BUILDING BRIDGES: Sydeon Harvey is currently the Director of Operations at Family Outreach Center. He also is a trainer and strategic planner with over 20 years of experience in the area of diversity/inclusion work and community building. He has led trainings for all different age groups, churches, schools, community groups, medical staff, mental health staff, and businesses inside and outside our state on diversity, as well as been a speaker at national conferences. His workshops are full of passion and are led in a way that encourages and challenges everyone to feel safe and empowered. His personal mission in life is to be agent of healing and change.
TRAUMA 101 WITH SCRIPTURE INFUSION: Sara Blomeling DeRoo, LMSW is a trauma specialist for Operation Forever Family, an intensive recruitment grant for older children who wait for adoption. She comes to the adoption table far before that though, as an adoptee who has reunited with her birth family just 5 years ago. She has adopted 14 children through intercountry, domestic infant, and foster adoption, both transracially and with medical special needs. She is a firm believer that God will do what he says He will do, and walks with families through both the good times and hard times in fostering and adoption. Her favorite quote is "I'd rather have cobwebs in my corner than cobwebs in my mind" and strives to live the rich full life God put in front of her.
CARING FOR ME, SO I CAN CARE FOR YOU: Liz Sharda, LMSW, is a social worker currently pursuing a PhD at Michigan State University. Liz has worked for over ten years in foster care and related systems, and has also been a foster parent for six years. Liz's experience includes training professionals and parents (foster, adoptive, and biological) on the impact of child trauma and how to approach parenting kids with traumatic pasts. She knows firsthand the incredible challenge this holds, as well as the toll it can take on parents. She is passionate about equipping parents with the tools they need, including how to care for themselves.
IDENTIFYING TRIGGERS:
Amanda Stienstra & Cheri Van Assen.
Amanda Steinstra has a passion for and experience in helping children and families. Amanda and her husband, Jeff, are the parents of 3 biological children, ages 6 to 11, and are Refugee Foster Parents for teen girls, as well as a toddler. The Stienstras have also been Treatment Foster Care Parents and Amanda is a foster parent mentor. Amanda joined the Licensing Team at D. A. Blodgett-St. John’s in the past year as a Licensing Specialist as the Intake Specialist. She has been a Home Based Therapist, Post Adoption Therapist, a Medical Social Worker working with teen mothers, and has worked in Pastoral Care Ministry. Amanda has real insight into and experience with the issues biological, foster, and adoptive parents face as they parent children who have had a history of traumatic childhoods and experiences.
Amanda Stienstra & Cheri Van Assen.
Amanda Steinstra has a passion for and experience in helping children and families. Amanda and her husband, Jeff, are the parents of 3 biological children, ages 6 to 11, and are Refugee Foster Parents for teen girls, as well as a toddler. The Stienstras have also been Treatment Foster Care Parents and Amanda is a foster parent mentor. Amanda joined the Licensing Team at D. A. Blodgett-St. John’s in the past year as a Licensing Specialist as the Intake Specialist. She has been a Home Based Therapist, Post Adoption Therapist, a Medical Social Worker working with teen mothers, and has worked in Pastoral Care Ministry. Amanda has real insight into and experience with the issues biological, foster, and adoptive parents face as they parent children who have had a history of traumatic childhoods and experiences.
Cheri Van Assen has a passion for children and families because of her experience and journey as a biological parent, former foster parent, and adoptive parent of 4. Cheri and her husband Dan have 5 children who range in age from 15 to 21. Cheri has been a Foster Home Licensing Specialist at D. A. Blodgett-St. John’s for the past 5 years, has also worked in Establishing Family Foundations, a program which works with biological parents, and has been a CASA Volunteer. Cheri is a trainer/facilitator for the Trauma Informed Parenting Training which recognizes the need for families to understand the significance of children’s trauma histories. Cheri has been a wonderful, insightful, and resourceful support to foster and adoptive families because of her knowledge and experience.
PANEL FACILITATOR: Stacey Goodson is a foster parent and adoptive parent, who also works in the child welfare field. She is passionate about helping parents discover new ways to connect with and parent children from difficult places. She is also a fierce advocate that believes all children should have the opportunity to grow up in a family.