Free October Trainings!

October is a super busy training month (Happy National Coming Out month!) I’m excited to be offering six free virtual trainings addressing important issues for children, youth, & families, including two new trainings: Understanding LGBTQ Communities Across Generations, and Faith Development & Moral Reasoning Among Children & Youth. 

Registration deadlines are approaching fast; sign up at the links below (in green) to build community and learn something new!

Increasing Family Acceptance Among Religious Caregivers of LGBTQ Youth
Register Here: Monday, October 4, 2021, 9 AM–5 PM PDT on Zoom (Family Paths)
Register Here: Tuesday, October 5, 2021 9 AM-4 PM PDT on Zoom (East Bay Agency for Children)

This training supports professionals in supporting caregivers who reject LGBTQ youth in their care for religious and/or spiritual reasons. It is often difficult for professionals supporting queer and/or trans youth in care to know how to talk to caregivers, whether biological family, resource parents, clinical providers, or other caring adults, about the importance of acceptance and affirmation during and after a young person comes out. Rejection by caregivers and important adults have lifelong impacts on LGBTQ youth on individual and systemic levels. This training will discuss common anti-LGBTQ spiritual/religious beliefs and how to have conversations about caregivers’ values, beliefs, and practices that validate and respect them, while also supporting family acceptance for their LGBTQ children. Using resources from the Family Acceptance Project and the principles of non-violent communication, participants will practice having difficult conversations with rejecting caregivers and familiarize themselves with affirming faith-based resources that can be shared with caregivers.

Understanding LGBTQ Communities Across Generations
Register Here: Wednesday, October 6,  9 AM-5 PM PDT on Zoom (Lincoln Families)
Register Here: Thursday, October 14, 9 AM-5 PM PDT on Zoom (Fred Finch)

Is homosexual a bad word? What about queer? Why is it that some LGBTQ people choose one word and not others to identify themselves? How can I understand how to be culturally responsive to LGBTQ system involved youth and their families when they have such different worldviews and life experiences?

This training supports training participants in understanding how political, social, and historical forces have acted upon LGBTQ people in the United States to shape personal sexuality and gender identities. We will explore key historical and cultural moments that shaped generations of LGBTQ people and explore the tensions between generational cohorts based on how each cohort preserved their dignity in the face of oppression, and/or claimed their authenticity through scientific and technological changes. Participants will leave with a better intersectional understanding of how coming out in different historical eras impacts sexuality & gender development, identity articulation, access to community, and communication styles between older and younger system involved LGBTQ people.

Exploring Identity Models for Youth with Multiple Marginalized Identities
Register Here: Monday, October 25, 9 AM-4 PM PDT on Zoom (Fred Finch)

This highly interactive and informative cultural humility training supports service providers in deepening their understanding of racial, sexuality, gender, and moral development. Through self-reflection and group case study work, attendees will be better equipped to formulate case plans and other strategies to support youth clients’ healthy identity development by considering the multiple, complex, and layered influences that create a unique individual experience of development throughout the lifespan. Participants will:

1. Review Jean Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development and Erik Erickson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development as a foundation to evaluate several identity development models.
2. Become familiar with Sue et. al’s Stages of Racial Identity Development Model, Cass’ Model of Gay and Lesbian Development, Bem’s Gender Schema Theory and Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development.
3. Identify cognitive and psychosocial contexts that may influence a young person’s identity development.
4. Complete a sample moral development evaluation in small groups and discuss its utility for clients in various stages of cognitive development.
5. Identify ways that traditional development models may not apply to youth who have multiple marginalized identities, contrasting Kohlberg’s Cognitive Developmental Theory of Gender Development & Veale’s Identity Defense Model of Gender Variance as an example.
6. Complete video case studies that illustrate the complex interaction between multiple identities and generate a case plan to best support that young person’s healthy identity development.

Faith Development & Moral Reasoning for Providers Working with Youth
Register Here: Thursday, October 28, 9 AM-5 PM PDT on Zoom (Lincoln Families)

This course explores faith development and moral reasoning among children, aimed at providers working with youth and their caregivers in out-of-home care. Examining two models of religious/spiritual development across the lifespan as well as Kohlberg’s model of moral reasoning development, participants will reflect on how these developmental models are related to cognitive development. We will discuss how early traumatic experiences, attachment, and intellectual disabilities may impact each stage, and identify important milestones in children’s lives where they begin to develop their own moral center. We will complete a moral reasoning activity in small groups, discuss intersections with identity, and complete a video case study.

1. Examine two models of religious/spiritual development and one model of moral reasoning development
2. Review cognitive development and discuss its impact on faith development
3. Use one moral reasoning evaluation tool to determine a client’s developmental stage
4. Apply moral reasoning dilemmas to real-life intersectional youth scenarios
5. Identify best practices in supporting (and challenging!) moral reasoning & faith development