Children's Home Society Hosts Inaugural reTHINK Permanency Conference

Professionals to come together to explore pathways from foster care to family

GREENSBORO, N.C., May 2, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- On June 15, Children's Home Society of NC (CHS) is hosting reTHINK Permanency: Unlocking Pathways from Foster Care to Family Conference in partnership with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. The reTHINK Permanency Conference will bring family service professionals and advocates across the state together to explore permanency planning for youth experiencing foster care.

During the conference, the Institute for Family, a program of CHS, will host the Family Champion Awards Luncheon. The awards are presented by the Institute and underwritten by Healthy Blue. The conference and awards luncheon will be held 7:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. at the McKimmon Conference and Training Center at NC State University, located at 1101 Gorman Street, Raleigh, NC. The conference is free; pre-registration is required.

At the heart of every strong family is the glue that binds individuals together in commitment and care for one another. For many families, the glue is reinforced by social workers who work to strengthen families, build families, and advocate for families. The Family Champion Awards recognize social workers across North Carolina who go the extra mile for families. Each awardee will receive recognition and celebration during the luncheon.

Conference participants will attend keynote sessions and breakout sessions to explore all paths that youth in care can take from foster care to permanency with family. Attendees will be urged to rethink how they help youth in care find loving, stable homes, and achieve improved well-being. Conference speakers will engage professionals and advocates in conversation about how they support all permanency strategies including reinstatement of parental rights, reunification, kinship care, custody, guardianship, and adoption in North Carolina. Attendees will be inspired by social work thought leaders and families with lived experience to find new approaches that unlock pathways from foster care to family.

Speakers and session leaders at the conference include families with lived expertise navigating child welfare systems and influencers in the child and family well-being movement. Breakout sessions will be interactive workshops and where conference attendees will be challenged to reevaluate their impact and efforts with helping youth in care establish permanency with family. Each session leader will offer two sessions to be held at the conference.

April Dinwoodie, Adoption and Diverse Family Expert and Podcast Host, will be the opening conference keynote speaker. April will also lead two breakout sessions. April is an accomplished corporate marketing executive turned nationally recognized voice on adoption, foster care, and multicultural families. From creating a mentoring program for youth in foster care to becoming the CEO of the Donaldson Adoption Institute, April is a fiercely dedicated leader helping individuals, systems, and corporations as they navigate the foundational elements of identity, relationships, and differences of race, culture, and class. April works on several adoption-focused federal grants, leads Transracial Journeys, a camp for families experiencing transracial adoption, facilitates adoption affinity groups in schools, and is a sought-after speaker and trainer. April hosts the popular podcast "Born in June, Raised in April: What Adoption Can Teach the World!" and most recently received the Adoption Excellence Award from the Children's Bureau as well as Adoption Rhode Island's Advocate of the Year Award.

Kevin Wanzer, CSP, Motivational Comedian, and Foster and Adoptive Parent, will be the closing keynote speaker as well as the awards luncheon speaker. In the past 40 years, Kevin has addressed thousands of audiences around the world. His speaking program "Choose ALOHA" has become a tour de force, sending a message that empowers audiences to realize that life is a series of choices. Kevin's program includes simple ideas stemming from the fact that "we choose to act with kindness, we choose to love what we do, who we spend time with, and who we serve, we choose to embrace those who are left behind or forgotten, and we choose to laugh."

Walter Johnson, BA, Permanency Support Trainer at Children's Home Society of NC, will lead a panel of fathers who will be discussing their experiences navigating fatherhood and supporting their children's paths to permanency. This panel conversation will highlight experiences of those who have traveled the road to permanency. The perspectives of fathers are often excluded from conversations on child and family well-being. Panelists will evaluate and celebrate positive outcomes, as well as spotlight the strength and possibilities that arise when child and family service professionals rethink the role of father figures in family outcomes. The fatherhood panel will be offered twice during the conference.

Justin and Alexis Black, Authors, Serial Entrepreneurs, and Foster Care Alumni, will lead two breakout sessions during the conference leaning on their experience as former foster care youth. The Blacks are part of the Forbes Next 1000 class of 2021. Together, they've published a 12-time, award-winning, international bestselling book titled "Redefining Normal: How Two Foster Kids Beat the Odds and Discovered Healing, Happiness and Love" that has impacted over 20,000 individuals and families. Now they are releasing a new children's book teaching the principles of love titled "I Love You More Than Cereal: Maeva and Dad Redefine Love." With "ROSE (Rising Over Societal Expectations) Empowerment Group" and "Redefining Normal," they hope to continue the conversation on healthy relationships, mental health, and healing to help others create a life worth living.

Glenda Clare, Ph.D., Founder of the Fragile Families NETWORK and Behavioral Health Consultant, will lead two breakout sessions during the conference leaning on her experience working with grandparent kinship caregivers or grand families. Glenda is an author, speaker, trainer, podcaster, and certified coach. The Fragile Families NETWORK is a nonprofit organization that develops supportive services for grand families created when a grandparent or other family member raises the child of a relative unable to parent.

Quinn Dybdahl, Esq., Senior Staff Attorney for the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, and Melinda Haggerty, Esq., Senior Vice President, General Counsel for the Foundation, will lead two sessions discussing the impact of the Foundation's Wendy's Wonderful Kids program. Wendy's Wonderful Kids program recruiters use an evidence-based, child-focused recruitment model to find the right family for every child. A rigorous, five-year national evaluation revealed that children referred to the program are up to three times more likely to be adopted.

The Institute for Family advocates for family well-being in NC and across the nation. The Institute is grounded in listening to families, trusting their lived expertise, and working with them to inform and inspire policies and practices that value families. The Institute capitalizes on Children Home Society's 120-year history of providing direct services for families associated with the child welfare system. The Institute's impact extends beyond the limits of traditional programs to address the broader conditions facing families that lead to child maltreatment.

Children's Home Society is dedicated to its mission to promote the right of every child to a permanent, safe, and loving family by providing top-quality, evidence-based programs and services to children and families throughout North Carolina. Our education and child welfare staff provided services to more than 20,000 individuals last year, educating and preserving families, supporting children and families through transitions, and creating new families.

About Children's Home Society of North Carolina

Children's Home Society offers a network of services and support throughout North Carolina to help establish and sustain healthy, loving relationships in every family. For 120 years, Children's Home Society has provided a broad spectrum of programs and services including adoption, foster care, parenting education, family preservation, and teen responsibility. Children's Home Society believes in the importance of family, not only in the life of a child but also in the foundation of a community. For more information, visit www.chsnc.org.

SOURCE Children’s Home Society of North Carolina