CASA Kane County Community Educational Conference

Tierney Colson Stutz has spent the past 33 years in clinical work and administration of child welfare. She began her career in 1992 with Children’s Home & Aid Society as a child care worker in a residential treatment program and came to DCFS from 1995-2002 where she served in numerous roles including as an intact caseworker, a child protection specialist, and a child protection supervisor.  Tierney temporarily left DCFS to join the Protective Services Team at Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago as their Clinical Coordinator where she collaborated with DCFS, law enforcement, the Lurie Children’s social work team and board-certified child abuse pediatricians in the investigation of child abuse cases.  After over a decade at Lurie, Tierney returned to The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services in 2017. She has served as an Area Administrator in Child Protection, the Deputy Director of Child Protection, Deputy Chief of Staff, Chief Deputy Director of Child Protection and the State Central Registry and is now the Executive Deputy Director of DCFS.  She has participated in research on child maltreatment, she’s presented at Child Abuse Conferences nationally and internationally including Costa Rica and Cuba. Since her return to DCFS, she has helped transform the Department’s hotline and child protection work and is currently leading the Department’s implementation of the replacement of SACWIS with IllinoisConnect, as well as the new safety decision tool: The SAFE Model which replaces the CERAP (Child Endangerment Risk Assessment Protocol). Ms. Stutz holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Ripon College and Master of Social Work from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Robert Sege, MD, PhD, FAAP is a pediatrician and director of the Center for Community-Engaged Medicine at Tufts Medical Center, and a Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics at Tufts University School of Medicine. Dr. Sege is nationally known for his research on effective health systems approaches that directly address the social determinants of health. He has served on the AAP Committee on Child Abuse and Neglect and on the AAP Council on Injury, Violence, and Poison Prevention.

Spreading HOPE (Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences)

Join us as we review the research behind Positive Childhood Experiences (PCEs) and the role PCEs play in promoting health and wellbeing. We’ll discuss how PCEs offset the long-term health outcomes so often associated with Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and share the Four Building Blocks of HOPE. We’ll also touch on some straightforward and concrete ways you can help create equitable access to PCEs for the children in your community.

Dr. Pamela Fullerton is the founder of Advocacy & Education Consulting, a counseling and consulting organization dedicated to ensuring social justice and advocacy through access to mental health and well-being services. She is a Latina bilingual Certified Clinical Trauma Professional (CCTP), a Certified Dialectical Behavior Therapy professional (C-DBT), a Certified Clinical Anxiety Treatment Professional (CCATP), a Certified Grief Informed Professional (CGP), and an Approved Clinical Supervisor (ACS) and consultant specializing in working with BIPOC communities, undocumented communities, immigration and acculturation, trauma, anxiety, life transitions, and career counseling. In addition to be a professional writer and speaker, Dr. Fullerton is also an adjunct instructor in the Counselor Education department at Northeastern Illinois University and runs a nonprofit to support Latinx youth in the Chicagoland area.

Cultural Competency Training: Understanding the Impact of Historical, Intergenerational, and Migratory Trauma on the Individual and Community

Participants will be educated and engaged in the process of increasing cultural competency and supporting individuals and communities impacted by historical, intergenerational, and/or migratory trauma. A variety of backgrounds on each type of trauma will be shared, along with the impacts of these traumas on the individual and community level. Theoretical frameworks, creative approaches, and practical applications to support participants in gaining awareness of their own strengths and growing edges within this work will also be presented. Participants should come prepared to engage in critical reflection of systems of oppression and implicit bias as they pertain to special populations, with a particular focus on implications related to complex trauma factors including poverty, immigration, ACEs, and systemic oppression within our socio-political context.

James Pawola is the Regional McKinney-Vento Liaison for the Kane County Regional Office of Education’s Equal Chance Program. His program works to remove barriers for McKinney Vento eligible students to ensure that they have equal access to quality education. He provides technical assistance to all 9 Kane County school districts and advocates for students, families, and the McKinney – Vento Law. He informs families of their rights and supports school districts in removing barriers for students that face housing insecurity. He is a graduate of Aurora University and has been working in alternative education for 10 years. 

McKinney-Vento and Youth in Foster Care

This presentation will provide relevant information about McKinney-Vento and Youth in Care eligible students. We will explore the difference between McKinney-Vento and Youth in Care students, who qualifies for each, their rights, and how to advocate for them.