WEBINARS

Where Learning
Meets Practice

Designed for professionals, leaders, and advocates, our webinar series explores topics in adoption competent mental health, cross-system collaboration, and workforce development. Each session offers practical insights, shared learning, and opportunities to strengthen the systems that support children, youth, and families.

Register for our August 2026 Webinar

Sustaining Ourselves While Serving Others

Q&A w/ Laura van Dernoot Lipsky. Designed for child-serving professionals—including social workers, clinicians, health care providers, and educators—this interactive webinar explores how to sustain compassion while navigating trauma exposure, burnout, and moral distress.

Creating a Community of Learning: NTI Coaching Integrated with Lived Experience

This webinar seeks to highlight the experience of developing transfer of learning opportunities through coaching and creating community among service providers. The learning is specific to integrating NTI content into practice and relying on the perspectives of lived experience when establishing community building through connection & collaboration, resource-sharing, and peer support.

How to Build Adoption Competence Across Systems

Explore practical strategies for building a skilled workforce and creating systems that better support children, families, and positive outcomes. Learn how The National Center in partnership with the National Adoption Competency Mental Health Training Initiative (NTI), is dedicated to supporting the child welfare and behavioral health workforce in addressing these complex needs.

Be a Lifeline: How Caring Adults Can Help Youth Thrive

In this webinar Ashley Bendiksen equips caregivers and professionals with practical, resilience‑focused, trauma‑informed strategies they can use immediately. Viewers will gain a deeper understanding of how trauma shapes a child’s needs, behaviors, and beliefs—and leave with tools they can apply right away to strengthen their capacity to support youth on their journey toward healing and permanence.

Understanding the Complex Mental Health Needs of Children in Child Welfare

Children and youth in the child welfare system often experience trauma, loss, and disrupted relationships that can impact their emotional, behavioral, and developmental well-being. This webinar will provide child welfare and mental health professionals practical tools to strengthen their adoption competent practice and better support children and families affected by abuse, neglect, trauma, and loss.

Suicide Prevention in Child Welfare: Learning from those With Lived Experience

A panel discussion with an adoptee, birth parent, and adoptive parent sharing their lived experiences about suicidality. This webinar is for educational and informational purposes only and is not meant to be a substitute for professional medical advice. The information provided should not be used for diagnosing or treating a health problem or disease, and those seeking personal medical advice should consult with a licensed physician.

The Value and Benefits of Cross-System Collaboration

This webinar highlights the value of cross-system collaboration in increasing adoption competence. This session is an opportunity to learn from speakers Bonni Goodwin, Ph.D., LCSW, and Brandi Shearer, as they share real-world examples from Oklahoma’s efforts to bring systems together, strategies for sustaining and expanding collaboration, and practical ways to overcome common challenges.

Engaging Families in Child Welfare & Mental Health Services (pt. 1)

Led by family engagement expert, Pat Hunt, this session will equip you with tools to engage families not only as partners in care, but also in agency decisions and policy recommendations. This webinar will also address workforce challenges.

Engaging Families in Child Welfare & Mental Health Services (pt. 2)

This follow-up panel discussion to our our Engaging Families in Child Welfare and Mental Health Services webinar features insights from biological, foster, adoptive, and kinship parents with experience in family engagement. Learn various ways families can engage in services like recruitment of foster, kinship, and adoptive families; family interaction with child welfare, requesting services and interactions with service providers, and other challenges and opportunities.

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