Full Agenda | 2025 West Coast Trainer's Conference

We're excited to share that the first day of WCCWTC 2025 will offer four in-depth seminars, giving participants the opportunity to dive deeper into key topics in a way that is not usually possible in a standard workshop. These seminars will have content prepared by the facilitator(s), and will also create space and opportunity for participants to share about their work and approach and to plan to apply what they have learned to their organization or practice. We invite you to join us for a deep dive on: 

Designing Child Welfare Training Using Authentic Assessment

Presenter: Megan Hellum

This seminar will focus on how to design child welfare training programs using an authentic assessment approach. 

Additional details to come!

Getting to the Heart of the Matter—Training to the Affective Domain

Presenters: Nora Gerber and Chris Bowling

Research and lived experience show that learning is most powerful and enduring when it engages the whole person—not just the mind, but also the heart. This seminar explores how to intentionally design and deliver training that integrates the affective domain, tapping into learners’ emotions, values, beliefs, attitudes and lived experiences. Through engaging in content-rich activities and experiential exercises, you’ll increase your awareness of affective strategies (Receiving), actively participate in practices that bring those strategies to life (Responding), reflect on and evaluate their relevance to your own teaching context (Valuing), organize them into a consistent instructional approach (Organizing), and begin shaping a personalized plan to apply this “way of being” in your facilitation practice (Characterizing). Together, we’ll examine how tools like metaphor, music, storytelling, images, testimonials, props and shared reflection can foster deeper learner connection and enhance learning outcomes. Come prepared to share your own heart-centered teaching practices and be inspired by others who aim to teach beyond the cognitive—to truly touch the learner.

Narratives That Teach: Centering Experience in Child Welfare

Presenters: Dawne' Lynch, Dawn Carini, Mark Amacher and all-star instructor panel!

Join us for an interactive and thought-provoking seminar designed to explore the vital role of lived experience in child welfare training. This session will create a collaborative space for trainers, facilitators and those with lived experience to reflect, share and strategize on how to meaningfully integrate personal narratives into training environments while ensuring authenticity, safety, and respect.

Whether you’re a seasoned trainer, someone with lived experience or simply curious about how to bring more humanity and depth into your work, this seminar offers a supportive environment to learn, connect and grow.

Simulation Training- A Multi-State Panel and Discussion

Presenters: Amanda Meyer Alex McNeal

We invite you to an insightful and practical seminar exploring the growing impact of simulation training in child welfare. This session brings together a multi-state panel of experts and practitioners to share their diverse experiences, innovative approaches and lessons learned in implementing simulation-based learning environments.

Whether you're a trainer, administrator or frontline professional, this seminar offers a unique opportunity to gain valuable insights into the design, delivery and evaluation of effective simulation programs, including robust feedback strategies. We'll delve into the nuances of creating realistic scenarios, leveraging technology and measuring the impact of simulation on professional development and, ultimately, on outcomes for children and families.

Collaborative Curriculum Development at the UC Davis Northern Academy

Presenter: Monica Montury, LCSW, MSW
Quality standardized training is driven by excellent, engaging curriculum. This interactive session will showcase the UC Davis Northern Academy’s robust, equity-driven and highly collaborative process for designing and piloting high-quality training curricula for child welfare professionals. Participants will explore how a coordinated team approach—spanning multiple staff persons, subject matter experts, editors and accessibility specialists—ensures content is not only evidence-based and accessible, but also reflects shared values and a commitment to centering children, youth and families. Grounded in real-world examples and practical tools, attendees will leave with insights and templates that can be adapted to their own curriculum development projects.

Empowered Learning: Using the Coach Approach to Spark Critical Thinking and Engagement

Presenter: Tiffany Salcido, ACC

Trainers are not just content experts—they're catalysts for growth. This session explores how using the coach approach in training can empower both trainers and learners by shifting from lecture to dialogue. Learn to ask powerful, open-ended questions that invite reflection, encourage ownership and inspire critical thinking. We'll explore how stepping out of Karpman’s Drama Triangle helps trainers avoid rescuing and enables participants to grow. Whether you're working with new staff or seasoned professionals, this approach lightens your load and increases learner engagement, confidence, and accountability.

Going There: Addressing and Navigating Culturally Sensitive Topics

Presenter: Carl Rabun, Ph.D.

Addressing sensitive topics is often a challenging, yet necessary component of preparing staff for interactions with the children and families we serve. Discomfort with the subject can lead to trainers not fully engaging with or rushing through the subject. This workshop will provide tips and best practices for navigating conversations that can be sensitive and emotional for learners…as well as ourselves!

Preventing Trainer Burnout Using the 7 Dimensions of Wellness

Presenter: Jessica Polk, LCSW

Additional details to come!

Using the Voice of Lived Expertise to Inform Trainings

Presenter: Margo Fudge

This workshop provides attendees with knowledge and skills to engage lived experts in both the development and presentation of curriculum, including best practice for the incorporation of youth/lived expertise. This workshop will be co-facilitated by Youth Engagement Program (YEP) youth ambassadors, who will share their experiences and perspectives. 

Bridging Knowledge and Practice: Designing Child Welfare Training Using Authentic Assessment

Presenters: Megan Hellum

Too often, training focuses on what learners know rather than what they can do. In the field of human services, professionals need more than knowledge to be effective—they need the confidence and skills to apply it in real-world practice. The best training programs don’t just inform; they transform by equipping learners with actionable competencies. This interactive workshop will guide participants through the process of designing training curricula that integrate authentic assessment methods, emphasizing real-world applications, meaningful tasks and practical demonstrations of knowledge and skills.

Using the guiding question, "What should the learners be able to do?" participants will explore how to create measurable learning objectives that drive the design of authentic assessments. We will then work backward to develop content delivery and activity scaffolding focused on the goal of learners’ successful acquisition and demonstration of new skills.

Combatting Loneliness: Strengthening Social Well-Being for Human Services Professionals and the Communities They Serve

Presenters: Emma Black, MSW, and Peggi Cooney, MSW

In today's digital age and the evolving landscape of work, loneliness and isolation have emerged as significant challenges impacting the well-being of human services professionals, and by extension, the children, youth and families they support. This engaging and experiential workshop (games & prizes included!) explores the profound effects of loneliness on individuals and communities and offers practical strategies to mitigate its impact. In this session, we will focus specifically on how trainers and remote employees are susceptible to experiencing loneliness, and then explore ways we can create better connections to sustain our collective well-being.

Embracing Vulnerability: A Transformative Workshop for Child Welfare Trainers

Presenter: Baljit Hundal, MSW

In this unique workshop, participants are offered a different lens on adult learning theory and will be introduced to valuable tools for creating empathetic settings for learners to engage in. We believe sharing our coaching lens of holding space for challenging discussion, with a cultural responsiveness lens, creates memorable and practical outcomes for our learners. This presentation looks to transform the concept of empathy into a practical skill for trainers with various levels of training experience.

The Power of Two: Mastering Collaboration in Co-Training Environments

Presenters: Betsy Watson, MSW, and Janice Boafo, LCSW

Co-training offers a dynamic opportunity to blend diverse perspectives, skills and experiences—but successful co-training requires more than just sharing a training space. This workshop explores the essential elements of effective trainer partnerships, providing practical strategies for planning, communication and mutual support that enhance the learning experience for participants. Whether you're new to co-training or looking to strengthen existing partnerships, this workshop will help you build trust, balance strengths and navigate challenges with confidence and professionalism.

How to Facilitate Trauma-Informed Training

Presenter: Lisa Maaca Bartlette, MSSA

This trauma-informed workshop provides educators, trainers and/or facilitators with the tools, knowledge and skills to conduct training sessions in a way that acknowledges the potential impact of trauma on participants and ensures a supportive, psychologically safe and inclusive learning environment. These skills are critical for creating an environment where participants can learn, grow and heal if necessary, ensuring that learning is a positive and empowering experience for everyone involved.

By the end of the workshop, participants will have a solid understanding of trauma-informed principles, the ability to create safe(r) and inclusive spaces for learners, and practical tools to enhance their training sessions. 

New Training Process for Butte County Child Welfare

Presenters: Jessica Bennett Nathaniel Cruz

In this workshop, Butte County Child Welfare Services will share their approach to redesigning their training/onboarding process for new child welfare social workers. The focus is to learn and share tools that can support the development and transfer of empathic engagement.

Safety Organized Practice (SOP) and Well-Being

Presenter: Peggi Cooney, MSW

This workshop focuses on the well-being of social workers and training staff at all levels utilizing tools and ideology from Safety Organized Practice (SOP). Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS) is a common form of occupational stress resulting from frequent and/or chronic exposure to often emotional and detailed accounts of children’s traumatic events, and can lead to unhealthy coping strategies, illness, burnout and possibly leaving the field altogether. You will learn ways to recognize the signs of STS and system trauma using a personal well-being mapping process that includes Danger Statements, Safety Goals and the three questions of SOP: What am I worried about? What is working? And what are my next steps? We will also practice self-care mindfulness activities that will work to address workplace stress and increase well-being.

Training in Partnership: Amplifying Lived Experience for Training Excellence

Presenter: Dawne' Lynch
This 90-minute workshop explores the art of co-training with lived-experience instructors, trainers who bring firsthand insight from navigating child and family-serving systems. Trainers will gain tools to respectfully and effectively collaborate with lived-experience partners to enhance credibility, engagement and inclusivity in training spaces.

Whether you are new to co-facilitation or seeking to strengthen your current practice, this session offers strategies for integrating lived stories into structured curriculum, balancing authenticity with professionalism, and fostering trauma-informed, culturally responsive environments.

Participants will reflect on their own facilitation style, explore power dynamics in trainer partnerships, and co-create inclusive tools to support emotional safety and resilience for both learners and trainers.

Beyond Burnout: Trainer Well-Being, Self-Care and the Impact of Moral Injury in Human Services Education

Presenter: Joycelyn Wormley, Ph.D.

Human services trainers serve on the front lines of social service education, often bearing witness to the trauma, systemic injustice and emotional toll faced by professionals and the communities they serve. While burnout and secondary traumatic stress are well-documented in this field, an underrecognized but profoundly relevant concept is moral injury—the psychological distress that arises when individuals are forced to act in ways that conflict with their core values, or when they witness systemic failures that harm others.

This session explores how moral injury can impact trainers’ well-being and how it shows up in the context of adult learning environments. Trainers may experience moral injury when required to deliver content they feel is outdated, misaligned with their values, or fails to acknowledge systemic oppression. They may also feel ethically compromised when supporting professionals who are themselves struggling within broken systems.

Curriculum Development Topic (official title to come!)

Presenter: Melissa Bernier

Additional details to come!

Training and the Art of Treasure Hunting

Presenter: Chris Bowling

In his upcoming WCCWTC workshop, presenter/adventurer Chris Bowling will lead a playful, reflective exploration into how creative facilitation can breathe life into your sessions. Participants and fellow trainers are invited to become co-explorers—collaboratively uncovering powerful insights to help transform training into memorable, active learning experiences. Using the metaphor of treasure hunting as our guiding framework, this experience isn’t just insightful—it’s hands-on, fun, and full of ideas you can use right away.