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Parenting is challenging, particularly when you are parenting a child from a hard place. TBRI® Correcting Principles will provide an in-depth look at strategies for correcting behaviors. This multi-disciplinary training is designed to give caregivers, volunteers, and professionals who serve children and families the knowledge and practical skills they need to bring hope and healing.
This multi-disciplinary training is designed to give caregivers, volunteers, and professionals who serve children and families the knowledge and practical skills they need to bring hope and healing. This live, online training has 4 video-conferencing modules, giving participants the opportunity learn in an interactive environment.
CWLA is pleased to present the three-part virtual training series that features our CWLA Press publication Working with Traumatized Children – A Handbook for Healing, Third Edition. The latest edition of Working with Traumatized Children features new strategies and approaches for caregivers and others responsible for meeting the needs of children who are vulnerable.
Participants will gain a strengthened capacity to:
- Define what trauma is and differentiate it from stress
- Provide examples of trauma symptoms in children and adults
- Describe how trauma can impact children’s brains
- Advocate for the provision of safe environments when working with children and adults who have been affected by trauma
- Provide examples of how systems can be traumatizing or retraumatize people
- Explain the importance of understanding the vagus nerve when working with families and children who have been affected by trauma
- Express why self-reflective practices and supervision are important when working with this population
Training registrants will receive an electronic copy of Working with Traumatized Children, Companion Workbook which supplements the virtual training sessions. Training registrants are also eligible to receive a 30% discount on the purchase of hard copies of Working with Traumatized Children – A Handbook for Healing, Third Edition and Working with Traumatized Children, Companion Workbook. Use promo code WWTC-30 in CWLA’s Bookstore.
Trainer:
Paulette Mader, MSN is a Senior Training and Consultation Specialist at Rutgers University. She is a certified trainer in “Nurtured Heart Approach”, “ACE and the Neurobiology of Trauma”, “Wrap Around” and “CFT”.
Details
Developed in coordination with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), this webinar will help child welfare agencies and partners strengthen prevention and response efforts related to human trafficking and children missing from care. The event will also reinforce federal statutory requirements, particularly for data collection.
Key focus points:
- Recent data, emerging trends, and promising practices related to children missing from care;
- Cross-sector approaches and partnerships that support improved outcomes; and
- Federal statutory requirements related to identifying, reporting, training, and collecting data on children missing from care.
CWLA is pleased to present a virtual training opportunity for social work and human service professionals that provides participants with a research-informed, reflective look at how identity and adverse life experiences interact to shape families within child welfare systems. Although identity categories are socially constructed, their influence on laws, policies, and relationships has enduring effects that contribute to uneven outcomes across service settings.
Participants will examine how life circumstances linked to structurally based experiences can persist across generations and institutions, and how historical and structural factors affect children and families. A framework grounded in trauma awareness and responsive practice will guide discussion and practical strategies for fostering healing and resilience.
TRAINER:
Deborah Wilson Gadsden, LSW, MSW, MHS, CWLA Director, EIB & Permanency Standards Project
The central theme guiding this conference is: what’s next? The question is no longer whether the child welfare system should change, but how—and what we will choose to build in its place? Across the country, people are doing good work—innovating, protecting, strengthening families, and partnering with communities. This year’s conference is about lifting up what works and asking how we carry that work forward in new and more sustainable ways. It’s about preparing for change, envisioning the future, and being bold enough to lead it. This is not a time for resignation. It’s a time for resolve. CWLA’s 2026 Conference will be a space for those ready to stand, build, and prevail. Join us in shaping what’s next.
CWLA’s 2026 National Conference, The Work Ahead: Practice, Policy, and Possibility, will be held April 20-22, 2026 at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, Virginia.
Complete a separate online registration for each person attending the conference. All registrations must be paid in advance of the conference by check, credit card, or signed purchase order authorizing conference registration payment. Onsite registrations must be accompanied by a check or credit card.
Discounts: To receive discounted member registration rates, member agencies’ dues must be up to date.
All payments are due by April 1, 2026. Mail checks payable to Child Welfare League of America with a copy of your registration confirmation to CWLA, P.O. Box 715171, Philadelphia, PA 19171-5171. Purchase orders will be accepted for pre-registration, but your organization’s check must be received by CWLA on or before April 1, 2026, otherwise you will be required to provide another form of payment onsite. We encourage you to make sure payment has been received by CWLA prior to arriving at the conference to avoid an inconvenience onsite. Please submit documentation to your agency early enough to ensure that CWLA receives payment before the conference.
To be eligible for the Early Bird registration rate, your payment must be received within 30 days of ticket order.
Cancelation Policy
Written cancelations received by e-mail to CWLA2026@cwla.org on or before 5:00 pm ET on Friday, March 20, 2026, are entitled to a full refund, less a $75 processing fee. After March 20, 2026, no refunds will be given and no exceptions will be made. No-shows will be invoiced for payment of the full registration.
Substitutions: If you are not able to attend, you may send a substitute from your agency, but CWLA must be notified in advance by email at CWLA2026@cwla.org no later than Friday, April 10, 2026. After April 10, 2026 substitutions may not be honored.
Although prenatal alcohol exposure is the most common preventable cause of intellectual disabilities in the United States, global development most often falls into the normal range for children and youth with a history of prenatal exposure to alcohol and other substances. However, regulatory difficulties across the span of childhood and adolescence have significant implications for long term development. This training session will present a framework for understanding the brain-based developmental and behavioral difficulties of children and youth affected by prenatal substance exposure.
Trainers:
Ira J. Chasnoff, M.D., an award-winning author, researcher and lecturer, is President of NTI Upstream and a Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Chicago. He is one of the nation’s leading researchers in the field of child development and the effects of environmental factors on the developmental trajectory of children and adolescents. Dr. Chasnoff’s work encompasses community approaches to the integration of behavioral health services into primary health care, the schools, and the other multiple systems that serve children and families.
Christine Schmidt, Psy.D., is a clinical psychologist who has specific interest and expertise in working with youth and families impacted by prenatal substance use and pre- and post-natal trauma. Most recently, Dr. Schmidt co-directed a three-year grant designed to help address the impact of secondary traumatic stress, compassion fatigue, and vicarious trauma on professionals working with youth in the child welfare system. Dr. Schmidt has been a member of NTI Upstream’s training faculty for over 15 years and provides consultative psychological services to administrators, caseworkers, and other professionals.
Amy Groessl, PhD, a licensed clinical social worker, brings extensive expertise in treating children and adults with complex trauma histories, neurocognitive challenges, attachment disorders, and adoption-related issues. She is based in Chicago and provides psychotherapy, clinical supervision, and consultation through her private practice. Dr. Groessl has been with NTI Upstream’s Training Faculty since 2016. She is also a Core Faculty member at the Institute for Clinical Social Work, where she teaches courses on qualitative research, trauma, attachment theory, and neuropsychology.
Sue Green, OTR/L, has practiced as a pediatric occupational therapist since 1987, culminating in over three and a half decades of knowledge. Currently, Sue is the Pediatric OT/PT supervisor at The Chautauqua Center, Inc in Jamestown, NY, providing early intervention, preschool and pediatric outpatient services to those who need it most. Sue has been a member of NTI Upstream’s senior faculty since 2023, providing education and training to healthcare and social service professionals who share a common goal of enhancing positive outcomes for the children and families they treat.
REGISTER HERE
Parenting is challenging, particularly when you are parenting a child from a hard place. Children from hard places include children who experienced distress in the womb or during delivery, were hospitalized early in life, were abused or neglected, or experience trauma, whether natural or man-made. Trust-Based Relational Intervention® Introduction & Overview will focus on understanding the meaning of child behaviors, the brain chemistry of a child from a hard place, and how to help children and families heal and connect. This multi-disciplinary training is designed to give caregivers, volunteers, and professionals who serve children and families the knowledge and practical skills they need to bring hope and healing.
Trainers: Carrie Norris
Parenting is challenging, particularly when you are parenting a child from a hard place. Children from hard places include children who experienced distress in the womb or during delivery, were hospitalized early in life, were abused or neglected, or experience trauma, whether natural or man-made. Trust-Based Relational Intervention® Introduction & Overview will focus on understanding the meaning of child behaviors, the brain chemistry of a child from a hard place, and how to help children and families heal and connect. This multi-disciplinary training is designed to give caregivers, volunteers, and professionals who serve children and families the knowledge and practical skills they need to bring hope and healing.
Trainers: Carrie Norris
Parenting is challenging, particularly when you are parenting a child from a hard place. TBRI ® Empowering Principles will provide an in-depth look at ways to empower your children by meeting their unique physical needs and creating an environment in which they can succeed. This session includes information on sensory processing and practical tools and skills to help children regulate their emotions and behaviors. This multi-disciplinary training is designed to give caregivers, volunteers, and professionals who serve children and families the knowledge and practical skills they need to bring hope and healing.
This multi-disciplinary training is designed to give caregivers, volunteers, and professionals who serve children and families the knowledge and practical skills they need to bring hope and healing. This live, online training has 4 video-conferencing modules, giving participants the opportunity learn in an interactive environment.
TRAINERS: Carrie Norris
Parenting is challenging, particularly when you are parenting a child from a hard place. Children from hard places include children who experienced distress in the womb or during delivery, were hospitalized early in life, were abused or neglected, or experience trauma, whether natural or man-made. Trust-Based Relational Intervention® Introduction & Overview will focus on understanding the meaning of child behaviors, the brain chemistry of a child from a hard place, and how to help children and families heal and connect. This multi-disciplinary training is designed to give caregivers, volunteers, and professionals who serve children and families the knowledge and practical skills they need to bring hope and healing.
Trainers: Carrie Norris