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DCYF has updated its Mandatory Reporter training to highlight the distinction between families in need of support versus child abuse and neglect, and the importance of connecting families to resources.
The updated training includes:
- Distinctions between poverty and neglect, plus resources that mandatory reporters can use to help families
- Modules that address bias with the opportunity to learn how biases contribute to systemic racism
- Videos highlighting the impact of child abuse and neglect reports
- Knowledge checks that allow mandatory reporters to practice complex, real-life scenarios in a no-risk environment
For the past two years, DCYF staff from across the agency collaborated with medical, public education, court, and law enforcement professionals, tribal partners, parent representatives, lived experts, The Alliance for Professional Development, Training, and Caregiver Excellence, as well as many others to shape this eLearning and inform changes made to DCYF web content and publications that focus on recognizing and reporting child abuse and neglect.
To learn more, visit the updated reporting abuse and neglect and mandatory reporting webpages or begin the eLearning today.
Read more to learn about the updated publications, webpages, and eLearning.
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Our next office hours will be Jan. 16 2024, 3 p.m. Join here. The focus will be on strategies to support referral pathways from Child Welfare offices into home visiting.
DCYF is currently accepting nominations for outstanding parents, grandparents, kinship caregivers, foster parents, and community members, providing direct care to children, as part of its annual Unsung Hero Awards.
To nominate, individuals can complete the form and email their nomination to strengtheningfamilies@dcyf.wa.gov. The nomination deadline is Jan. 3, 2025
11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025
Divorce can be a tumultuous time for families, especially for children, but co-parenting doesn’t not have to be. Join us for an interactive workshop that will equip you with practical tools to navigate the complexities and build a healthy foundation for co-parenting. This session is the first of two on co-parenting that offers tried and true tips for divorcing amicably, managing disagreements and designing a team atmosphere.
Session Outcomes
- Framework for peaceful co-parenting.
- Mindset shift to collaborating as a team.
- Sense of hope and belonging.
- Tools for healthy communication.
- Confidence in setting boundaries.
- Feeling connected to a community.
Visit Tracker Updates Set for Release
DataKeeper has received a trio of updates that rolled out the weekend of December 20. You can find information on the Visit Tracker home page under News & Features.
The updates should have little impact on current users; however, you may notice some visual changes. The current services available on Visit Tracker are home visiting (Active), Recruit, Waiting List, and Mailing List. The updates will add new services including Doula, Screening-Only, Group Only, and Other Services.
These updates make it possible to run several services at the same time and easily add new ones in the future to meet programs’ needs.
Trainings
Spring 2025 Foundational Training Schedule
Foundational trainings have concluded for the fall, but you can now register for these trainings coming up from January through June!
Cross-Model Activities
Home Visitor Peer Connection – February 19th (10-11)
Home Visitor Peer Connections provide an open space for home visitors across the state to connect with each other about their work. Topics for each section are co-created based off of themes identified by participants. Our next session will be held on Wednesday, February 19th (10-11) – to sign up, please click here and contact Adrienne Matthias (amatthias@startearly.org) or Alex Patricelli (apatricelli@startearly.org) with any questions.
Communities of Practice
Start Early is happy to announce some Core Competencies news!
We have newly available translations, on our website Washington State Home Visiting Core Competencies. You can now find both sets of competencies (Home Visitor and Supervisor) as well as three companion documents, in five languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, Somali, and Spanish.
If you are interested in an overview of the What, Why, and How of the Core Competencies, there is also an introduction video on the website.
Have you taken a look at the companion documents yet?
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Team Discussion Guide – Program Supervisors can use this discussion guide at team meetings or in-service trainings to promote a shared exploration and understanding of the relationship of the Washington State Home Visiting Core Competencies to the type of home visiting offered by your program and the actual job responsibilities of home visitors on your team.
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Home Visitor Self-Assessment & Development Plan – This form supports home visitors’ ongoing growth and effectiveness by supporting them to identify their own strengths and abilities for each of the eight competency areas, as well as identify and prioritize one area for growth and development.
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Supervisor Self-Assessment & Development Plan – This form supports supervisors’ ongoing growth and effectiveness by supporting them to identify their own strengths and abilities for each of the five supervisor competency areas, as well as identify and prioritize one area for growth and development.
If you’re interested in learning more about how to integrate the Washington State Home Visiting Core Competencies in practice, consider joining the upcoming Community of Practice HERE
If you have other core competency questions, please contact Cassie Morley cmorley@startearly.org.
Each month, DCYF ESIT Tribal Program Consultant Brian Frisina will provide a key topic to help support us all in getting to know our Tribal Nations partners better.
This month’s topic is:
Acknowledging the Winter Solstice is a Decolonial Act for Indigenous People
The winter solstice falls on December 21 this year.
Read full article by Sarah Sunshine Manning and explore 14 ways to spend the winter solstice in observance of a natural phenomena that comes only once a year:
Winter Solstice is Also ‘Indian New Year’ in the Northwest
This is the day “the sun turns around” – winter solstice, Dec. 21. But it’s also the so-called “Indian New Year” for many tribes across Washington, Oregon and Idaho.
At the longhouse in Mission, Oregon, on the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, around 200 people gather to ring in goodwill and high hopes for a plentiful and happy new year, as they honor the tribes’ reciprocal relationship with sacred first foods.
Read full article by Anna King:
The Winter Solstice Begins a Season of Storytelling and Ceremony
In the Northern Hemisphere, December 21 will be the year’s day of least sunlight, when the sun takes its lowest, shortest path across the sky. North of the Arctic Circle, it will be the midpoint of the period of darkness, when even twilight doesn’t reach the horizon. As we did before the solar eclipse in August, this December we asked our Native friends to share traditions they’ve heard about the winter solstice. Their answers highlight winter as a time for storytelling.
Read full article by Dennis W. Zotigh:
Lakota Winter Counts
Two Smithsonian experts describe the Lakota tradition of creating Winter Counts as a way of recording events (watch time 4:47):
For generations, Plains Indians drew pictographs to document their daily experiences. Read more about how winter counts were created and recorded: Lakota Winter Count.
Winter Count, Then and Now
In the time of my ancestors, Wanietu Iyawapi or Winter Count, was the way we recorded our history from “first snow winter to first snow winter.” To be chosen by the community to record the Winter Count was an honor, as it would survive for generations.
Families came together for the Winter Count to share food, stories, and remembrances of the past year. Everyone contributed. The previous year’s Winter Count was read as a way of remembering and passing down the history (watch time 2:14):
Sources
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Celebrating the day ‘the sun turns around’ in the Pacific Northwest, .by Libby Denkmann, Anna King and Alec Cowan, January 04, 2024, KUOW- Seattle’s NPR news station, © 2024 KUOW News and Information.
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Acknowledging the Winter Solstice is a Decolonial Act for Indigenous People, by Sarah Sunshine Manning, December 14, 2019, ndncollective.org, © 2024 NDN Collective.
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Winter solstice is also ‘Indian New Year’ in the Northwest, by Anna King, December 22, 2023, Northwest Public Broadcasting.
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The Winter Solstice Begins a Season of Storytelling and Ceremony, by Dennis W Zotigh, December 20, 2023, Native News Online, © 2023 Native News Online. This article first appeared on the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian’s website in Dec. 2017. Used with permission. All rights reserved.
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Lakota Winter Counts, posted to YouTube by Smithsonian Education, Feb. 5, 2008.
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Lakota Winter Count: Aktá Lakota Museum & Cultural Center, ©2024 Aktá Lakota Museum, An Outreach of St. Joseph’s Indian School - All rights reserved.
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Winter Count, Then and Now, posted to YouTube by Native Hope, Feb. 19, 2021.
Below are resources and opportunities to engage:
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25 Human Rights Advocates & Organizations, Holocaust Museum Houston: "We envision a society that transforms ignorance into respect for human life, that remembers the Holocaust and reaffirms an individual’s responsibility for the collective actions of society."
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Washington State Human Rights Commission: "The mission of the Washington State Human Rights Commission is to prevent and eliminate discrimination through the fair application of the law, the efficient use of resources, and the establishment of productive partnerships in the community. Under the law, everyone has the right to be free from discrimination at work, in housing, in a public accommodation, or when seeking credit and insurance."
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How to Be an Antiracist podcast with Brené Brown and Ibram X. Kendi: "A groundbreaking approach to understanding and uprooting racism and inequality in our society—and in ourselves."
- In her book Me and White Supremacy, Layla Saad teaches readers how to dismantle the privilege within themselves.
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December 2024: All 45 Important Awareness Events (For the Month, Days, Weeks), article by Teresa Mersereau.
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