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International Child Welfare Training and Consultation

The International Child Welfare Consultation & Training program at MAPS is a vital component in our long range strategy for growth and for remaining a proactive force in helping children around the world find permanency and stability. It prepares families and professionals for challenges that come with transitioning children - whose glimpse of the world has only been from the perspective of an orphanage - into a foster or adoptive family.
 
Because of our long-standing ties to Russia, we were asked to partner with Russia’s child welfare professionals by offering training and support as they find new ways to improve the lives of Russia’s orphaned and abandoned children. Foster families, as well as the professionals who administer these services, must be properly trained so that the social, educational, medical and emotional needs of the children (who have experienced significant loss and trauma) will be met with skill and compassion.
 
The training that MAPS has provided in Murmansk in 2008 and 2009 (which we hope will be followed in other regions) offers professionals and foster/adoptive families the tools and resources to help children weather challenges and to help ensure successful transition from orphanage to family life.
 
At the end of the October 2009 training, participants were invited to share their comments, which included, “I learned how to deal with aggressive behaviors” and “It was important for me to understand my own feelings and the feelings of the child who has suffered great losses.” One professional summarized the training by saying, “I see now that we [in Russia] find children for families—but you [at MAPS] find families for children.”
 
MAPS social workers Sue LoBosco and Ava Sarafan, who conducted the most recent training, reported overwhelmingly positive feedback from the parents and social welfare professionals who took part. The trainers' biggest challenge upon returning home from Russia? It was trying to adequately convey the overwhelming emotion, energy and enthusiasm they felt from all the families and child welfare professionals involved!
 
We are proud to include the International Foster Care Training Program as our top humanitarian aid priority in Russia during the next two years. Seed support is needed for curriculum creation, translation fees, material development and acquisition, professional staff support, travel expenses, and international coordination and management.