SIGNS OF SAFETY CONSULTANT • BACHELOR OF SOCIAL WORK WITH CHILD WELFARE SPECIALIZATION • MASTERS OF SOCIAL WORK WITH INDIGENOUS SPECIALIZATION
Services
Heidi is actively involved in implementations throughout North America. As your trainer, Heidi seeks to impart the very best of the Signs of Safety theory, methodology and tools to staff ranging from frontline to supervisor and executive directors of every department to ensure a consistent understanding is achieved throughout the entire organization. Feedback from some of these organizations is that “Heidi provides a detailed understanding of the approach, she is passionate and knows the model. She is so engaging throughout the duration of the training that participants leave feeling freshly motivated about their work with families.” Heidi has been training and implementing the Signs of Safety approach for nearly ten years and is experienced in training workers from frontline protection to community service providers such as teachers, counselors, nurses and police officers.
The following training events are available:
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Two/three-day Introductory events
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Five-day Intensive events
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One-day skill builders which might include but are not limited to the following focussed workshops:
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Safety planning
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Trajectories
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Solution focused questions
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Signs of Something
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Words and Pictures
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Assessment
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Foster Care
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Onsite office consults on complex cases
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Non-protection related events for foster care/kinship, community service providers etc.
TRAINING
Heidi spent five years as the Regional Director of Canada for Resolutions Consultancy (Signs of Safety) and as a result has participated in consultative services with a multitude of organizations throughout Canada both in the mainstream Ministries and the Aboriginal sectors of child protection work. Heidi seeks to help Directors, Ministers and other senior level staff come to understand that implementing Signs of Safety in these organizations is not just about changing practice, it’s about changing the culture of the organization. Ultimately it’s about changing the way we think, the way our systems think and with this, changing the lives of children and families.
Consultative services Include:
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Strategic planning meetings with senior level staff
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Trajectory creation
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Summary reporting
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Progress reviews
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Online learning case consultation
CONSULTING
One of the very best learning routes is through the exploration and application of the model within the active cases or the organization. There are a number of different ways in which Heidi can work with workers, supervisors and managers to move them through challenging cases:
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Online consultation - this requires getting the workers to slow down and think through their practice using a questioning approach
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Work with supervisors and managers to think through how they might approach staff in order to move them from the anxiety of complex cases to a clear understanding of safety
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Consultation and collaboration from beginning to end of a case - this would require ongoing consultation from the first assessment of a case through trajectory, networking, words and pictures, safety planning and monitoring. This requires the commitment of managers and directors to ensure there is agreement and follow through on the work.
COMPLEX CASES
Video consults are available to help organizations continue in the practice once the training is complete. This will ensure regular maintenance of the model in the months to come even when the work becomes particularly challenging to workers.
ONLINE COACHING/MENTORING
Heidi created a supervision model that would allow supervisors in any field the ability to provide clinical supervision to staff in a fast effective way while growing their capacity to think critically, establish realistic goals, and enhance the organization’s capacity to grow the very best workers possible. This model allows supervisors and managers the ability to have tough conversations with staff experiencing performance issues while working to improve the overall morale of staff and the productivity of the organization itself. This four-phase model covers all aspects of supervision within any organization from supervisor/supervisee relationship to case consultation, conflict resolution, performance evaluation and review. Heidi has applied the model in her own work as a supervisor in both the protection setting as well as non-protection field to promote the strength and capacity of the workers within their teams and organizations resulting in better services to valued recipients.
HR ENHANCEMENT
At times the relationship between organizations/workers and families becomes so strained or anxious that the work becomes nearly impossible. Heidi has been able to work directly with families as a consultant to the organization to help build relationship and work as a third party during the assessment and safety planning stages of child protection work.
WORKING WITH FAMILIES
