Session: Preparing Foster and Adoptive Parents in Indian Country (Society for Social Work and Research 23rd Annual Conference - Ending Gender Based, Family and Community Violence)

Due to a lack of culturally competent foster and adoptive parent curricula, many tribal-based child welfare agencies are training their American Indian/Alaskan Native (AIAN) foster/adoptive parents using materials that have been developed using the parenting values and beliefs of the mainstream population. This has been a factor that has impeded the success of tribes in recruiting and maintaining AIAN foster homes to provide child welfare services. This symposium presents the results from three studies that were conducted to identify the challenges and specific training needs of AIAN foster and adoptive parents to prepare them to take on their role successfully. Paper 1 describes the findings of a systematic literature review that analyzed the existing literature to determine the most salient characteristics and proficiencies of tribal foster parents who have demonstrated success in their caretaking role. Paper 2 describes a qualitative study of tribal child welfare professionals, foster parents and youth that describes the strengths and challenges in caregiving in Indian Country and provides suggestions for addressing the gap in training on this topic. Paper 3 describes a 2nd qualitative study of tribal child welfare professionals, relative caretakers and youth who were raised by grandparents and/or “aunties” that identified training and other services gaps that could improve the well-being of these fragile family units.