Advocacy
As an adoptive parent, are you feeling stuck on a case? Have a question about the system? Wishing you had someone at the table on your side? Navigating the child welfare system as you try to serve the best interests of your child can be tricky and overwhelming. K-PARC’s advocacy program is here to help you. Your work parenting a child who has experienced abuse and neglect can be just as tough as it is rewarding. The Advocacy program connects you to foster/adoptive parents and other professionals who’ve been in the trenches of foster care and adoption to help address your specific concerns. We can help manage a crisis but want to help before it reaches that stage. Our advocates listen, educate, and plan with you what steps you can take to get the answers and solutions you need so that you are freed up to give the best possible care to your child. Call on the free support offered by those who’ve been in the trenches of the child welfare system. Our advocates have seen it all!
Call 1-855-236-7857 to speak with one of our advocates or Complete Our Contact Form Here
KPARC Family Retreats
KPARC Family Retreat is a free, two-day relationship and parent education program that will help you remember why you wanted to be a family! Parenting is hard work. The retreat is an opportunity to have fun with other good-hearted parents like you and learn some new skills to make family life more rewarding. This FREE retreat is for parents and caregivers who have adopted children from Kansas foster care. Included are all materials, a one-night local hotel stay and food.
For details about accommodations and dates for upcoming retreats, please see our events calendar.
Peer-to-Peer Support Groups
The Kansas Post Adoption Resource Center maintains a list of volunteers who are experienced in raising children from hard places. These trained adoptive and kinship parents are willing and eager to help new adoptive parents who call with questions or concerns. K-PARC staff are happy to match new parents to volunteers who have already experienced some of the challenges and joys of parenting kids affected by trauma. If you are interested in volunteering, please email Crystal Fox at crystal.fox@fosteradopt.org
Educational and Training Opportunities
Do you feel like you could use some extra support in your parenting? Our KPARC team offers a host of courses and groups aimed at helping you to become more confident and more trauma-informed in the way you interact with the children in your home. Some available courses include:
Trust-Based Relational Intervention: This ten-week study session provides education for parents on establishing healthy and nurturing family relationships. It is particularly effective with kids who have experienced trauma.
Conscious Discipline: This eight-week course will lead you through a transformation process that promotes permanent change in the way you approach discipline. The change is from an unconscious, traditional, compliance model of discipline to a conscious, relationship-based community model. Each session will cover one of the Seven Powers for Conscious Adults, then tie that to one of the Seven Skills of Discipline.
Trauma Free World: This eight-week course bundle covers a variety of modules related to trauma—both its effects and how to deal with and heal from it. Topics include trauma’s impact on child development, the role of resilience, reducing overwhelming emotions, modifying overwhelming behaviors, supporting healthy relationships, and practicing self-care.
To see a full list of courses, when they are offered, and to enroll, visit our events calendar.