Working with LGBTQ Families in Foster Care and Adoption (1 credit hour)
Program Summary: This course explores culturally competent practices for child welfare professionals working with LGBTQ families. The course includes a discussion of policies and practices, language and terminology, challenges, personal biases, and the basics of creating a welcoming agency.
This course is recommended for social workers, counselors, and therapists and is appropriate for beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels of practice.
Course Reading: Working with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning (LGBTQ) Families in Foster Care and Adoption
Author: Child Welfare Information Gateway, Children’s Bureau
Find the reading at: https://www.freestatesocialwork.com/articles/workingwithlgbtqfamiliesinfoster.pdf
Course Objectives: To enhance professional practice, values, skills, and knowledge by identifying key issues related to working with LGBTQ families in foster care and adoption.
Learning Objectives: Describe research that supports LGBTQ individuals as parents. Define the terms cisgender, gender expression, gender transition, and heterosexism. Give examples of inclusive, culturally competent policies and practices. Describe the basics of creating a welcoming agency.
Additional readings:
Moving Toward Cultural Competence: Key Considerations to Explore (National Resource Center for Diligent Recruitment)
Self-Assessment Checklist for Personnel Providing Services and Supports to LGBTQ Youth and Their Families (National Center for Cultural Competence Georgetown University)
All Children All Families Benchmarks of LGBTQ Cultural Competency (Human Rights Campaign)
Review our pre-reading study guide.
Free State Social Work, LLC, provider #1235, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: 9/6/2021 - 9/6/2024. Social workers completing this course receive 1 continuing education credit.
Free State Social Work has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP NO. 6605. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Free State Social Work is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.
G.M. Rydberg-Cox, MSW, LSCSW is the Continuing Education Director at Free State Social Work and responsible for the development of this course. She received her Masters of Social Work in 1996 from the Jane Addams School of Social Work at the University of Illinois-Chicago and she has over 20 years of experience. She has lived and worked as a social worker in Chicago, Boston, and Kansas City. She currently practices in the area of hospital/medical social work. The reading materials for this course were developed by another organization.