Training

Housed at PCA Georgia, Strengthening Families Georgia (SFG) offers trainings on the Five Protective Factors. The SFG training includes six individual 2-hour SFG modules for face-to-face or virtual presentations. Click here for a description of each module along with the learning objectives. 

• Strengthening Families Georgia: An Effective Approach to Supporting Families and Communities (overview)
• Strengthening Families Through Parental Resilience
• Strengthening Families Through Social Connections
• Strengthening Families Through Knowledge of Child Development
• Strengthening Families Through Concrete Support in Times of Need
• Strengthening Families through the Promotion of Social and Emotional Competence in Children

Audience: family and child serving professionals, community agencies, school or early care employees, or anyone who is interested in supporting families in their area.

Online Training:

• Online training through the National Alliance of Children’s Trust and Prevention Funds
• Georgia Quality Rated programs are able to get BFTS credit for taking the online SFG courses through ProSolutions at no charge

Every day connections are more important than we ever believed. Science tells us that relationships have the power to shape our brains. Relationships help us learn better, work better, parent better. When we experience tough times, they help us heal. With each connection, we develop a healthier stronger community.

Connections Matter Georgia is an in-person training designed to engage community members in building caring connections to:

• Improve resiliency,
• Prevent childhood trauma (Adverse Childhood Experiences), and
• Understand how our interactions with others can support those who have experienced trauma.

The Georgia Connections Matter initiative is a collaboration between the Georgia Center for Child Advocacy and Prevent Child Abuse Georgia.

Helping Families Thrive through Concrete Supports- 75 min Training

Description: It takes parents, caregivers, and supportive RESOURCES to help children thrive. As professionals you know parents are often in complex situations and need professional and community support. This session explores barriers to meeting families’ basic needs, and linking families to resources through concrete support and the 1-800-CHILDREN Helpline to help prevent child maltreatment.

Objectives:

1. Explore basic needs and how they affect parent-children interaction.
2. Understand the relationship between child maltreatment prevention and providing concrete support to families.
3. Learn how the 1-800-CHILDREN Helpline and online Resource Map works to connect professionals and families to programs in their neighborhoods.

If Not Me Then Who? Poverty-Informed Training- 1 hour Training

Description: Have you ever taken a class on poverty? Growing up in poverty has life-long consequences for a child’s physical and mental health and economic well-being. Using first-hand stories and perspectives, participants will learn the facts, underlying myths, expand their perceptions, and be able to enact tangible strategies to uplift our community’s vulnerable populations. Just as we believe in a trauma-informed approach, we also believe that poverty-informed practices will greatly change our communities’ ability to assist those facing poverty.

Objectives:

1. Help professionals remove barriers, improve practices, and promote better communication and relationships with vulnerable families.
2. Educate on types of poverty and communication styles of people experiencing poverty.
3. Present facts to address common myths of people living in poverty.
4. Encourage workgroups/coalitions, working within local communities, who are eager to work to change practices and policies around serving their neighbors experiencing poverty.

Stewards of Children Training 

The Stewards of Children training curriculum is a sexual abuse prevention training program developed by a Charleston, SC based nonprofit, Darkness to Light (D2L), and is the only adult-focused, evidence-informed curriculum proven to increase knowledge and attitudes about child sexual abuse and to change behaviors promoting protective factors. The Georgia initiative is led by the Georgia Center for Child Advocacy.

The one-time 2 ½ hour Stewards of Children program is available through a group session led by an authorized facilitator as well as online. The training is appropriate for parents as well as professionals and volunteers in youth-serving organizations such as schools, faith centers, camps, child care centers, sports leagues, and clubs.
Program Outcomes:

• Increased awareness of the prevalence, consequences, and circumstances of child sexual abuse
• New skills to help adults prevent, recognize, and react responsibly to child sexual abuse
• Positive change to organizational policies and procedures
• Individual empowerment through a personal prevention plan

Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC), also known as child sex trafficking, refers to a range of crimes and activities involving the sexual abuse or exploitation of a child for the financial benefit of any person or in exchange for anything of value (including monetary and non-monetary benefits). CSEC is a crime that is impacting children and youth across the State of Georgia. This training provides a foundational understanding of CSEC and identifies steps that can be taken to spread awareness and respond to this issue in communities.

Training delivered by the Children’s Advocacy Centers of Georgia, who lead the statewide response to CSEC, and the Georgia Center for Child Advocacy.

To report suspected or disclosed child sex trafficking please call 1-866-END-HTGA (363-4842).

The Georgia Coalition Against Domestic Violence (GCADV) provides both on-site training to domestic violence programs as well as web-based courses. The web-based courses increase access to continuing education for advocates who cannot attend “live” trainings. You can find a hub of previously recorded webinars as well as registration for upcoming in-person training and live webinars.