Available Training Topics
Learn more about the Children's Trust training opportunities.
Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Trainings
- Safe Kids Thrive Orientation for Directors and Managers
- Keeping Kids Safe: Parent Workshop
- Keeping Kids Safe: Staff Training
- Keeping Kids Safe: Train the Trainer
- Technicool: Keeping Kids Safe on the Internet
Safe Kids Thrive Orientation for Directors and Managers
Length: 2 Hours
Youth-serving organizations (YSOs) across Massachusetts support healthy child development in our communities in a multitude of ways, yet share one essential, universal duty: to provide safety and security for the children they serve.
Join this two-hour interactive workshop to learn how to identify concrete ways your program can evaluate and develop policies, procedures, and protocols to prevent sexual abuse. Using a new website called “Safe Kids Thrive” (see safekidsthrive.org), presenters will demonstrate practical and straightforward tools attendees will use to assess or create their own plan to promote child safety.
Keeping Kids Safe: Parent Workshop
Length: 90 minutes
Our Keeping Kids Safe Parent Workshop is designed to make the topic of Child Sexual Abuse Prevention (CSAP) accessible, clear, and focused on simple steps parents can take to keep children safe. Keeping Kids Safe for Parents is a 90-minute multilingual and multicultural workshop for parents and guardians to provide them with practical skills to help keep their children safe from dangerous or abusive situations. Utilizing video, discussion, and small group work, parents will learn to use age-appropriate language, understand the signs and symptoms of abuse, how to create family safety rules and what to do if a child discloses something has happened to them.
Learning objectives:
- Learn about the problem of child sexual abuse (CSA).
- Understand the signs and symptoms of CSA, why a child might not tell, and how to respond if a child discloses.
- Learn how to have age-appropriate conversations with children about body safety and create family safety rules.
Keeping Kids Safe: Staff Training
Length: 2 hours
Our Keeping Kids Safe training is designed to make the topic of Child Sexual Abuse Prevention (CSAP) accessible, clear, and focused on simple steps staff can take to keep children safe. This two-hour training will teach staff knowledge, practical skills, language, and tools to create safer environments for children and prevent child sexual abuse. Utilizing video, discussion, small group work, and attendee polling, facilitators will address assessing safe environments, working with parents, prevention strategies, protective factors, signs and symptoms of abuse, and responding to disclosures.
Learning objectives:
- Learn about the problem of child abuse and neglect, specifically child sexual abuse.
- Understand the signs and symptoms of child sexual abuse and how to respond if a child discloses.
- Learn how to create a safe environment for children.
Fatherhood Trainings
- Engaging Dads
- Parenting as Partners
Engaging Dads
Length: 2 hours
The positive impacts of father involvement on child wellbeing are well documented, yet family support services are often centered on mothers and children. This workshop explores barriers to father engagement and elevates the practices, attitudes, and behaviors that support best practices with fathers. Participants will learn concrete strategies for making their organizations inclusive of fathers, discuss the benefits of engaging fathers, and learn strategies to connect men with their families.
Learning Objectives:
- Increased awareness of the positive impacts of father involvement on nearly every measure of child wellbeing
- Understand the benefits of engaging fathers and why it is a critical component to comprehensive family support
- Understanding the barriers to engaging fathers and strategies for overcoming those barriers
- Identify concrete ways to make your organization more inclusive of fathers
- Recognize the role of race and other cultural considerations in programs’ work with fathers
Parenting as Partners
Length: 2 hours
Children and families benefit when parents communicate and work together. This workshop explores tools that strengthen cooperation between parents whether they are in a romantic or strictly shared parenting relationship. Participants will understand how healthy co-parenting contributes to positive outcomes for children. They will also learn strategies to support healthy co-parenting and to build parents’ communication skills. Participants will also increase their awareness of how controlling behavior undermines opportunities for positive co-parenting.
Learning Objectives:
- Understand how healthy co-parenting contributes to positive outcomes for children
- Learn strategies to support healthy co-parenting and to build parents’ communication skills
- Increase awareness of how controlling behavior undermines opportunities for positive co-parenting
Family Support 101 Trainings
- Strengthening Families: An Effective Approach to Supporting Families 101
- Cultural Humility 101
- Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect 101
- Trauma-Informed Practice 101
Strengthening Families: An Effective Approach to Supporting Families 101
Training Length: 3 hours
The Strengthening Families framework is an evidence-based approach that identifies five Protective Factors that, when present and robust in families, help increase family strengths, enhance child development, and reduce the likelihood of child abuse and neglect. It is based on engaging families, programs, and communities in building five protective factors:
- Parental resilience
- Social connections
- Knowledge of parenting and child development
- Concrete support in times of need
- Social and emotional competence of children
The Protective Factors provide both a framework and an interrelated approach to serving families well, and to reducing incidences of child abuse and neglect. This workshop is considered a “101” or basic training for those who are not familiar with the Protective Factors framework. Participants in this course will understand the five Protective Factors and the Seven Key Strategies that support the presence of the Protective Factors. All participants will understand how the Strengthening Families framework supports the healthy emotional development of children and prevents incidences of child maltreatment.
Learning Objectives:
- Describe the Strengthening Families Protective Factors Framework.
- Identify the Foundational Ideas of the Strengthening Families Framework.
- Define each of the 5 Protective Factors and how they positively impact families.
Cultural Humility 101
Length: 2 Hours
Cultural Humility is a philosophy that empowers individuals to effectively engage in interpersonal relationships that are dynamically diverse and mutually respectful. Unlike Cultural Competence, cultural humility is a life-long and ongoing process of self-reflection and self-critique in which individuals expand their capacity for learning, listening and understanding, regardless of their experiences with cultures other than their own. Incorporating cultural humility as part of one’s lifestyle empowers the individual to recognize and redress power-imbalances that exist within their immediate social and organizational structures. This training will provide attendees with the opportunity to be introduced to each of the tenets and start their journey toward Cultural Humility.
Learning Objectives:
- Each of the four tenets of Cultural Humility.
- Their personal beliefs and values and how these factors influence their behaviors when working with families and colleagues.
- The potential influence of power, privilege, the –isms and their history on relationships with families and colleagues.
Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect 101
Training Length: 2 hours
This training will provide a basic overview of the forms of child maltreatment and how to respond to concerns of possible abuse and neglect. Attendees will also learn a foundational understanding of how the Protective Factors Framework can be used to support families and promote positive outcomes for families, reducing the risk of child abuse and neglect.
Learning Objectives:
- Understand how integrating the Strengthening Families Protective Factors into work with families connects with the prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect.
- Gain an understanding of the different forms of child abuse and neglect.
- Learn how to respond effectively in situations where there are concerns about possible child abuse or neglect.
Trauma-Informed Practice 101
Length: 2 Hours
In this session, participants will learn about early childhood brain architecture and the impact of chronic, toxic stress on children as well as Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and the long-term physical and mental impact of ACEs in adulthood. Participants will leave the session with new knowledge on shifting our view of children and families using a trauma-informed lens and perspective and recognizing certain behaviors of certain as a trauma response rather than a behavioral issue.
Learning Objectives:
- Understand how early experiences and relationships influence brain development in children.
- Identify different kinds of stress that affect our bodies, minds, and behaviors.
- Recognize how Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) may affect people later in life.
- Understand how Positive Childhood Experiences (PCEs) mitigate the effect of ACEs.
- Learn how to use the Protective Factors in our work with families.