Getting Started

Karri Biehle and Michael Sanders

1

Introduce Yourself!
Name
Agency
Role
Whats Happening in your

County?
2

What is an ICEBREAKER?

A meeting between the caregiver and the birth parent

facilitated by the social worker. It occurs early in the
placement.

Goals:
Begin to build the parent to parent relationship
Share information about the child

Why Icebreakers?
To share information about the child
To help transition the child to a new placement
To begin building a relationship between the

birth parent and the foster parent

To help to create a cooperative environment
between birth parent, foster parent
and social worker

A Plan for
Implementation
Your Icebreaker workgroup will create and
make decisions about:
Policy
Education and Training
Logistics
Icebreakers

Workgroup
Who will take the lead on preparing for
Icebreaker implementation?
RDS Workgroup?

TDM Workgroup?

Icebreaker Workgroup?
6

Who will you invite to

participate on the workgroup?
Youth
Birth Parent
Resource Parent
Social Worker Supervisor
Social Worker
Foster Family Agency Representative

Policy
Things to Consider
Voluntary or mandatory?
Who will facilitate the meeting?
When will the meeting occur?
What data will you collect?
How will you collect your data?
What are each participants responsibilities?

Education and Training

Create a Plan for Preparing and Training
Parents, Resource Parents, Supervisors, Social Workers,

Foster Family Agency Staff, Courts, Attorneys,

Community Partners and others
Prepare social workers to assess birth parent and
resource parents readiness for different contact types
Distribute brochures and flyers
Icebreakers
101

Video

10

Logistics
Things to Consider
What type of contact will occur if a face to face Icebreaker is

not appropriate?
Where will meetings occur?
How will you collect and analyze feedback?

11

What are your next steps?

WHO?
WHAT?
WHEN?
12