Program Goals

The goals of ARC Reflections are:

• Increase trauma knowledge including understanding of ways children's historical experiences impact and influence current behaviors and relationships
• Increase positive relational connection and ability to build and sustain positive relationships with trauma-impacted youth in foster care
• Increase affect tolerance such as the capacity to understand and address the foster parent's own understandable emotional responses to youth behaviors and needs, and to the broad experience of foster parenting
• Increase attunement skills such as the capacity to read and respond effectively to youth communications and needs
• Ability to demonstrate trauma-informed behavior response skills including the ability to engage trauma-informed responses to youth behaviors
• Ability to demonstrate youth regulation support skills such as building and supporting the foster child's ability to label, tolerate, and regulate emotional and physiological experience
• Ability to demonstrate youth identity development support including understanding and using a skill set for supporting all aspects of youth identity development
• Help facilitate positive transitions by understanding of the impact of youth transitions on both caregivers and youth in foster care, and consideration of the skills required to support positive transitions

Logic Model

The program representative did not provide information about a Logic Model for ARC Reflections.

Essential Components

The essential components of ARC Reflections include:

• 9 training sessions of approximately two hours in length, following a standard curriculum
• Sessions designed to be delivered on either a weekly or bi-weekly basis
• Curriculum builds on previous session, presuming attendance at all sessions
• Group size may vary depending on system capacities and needs.
• Use of provided materials for curriculum delivery, including:
• Detailed facilitator guide
• Standard PowerPoint slide set for foster parents
• Foster parent handouts, worksheets, and information packets
• Foster parent "homework"/practice, completed following each meeting
• Fidelity checklists and other implementation support materials
• Integration into ongoing case management services for foster parents, supported by the provided case manager guide to ARC Reflections
• Delivery by co-facilitators, ideally including a seasoned current/former foster parent as co-facilitator

Program Delivery

Parent/Caregiver Services

ARC Reflections directly provides services to parents/caregivers and addresses the following:

• Foster or other resource caregiver not familiar with the impacts of trauma on the foster children in their care

Services Involve Family/Support Structures:

This program involves the family or other support systems in the individual's treatment: ARC Reflections is designed to be delivered to all caregivers providing care for a child in foster care (i.e., if in a home with two foster parents, both parents would attend). Curriculum components link directly to suggested supports by case managers and family support workers, and a separate information guide provides suggested prompts and ideas for ways the foster parent's support workers can build upon the material received in the training curriculum.

Recommended Intensity:

9 training sessions of 2 hours in length, delivered progressively to a closed training group. Group is designed to be delivered either weekly or bi-weekly.

Recommended Duration:

Approximately 9-18 weeks for training sessions; additional meetings will typically be provided for intake and initial information sharing and for follow-up and review

Delivery Setting

This program is typically conducted in a(n):

• Foster / Kinship Care

Homework

ARC Reflections includes a homework component:

Foster parents are requested to engage in an assigned Practice (homework) each week. The week's Practice mirrors and builds upon the session's theme, and is designed to take no more than 5-10 minutes per day to accomplish. The previous session's Practice is reviewed at the start of the subsequent session.

Resources Needed to Run Program

The typical resources for implementing the program are:

• 1-2 facilitators (typically child welfare system or private agency trainers or supervisors, and/or seasoned foster parents)
• Capacity to print or produce both facilitator and foster parent binders, using provided PDF materials
• LCD projector or similar to show slides. Handouts may be used in lieu of projected slides.
• Space comfortable to seat at tables the number of foster parents being trained.
• Ideally, small budget to provide snacks and other items needed for participants' comfort

Manuals and Training

Prerequisite/Minimum Provider Qualifications

ARC Reflections is designed to be delivered by standard child welfare systems. The provided facilitator manual is comprehensive. At least one facilitator for each group will ideally have foundational experience working in child welfare systems (i.e., 5+ years); at least a college degree; and some prior experience providing training to foster and other resource caregivers.

Manual Information

There is a manual that describes how to deliver this program.

Training Information

There is training available for this program.

Training Contact:

• Margaret Blaustein, PhD
  mblaustein@centerfortraumatraining.org

Training Type/Location:

Typically on-site

Number of days/hours:

Three days - The first day includes introducing the ARC framework and giving a trauma and program foundation overview. The second and third days are curriculum and facilitator training.

Relevant Published, Peer-Reviewed Research

Currently, there are no published, peer-reviewed research studies for ARC Reflections.

Additional References

No reference materials are currently available for ARC Reflections.