Training Summary:

This training is designed to invite staff to pay attention to what brought them to this work, the values and beliefs that inform their practices and the social and relational history of these values and beliefs. Participants will engage in the Tree of Life exercise in order to connect to what they hold as important in the work and how they live into these things in their everyday practice working with youth. Having a better understanding of brings us to work with foster youth allows us to access those cherished ideas even when the work gets difficult. 

Class Objectives:

· Learn the history of the Tree of Life exercise 

· Understand how the exercise can re-connect workers to our own values/beliefs 

· Pay attention to how one responds to difficult situations in the work and how these responses are indicative of what people hold as important 

· Connect to a sense of personal agency as a means to sustain oneself in this work 

How can participants utilize their new skills and knowledge after the training to reinforce their learning?

· Participants will bring back tree of life activity with colleagues 

· Participants will practice connecting their values to their work