- This event has passed.
Being Instrumental In Finding Life Long Families For Children
April 21, 2017 @ 9:00 am - 4:30 pm
Join us as nationally recognized speaker Pat O’Brien discusses topics on the urgency of recruiting permanent parents for children, strategies for finding permanent families for children and being instrumental in the process.
Whether you are working or advocating for a baby or teenager, you won’t want to miss this informative event!
Thousands of youth who leave foster care face adulthood completely on their own. They are asked to step out into the adult world without a support system to help them negotiate life’s challenges. Only a fraction of the 25,000 US youth who age out of foster care each year will go on to realize themselves as they wish to be. Instead, nearly 50% will experience homelessness; they will be more likely to experience unemployment, unplanned pregnancy, legal system involvement, substance abuse, and lack even the basic health care services. Only a tiny percentage will have a college degree by the age of 26, and most are unlikely to have a high school diploma and earn enough to support themselves. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Just as you blossomed from a wild (or shy) teenager into a responsible, contributing adult, so too can every child in foster care. With a permanent family by her/his side.
About Pat O’Brien
Pat O’Brien, MS, LMSW, LTMN is the Founder and former Executive Director of You Gotta Believe! The Older Child Adoption & Permanency Movement, Inc., a nationally acclaimed homeless prevention program that finds adoptive and permanent parents and families for teens, and young adults on the verge of aging out of the foster care system. He currently produces You Gotta Believe’s “The Adopting Teens and ‘Tweens Radio Forum”, which airs live every Sunday evening in New York.
6.0 FREE CEU Hours will be provided for social work professionals.
Box Lunches will be available for $5.00
Payment for lunch will be due on the date of training.
