The Tribally Adapted National Training and Development Curriculum (NTDC): Impact on Foster and Adoptive Parent Preparedness to Foster American Indian Children from the Southwest Region of the United States

Foster parents working with children who are American Indian/Alaskan Native (AIAN) face challenges to provide trauma-informed, developmentally appropriate, and culturally relevant care for the children in their care. The Tribally Adapted National Training and Development Curriculum is a state-of-the-art training program designed to prepare foster parents to effectively parent AIAN children exposed to trauma and to provide these families with ongoing skill development necessary to understand and promote healthy child development. The current study describes the results of two focus groups (N = 11) that occurred in person in the social services office of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community in May of 2022. Findings describe the experiences of participants that completed the tribal NTDC training and how the training impacted their readiness and experience to foster in comparison with parents of AIAN foster children who received the training-as-usual training protocol (Foster Parent College (FPC)) provided by the State child welfare authority.