Regional Resources
Region 2
Welcome! You’re in Region 2, which includes Benton, Columbia, Franklin, Kittitas, Klickitat, Walla Walla, and Yakima counties.
Mentors help you by providing emotional support, sharing their experiences, and connecting you to regional and state resources. They are experienced caregivers who are familiar with the supports and services available in your region. Mentors are generalists who can help all types of caregivers statewide find the resources and support they need for successful placements. Mentors do not offer legal, medical, or mental health advice.
Sylvia Cardenas
CaRES Mentor Region 2 & Spanish Speaking Community Specialist
sylviac1@uw.edu
Sylvia obtained a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration through Central State University. She has lived in Eastern Washington all her life and really enjoys the large variety of outdoor activities. Sylvia and her husband became kinship caregivers in 2017. This experience lit the fire in them to do more and both decided to become licensed foster parents. She has a passion for helping others understand the need for foster parents in our communities. She noticed there was a need to assist limited English speaking individuals who wanted to become foster parents. This is when she began to serve as a foster parent recruiter/mentor for monolingual Spanish speaking individuals. She understands not all individuals can become foster parents, but there is always a way to support our children in foster care.
Tyann Whitworth
Tyann and her family began their fostering journey in 2008 while living in Utah. There they specialized in fostering older youth specifically struggling with addiction and/or behavioral support needs. They relocated to Yakima in 2013 and within a year were licensed as foster parents in Washington State and switched their focus from teens to elementary aged kiddos- specifically wanting to open their home to sibling groups in order to provide kiddos with as much connection to their own family as possible. In total the Whitworths have fostered over 60 children and in 2018 they were blessed to have the opportunity to adopt their youngest daughter. The Whitworth’s have 4 children in total and one amazing daughter-in-law!
In 2014 Tyann began working as a foster parent mentor and led the mentoring program in Region 2 from 2015-2000. Tyann also has experience working with a local private agency supporting youth with Behavioral Rehabilitation Services (BRS) and briefly worked for DCYF as a social worker. Caregiver support has become part of her DNA and she loves to help families navigate through their fostering/kinship caregiver journey.
We know caregivers feel successful in their journey when they are connected to other caregivers. That is why Alliance CaRES is in the community to help you come together with other local foster and kinship families to share common challenges, feel heard, and solve problems.
Our Community Connectors are foster parents and other supporters who coordinate local in-person events to bring together caregivers in their communities. Say hi to your local Connectors Ashley and Audrey, at the next event you attend!
June
Yakima Community Group: Join our Community Connector Ashley from 5-7 p.m. Sunday, June 11, for an evening playdate at Volunteer Park in Selah. Bring your dinner or a snack and enjoy a picnic with other local caregivers as you foster connections and problem-solve shared struggles. Direct any questions to yakimacares@gmail.com.
Prosser Community Group: Join our Community Connector Audrey from 6-8 p.m. Tuesday, June 20, at Friendship Baptist Church (1801 Paterson Road, Prosser). Enter through the doors at the back of the church. Please bring a potluck item for a meal together. No training this month but childcare will still be available while the caregivers take some time to connect. RSVP to prossercares@gmail.com.
Supportive Facilitated Discussion Groups
Topic-based conversations bring caregivers with similar needs together to find solutions while earning training credit. Caregivers’ knowledge is the foundation for shared problem-solving and self-advocacy skills.
Check the calendar below for current listings or, for a complete list of our supportive facilitated discussion groups, click here.
Training Credit of the Month
Fostering Across Race, Ethnicity, and Culture: Join us for a special session of this topic support group! The conversation will be specifically tailored to Black caregivers and caregivers of Black children and youth.
Welcoming a child into your home, even temporarily, means accepting and affirming their whole selves. When a child has a different racial, ethnic, or cultural background than yours, it can be challenging to know the best ways to properly care for their unique physical, spiritual, and cultural needs.
During this facilitated discussion, caregivers will share their racial, ethnic, or cultural perspective and develop strategies for meeting the needs of a child who has a different background or perspective. The discussion will also include some tips and tricks for finding resources, maintaining community connections, and addressing biases in the community. Register here!
Special Events
We offer a wide, and ever-changing range of Special Events to highlight important topics, times, and communities. These are a special chance to hear from an expert, have fun, learn together, or celebrate.
Queer Caregiver Connection
As an LGBTQIA+ caregiver have you felt that your Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression (SOGIE) impacts your fostering journey?
Join Trey CaRES LGBTQIA+ Community Specialist and fellow kinship and foster caregivers who identify as LGBTQIA+. Come together for informal connection to create community, discuss ideas for future events and get togethers. We’ll also provide opportunities for folks to connect based on Regions. 6:30-8 p.m. Tuesday, June 13.
Join us here on Zoom.
Wellness Resource Wednesday
Special session of Wellness Resource Wednesday, continue building your awareness of wellness resources that can support you and the children in your care.
This session will start with a 45-minute presentation by Dr. Balentine, focusing on mindful self-compassion for caregivers and the child in their care. Practical examples of how to incorporate at home will be shared along the way. Self-compassion promotes mental health, and research shows that teaching these skills to children when they are young can have lasting, positive effects. Presentation will be followed by a question-and-answer session.
6:30-8 p.m. on Wednesday June 21, 2023. Join us here on Zoom.
Dr. Balentine works with children, teens, and adults who are willing to step into nature-based and mindfulness work, especially to treat issues including anxiety, depression, trauma, loss, relationship challenges, and dysregulation. She integrates a number of evidence-based interventions into therapy, including EMDR, CBT, play therapy, ACT, DBT, and IFS.
She is a mindfulness teacher and has trained at UCSD Center for Mindfulness, where she also teaches a mindful self-compassion program for children she co-developed with fellow teacher Lorraine Hobbs. They are also the co-authors of the Self-Compassion Workbook for Kids published in 2022.
Drop-in Discussions
Drop-In groups provide a chance for caregivers to connect with each other online for support and resources informally. Sometimes you just need to have a conversation with someone else who “gets it”. As Drop-In groups are not specific trainings and have no curriculum, they do not qualify for training credit.
What can I share in the group? Will my social worker or licensor know I attended this group? Will I receive training credit for attending? Find the answer to these and other questions by clicking here and reading the Drop-In Group FAQ.
Lunch with Luanne: Personal support for those getting a kinship or general foster license. Lunch with Luanne is the place to come to get your licensing questions answered.
Every Tuesday 12:00 to 1:00 pm Click here to join the Zoom session.
It’s All Relative: Kinship Support Drop by for kinship resources, help with licensing, and answers to your kinship questions.
First Thursday from 7:00 – 8:00 pm Click here to join the Zoom session.
TBRI Tuesday: Dive in and discuss parenting challenges using Trust Based Relational Intervention principles! Gather with other caregivers as we discuss how to connect, empower and correct children the TBRI way.
*There is no need to have completed a TBRI training to attend this group. Just come and learn more!
Second Tuesday of each month 7:30 – 8:30 PM Click here to join the Zoom session.
Most of these are available to foster and kinship families, some require proof of caregiver status, usually in the form of a foster care license. This is noted whenever we are aware of it. The Alliance CaRES program does not support or endorse any of the listed items; they are compiled for your convenience. We make every effort to keep these up-to-date, if you know of a correction or an item not listed, please let us know by emailing notifycares@uw.edu
Check out these places in your area that offer discounts or free opportunities or items to families in the care system from CaRES Free and Discounted Resources for Foster and Kinship Caregivers (Click Here to Download the Full Guide):
- Beautiful Threads: Offer a variety of clothing and other items for all ages of youth in foster care.
- Compassion Closet: Clothing closet in Ellensburg.
- Mo’s Place: Supports foster families in the TriCities, Walla Walla, and the surrounding areas through networking, encouragement, training, and engagement.
- Gold’s Gym in TriCities: Provide a valid foster care license or pocket card to receive the discount. $0 enrollment fee, $29 per month, $39 annual fee 60 days from the starting point. This is per person. It is also a 1-year agreement. Members do have to be 12yrs and up to use the gym floor. Email judy@goldsgym.fitness for more information and to sign up.
- Splash & Swim School: In TriCities offers 20% discounts for foster families. Please show your foster parent license or pocket card to receive the discount.
- Voices for Children: Gives buddy bags and has a Wish and Need fund available throughout the Yakima Valley.
The Alliance CaRES program does not support or endorse any of the listed items; they are compiled for your convenience. We make every effort to keep these up-to-date, if you know of a correction or an item not listed, please let us know by emailing notifycares@uw.edu
Check out the full guide with even more Free and Discounted Resources for Foster and Kinship Caregivers:
Boys & Girls Club: Members ages 6 to18 years-old get a no-cost Boys & Girls Club basic membership, covered by Coordinated Care.
DCYF Who to Contact Resources for Foster Parents and Kinship Caregivers: Knowing who to contact for different needs can be really hard for foster parents and kinship caregiver in a large child welfare system. This guide lets caregivers know who to contact about different topics.
DSHS Reduced Cost Service Guide: The Reduced Cost Services Guide highlights a variety of products and services available in or near Washington state that are offered at reduced cost for people meeting certain income levels.
Fosterful: Through trauma-informed care practices, provide nurturing environments and basic necessities to kids entering foster care. Located across the state and expanding.
Foster Parents Association of Washington State (FPAWS): Support and advocacy organization representing adoptive/foster/kinship and birth parent voices at the Regional, State, and National levels. They offer a multitude of supportive services, trainings, and opportunities.
IFoster: A free, members-only community supporting children in or at-risk of entry into child welfare, to access the resources and opportunities they need to become successful, independent adults.
Imagination Library of Washington: Enroll your child online. In 6-8 weeks, your child will receive their first book in the mail, ‘The Little Engine That Could’. Books arrive in the mail monthly until your child’s 5th birthday.
Treehouse: Offers many programs to youth across the state including educational support, holiday gifts, driver’s assistance, a clothing closet and just in time funding program.
CaRES Statewide Mentors & Specialist
Mentors and Specialists can help you by providing emotional support, sharing their experiences, and connecting you to regional and state resources. Specialists can help caregivers by providing emotional support, sharing their experiences, and connecting them to resources. They have an area of dedicated knowledge that may be especially important for a caregiver looking for understanding. Mentors and Specialists do not offer legal, medical, or mental health advice.
Camille Hereth
CaRES Trauma-Informed Caregiving Specialist
Check back shortly for updated information on our newest Caregiving Specialist.
Christina Urtasun
CaRES Statewide Mentor
Curtasun@uw.edu
Christina has been a licensed foster parent, in Oak Harbor, for twenty years. She has been involved in many aspects of the foster care community including providing liaison services with Fostering Together program for 13 years and being a co-trainer with the Alliance for Child Welfare. Christina is excited to join the Alliance CaRES program as a mentor so she can continue supporting and encouraging families as well as help them navigate the system. Christina has four sons and one daughter. In her spare time, Christina loves to be hiking, camping, reading, and spending time with her family.
Deshanna Brown
CaRES Mentor Region 3, 4, & Culturally Conscious Caregiving Specialist, Caregivers and Children of Color
dbrown27@uw.edu
Deshanna has been working in the Foster Care field in various roles for six-plus years. She has been a visit supervisor, a case manager, and is a current volunteer Child Appointed Advocate in Pierce county. Most recently, she worked at Amara as a Foster Care Specialist. Along with these roles within the system, she is also a kinship caregiver. Deshanna’s passion for working with children and families in foster care comes from her drive to help every child find permanency. She loves helping families find the resources they need to help a child in their home thrive and helping foster parents and kinship caregivers navigate the world of foster care.
Emmanuel Camarillo
Spanish Speaking Community Specialist
Ec2643@uw.edu
Emmanuel Camarillo holds an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership from the University of Washington Tacoma. His research focused on understanding the connection between the training that therapeutic foster parents receive and placement disruption. In addition, his research provided recommendations to foster care agencies looking to retain skilled foster parents and increase the quality and stability of children’s experience in therapeutic foster care programs. Prior to working in child welfare, Emmanuel worked in higher education for six years. Emmanuel and his fiance Francisco have been foster parents for the last three years. He has volunteered at The Foster Closet in Bellingham since 2018. He also serves as a board member of Foster Hearts, an organization that strives to improve the lives of children in foster care, ensuring each child has their basic needs met and providing life-enhancing opportunities. Most recently, Emmanuel was selected as a 1624 Region 3 representative to serve as a liaison between caregivers and DCYF.
Francisco Javier Contreras Alvarez
Spanish Speaking Community Specialist
Fc886670@uw.edu
Francisco is currently a licensed foster parent. Francisco and his partner have fostered over 13 children and youth in their home and are currently fostering a 14 yr old boy for about 2 years now. Francisco obtained his Bachelor’s Degree in Human Services with a minor in Spanish from Western Washington University. Francisco currently holds the position as case manager which brings skills and knowledge working with and for families by supporting and providing sources to help them reach their goals and meet their needs. Francisco is also a volunteer for the Foster Closet in Bellingham since 2018 and serves as a board member of Fosters Hearts, an organization that strives to improve the lives of children in foster care, ensuring each child has their basic needs met and providing life-enhancing opportunities. Francisco is passionate about supporting and advocating for marginalized and underrepresented communities where families and children from these communities can reach their potential by providing resources to further the knowledge and education of the community.
Matthew Sam-Thornhill
CaRES Culturally Conscious Caregiving Specialist, Indian Children
Check back shortly for updated information on our newest Culturally Conscious Caregiving Specialist.
Nathan LaChine
CaRES Mentor Region 5, 6, & LGBTQIA+ Community Specialist
nlachine@uw.edu
Nathan has been a therapeutic foster parent with Community Youth Services serving BRS Youth for the past 16 years. He has held a variety of roles within the foster care community and has been a strong advocate within the LGBTQ2IA+ community. Through his teaching and public speaking, Nathan hopes to elevate and provide a voice for system involved families.
Sarah Rachael Edwards-Strode
CaRES Mentor Region 5 & Medically Complex Caregiving Specialist
Srstrode@uw.edu
Sarah and her husband David have been licensed foster parents for nearly 15 years. Before changing her goals to pursuing an education in nursing, Sarah was a ballet director for 20 years. While originally the Strode’s were focused on caring for drug affected infants, their concentration morphed into a focus and advocacy for medically complex and medically fragile foster children. The Strode’s have 8 children. Two biological, four adopted through foster care, and currently two medically fragile foster children. Sarah has a passion for advocating for the unseen and unheard. She specializes in burn survivor care as well as caring for those with intellectual and chronic illnesses and diagnosis. Sarah is thrilled to be part of Alliance CaRES and working along side other families wanting to care for the medically complex foster child as well as those just starting their foster care journey.
Sylvia Cardenas
CaRES Mentor Region 2 & Spanish Speaking Community Specialist
sylviac1@uw.edu
Sylvia obtained a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration through Central State University. She has lived in Eastern Washington all her life and really enjoys the large variety of outdoor activities. Sylvia and her husband became kinship caregivers in 2017. This experience lit the fire in them to do more and both decided to become licensed foster parents. She has a passion for helping others understand the need for foster parents in our communities. She noticed there was a need to assist limited English speaking individuals who wanted to become foster parents. This is when she began to serve as a foster parent recruiter/mentor for monolingual Spanish speaking individuals. She understands not all individuals can become foster parents, but there is always a way to support our children in foster care.
Trey Rabun
CaRES LGBTQIA+ Community Specialist
trabun@uw.edu
Trey holds a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Hampton University, a master’s degree in Human Development and Family Studies from the University of Illinois, and a Master’s in Social Work from the University of Washington He has worked as a foster care social worker supporting youth in foster care and their caregivers, doing foster parent recruitment, and currently leads Amara’s efforts to create programming focused on supporting kinship families in the child welfare system. Trey also manages various LGBTQIA+ programs including a partnership with Gays with Kids and current member of DCYF’s LGBTQIA+ Advisory Group. Personally, Trey and his husband were foster parents for five years and have a 7-year-old adopted son.
Would you like to have one of our wonderful mentors reach out to you for individualized support? Send us an email or leave a voice mail with your contact information, a sentence or two about what general areas you need support in, and if you need language support or interpretation.
If you are sending a referral on behalf of a caregiver, please also let us know if they are expecting a call from us. Mentors will respond within 48 hours.
alliancecares@uw.edu or call 206-221-4913
If you are a caregiver going through an investigation, be sure to visit our page on support for allegations and investigations.
Never Miss an Event with CaRES: To add the Region 2 Calendar to your personal Google Calendar, click on the plus sign in the bottom right corner of the calendar. This will open your personal Google Calendar webpage and give you the option to add the CaRES event calendars for this region and the state.