The West Coast Child Welfare Trainer's Conference

is a DYNAMIC forum for trainers within the field of child welfare and foster care to exchange ideas, improve skills, and support each other in the effort to improve the care that families receive from the staff we train.

2010 celebrates the 20th year for this convening!  Our location for 2010 is Albuquerque, NM hosted by New Mexico State University's Title IV-E Training Project! We will hold the conference August 11-13.

We are now accepting proposals! The deadline for submissions is March 19th. Download our CallforPresentations2010.rtf and get those creative wheels turning!

Please see the 2010 Conference Planning page for links to the draft documents and meeting notes.

We intentionally move each year to a different location in order to encourage different participants from the local area to attend with minimal travel costs.

Participants have come from Boston, Quebec, Hawaii, North Carolina, Minnesota, Nevada, Idaho, New Mexico, Idaho, Colorado, Arizona, Alaska, and all of the West Coast states!  Workshop presenters and facilitators maintain a wide-range of skills and experiences. The program's focus is on participants learning from each other, where presenters & facilitators provide additional ideas and strategies and tools to consider!

Feel free to check out this conference's  History and Past Conferences and review some of the prior programs.

For additional questions about the conference, contact Peter Dahlin, MS, Conference Chair at Peter@PeterDahlin.net 

Reflecting on the ....

2009 Conference: "Staying Afloat in the River of Child Welfare" 

It's a wrap!!! And it was GREAT!

MANY THANK YOU's to the hosts of Boise State University for organizing and coordinating... and making us all feel very welcome and "at home." The location, the picnic, the food, the snacks (ice cream sundaes, homemade potato chips!), the quality and array of the presentations & discussions were provided with great reviews throughout the week! Lisa Jurassi-Smith especially made everything so seamless for conferees, along with her peers at the University.

SPECIAL THANKS to:

--"retiring" Program Chair, Charmaine Brittain of the Butler Institute of Denver University. Charmaine has served in this role for several years to solicit & organize proposals and then schedule them within an overall program;

--Bill James for introducing us to WIKI pages as a medium for planning and marketing.

We have the 2009 Workshop Materials  and 2009 Conference Photos available for download. 

(RECORDED SESSION NOTES:

The first ten minutes of Bill James' Rolling with Resistance is "dead time" so click on slide number 8 to get started.

Irene Becker and Peter Dahlin's Situational "Trainership also does not start until the fourth image of the title slide, so click on that to skip the "dead time."

Additional information for the 2009 Conference:

 Agenda 1.pdf

WCTC program-A.pdf  

2008 Conference: "Get on Board!"

Looking for someone you met at the 2008 conference? The attendees are all listed here!

Some presenters & facilitators have linked their handouts on the 2008 Conference Schedule.