May Meeting Agenda

Place:   Alpert Jewish Community Center, Senior Room

              3801 E. Willow St
              Long Beach, CA  90815
              Click to see a map

Program:          The Policy Choice and Practice Challenge of Kinship Care

Speaker:           Prof. Eileen Mayers Pasztor, DSW

In many jurisdictions, relatives rather than foster parents, have become the primary placements for abused and neglected children.  This presentation will reveal why placement of children with relatives, known as “kinship care,” is both a policy choice and a practice challenge.  Dr. Eileen Mayers Pasztor, DSW has recently trained over 500 L.A. County DCFS staff, supervisors, and administrators in her research-to-practice, competency-based curriculum, entitled “Kinship Caregivers and Social Workers -The Challenge of Collaboration.” In this presentation, Dr. Pasztor will overview that curriculum, with an emphasis on nine kinship care issues, five essential competencies, and four phases of the service delivery process that could lead to the three mandated outcomes of child safety, well-being, and permanency.

Dr. Pasztor has over 35 years of experience in the child welfare field as a public agency caseworker, supervisor, and administrator; as a curriculum developer and trainer working internationally; as an educator; and as a foster and adoptive parent for children with special needs.  In the past, Dr. Pasztor worked for ten years for the Child Welfare League of America as its National Program Director for foster care, kinship care, and adoption; as the Regional Director for its Western Office, and as Director of its Office for International Projects.  Dr. Pasztor’s programs on the recruitment, selection, training, and retention of foster parents and adoptive parents are used throughout the United States and have been translated for use by more than a dozen other countries.

Dr. Pasztor, a faculty member of  the  Dept. of Social Work at California State University, Long Beach, has delivered over 500 keynote addresses and workshops internationally, and has given numerous television, radio, newspaper, and magazine interviews.  We are pleased to welcome back such a knowledgeable and experienced presenter to End Abuse Long Beach.

Opinions expressed are those of the speaker and not necessarily those of the Council and its membership.
For more information, please log onto www.EndAbuseLB.org or contact Program Chair:
Maren Founds at (949) 433-3849 or email MarenFounds@yahoo.com