Calendar
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.
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
CWLA is pleased to present a virtual training opportunity for social work and human service professionals that invites participants to explore the evolution from traditional competence frameworks toward approaches emphasizing continuous reflection and respect for self-defined identities. Participants will analyze how overlapping identity dimensions—such as age, ability, and socioeconomic position—shape lived experiences and influence outcomes within child welfare systems. Drawing on theoretical constructs, the discussion will examine how long-standing structures and prevailing norms—such as appearance-based decisions—affect both practitioners and the families they support. Through guided inquiry, attendees will develop strategies to engage with authenticity, interrogate assumptions, and advance fairness and consistency in professional practice.
TRAINER:
Deborah Wilson Gadsden, LSW, MSW, MHS, CWLA Director, EIB & Permanency Standards Project
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”.
Healthcare professionals are often the first line of defense in identifying vulnerable children. This session emphasizes the importance of integrating child welfare perspectives into pediatric care, home visiting programs, and maternal health. Participants will learn how to conduct sensitive screenings, develop multidisciplinary response teams, and navigate legal and ethical issues in information sharing between medical and social systems.
Learning Objectives:
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Strengthen provider capacity to detect and respond to risk factors.
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Embed prevention into pediatric visits and maternal health programs.
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Navigate HIPAA and information-sharing within ethical boundaries.
2025 – 2026 Louisiana CASA Webinar Series: Strength in Unity
Louisiana CASA is excited to host our fourth webinar series. This year, we are partnering with Louisiana Child Welfare Training Academy (LCWTA) to bring this series to community members across our state. This series equips professionals, child welfare advocates, and community members with the knowledge and collaborative strategies needed to protect children, support families, and prevent child abuse and neglect. Each session emphasizes the importance of cross-sector cooperation, early identification of risk factors, and collective responses that foster safe, stable, and nurturing relationships. By promoting a shared understanding and responsibility among systems—such as education, healthcare, faith-based institutions, family services, and policy leaders—participants will develop the tools and partnerships necessary to create resilient families and communities.
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
This workshop is for youth and young adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD) and their families who want to explore options and prepare for independent adult life.
In this interactive session, participants will learn about different housing options such as living with family, supported apartments, or group homes. We will discuss how to think about future living arrangements, what supports may be needed, and who can help with making housing decisions and finding local resources.
Participants will also explore the skills needed to live more independently, including managing daily routines, understanding personal responsibilities, and planning for long-term support. Through guided discussion and activities, learners will practice identifying questions to ask when considering housing choices and how to plan for the future with confidence.
This workshop provides practical information and simple tools to help individuals and families start meaningful conversations about housing, independence, and long-term planning.
Planning today helps create a strong and supported future.
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.
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.
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.