Growing Great Kids in Orphanages
Growing Great Kids Curriculum for Orphanage Caregivers and Foster Parents

Growing Great Kids in Orphanages

Program Description

Today, being cared for in an orphanage, for several months, several years or an entire childhood, is the reality for hundreds of thousands of children around the world. Every one of these children deserves the opportunity to grow into an adult with self-respect who is capable of achieving his dreams and feeling compassion for others. Infants and young children reared in institutions who have not experienced secure attachment relationships and appropriate stimulation, are destined for lifetimes filled with disappointments, anger and violence. The cruel reality is that most orphanage caregivers in developing countries provide only the most basic custodial care, neglecting the social-emotional needs of the children they care for.

While orphanage administrators and caregivers want only the best for the children in their care, they have seldom been offered the opportunity to participate in a comprehensive training program that would enhance their knowledge and skills and result in giving children the foundations they need to become contributing, empathic members of their families and communities. Growing Great Kids In Orphanages makes it possible and affordable for orphanage staff to learn how they can re-structure their environments and re-organize their time to provide for the emotional and developmental needs of abandoned and orphaned children. Great Kids, Inc. tailors 2-3 year training and technical assistance programs for communities or countries interested in improving the outcomes for children being cared for in orphanages. Our program includes a Train-The-Trainer Institute, focusing on in-country replication, sustainability and advocacy Growing Great Kids In Orphanages materials include a simply written curriculum for trainers and activity-based guidebooks for caregivers designed to enhance caregiver-child relationships and to support child health and development as the caregiver becomes empowered by her new knowledge and skills.

For more information on bringing Growing Great Kids to your community, or our Adopt An Orphanage sponsorship project, please email lindae@greatkidsinc.org.

Growing Great Kids Curriculum
for Orphanage Caregivers and Foster Parents

The Growing Great Kids for Orphanage Caregivers and Foster Parents program was developed to improve both the quality of care and the support for early learning being provided to infants and young children in resource-poor orphanages and foster homes in developing countries. Millions of infants and young children in our world community are now growing up in institutions. For some there will be families, but the majority will live with no hope for adoption. And, because the type of care and stimulation a child receives during the first years of life determine what type of person that child will become, as well as in what ways that child will contribute as an adult, educating their caregivers now is an investment that is imperative for human society to make. Choosing not to make this investment will result in our world becoming an increasingly more violent, less compassionate global community.

• a comprehensive training curriculum for caregiving staff and foster parents
• activities for caregivers to do with children to support their development, health and well being

The “Daily Do’s for Caregivers” are five (5) caregiving skill sets for caregivers to integrate into all of their relationships and interactions with children on a daily basis help the caregivers to become more purposeful about how they are supporting cognitive, social-emotional, physical, and language development. Caregivers learn the meaning of the word “empathy” and how to use every interaction with a child as an opportunity to demonstrate it.

Throughout the training program, caregivers are motivated to adopt these new caregiving practices as they receive strength-based feedback from their supervisors and trainers during their daily interactions with children. The training gives the caregivers a professional identity, built on nine (9) areas of competency. During this process, caregivers gain confidence and a greater sense of pride in their work.

The training program for the Growing Great Kids Curriculum utilizes a Train-the-Trainer approach. Great Kids, Inc. provides consultation and technical assistance to orient and prepare the orphanage administration and staff for curriculum implementation. A team of trainers, generally social workers, psychologists or nurses, is selected by the orphanage administration or funding agency to participate in a 10-day Train-the-Trainer Institute. These trainers then facilitate the training process for the entire caregiving staff of their own facility or foster care program.

Consisting of 32 simply written, interactive training modules, the training program for caregivers is designed to be completed over a period of 6 - 12 months, supporting the development of caregiving competencies over time.

Growing Great Kids for Orphanage Caregivers and Foster Parents Curriculum Training Modules include:

• The Role of the Child Caregiver
• Early Brain Development
• Fostering Secure Attachment Relationships
• The Role of Play in Relationships and Development
• Creating Safe Environments that Support Development and Healthy Relationships
• Child Development Monitoring
• Caregivers’/Foster Parents’ Role in The Case Management Process
• Baby Journals: Records of Their Early Years
• Cultural Values, Attitudes and Practices: How They Influence the Future of Abandoned and Orphaned Children

• Fostering Secure Attachment Relationships
• Developmental Stages and Tasks
• Language Development
• Temperaments
• Activities to Support Development and Relationship Building
• Discipline: Setting Limits with Love
• Health and Nutrition

• Fostering Secure Attachment Relationships
• Developmental Stages and Tasks
• Language Development
• Temperaments
• Activities to Support Development and Relationship Building
• Discipline: Setting Limits with Love
• Health and Nutrition

• Fostering Secure Attachment Relationships
• Developmental Stages and Tasks
• Language Development
• Temperaments
• Activities to Support Development and Relationship Building
• Discipline: Setting Limits with Love
• Health and Nutrition

There is an emphasis on transferring knowledge to caregiving practices, as the caregivers are expected to complete assignments between training sessions. These assignments are directly related to their hands-on care of infants and young children. They include doing Growing Great Kids activities with the children to support their healthy development.

Following the Train-the-Trainer Institute, Great Kids, Inc. provides on-site technical assistance and consultation over a period of two (2) years. During these visits orphanage trainers and supervisors are taught how to use a series of caregiver observation scales and how to provide strength-based and solution-focused feedback aimed at competency growth. This type of feedback provides motivation for progressive competency development with both caregivers and their supervisors.

For more information regarding Growing Great Kids for Orphanage Caregivers and Foster Parents, Please email Linda Elliot, Director-International Programs, lindae@greatkidsinc.org, or you may phone her in the United States at (715) 675-1123.

Overview : A Global Approach : Orphanage Training Programs : Adopt An Orphanage : Research & Program Outcomes