NAA National 2026 Conference
NAA National 2026 Conference
Advocate for Permanence and Advance Effective Strategies for the Future
April 27-28, 2026
WORKSHOP: Building Bridges to Enhance Adoption Competence and Improve Mental Health Services for Children and Families Across Systems and Tribal Nations
Overview
In this interactive session, we will share practical strategies for developing a responsive and adoption competent, workforce. Strengthening the child welfare and mental health workforce is essential to meeting the needs of children and families with complex backgrounds, and our work reflects this shared commitment.
Drawing on our partnerships with States, Tribes, and Territories, our session will highlight how communities are implementing effective cross‑system collaboration and building local champions who help sustain trauma‑informed and adoption‑competent practices. Examples from the Navajo Nation will illustrate what these approaches look like in action and the impact they can have on service delivery.
Participants will gain insights into how our technical assistance supports agencies in strengthening workforce preparation, improving coordination between child welfare and mental health systems, and creating lasting improvements in care. This work reflects our joint mission to bridge system gaps so children and families receive the knowledgeable, adoption‑competent, grounded support they deserve.
Presenters
Dawn Wilson, MSW
Director, C.A.S.E. Training InstituteWe’ve also included materials to help you explore these approaches further. Even if you aren’t attending the session, we invite you to use these resources to learn from the strategies, tools, and examples emerging from our national partnerships.
Click the bullets below to download PDFs .
Conference Materials & Handouts
Technical Assistance
NTI Training
Articles
Below is some background on a few of the exemplars we’ll be sharing:
