1. Getting Started Karri Biehle and Michael Sanders 1

2. Introduce Yourself!  Name  Agency  Role  What’s Happening in your County? 2

3. Goals:  Begin to build the parent to parent relationship  Share information about the child What is an ICEBREAKER? A meeting between the caregiver and the birth parent facilitated by the social worker. It occurs early in the placement. 3

4. Why Icebreakers? To share information about the child To help transition the child to a new placement To begin building a relationship between the birth parent and the foster parent To help to create a cooperative environment between birth parent, foster parent and social worker 4

5. A Plan for Implementation Your Icebreaker workgroup will create and make decisions about:  Policy  Education and Training  Logistics Icebreakers 5

6. Workgroup Who will take the lead on preparing for Icebreaker implementation? RDS Workgroup? TDM Workgroup? Icebreaker Workgroup? 6

7. Who will you invite to participate on the workgroup?  Youth  Birth Parent  Resource Parent  Social Worker Supervisor  Social Worker  Foster Family Agency Representative 7

8. Policy Things to Consider…  Voluntary or mandatory?  Who will facilitate the meeting?  When will the meeting occur?  What data will you collect?  How will you collect your data?  What are each participants responsibilities? 8

9. Education and Training Create a Plan for Preparing and Training…  Parents, Resource Parents, Supervisors, Social Workers, Foster Family Agency Staff, Courts, Attorneys, Community Partners and others  Prepare social workers to assess birth parent and resource parents readiness for different contact types  Distribute brochures and flyers Icebreakers 101 9

10. Video 10

11. Logistics Things to Consider…  What type of contact will occur if a face to face Icebreaker is not appropriate?  Where will meetings occur?  How will you collect and analyze feedback? 11

12. What are your next steps? WHO? WHAT? WHEN? 12