The Wisconsin Family Connections Center works diligently to provide information and resources to not only families, children, and youth but also to child welfare professionals. We continually research and look to locate guides, best practice articles, and other tools that may be beneficial for workers.
The First Nations Fostering brochure is available to download by clicking on the image below.
You are welcome to use the images from the First Nations Fostering campaign in your work to announce information sessions, family events, or other important information for families and potential families in your area. Simply right-click on the image below to download the image you would like to use.
Foster Care Footnotes is a monthly e-newsletter for Foster Care Coordinators and foster care recruiters. If you are not currently receiving Foster Care Footnotes and would like to be, please contact us!
2023
- How to Help Caregivers Support LGBTQ+ Youth, November 2023
- Creating Community Connections, October 2023
- Supporting the Whole Foster Family, September 2023
- New School Year = New Recruitment Outreach Opportunities With School Personnel, August 2023
- The Wisconsin Family Connections Center, July 2023
- Foster Parent Recruitment Is a Marathon, Not a Sprint, June 2023
- National Foster Care Month: Thank You, May 2023
- Camp To Belong: Maintaining Sibling Connections, April 2023
- Supporting Shared Parenting With Comfort Calls, March 2023
- Connected Co-parenting After Reunification, February 2023
- Foster Parent Recruitment Series Resource, January 2023

- Introduction to Relative Care: A Resource Guide for Child Welfare Workers (PDF), from the Foster Care and Adoption Resource Center
- The Rural Adoption Recruiter: A Guide to Growing Families This simple guide has great ideas for not only rural adoption recruiters but also has ideas that apply to anyone wanting to recruit foster and adoptive families.
- Lean On Me: Support and Minority Outreach for Grandparents Raising Grandchildren This comprehensive guide offers a lot of information, all the while offering separate sections for African-American, Hispanic, and Native-American families.
- Treat Them Like Gold: A Best Practice Guide to Partnering with Resource Families: Though this guide provides many specific strategies that have proven effective in North Carolina and elsewhere, at its heart is one basic rule: if you want to successfully recruit, retain, and partner with resource families, treat them like gold. This guide seeks to give you tools and strategies you and your agency can use to build, refine, and sustain partnerships with resource families.
Self-Paced Recruitment Series
This Self-Paced Recruitment Series is an adaptation of an original series created by the Foster Care and Adoption Resource Center in partnership with the Wisconsin Department of Children & Families in 2017. The series is intended to provide training and support to Foster Care Coordinators and recruitment teams from counties, private child placing agencies, and Tribes looking to learn recruitment basics and strategies.
The recordings and exercises below have been paired and sectioned into four parts that can be completed in as little as four weeks. This content allows for private, public, and Tribal agencies to have access to on-demand recruitment training that they can complete at their own pace.
Support from Wisconsin Family Connections Center staff is available upon request as individuals work through the curriculum.
- Week 1: Video | Exercises
- Week 2: Video | Exercises
- Week 3: Video | Exercises
- Week 4: Video | Exercises
Please share your feedback about the Self-paced Recruitment Series with us by taking a short survey. Your input is very much appreciated and will be considered as we modify existing resources and create new ones.
Recorded Training Sessions
Below is a list of past training sessions specifically for workers in the child welfare field.
Upon completing this training, users of PDS Online are encouraged to add it as external training to their transcripts. Please consult the Master PDS Guide for assistance.
Please remind your supervisor to complete the process by approving this external training in PDS Online.
- Access to Quality Early Education Providers: YoungStar and Foster Care, May 1, 2016
- Advanced 56: Licensing Violations, April 2013
- Advanced 56: Serious Incident Reporting, March 20, 2015
- Background Checks, January 2012
- Bed Bugs for Child Welfare Professionals, April 1, 2014
- Building Codes & Foster Parent Licensing, December 5, 2014
- Ch. 56: Monitoring and Compliance, November 2019
- Child Development – Infant/Toddler, October 2013
- Foster Parent Support & Development, November 2018
- Levels of Care/Kinship, June 19, 2014
- Placement Stability, January 2012
- Reasonable & Prudent Parenting for Licensed Private Adoption Transition Homes and Licensed Pre-Adoptive Parents Adopting Privately or Internationally
- Rehabilitation Reviews, May 2017
- Toxic Stress, January 2012
- Unpacking the No, September 1, 2014