OU-Tulsa Learning Center: 4502 E 41 St, Tulsa, OK 74135

CEUs available for LCSW and LPC: $15 for 1.5 credit hours

Elizabeth Gershoff’s research focuses on how parental and school discipline affect child and youth development and how parent education and early education programs can improve the lives of at risk children. She is an internationally recognized expert on the effects of corporal punishment on children. Dr. Gershoff also studies how and for whom early intervention programs, such as the Head Start program, have the strongest impacts. She currently serves as the Director of the Population Research Center. She was previously an associate professor of social work at the University of Michigan and a research scientist at the National Center for Children in Poverty at Columbia University.

Brief summary: The UN has stated firmly that physical punishment is a form of violence against children, and over 60 countries have agreed to ban physical punishment. However, most countries still distinguish between acceptable physical punishment and unacceptable maltreatment. In this talk, Elizabeth Gershoff will make the case that any “line” between physical punishment and maltreatment is arbitrary, largely because the negative outcomes for children vary only in degree.

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OU-Tulsa Learning Center: 4502 E 41 St, Tulsa, OK 74135

CEUs available for LCSW and LPC: $20 for 3.5 credit hours

1. Physical Punishment, Maltreatment, and the Continuum of Violence Against Children

Elizabeth Gershoff’s research focuses on how parental and school discipline affect child and youth development and how parent education and early education programs can improve the lives of at risk children. She is an internationally recognized expert on the effects of corporal punishment on children. Dr. Gershoff also studies how and for whom early intervention programs, such as the Head Start program, have the strongest impacts. She currently serves as the Director of the Population Research Center. She was previously an associate professor of social work at the University of Michigan and a research scientist at the National Center for Children in Poverty at Columbia University.

Brief summary: The UN has stated firmly that physical punishment is a form of violence against children, and over 60 countries have agreed to ban physical punishment. However, most countries still distinguish between acceptable physical punishment and unacceptable maltreatment. In this talk, Elizabeth Gershoff will make the case that any “line” between physical punishment and maltreatment is arbitrary, largely because the negative outcomes for children vary only in degree.

2. Spanking and Corporal Punishment: Strategies for Change

Tabitha Fleming is an Assistant Professor at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and a licensed psychologist. Her clinical work includes evidence-based care for children who have experienced traumatic events and/or exhibit behavioral difficulties. Her research focuses on avenues to advance effective parenting attitudes, expectations, and behaviors.

Tricia Gardner, JD, is an Associate Professor at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in the Department of Pediatrics, and a licensed attorney.  She currently serves as the Administrator of the Section of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, Director of the Interdisciplinary Training Program in Child Abuse and Neglect (ITP) and is a member of the member of the Training and Technical Assistance Team for the National Center on the Sexual Behavior of Youth.

Brief summary: The legal history and current status of corporal punishment in the state of Oklahoma will be highlighted. This background knowledge will be augmented with strategies to discuss spanking with caregivers of children to promote attitude and possible behavioral change. Information will include suggestions for positive parenting to be utilized in lieu of spanking.

The post How Faith Communities Can Keep Kids Safe and Support Families – Part 2: Corporal Punishment appeared first on haruv.

CEUs available for social work and LPC: $20 for 2 credit hours

Presenters’ bios

Benafsha Tasmim, MA

With over 10 years of experience working in the social justice and development field, Benafsha has developed the desire and ability to deeply impact the lives of at-risk populations to help them reach their goals and full potential. Currently, she is the Director of Case Management and Workforce Services at YWCA Tulsa, where she provides trauma-informed and strengths-based case management services to immigrant and refugee clients. Benafsha serves as a leader in educating community partners, and the general public about issues impacting the immigrant and refugee community and increasing efforts for Tulsa to be a welcoming community. Previously, Benafsha served as a Program Development Specialist at the National Resource Center for Youth Services.

Molly Bryant, LMSW

Molly Bryant is a Licensed Master Social Worker and the Senior Director of Immigrant and Refugee Services at the YWCA Tulsa. She is a proud member of the Cherokee Nation and received her Master’s of Social Work from the University of Oklahoma. Molly is also Community Faculty at OU-Tulsa’s School of Social Work. Molly enjoys gardening, swimming in Oklahoma creeks, and spending time with her partner, their 14-month-old son, and their two neurotic hound dogs.

The post The Intersection of Immigrants and the Child Welfare System appeared first on haruv.

OU-Tulsa Learning Center (Room 231) 4502 E 41st Street, Tulsa, OK 74135

CEUs available for LCSW and LPC: $10 for 1 credit hour

Workshop description:

Many maltreated children are spiritually impacted by abuse and require coordination of medical, mental health, and spiritual care. This presentation will explore creative ways for bringing faith and child protection communities together to protect children and address their needs.

Presenter’s bio

Victor Vieth, J.D. has trained thousands of child-protection professionals from all 50 states, two U.S. Territories, and 17 countries on numerous topics pertaining to child abuse investigations, prosecutions and prevention. Victor gained national recognition for his work in addressing child abuse in small communities as a prosecutor in rural Minnesota, and has been named to the President’s Honor Roll of the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children. In 2012, Victor was awarded the Pro Humanitate Award from the North American Resource Center for Child Welfare.

Victor is the Chief Program Officer, Education and Research of the Zero Abuse Project, a 501©(3) public charity based in St Paul, MN, committed to education, training, and survivor support in order to eradicate child sex abuse and remedy its resulting harms. He is the 2018 President of the Academy on Violence & Abuse, and founder of the National Child Protection Training Center. With NCPTC and its partners, Victor has been instrumental in implementing 22 state and international forensic interview training programs and dozens of undergraduate and graduate programs on child maltreatment.

Mr. Vieth graduated magna cum laude from WSU and earned his Juris Doctor from Hamline University School of Law (HUSL). In 2017, Victor earned an MA in theology from Wartburg Seminary. Mr. Vieth has published countless articles related to the investigation, prosecution and prevention of child abuse and neglect. He is author of Unto the Third Generation, a bold initiative that outlines the necessary steps we must all take to eliminate child abuse in America in three generations, and On This Rock: A Call to Center the Christian Response to Child Abuse on the Life and Works of Jesus (Wiff & Stock 2018).

The post When Faith Hurts: Recognizing and Responding to the Spiritual Impact of Child Abuse appeared first on haruv.

OU-Tulsa Learning Center (Room 231) 4502 E 41st Street, Tulsa, OK 74135

CEUs available for LCSW and LPC: $20 for 4 credit hours

Workshop description:

Faith communities play a pivotal role in providing support for families and children in their communities and thus, in helping to prevent child abuse and neglect. To that end, we want to recognize, support, and encourage faith leaders’ efforts to nurture families and children.

Download agenda

Presenters’ bios

Victor Vieth, J.D. has trained thousands of child-protection professionals from all 50 states, two U.S. Territories, and 17 countries on numerous topics pertaining to child abuse investigations, prosecutions and prevention. Victor gained national recognition for his work in addressing child abuse in small communities as a prosecutor in rural Minnesota, and has been named to the President’s Honor Roll of the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children. In 2012, Victor was awarded the Pro Humanitate Award from the North American Resource Center for Child Welfare.

Victor is the Chief Program Officer, Education and Research of the Zero Abuse Project, a 501©(3) public charity based in St Paul, MN, committed to education, training, and survivor support in order to eradicate child sex abuse and remedy its resulting harms. He is the 2018 President of the Academy on Violence & Abuse, and founder of the National Child Protection Training Center. With NCPTC and its partners, Victor has been instrumental in implementing 22 state and international forensic interview training programs and dozens of undergraduate and graduate programs on child maltreatment.

Mr. Vieth graduated magna cum laude from WSU and earned his Juris Doctor from Hamline University School of Law (HUSL). In 2017, Victor earned an MA in theology from Wartburg Seminary. Mr. Vieth has published countless articles related to the investigation, prosecution and prevention of child abuse and neglect. He is author of Unto the Third Generation, a bold initiative that outlines the necessary steps we must all take to eliminate child abuse in America in three generations, and On This Rock: A Call to Center the Christian Response to Child Abuse on the Life and Works of Jesus (Wiff & Stock 2018).

Michael A Baxter, DO, DPH is an Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics, OU-TU SCHOOL OF COMMUNITY MEDICINE, TULSA, OK. He received his Doctor of Osteopathy from Oklahoma State University. Dr. Baxter completed his Pediatric Residency with the Department of Pediatrics, University of Oklahoma in Tulsa as well as doing his Fellowship in Child Abuse Pediatrics. Currently, Dr. Baxter is Program Director for the Child Abuse Fellowship and Medical Director of the Children’s Advocacy Center. He is a diplomate of the American Board of Pediatrics, a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics section on child abuse and neglect. He received the Crimson Apple Teaching Award during his residency and was a finalist for the OU Aesculapion. Dr, Baxter is board certified in General Pediatrics and Child Abuse Pediatrics.

Dr. Kathy LaFortune is a licensed Oklahoma clinical psychologist and attorney and currently works at the Tulsa County Public Defender’s office. She previously worked for eight years at the Tulsa County Family Center for Juvenile Justice coordinating psychological services in delinquency and deprived cases. She graduated from Duke University in Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and the University of Tulsa with her JD and PhD. She has taught as an adjunct assistant professor at the University of Tulsa College of Law and the Department of Clinical Psychology, OSU Health Sciences Center in the master’s program for forensic sciences, and also taught for five years as an adjunct instructor in the New York Law School mental disability law program. She is presently on the Courtwatch Committee for APA, serves as a Judicial Notebook author for the American Psychological Association Monitor, and was a member of the APA Committee on Legal Issues. She received the outstanding volunteer award from Volunteers of America, the Fern Holland Award from TU Women’s Law Caucus, the Distinguished Professional Services Citation from the Oklahoma Psychological Association, Tulsa Press Club Headliners Award, and Holland Hall Distinguished Alumni. She was Chair of the Oklahoma Bar Association Criminal Law Section and is a member of the Oklahoma Juvenile Competency work group for the Oklahoma Commission on Children and Youth. Kathy is one of Tulsa’s former first ladies and is married to former Tulsa Mayor and District Judge Bill LaFortune.

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CEUs available for LCSW and LPC: $20 for 2 credit hours

Workshop description

The presentation will review relevant literature on the prevention of child maltreatment in American Indian communities. Social and cultural factors impacting the parent-child relationship will be explored. Recommendations for approaches to early identification and strategies for culturally tailoring assessments and interventions will be discussed.

Presenter’s bio

Ashleigh Coser, Ph.D. (Muscogee, Choctaw, and Chickasaw Nations) is a Health Service Psychologist with Cherokee Nation. Dr. Coser oversees and provides integrated behavioral health services across multiple clinics and is involved in training and serves as an internship and practicum supervisor. She completed her training at Oklahoma State University in Clinical Psychology with a specialty in Child Clinical, pre-doctoral internship at Indian Health Care Resource Center, and postdoctoral training in integrated behavioral health at University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. Her program of research includes examining the parent-child relationship among American Indian (AI) families and maternal mental health. Her recent publications have focused on conducting behavioral research in AI communities and examining psychometric properties of widely used measures with the AI population.

The post Working Towards the Prevention of Child Maltreatment in American Indian Families appeared first on haruv.

CEU’s available for social work: $15 for 1.5 credit hours

Lecture description:

The Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) is a federal law that aims to protect the best interest of American Indian/Alaska Native children by the establishment of minimum Federal standards leading to unbiased, evidence-based practice to improve reunification efforts for American Indian/Alaska Native children. A core part of this law is the requirement of the welfare agencies to provide active efforts to families which are indicated in the court record as to how efforts were employed in the case. Furthermore, if active efforts they were used and failed, detailed documentation must explain why. Under the federal regulations, “active efforts” are defined as active, engaging, thorough, and timely efforts intended primarily to maintain or reunite an American Indian/Alaska Native child with his or her family. Nevertheless, there is a lack of knowledge and understanding among child welfare professionals with regard to what active efforts look like, especially as compared to the more common child welfare practice of reasonable efforts. The current lecture will provide knowledge about the meaning of active efforts with examples of what this looks like in child welfare practice, as well as practical tools for it implementations.

The current lecture is an advanced training on ICWA, which follows our previous basic lecture on ICWA (the link to the recording of the basic lecture is below):

Presenter: Dr. Virginia Whitekiller

Professor of Social Work, Department of Social Work, Northeastern State University

Bio: Dr. Whitekiller is a full professor of social work at the department of Social Work at Northeastern State University. She pursues an active research agenda utilizing the theory of cultural resilience as applied to American Indian/Alaska Native/First Nations population issues such as microaggressions, higher education retention, identity, and Indian child welfare. In 2009 she was selected as a Smithsonian Community Scholar conducting research at the Smithsonian Achieves in Suitland, Maryland. More recently, she served as the 2018-2019 Fulbright Canada Jarislowsky Research Chair in Aboriginal Studies at Vancouver Island University, British Columbia. Dr. Whitekiller has written for and has been awarded $2,338,110.00 in external grant funding that directly correlates with program development/evaluation and assessment of medical and social service occupations. She also serves as a consultant for programs that are inclusive to American Indian/Alaska Native populations.

The post The Indian Child Welfare Act – What We Need to Know on “Active Efforts” appeared first on haruv.

June 9^th, 12:00 pm-1:30pm CDT (USA); 8:00 pm-9:30pm Israel time (on Zoom)

CEUs available for social work: $15 for 1.5 credit hours

Lecture description: The biological family is a child’s natural environment. However, in every country in the world there are children unable to live with their biological families, and therefore may be placed in out-of-home care. This is frequently due to inadequate parental care, such as abuse and neglect. Out of home care settings mainly comprise family foster care, kinship care, residential and group care. The policies and structures of these care systems vary enormously across different countries, depending on cultural factors, social values, historical factors, resources, etc. therefore, an international comparative perspectives on the child care system could help us to deepen our understanding of the mechanisms shaping the out-of-home care system and reflect on the strengths and the weaknesses of each system. This lecture will compare the out-of-home care system for abused and neglected children in both Israel and the USA, through a joint presentation from an Israeli lecturer and an American lecturer. Each of the presenters will give us a glance into the structures and policies regarding children in care in their own home country, and will address the historical developments and current status of out-of-home care systems, as well as the main challenges of child care in both nations. This lecture is open to both Israeli and American participants.

Presenters:

Bonni Goodwin, OK, USA

Bonni Goodwin, Ph.D., LCSW, is a Research Associate in the Center for Child Welfare Training and Simulation in the Anne and Henry Zarrow School of Social Work at the University of Oklahoma. Beginning in August of 2022, Bonni will be appointed to the Assistant Professor of Macro Social Work at OU. She has worked in the field of Social Work for the past 20 years with children and families, empowering them to overcome challenges toward hope and stability. Bonni has worked in various positions with at-risk children and families, including juvenile justice, victim services with the court system, child welfare prevention services, and providing clinical services to children, families, and groups through an adoption-specialized counseling center. She currently serves with the Oklahoma Human Services child welfare division as the Statewide Coordinator of Adoption Preservation Services. In this role, Bonni conducts research and trains child welfare and mental health professionals on the unique and complex needs of children in foster care and those who have been adopted from state custody. Bonni’s research focus is on permanency through adoption and post-adoption support and services. She continues to examine the needs and gaps of services for children and families in post-adoption and is committed to pursuing best practices in responding to adoptive families’ needs.

Anat Zeira, Jerusalem, Israel  

Anat Zeira (PhD) is Professor at the School of Social Work and Social Welfare at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where she had served as the head of the BSW program from 2004-2008. She also served as Head of Research and Evaluation at the Haruv Institute from 2011-2021, and was a member of the National Council of Social Work at the Israeli Ministry of Welfare and Social Services and chaired its Committee for Institutes and Degrees. She is a founding member of the Italian-based International Association of Outcome-Based Evaluation and Research on Family and Children’s Services (iaOBER). In addition to her academic work, Prof. Zeira currently chairs the Coordinating Council of Faculty Associations in Israel.

Prof. Anat Zeira has been long committed to research on the evidence-base of social work practice with children at-risk and their families. In this context she conducted several collaborative research projects with the Department of Social Services in the Jerusalem Municipality. Her current research focuses on the transition to adulthood and independent living of care leavers. She has published widely in professional journals and presented numerous papers in international conferences. Through her studies and publications she emphasizes the importance of systematic monitoring and evaluation of professional practice and its dissemination in the field.

The post A Comparative Perspective on Children in Care: Israel and the USA appeared first on haruv.

September 9, 2021 | 9-10:30 am Central Time

This workshop will provide a brief history of the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (ICWA). The discussion will include the cultural and legal aspects of ICWA cases and what does a typical ICWA case looks like. ICWA Tools will be provided for future reference and assistance.

Kelly D. Tannehill, MSW

Kelly D. Tannehill, MSW currently is a Tribal Coordinator for the Oklahoma Department of Human Services and has worked in this position for six years now. Prior to OKDHS she began her career with Head Start as a social worker and moved her way up to the supervisor position within a year and a half. Kelly then went back to school and received her Bachelor’s in Social Work in 1998. Kelly immediately went to work in Mayes County Child Welfare as in investigator then worked in DDSD as a case manager for clients with disability and OCA as an advocate/investigator. She then came back to Child Welfare as a supervisor. Kelly’s wish is to combine her knowledge and experience in her career to deliver the best possible service. Her goal for the counties in her area and the many tribes of Oklahoma is to have a better understanding of each other and open communication. Kelly demonstrates a true passion and dedication to OKDHS and OKDHS Tribal partners. Kelly is currently in the MSW program at the University of Oklahoma and enjoys learning. She lives in Coweta with her husband with his two children and her son. When she has free time she enjoys socializing with friends & family, gardening, and playing with her two dogs.

Participation is free with registration in advance

Free CEUs available for social work

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