Knox County has canceled its in-person foster care pre-service training for August.

Individuals who signed up for the 12 training sessions – or anyone else interested in becoming a foster parent – are encouraged to learn more about other training options by contacting the county’s foster/adopt coordinators at the Knox County Job & Family Services (JFS), the department posted on its Facebook page.

Ray Guajardo can be reached by email at Raymond.Guarjardo@jfs.ohio.gov or by phone at 740-399-3039. Call Breanna Kirby at 740-399-3047 or email her at Breanna.Kirby@jfs.ohio.gov.

Foster care training covers a wide variety of topics, including adoption and kinship care, the child protection team, and childhood development. To understand the problems that a foster child may have faced and how foster parents can help, other training sessions include childhood trauma and its effects, child sexual abuse, and helping the child manage hostilities and behaviors.

To ease the transition into the foster home, potential foster parents will also be trained in minimizing the trauma of placement, transcending differences in environment, and coping with the effects of caregiving on the caregiver family. Other issues covered in training include understanding primary families, long-term separation, and post-adoption issues for families.