Foster Parent College Earns High Marks by California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse on Child Welfare

PR Log (Press Release) – May 11, 2009 – May is National Foster Care Month and Foster Parent College has something to celebrate: it has become the first and only online resource parent training center to be ranked by the California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare.

Foster Parent College (FPC) received a “Promising Evidence” rating for the Scientific Research it has conducted and was given top marks for Relevance to Child Welfare.
The California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare (CEBC) provides child welfare professionals worldwide with easy access to vital information about selected child welfare related programs. Each program is reviewed and rated utilizing the CEBC Scientific Rating scale to determine the level of research evidence for the program. The programs are also rated for “Relevance to Child Welfare.”
The CEBC website's simple and straightforward format enhances the user's ability to conduct literature searches, review extensive literature, or understand and critique research methodology. The website features brief and detailed summaries that provide salient information on each reviewed program. Thanks to the quality of its evaluation process and the simplicity of its website, CEBC is often a first stop for child welfare directors who are researching child welfare-related programs and materials.
FPC offers 26 research-based courses and one Advanced Parenting Workshop taught by nationally recognized psychiatrists, psychologists, pediatricians, social workers, and educators. FPC is aimed at foster, adoptive and kinship parents. Over 23,000 resource parents are members of the Eugene, OR-based website, and they have taken more than 40,000 courses. The current lineup includes “Grief and Loss in the Care System,” “Child Abuse & Neglect,” “Children With Autism,” “Positive Parenting 1, 2 and 3,” “House Safety” and more. New classes are in development.

More states and agencies are turning to online training as an affordable supplement to in-house training sessions. Resource parents throughout the USA, Canada, Australia and England log on to FPC for online training because they get the information they need, when they need it, without the cost of child care or commuting.

“We are honored by the CEBC ranking. Our online approach is an innovation in the foster parent industry; parents can obtain subject-specific quality educational information in their homes and on-demand, 24/7. Previously, this has not been the case,” said Lee White, president and co-founder of Northwest Media, Inc., parent company of Foster Parent College, Vstreet.com, and SocialLearning.com.

Northwest Media, Inc. was founded in 1985 as a producer and publisher of social learning and educational products. Many courses it develops for FPC and Vstreet are funded through federal SBIR grants. All online courses are developed, produced and delivered on-site in our downtown Eugene office.

For more information on CEBC, visit www.cachildwelfareclearinghouse.org. For more information on Foster Parent College visit www.fosterparentcollege.com. Or call 343-6636 or 800-777-6636.

Submitted by Lisa Siegle, lisa@northwestmedia.com.