Community Resource Adoptive and Foster Family Training
Vision Statement
The Community Resource Adoptive and Foster Family Training(CRAFFT) initiative is a statewide program whose primary
focus is training and supporting resource, foster, kinship,
and adoptive families throughout Virginia. The state is
divided into six service areas and each area has a
designated CRAFFT coordinator who works at a state
University within/bordering the service area. The two
coordinators, serving the Western and Piedmont areas of
Virginia, work at RU SSW with the ICF. The goals of the
CRAFFT program are directly related to state program
improvement goals that focus on better outcomes for
children in our foster care system.
Through CRAFFT, we are committed to helping families create
and sustain a family/community environment that strengthens
family relationships to promote the continued growth and
development of healthy, productive children, families, and
community.
Mission Statement
This family-focused training program provides families with
educational and informational networks that promote their
effectiveness in sustaining their families, and raising and
parenting healthy and productive children.
CRAFFT promotes the safety, permanency, and well-being of
children by training resource, adoptive, and foster
families and by providing technical assistance and support
to local departments of social services in their concerted
efforts to meet the needs of children in the child welfare
system. The goals of CRAFFT are:
To develop and implement, by designated areas, a uniform
system of state-guided training and technical assistance
for local departments of social services (LDSS), as they
deliver pre- and in-service training to their resource,
adoptive, and foster families (collectively referred to as
resource families).
To develop a core pre- and in-service training curriculum
that is consistent throughout the state in both content and
minimum requirements.
To develop a training curriculum that allows for some
variation area and/or local demographic differences and
needs.
To develop consistent and valid evaluation tools and to
include needs assessment processes and post-training
evaluations that will effectively target training needs and
training benefits.
These tools must also reflect the outcomes that the
training program is intended to produce.
To provide an annual training event for resource parents,
to be presented in all five designated areas of the state.
The CRAFFT program is currently conducting pilot trainings
using the PRIDE curriculum. In addition, various areas of
the state are hosting CRAFFT Roundtables, designed to
educate people on a variety of topics pertaining to CRAFFT,
PRIDE, resource parenting, and child welfare as a whole.
Click here to find out more about Trainings and Roundtables
being held in an area near you.
For more information, you may contact the Western Region
CRAFFT Coordinator, Kathleen Millery, at (540)831-7633 or the Piedmont Region CRAFFT Coordinator, Michaell Sinclair, at
(540)831-7682. Western and Piedmont Regional Coordinators
may also be contacted toll-free at 1-866-881-9861.
Regional Coordinators
Western
Kathleen Miller
Radford University School of Social Work
Institute for Children & Families
P.O. Box 6958
Radford, VA 24141
Main contact number in Avignon 276-628-1484 or the Radford
office at (540)831-7631
(866)881-9861 toll-free
Piedmont
Michael Sinclair
Radford University School of Social Work
Institute for Children & Families
P.O. Box 6958
Radford, VA 24141
(540)831-7682
(866)881-9861 toll-free
(540)320-0661
cell
Northern
Sandy Bell
Northern Area Training Center, Sixth Floor
12011 Governmental Center Parkway
Fairfax, VA 22035
(703)324-7523
Eastern
Flora Harris
Norfolk State University School of Social Work
70 Park Avenue, Unit 2456
Norfolk, VA 23504
(757)823-2759
Central
VISSTA - VCU
104 North Linden Street
P.O. Box 842027
Richmond, VA 23284-2027
(804)827-1834