In-Service Training

All foster care/adoptive families with the Children's Home Society of West Virginia are required to complete in-service training as part of their commitment to serving and caring for children in care. Every year a family is required to obtain 15 hours of in-service training.

First year families will obtain their required hours through the completion of the training "Together Facing The Challenges". Your homefinder will share all upcoming training dates for this training as they are scheduled. It is mandatory that it is completed within your first year of licensing.

We offer in-service training opportunities most months through our foster and adoptive support group. Emails regarding the specific times and locations will be emailed out in advance of the meeting. Due to COVID-19, we are unable to create a consistent schedule with significant advanced notice. You can always email martinsburgfostercare@childhswv.org for the most recent updates.

Did you find a training that is not listed below? Send it to us and we will review it and let you know how many hours it will count for. We are always open to expanding our resource page below and could never keep up with the thousands of pages of great information that is available to foster parents. Let us know if you find things that should be added.


How To Get Your Credit?

To receive credit for online or self-study training:

  1. Print out or email any certificate confirming the completion of the course (if applicable)

  2. Complete a write up (no more than a page) addressing the following areas:

    • What knowledge was new to you?

    • What knowledge did you find interesting and why?

    • How might you use the knowledge that you gained with foster care and adoption placements?

  3. Complete the following form: Self-Study Form


Suggested Reading Books

(Worth 5 hours each)

  • Three Little Words – Ashley Rhodes-Courter

  • Another Place at the Table – Kathy Harrison

  • A Child Called It - Dave Pelzer

  • The Lost Boy – Dave Pelzer

  • A Man Named Dave – Dave Pelzer

  • Beyond Consequences, Logic, and Control: A Love-Based Approach to Helping Attachment-Challenged Children With Severe Behaviors - Heather T. Forbes; B. Bryan Post

  • The Connected Child: Bring hope and healing to your adoptive family - Purvis, Karyn B., Cross, David R. and Wendy Sunshine

  • The Connected Parent: Real-Life Strategies for Building Trust and Attachment - Purvis, Karyn B.

  • The Out-of-sync Child: Recognizing and Coping with Sensory Processing Disorder - Carol Stock Kranowitz

  • To the End of June: The Intimate Life of American Foster Care - Cris Beam

  • Before We Were Yours-Lisa Wingate

  • Transforming the Difficult Child:A Nurtured Heart Approach - Howard Glasser and Jennifer Easley

  • NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children - Po Bronson, Ashley Merryman, et al.

  • The Whole-Brain Child: Tina Payne Bryson, Daniel Siegel

  • Labeled: Ward of the State: Kenisha E. Anthony

  • Ward of The State: A Memoir of Foster Care: Karlos Dillard

Online Training Courses

(Credit hours vary)

Full online trainings for Nurtured Heart Approach are available online at https://childrenssuccessfoundation.com/the-3-stands-ecourse/

The Foster Care and Adoptive Community Training range from 1 credit hour to 4 credit hours. Some trainings are free while others may require a fee.

The Foster Parent College Training range from 1 credit hour to 4 credit hours. Some trainings are free while others may require a fee.

The mission of the National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children (National DEC) is to break the cycle of abuse and neglect by empowering practitioners who work to transform the lives of children and families living in drug environments. This link directs to their powerpoint training.

ADDitude's ADHD Experts Podcast and Live Webinars address topics that will help you better manage symptoms, your family, and your life. They are hosted by top experts in the field, all of whom are contributors to ADDitude magazine and ADDitudeMag.com.

The webinar covered their experiences working with survivors of human trafficking and the benefits of a trauma-informed approach to care for these vulnerable individuals.

On-The-Go Resources

(Podcasts & Videos - Credit hours vary)

Podcast and video credit hours are worth up to the total amount of listening or watching time rounded to the nearest hour or half-hour. Be sure to complete a self-study form (listed above) for each to receive your credit.

Videos

Podcasts

Movies & Documentaries

A lot of these can be found on popular streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, or others.


  • Aging Out - Directed by Roger Weisberg and Vanessa Roth

The film follows young people as they exit foster care and become parents, battle drug addiction, face homelessness, and even end up in jail. Despite their struggles, the film also shows these teenagers using the resiliency they developed during their years "in the system" to take control of their lives.

  • My Flesh and Blood - Directed by Jonathan Karsh

Chronicling a year in the life of the Tom family. The Tom family is notable as the mother, Susan Tom, adopted eleven children, most of whom had serious disabilities or diseases.

  • Instant Family - Directed by Sean Anders

Hoping to start a family, Pete and Ellie turn to the foster care system to make their dream come true. The couple soon learn the joys and frustrations of parenthood when they decide to adopt three siblings, including a rebellious 15-year-old girl.

  • Audrie and Daisy

This documentary examines the effect on families, friends and schools when young women find that sexual assault crimes against them have been caught on camera.

  • Heroin(e)

This documentary follows three women -- a fire chief, a judge and a street missionary -- as they battle West Virginia's devastating opioid epidemic.

  • Girls Incarcerated

Young and Locked Up is an eight-episode American documentary television series released on Netflix on March 2, 2018, following the teenage inmates of the Madison Juvenile Correctional Facility in Madison, Indiana which has since been closed down (only 6 hours of In-service to be claimed per TV series).

  • The Beginning of Life (series)

Discoveries in neuroscience can help us understand childhood development. When a person is born, it is more than just a genetic load. We are formed by our relationship with everything around us combined with our genetics, The Beginning of Life investigates what separates us and what is essential to all of us, how we can create a better world by investing in the first years of our lives (only 6 hours of In-service to be claimed per TV series).

  • The Social Dilemma

Documentary-drama hybrid explores the dangerous human impact of social networking.

  • Babies

From nature to nurture, this docuseries explores the groundbreaking science that reveals how infants discover life during their first year.

  • Closure

A documentary about a transracial adoptee who finds her birth mother, and meets the rest of a family who didn't know she existed, including her birth father. A story about identity, the complexities of trans-racial adoption, and most importantly, closure.

  • Four Good Days

A mother helps her daughter work through four crucial days of recovery from substance abuse.

  • Lion

Five year old Saroo gets lost on a train which takes him thousands of miles across India, away from home and family. Saroo must learn to survive alone in Kolkata, before ultimately being adopted by an Australian couple. Twenty-five years later, armed with only a handful of memories, his unwavering determination, and a revolutionary technology known as Google Earth, he sets out to find his lost family and finally return to his first home.

  • Twinsters

A French fashion design student stumbles upon a familiar face on YouTube: her own. Finding the resemblance uncanny, she sends the video's American creator a message and the two discover that they are, in fact, twins separated at birth.

  • Foster

Producer Deborah Oppenheimer and writer-director Mark Jonathan Harris go behind stereotypes and headlines to dispel some of the most enduring myths about foster care and those involved in the system.


Articles & PDFs