<p> The growing trend for housing individuals who are developmentally disabled has been focused on community based housing; giving them an opportunity to live a less restricted lifestyle. With this shift of care, families who take on caregiving roles deal with insurmountable issues because of limited support and lack of services. Caregivers are faced with challenges such as impulsive behaviors, daily caregiving duties, and concerns about the future. These in turn take a toll on their physical and mental health. The purpose of this project was to develop a curriculum for current and future family caregivers; with the aim of helping them to empower themselves and care recipients, to ultimately reduce barriers of communication within families, to address caregiving concerns, and to provide peer support throughout the curriculum. This curriculum includes three modules that educate caregivers about planning for the future, legal concerns, and community resources.</p>

<p> Child welfare workers are required to practice cultural competency when working with families, in order to appreciate how their values and traditions affects child welfare workers assisting families. Cultural competency does not take into account the personal experiences of the families in the child welfare system nor does it allow the child welfare worker to accept that he may not have all the resources needed due to a lack of cultural understanding. This curriculum will utilize the concept of cultural humility to bring awareness of how the personal experiences and cultural values of the families in the child welfare system can assist in assessment and establishment of positive relationships of Latino families. The curriculum will discuss the differences between cultural competency and cultural humility, Latino values and parenting practice, and will include case studies and role-playing scenarios to practice the concepts learned.</p>

<p> The plight of foster youth having low graduation scores compared to their peers is a prevalent problem depicted in research for years. Statistics show foster youth as being an at risk-group for completing high school education and leading them to a lower quality of life once emancipated from the foster care system. Foster youth face incarceration, unemployment, lower wages, homelessness and substance abuse once adults, and there is a need for the strengthening of educational achievement in this at-risk population. The need for social workers&rsquo; to collaborate with school personnel is a necessary preventative measure to increase the quality of life with foster youth. </p>