NTI focuses on key competencies that are critical to achieve adoption competency for both child welfare and mental health professionals as they work with foster/adoptive/guardianship youth and families. This webinar will explore the life-long process of adoption, including factors that shape adjustment and either support or threaten children’s and family’s ongoing safety, permanency, and well-being, and the continuum of post-adoption/guardianship services that help to prevent adoption disruption or dissolution.

Presenters: 

Dr. April L. Jones, LMSW, PhD, MSW, MS, Med, BA, is a licensed social worker and organizational psychologist who holds the position of Department Chair of Social Work/Associate Professor in the College of Arts and Sciences at Tuskegee University in Tuskegee, Alabama. She has over two decades of experience in the child welfare, health, and mental health specializations in the social sciences profession. She is a published author in peer reviewed domestic and international journals and has traveled to many professional conferences presenting her research in various countries. One of her interests and passion is child welfare practice and equipping those who work with or in the system with continuing education to strengthen their services to clients.

Joyce Reese-Bey, MSW is originally from Prince George, Virginia. She received her Bachelor of Social Work degree from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2012 and her Master of Social Work degree from the University of Michigan in 2013. Joyce has direct practice experience in intensive home-based treatment, maternal-child health programs and child welfare. Joyce worked in Child Protective Services for six years before transitioning to Adoption in June 2020. She is currently the Adoption Social Worker for Arlington Department of Human Services, Child and Family Services Division. In this new role, Joyce had the opportunity to complete the NTI training which allowed her to gain a deeper understanding of the complexities of adoption. She enjoys being able to work one-on-one with families to support them through their unique adoption journeys. Joyce’s work motto with children and families is to always listen with a caring heart and be humble and conscientious because you have an opportunity to leave a lasting imprint.

Kimberly Bonham began her professional career working nearly three decades ago with homeless children and families in Washington, D.C. In 1997, she was recognized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children as an advocate for child safety by locating a missing child. Kimberly has worked extensively with foster, kinship and adoptive parents as a front-line worker and a supervisor for a total of 19 years in support of safe, nurturing environments and permanence for children in Arlington County, Virginia. For the last 8 years, Kimberly has been the supervisor for the Foster Family and Adoption Services team at Arlington’s Department of Human Services, Child and Family Services; There she has earned several acknowledgments for providing quality customer service, developing a culturally responsive care training and creating tools for successful permanency outcomes for children including an Extra Mile Merit Award for her work in adoption. Kimberly, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, holds a master’s degree in Social Work from Virginia Commonwealth University. She is proud to be a 2019 AdoptUSKids Minority Professional Leadership Development Program Alumni where she completed an action research project to explore teen adoption ambivalence. Most recently Kimberly presented her project and the concept of a peer youth group to address teen ambivalence at the 2020 Engage Youth: Listen and Learn, Commonwealth of Virginia State Virtual Adoption Conference. Kimberly has found the NTI guiding principles and supervising coaching strategies to be invaluable when developing tools to help strengthen adoption preparedness in families and build critical adoption competent skills in team members.