Getting Started

Karri Biehle and Michael Sanders

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

A meeting between the caregiver and the birth parent

facilitated by the social worker. It occurs early in the
placement.

Goals:
 Begin to build the parent to parent relationship
 Share information about the child

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 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
 A Plan for
Implementation
Your Icebreaker workgroup will create and
make decisions about:

 Policy
 Education and Training
 Logistics
Icebreakers

5
 Workgroup
Who will take the lead on preparing for
Icebreaker implementation?

RDS Workgroup? TDM Workgroup?

Icebreaker Workgroup?
6
 Who will you invite to
participate on the workgroup?
 Youth
 Birth Parent
 Resource Parent
 Social Worker Supervisor
 Social Worker
 Foster Family Agency Representative

7
 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
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

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Video

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 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?

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What are your next steps?

WHO?
WHAT?

WHEN?

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