have children of all ages (0-18), how to support clients in their treatment programs, and how to measure progress sufficient to have mitigated the safety threats to the children.
9 a.m.-4 p.m. May 16
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Identifying and Supporting Commercially Sexually Exploited Children for Workforce
This course will help workers who do ongoing work with adolescents in the child welfare system identify youth who are at risk for or are being commercially sexually exploited. The training will provide a framework for understanding this issue that greatly impacts adolescents in the child welfare system, as well as for understanding the basic social work practices that support helping these youth reach positive outcomes.
8:30 a.m.-12 p.m. May 14, 15 and 16
1-4:30 p.m. May 27, 28 and 29
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Infant Safety: Plan of Safe Care
The Plan of Safe Care is an element of case planning for families with infants born with and affected by substance abuse or withdrawal symptoms resulting from prenatal drug exposure, or a Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, or born to a dependent youth. The focus of this course is to provide opportunities for demonstration, practice, and feedback pertaining to meeting the practice and policy requirements for this component of the Infant Safety Education and Intervention Policy.
1-4:30 p.m. May 13
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Informed Decisions Through Critical Thinking
During this training, you will enhance your decision-making in child welfare by employing objective evidence, identifying behavior patterns, considering family perspectives and utilizing collateral information. This course will explore techniques for integrating new information effectively and recognizing biases, such as confirmation bias, to enhance decision-making abilities.
9 a.m.-12 p.m. May 22
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Leadership Training for Supervisors, Program Managers, and Quality Practice Specialists
New supervisors need to achieve competency in understanding the child welfare practice as well as in supervision. This course provides you with an introduction of baseline competencies for supervisors in public child welfare, and opportunities to develop and practice new skills regarding these competencies. Managing self, managing others, managing systems and managing outward are the four main themes integrated throughout this course.
9 a.m.-4 p.m. starting May 14
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Permanency for Every Child
The focus of this course is on the role of the CFWS caseworker in achieving permanency for children taking into consideration how safety threats, risk factor and protective factors apply to achieving timely permanency.
9 a.m.-4 p.m. May 5 and 6
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Right Response: Level 3
The RIGHT RESPONSE Level 3 Workshop is primarily prevention training. This 11-hour certification provides basic skills including prevention, de-escalation, postvention, and physical safety skills. Attendees learn about self-awareness, reflective thinking skills, positive behavior support, basic and advanced de-escalation skills, self-protection, and proactive alternatives which can prevent dangerous incidents and increase safety.
Tacoma DCYF: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. May 21 and 22
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Secondary Trauma: Impact and Solutions
This course will help those who do ongoing work in the child welfare system with identification of and responses to secondary trauma. The training will increase knowledge and understanding of the levels of secondary trauma, its impact, and how to manage the impact in our environment.
9 a.m.-12 p.m. May 21
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Suicide Prevention LEARN® Training by Forefront for Workforce
LEARN is a suicide awareness training that helps participants identify and act on signs of suicide. LEARN® is designed to empower individuals to help others move in the direction of hope, recovery, and survival.
12-3 p.m. May 7
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Supporting a Kinship-First Culture in a Workforce Environment
This course will use kin-first culture principles to help DCYF workers engaging with kinship and relative caregivers to prepare them for successful placements of youth.
10 a.m.-3 p.m. May 6
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In this course, you’ll learn about childhood mental health, including common symptoms and screenings, assessment, effective interventions, and ways to engage children, caregiving adults, and professionals.
9 a.m.-1 p.m. May 7 and 8
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This course will focus on providing information and engaging in conversation about LGBTQ+ children, youth and families. You will learn about identifying and addressing systemic institutional and personal biases when serving LGBTQ+ children, youth and families. Activities and self-reflection exercises will prepare you to return to your work and create a welcoming, safe and affirming space. Included in this training is updated terminology, resources, and current data/statistics.
1-4 p.m. May 19
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This course applies lessons from trauma studies to child welfare practice for children, youth, and adults. Participants will discuss practice guidelines crucial to trauma-informed practice in any setting. Participants will learn to distinguish trauma from other adversities and suffering; describe the characteristics, dynamics and effects of trauma; and emphasize the ways in which chronic trauma and complex trauma compromise normal functioning.
9 a.m.-4 p.m. May 5
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Trauma-Informed and Healing-Centered Fundamentals Training
This course provides examples of on-the-ground applications of trauma-informed and healing-centered principles and concepts. Each of the commonly recognized Six Key Principles of Trauma-Informed Care (TIC) are discussed during the training, as are foundational concepts behind the Healing-Centered Approach.
1-5 p.m. May 21
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Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI) for DCYF
TBRI for DCYF Staff is a foundational level training for DCYF workforce. This introductory training will help you learn the basic approaches of the three TBRI Principles (Connecting, Empowering and Correcting) by engaging participants in group activities and discussions based on real-life scenarios.
9:30 a.m.-12 p.m. May 12
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Understanding Chronic and Complex Neglect
This course takes a deeper dive into the dynamics of chronic and complex child neglect. You will consider effective ways to engage and assess families where neglect is present and how to evaluate each child’s unique characteristics, including how each child’s needs are impacted by neglectful behaviors and conditions in the home. We will look at how the impacts of substance misuse, unaddressed mental health concerns, domestic violence and cognitive challenges may interrupt the parent/child relationship resulting in unmet child needs.
9 a.m.-12 p.m. May 13
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This mandatory training for social service specialists covers topics including workplace violence related to social work practice; predictors of violent behavior; recognizing escalating behavior; safety in the field; safety precautions in methamphetamine sites; resources and support for worker safety; and working with law enforcement.
Ellensburg DCYF: 9 a.m.-4 p.m. May 21
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