Kinship Center President and CEO Carol Biddle recently returned from England where she celebrated Kinship Center’s 25th Anniversary as an invited speaker at the Oxford University Roundtable Conference: “The Next Generation Besieged: Violence, Sex and Substance Abuse.”

The invitation reflects the groundbreaking work that Carol Biddle and Executive Vice President Carol Bishop have spearheaded since they founded Kinship Center in 1984.
At Oxford Carol Biddle presented a paper entitled Protecting Children: Evidence-Informed PsychoEducational Training for Professionals and Family Caregivers. “We have been blessed at Kinship Center with some of the most incredible minds in the field who have contributed to developing this curriculum,” says Biddle. She points out that Kinship Center trainings are evidence-based, drawing from the rich expertise of Kinship Center professionals. They are constantly being updated to reflect new research and, most importantly, what Kinship Center staff learn in the field.

“Our trainings are more than sharing information,” Biddle explains. “They are intereactive, skill-building trainings for both professionals and parents.” The curriculum is an organic process. For example, Biddle points to new research in the neurobiology of trauma and child development that is informing the child welfare profession. “The field is deepening our understanding of how a lack of consistent emotional nurturing, nutrition, permanency or trust can affect the young child’s neurological development and thus can create psychological challenges for a child.”

With this kind of expertise, Kinship Center staff help prepare prospective adoptive and foster parents and relative caregivers to meet these challenges and provide a loving, permanent home for traumatized children. “This is why we have a 98% success rate at keeping new families strong,” says Biddle. Her smile and the intensity and love reflected in her eyes have helped shape the child welfare profession for more than 25 years.