Training Summary:

This training will support participants in developing greater cultural competence and awareness of bias when working with children, youth, and families involved in child welfare systems. Participants will explore how beauty standards, anti-fatness, and media messaging shape beliefs about bodies and belonging, and how these messages may influence communication, relationship-building, and decision-making in youth-serving settings. Through guided reflection, media examples, and discussion prompts, participants will examine how bias related to body size and appearance shows up in their work and the many ways it can impact relational competence and supportive relationships with youth and families.

 Participants will identify strategies for recognizing and interrupting anti-fat bias in order to promote child safety, resilience, healthy relationships, and trauma-informed practice. Participants will explore how experiences of stigma and marginalization can impact children’s social and emotional well-being and leave with practical tools for engaging system-involved youth and families through more affirming and culturally responsive approaches.

Training Objectives:

?       Define beauty standards and anti-fatness and explore how societal messages, assumptions, and cultural beliefs about bodies can impact cultural competence, relational competence, and communication when working with children, youth, and families.

?       Identify 1-2 ways that anti-fatness can show up individually, interpersonally, and systemically, including through media messaging and common interactions, and reflect on how these experiences may impact the social and emotional well-being, resilience, and relationships of youth involved in child welfare systems.

?       Apply 1-2 strategies and affirming language to support youth in challenging harmful messages about bodies and belonging, strengthening healthy relationships and trauma-informed approaches that promote dignity, safety, and well-being.

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

?       Participants will apply culturally responsive communication strategies to engage with teammates, children, and youth in ways that promote dignity, respect, and body diversity, strengthening relational competence and healthy relationships

?       Participants will utilize strategies to recognize and interrupt weight-based stigma, harmful language, and body-shaming messages in interactions, media, and workplace environments in order to support cultural competence and trauma-informed practice with system-involved youth and families.