MCCCA Sponsors many training opportunities throughout the year for Foster Parents, Social Workers, Program Supervisors, Clinicians and Youth Counselors

MCCCA/MNJDA Youth Worker Conference
September 29-30, 2009
Holiday Inn
St. Cloud, MN

Call for Presentations
The MCCCA/MNJDA Conference committee is looking for presentations that will challenge and encourage professional growth for those staff who provide direct care to youth in a variety of settings.

CLICK HERE to download the Call for Presentations.

Effective Family-Focused Skills Training Interventions for Youth With Disruptive Behavior Disorders
October 23, 2009
Radisson Roseville
2540 N. Cleveland Ave.
Roseville, MN 55113

DOWNLOAD the registration brochure.

Presenter: Michael Bloomquist, Ph.D.
Disruptive Behavior Disorders are perhaps the most common and challenging diagnoses that children and teens present with in mental health, educational, correctional and human service settings. This workshop provides evidencebased practice guidelines for conducting family-focused skills training interventions to effectively intervene with these youth and their families. The skills training strategies are designed to enhance a child or teen’s psychological development, and improve family functioning. The practitioner will leave the workshop with a “tool box” full of skills training strategies that can be used to tailor interventions to the unique circumstances of each presenting family. Much emphasis is placed on maximizing the likelihood that families will participate and follow through in using trained skills.

The presented practice guidelines are derived from well established child social competence and parent/family skills training programs. They are a distillation of the essential intervention ingredients observed across these programs, but are organized to allow for a flexible model of service delivery. All procedures have been field tested by Dr. Bloomquist over many years in practice, supervisory, and research activities.

Dr. Bloomquist uses engaging training procedures including didactic presentation, review of case vignettes, video demonstrations, voluntary participant role-plays, and lively discussion. The training seminar content is delivered to seminar attendees over 6 hours of training time.

Intended audience: Mental health professionals and educational, correctional, and human services practitioners who provide direct ongoing intervention with youth manifesting behavior disorders and their families.

FamilyConnect: Putting the Pieces of Family Visits Together
November 6, 2009
Radisson Roseville
2540 N. Cleveland Ave.
Roseville, MN 55113

DOWNLOAD the registration brochure.

Presenters: Wendy Wolff and Joan Riebel, Family Alternatives
Frequent, healthy family visits have been linked through piles of research to better long-term outcomes for children living in foster care. This training will give you a better understanding of the joys and challenges of the visiting process as well as strategies to deal with visits more effectively. Each participant will receive a free copy of the Familyconnect guide with practical tools for you to use with children living in out -of -home -placements.

You will leave this training with a deeper understanding of:

• Attachment and ambiguous loss children experience as a result of being
  separated from family
• The importance of the relationships between birth families and foster
  families
• Strategies for preparing children for family visits and creating
  supportive transitions
• Common barriers to best practices related to family visiting