NTDC Training

Enrolling for Training Sessions Now!

Are you parenting a child that is in Family Safety Program Custody? There is a new, relevant, culturally rooted training available for you. Classes offered on a rolling basis. Take advantage of all the trainings offered!

There is a new, relevant, culturally rooted training available for you. Classes offered on the website at any time. Take advantage of all the NTCD trainings offered and earn your licensing maintenance/continuing education hours for foster (20 hours every 2 years) and kinship (10 hours every two years) placements. Certificate of Completion for training available. More info here.

Contact
Kinship Navigator/NTDC, Nicolas Squirrel
Phone: (828) 359-1520
Email: nicosqui@ebci-nsn.gov

EBCI Kinship Navigator Program

The Kinship Navigator Program (not a training) for the EBCI offers families caring for their relatives’ services and support. The program offers licensing to families and acts as a point of contact to assist families in connecting to resources. A big part of the program is caregiver and kinship trainings. The National Training Curriculum Development (NTDC) is the curriculum the EBCI utilizes for licensing.

Contact: Nicolas Squirrel
Phone: (828) 359-1520
Email: nicosqui@ebci-nsn.gov

EBCI National Training Development Curriculum (NTDC)

This curriculum was developed in collaboration with several tribes and adapted specifically for Eastern Band of Cherokee Indian kinship families to address their specific needs. It is set up with a series of themes that build on the principles and teachings of each lesson. Themes include building resilience of caregivers and cultural humility, which are two of the most popular themes. Other themes include changes in kinship parenting, trauma-related behaviors, trauma-informed parenting, impact of substance abuse, foster care means to support (adapted for kinship), and sexual trauma. Families can take the training at their own pace, and it is available both in person and online. The curriculum offers kinship families an easier path (than the traditional foster care licensing) to obtaining a kinship care license if they choose to care for their relative children.

The curriculum allows providers to be flexible with the families they work with, offering them an opportunity to build relationships and connections.

The development of the curriculum was funded through a federal grant awarded to Spaulding for Children. Those with lived experience, which includes kinship caregivers and elders, are included in the adaption and review of the content.

Anyone caring for EBCI children can request to take the course. Note: Foster care payments are only available to those caring for children under the custody of EBCI.

Contact: Nicolas Squirrel
Phone: (828) 359-1520
Email: nicosqui@ebci-nsn.gov

This website was supported with funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families’ Children’s Bureau through the Improving Child Welfare Through Investing in Family grant #HHS-2021-ACF-ACYF-CW-1921. The purpose of this grant is to provide an array of kinship preparation services and ongoing kinship supports, and provide shared parenting to build trusting relationships between all out-of-home caregivers and parents of children/youth in foster care to ensure parents and families remain actively involved in normal child-rearing activities.