This is a Florida DCF state approved training specifically for families whose purpose is to adopt.
I hope you find this information helpful and that you will share the following information with any prospective adoptive families in need of training who are unable to attend the traditional MAPP, Pride or Professional Parenting training in your area.
Expedited Adoptions Focused MAPP or Professional Parenting Group Course:
The group class is a three-day online virtual class program, starting on a Friday evening and ending on Sunday afternoon.
Friday Evening 6 pm - 9 pm
Saturday 9 am - 2 pm
Sunday 9 am - 2 pm
Upon completion of the virtual class, there is homework, reading assignments, and a follow-up contact interview to review the completed work. The cost of the group course is $350.00 per individual attending. (Married Couples: the state requires both parents to attend and complete the program.)
The small group Expedited Adoptions Focused MAPP Trainings scheduled for 2025:
2025
February 28th - March 1st
August 22nd - 23rd
The 2026 Training schedule to be announced soon.
Private In-home Expedited Adoptions Focused MAPP or Professional Parenting Training:
For families whose schedules conflict and do not permit them to attend the scheduled group trainings or who simply prefer the privacy of individual training, arrangements can be made for private family virtual sessions. (This is a separate rate which I can discuss with interested families.)
Why adoption focused?
MAPP, PRIDE, Professional Parenting, and the various other Florida DCF-approved pre-foster/adoptive trainings were designed for the needs of Foster Care and do not adequately address the dynamics and special needs of adoptions. In this training, we will take an Adoptions Competent approach and cover the following adoptions-related topics in addition to the MAPP and Professional Parenting material:
Roads to Adoption: Where to begin. Options available to adoptive families. Working with your local agency vs. working with a private homes study agencies.
Other adoptive avenues. Relative Adoptions, International Adoptions, the ICPC process, and Interstate adoptions. Discussing some of the pros and cons of each.
The Home Study: Purpose and process. Common steps to having an approved home study. What agencies are looking for when they write them. What Social Workers are often looking for when they read them.
What’s next?
Beyond the home study: the Match process. The disclosure. The transition to placement (including some do’s and don’ts). The treatment team and other people who may be a part of a child's life. Finalization.
When the system of care is gone. The importance of an adoptive family building their own support system. Making connections, finding resources, and getting help.
Select qualities that help make successful adoptive families.
Birth family connections. Addressing questions and concerns related “Closed” vs. “Open” adoption. Strategies for maintaining and managing birth family connections. Empowering the adoptive families identity as a family.
Attachment 101. The role of attachment in healing and creating a successful family. How attachment builds upon attachment. Building upon a broken foundation. Attachment over a life time: no quick fix. The Disorganized Attachment and other attachment issues.
Loss and trauma: Impact on brain development, age/stage development and ability to form attachments. .
What’s in a diagnosis? Common diagnosis of children in the system of care. Understanding what they mean.
Therapy: Keys to success. Bad therapy can be worse than no therapy. The illusion/fallacy of sending a child to someone to fix them. Attachment and family focused therapy. The importance of the parents role in therapy.
Culture: transracial adoptions in an improved but not yet colorblind society. The search for identity. Common issues faced by adoptive children. Common issues faced by adoptive parents.
Subsidy and the special needs child.
And many more adoptions focused topics.
I look forward to hearing from you. Please feel free to contact me with questions or for more information.
Thanks
Kevin