Psychologist Wendy Flowers and Child Welfare Specialist Celeste Nichols began collaborating when they identified the need to better prepare school-aged children for adoption. Drawing from the latest research and clinical knowledge about working with traumatized children, they developed the Children’s Adoption Preparation Program (CAPP). Several adoption workers contributed activities and arts and crafts components.
Dr. Flowers and Ms. Nichols began piloting the CAPP program with small groups of children. Shortly thereafter, Social Work Professor Dr. Darla Henry (Temple University) introduced the 3-5-7 Model to child welfare professionals and began training it as a national standard throughout the U.S. and Canada. Her model identified 3 major psychosocial tasks and 5 important questions that adopted children and teens need to face, along with 7 desired characteristics of the adults who seek to help them. Since Dr. Flowers and Ms. Nichols had used Dr. Henry’s earlier research on resilience in maltreated children* to guide their own program concepts, the CAPP program synchronized beautifully with the 3-5-7 Model.
Post-Adoption Specialist and author Barbara VanSlyck attended a workshop about CAPP at a state child welfare conference and was intrigued with the concept that addressing children’s grief and loss issues prior to adoption could solve many of the problems she encountered in her post-adoption work. She offered her expertise in group work with teens and adoptive parents and relevant activities from her post-adoption curriculum, Charting The Course. Together they created the Teens’ Adoption Preparation Program (TAPP), and the CAPP/TAPP Team was formed.
We also recognized that children’s and teens’ grief and loss issues tend to fester while they are in temporary care, waiting for the grown-ups involved to plan out their future. Since they are dealing with many of the same core issues addressed in CAPP/TAPP (our pre-adoption curriculum) and Charting the Course (post-adoption curriculum) it seemed only natural to us to develop the Fostering Resilience program for children and teens in foster care, kinship, and congregate care settings.
Special thanks is given to Dr. Darla Henry for her valuable assistance and encouragement during the development of these programs. Her early research on resilience and later 3-5-7 Model which guides building relationships of permanence provide the foundation for the CAPP/TAPP and Fostering Resilience programs.
We acknowledge and value the many insightful contributions of the professionals who are already using these materials. We are excited to offer these products for wider use, and we look forward to training your team!
- *Henry, D. (1999). Resilience in maltreated children: Implications for special needs adoption. Child Welfare, 78(5), 519-540.
- ** VanSlyck et.al. (1998). Wasn’t Love Supposed to Be Enough
