Course Outline
"Ordinary People, Extraordinary Hearts" is an on-demand training program designed to support foster carers in creating safe, nurturing, and healing environments for children and young people in their care. This course is built around the idea that ordinary people with extraordinary hearts can make an incredible difference in the lives of children who have experienced trauma and adversity.
Throughout the course, you'll gain insights from leading professionals and hear real-life stories from foster carers who have opened their hearts and homes to children in need. These stories bring to life the practical strategies and knowledge that will guide you on your journey as a foster carer.
What will I learn?
In "Ordinary People, Extraordinary Hearts," you will:
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An Introduction to Uniting’s New Foster Carer Training Approach
How does the training align with the TMOC?
As can be seen from point 2 in diagram 1, a key element of the provision of effective trauma grounded reparative care is the importance of providing a safe environment. Point 3 focuses on the importance of relationships and connectedness. Both of these elements are articulated more fully in diagram 2.
As can be seen from diagram 2, most children who have experienced significant developmental harms to the point that they live with the impacts of complex trauma, have had relational experiences that have been harmful, abusive and have undermined their capacity to trust that adults can care for them. As a result of this our care, if it is to promote recovery to healthy developmental trajectory, must be able to demonstrate clearly that it is safe and able to be trusted. This is why our TMOC and this training focuses strongly on establishing safe, predictable and positive care environments as children so affected find it extremely challenging to trust the care and good intentions of adults. As you will see while undertaking the training, there is a strong focus on safe relational connection.
As you read down the left hand column you will appreciate how it leads naturally to espousing the values and behaviours outlined in the right hand column (See diagram 2).
The training Ordinary People, Extraordinary Hearts training aligns well with these and many other elements of the TMoC.
Diagram 2: Excerpt from Uniting’s TMoC
Throughout the course, you'll gain insights from leading professionals and hear real-life stories from foster carers who have opened their hearts and homes to children in need. These stories bring to life the practical strategies and knowledge that will guide you on your journey as a foster carer.
What will I learn?
In "Ordinary People, Extraordinary Hearts," you will:
- Understand the power of relationships: Discover how safe and attuned connections can be transformative for children and young people, supporting their healthy development and healing.
- Learn about brain development: Gain insights into how early experiences shape a child's brain and well-being, and how you can support healthy brain growth.
- Explore the impact of trauma: Understand the effects of trauma on children's behaviour, emotions, and relationships, and learn practical, trauma-informed strategies to support their healing.
- Adopting caring strategies: Learn practical approaches to managing trauma-based behaviours and establishing routines that foster security and emotional well-being.
- Embrace collaboration and self-care: Understand the importance of working as part of a care team and learn how to maintain your own well-being while providing the extraordinary care that makes a lasting difference.
An Introduction to Uniting’s New Foster Carer Training Approach
Background and Context
Since developing the Children, Youth & Families Therapeutic Model of Care (TMoC), we have been considering how best to provide training to Uniting’s Foster Carers. As all Foster Carers will know, most of the children who come into their care have had adverse developmental experiences that have rendered them very challenging to provide care for. Uniting’s TMoC recognises this and provides a number of programmatic supports for carers (Principal Practitioner, Practice Leader Therapeutic Out of Home Care, specific training & coaching for carers and Foster Care Case Managers). A remaining challenge was to provide an overarching training to foster carers which aligned well with our TMoC and helped them to understand it, as well as use it to enhance their experience of fostering and of being fostered for the children in our care.
After considering a number of options Uniting has decided to partner with the Australian Childhood Foundation (ACF) in providing a training that has been developed by them specifically for foster carers. This training is called ‘Ordinary People-Extraordinary Hearts’ and is provided online. The evidence-based theoretical underpinnings are extremely well aligned with Uniting’s TMoC as will be outlined below.
It would be our intention that Foster Carers will be supported by their case managers to undertake the training, with some sections perhaps being undertaken in conjunction with Case Managers and some independently.
The training is provided online and can be undertaken at the convenience of carers’ other commitments. It consists of theoretical materials, interviews with carers about some of the challenges and rewards of foster caring and how to go about using trauma-informed approaches in practice. There will be guidance for carers in how to navigate the training and log into the training platform.
How does the training align with the TMOC?
A key foundational understanding of the TMoC is that a major element of the profound impact of abuse and neglect is the compromise that it creates in terms of neurobiological (brain) development and the child’s relational capacity (See diagram 1). These two impacts, together understood as *complex trauma, are responsible for most of the challenging presentations demonstrated by children in foster care. They create a functional state in children where the harms done by adverse developmental experiences keep them in a state of heightened physiological & psychological arousal. This is because they have been exposed to repeated circumstances where they have been in a state of what, to an infant and young child, is severe and existential survival danger. TMoC based local coaching and ‘Ordinary People: Extraordinary Hearts’ training will, we believe, provide accumulated learning that will assist & support Foster Carers to understand and be able to respond to the children in their care more effectively and work towards increased recovery from complex trauma.
International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Health Related Problems- Eleventh Revision (World Health Organisation)
Diagram 1: Excerpt from Uniting’s TMoC
International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Health Related Problems- Eleventh Revision (World Health Organisation)
Diagram 1: Excerpt from Uniting’s TMoC
As can be seen from diagram 2, most children who have experienced significant developmental harms to the point that they live with the impacts of complex trauma, have had relational experiences that have been harmful, abusive and have undermined their capacity to trust that adults can care for them. As a result of this our care, if it is to promote recovery to healthy developmental trajectory, must be able to demonstrate clearly that it is safe and able to be trusted. This is why our TMOC and this training focuses strongly on establishing safe, predictable and positive care environments as children so affected find it extremely challenging to trust the care and good intentions of adults. As you will see while undertaking the training, there is a strong focus on safe relational connection.
As you read down the left hand column you will appreciate how it leads naturally to espousing the values and behaviours outlined in the right hand column (See diagram 2).
The training Ordinary People, Extraordinary Hearts training aligns well with these and many other elements of the TMoC.
Diagram 2: Excerpt from Uniting’s TMoC
Evaluation Process and Conclusion
You will be the first Uniting Foster Carers to participate in this training and it is therefore important for us to fully capture how you experienced it and how useful you have found it. Your feedback therefore is critically important to us. The link to the evaluation form will be provided at the end of the training.
We look forward to receiving your feedback when you have completed the training.
We commend this training to you and trust that you will experience the positive benefits of this training throughout your experience as a foster carer.
Course Listing
| Name | Cost | |
| Uniting - Ordinary people, extraordinary hearts: On-deman training for Foster Carers | $0.00 |
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