Kinship Conference

Kinship Conference Program

Programming & Leadership

Welcome & Resource Fair

9:00 – 9:45am

Start your day by checking in, having breakfast, and connecting with a powerful network of support at our Resource Fair! Caregivers will have the opportunity to meet and engage with a variety of agencies and professionals who serve kinship, adoptive, and foster families across New Jersey. This is a great opportunity to explore services, ask questions, and build meaningful connections to support your caregiving journey. Featured participants are shown below:

Test Your Knowledge: NJ Child Welfare & Kinship Care Trivia Experience

10:00 – 10:30am

This interactive team-learning session will replace the traditional keynote presentation and provide attendees with an opportunity to deepen their understanding of child welfare history, practices, policies, resources, and current issues affecting children and youth in care across New Jersey.

Attendees will connect, collaborate, laugh, learn, and compete for prizes while gaining valuable knowledge and resources to support children and families.

Workshop Session 1

10:45 – 11:45am

Teen Speak Part I

Raising a teenager can be tough, especially when it comes to communication. Discover Teen Speak, an evidence-informed and skill-building program that enhances communication skills between caregivers and youth. It covers critical topics such as sex, mental health, and substance use, aiming to empower youth to make safer, more informed decisions as they transition into adulthood. Due to this workshop’s length, it is split into Part I and Part II. If you are interested in this workshop, we recommend completing both Part I and Part II for the full experience.

Presenters: Somerset, Yahsana Haskins, SPEP Coordinator

Telling Difficult History

Sharing complex and painful information about a child’s history or birth family can be challenging for caregivers.  This training will assist caregivers to comfortably and confidentially talk about their child’s birth and adoption/kinship story. This training is presented by the NJ Adoption Resource Clearing House (NJ ARCH), a Program of Children’s Aid and Family Services.

Presenters: KinKonnect, Cynthia Lapidus, Assistant Director and Cecelia Gaines MEd, LPC

Supporting Youth with IDD Who are Ready to Transition out of Foster Care

This presentation will address the “nuts and bolts” of transition planning, with a focus on government services (SSI, Medicaid, DDD) and guardianship and supported decision-making. It will also explore the unique obstacles many young adults with IDD in the foster system face, including the intersectionality of disability and race, and the school-to-prison pipeline. An excellent primer on the challenges and considerations when helping individuals with disabilities enter adulthood.

Presenters: ARC of NJ, Adara Heilmann, Director of Children’s Advocacy, and Jennifer Harrison, Director of The Family Institute

Taller de Español- Visitación: Un camino para la sanación Parte 1

La visitación para los niños bajo cuidado es una parte importante para mantener la identidad del niño y las conexiones con la familia. Esta sesión entrará en detalle sobre el propósito de las visitas, que es un plan de visitación y cómo abordar las preocupaciones que surgen.

Presentadores: Los Defensores de Apoyo Familiar de embrella, Diana Burgos y Lazaro Lugo

Workshop Session 2

12:00 – 1:00pm

Teen Speak Part II

Presenters: Empower Somerset, Yahsana Haskins, SPEP Coordinator

Supporting Youth with IDD Who are Ready to Transition out of Foster Care… and Getting Them Excited About it!

After a brief summation of government services and an introduction to intellectual and developmental disabilities, we will focus on the emotional journey that young adults – and their caregivers – navigate during transition, and how to make it an exciting experience. We will discuss the benefits of strengths-based transition planning, “celebrating the wins,” the dignity of risk, and how the strengths-based approach works within the criminal justice system. These tips and tricks can turn a commonly fraught process into a joyous one.

Presenters: ARC of NJ, Adara Heilmann, Director of Children’s Advocacy, and Jennifer Harrison, Director of The Family Institute

Hidden Grief of Kinship Caregivers

Explore the often-unspoken grief experienced by kinship caregivers in a safe and supportive space to examine the impact of grief and generational trauma, while offering practical tools to foster healing, resilience, and healthy relationships for both caregivers and the children in their care.

Presenters: Travis Fuchs, embrella’s Family Support Advocate

Taller de Español- Visitación: Un camino para la sanación Parte 2

En la segunda parte, echaremos un vistazo al papel importante que juegan los cuidadores para promover de forma positiva el tiempo de familia, los beneficios de trabajar en equipo con la familia y cómo se pueden superar los sentimientos personales asociados con las visitas.

Presentadores: Los Defensores de Apoyo Familiar de embrella, Diana Burgos y Lazaro Lugo

Lunch & Resource Fair

1:15 – 2:30pm

Lunch will be provided, along with a Resource Fair to meet with exhibitors.

Raffles & Closing

2:30pm

We’ll end the day with a raffles game and closing remarks.

Workshop Leaders

Adara Heilmann

Director of Children’s Advocacy at The Arc of New Jersey

Adara Heilmann is the Director of Children’s Advocacy at The Arc of New Jersey and holds a master’s degree in Child Advocacy and Policy from Montclair State University. With a professional background in social work and the mental health fields, Adara joined The Arc in 2023.

Cecelia Gaines MEd, LPC

Warm Line Specialist and Trainer, NJARCH and KinKonnect

Ms. Gaines is a New Jersey Licensed Professional Counselor with a diverse background in both education and therapy. She holds a Master’s degree from Temple University and an undergraduate degree from American University. Over the course of her 15-year career, she has worked in various counseling roles. Initially, she served as a School Counselor in middle schools, before transitioning to the nonprofit sector as an in-home and outpatient therapist working primarily with foster and pre/post adoptive children and families. Ms. Gaines expanded her expertise by completing the Adoption Certificate Program at the Rutgers School of Social Work. She is also a trained facilitator of Tuning in to Teens, an evidence-based emotion coaching parenting program.

In 2024, she joined Children’s Aid & Family Services’ NJ Adoption Resource Clearing House and KinKonnect as the Warm Line Specialist and Trainer, where she applies her extensive knowledge to support adoptive, foster, and kinship families. Ms. Gaines is also a dedicated mother to two young children, ages 6 and 9.

Cynthia Lapidus

Assistant Director, NJ Adoption Resource Clearing House (NJ ARCH) and Kinship Care Clearing House (KinKonnect)

Ms. Lapidus is the Director of the NJ Adoption Resource Clearing House (NJ ARCH) and the Kinship Care Clearing House (KinKonnect), both key programs of Children’s Aid and Family Services in South Orange, NJ. Ms. Lapidus has been with NJ ARCH and KinKonnect for the past 9 years, initially serving as the Warm Line and Training Specialist before stepping into her current role. With 30 years of experience as an adoption social worker across New Jersey, she has worked extensively with families throughout the adoption process, from pre- to post-adoption, both domestically and internationally. Ms. Lapidus has facilitated numerous support groups, conferences, and training sessions for adoptive parents, foster parents, and kinship caregivers.

Ms. Lapidus holds a degree from Elizabethtown College and an Adoption Certificate from Rutgers University. She is also a trained facilitator of Tuning in to Teens, an evidence-based emotion coaching parenting program. In 2024, Ms. Lapidus was honored as an Angel in Adoption by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute, a recognition for her outstanding work and advocacy in the adoption community. Ms. Lapidus is the proud mother of three children, two by birth and one by adoption.

Diana Burgos

Family Support Advocate,
Morris, Sussex, and Passaic Counties, embrella

Diana Burgos is a Bilingual Family Support Advocate for embrella. Diana, despite having limited knowledge or experience with English, made the decision to move to the United States from Colombia and has been a resident of Morris County for the past 25 years. Through her immigration to the US, she faced many challenges, her passion for learning, the encouraging people she met, and her desire to help others sustained her through her most difficult times. Through her journey, she became increasingly aware of the need for advocacy for families, and especially children, when they find themselves in a situation that causes them to leave not only their home, but everything familiar to them. Her experiences interning with the Passaic County C.A.S.A. and volunteering with the Jersey Battered Women’s Service led Diana to pursue and obtain her Master’s degree in Child Advocacy from Montclair State University. Diana will combine her knowledge and skills to support families who have decided to foster children and give them a safe place to live. She looks forward to connecting with the Morris, Sussex, and Passaic child welfare community.

Jennifer Harrison

Director of the Family Institute, Co-Manager of the Youth Advisory Board at The Arc of New Jersey

A former writer and editor, she holds a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy and Drama from Franklin & Marshall College and a master’s degree in Criminal Justice from Boston University, where she concentrated on strengths-based programming and reentry reform. She formerly served as Coordinator of the Sexual Violence Prevention Project with The Arc of NJ and then as Director of Planning for Adult Life, and has volunteered with the Union County Juvenile Conference Committee for almost a decade. Jennifer has two daughters and lives with her husband and dog, Jimmy.

Lazaro Lugo

Family Support Advocate,
Atlantic, Burlington, and Cape May Counties, embrella

Lazaro Lugo is a Bilingual Family Support Advocate for embrella. Lazaro has a degree in Sociology with a concentration in Criminal Justice from St. Francis College in New York. The last seven years of Lazaro’s career has been dedicated to educating, mentoring, and empowering fathers/males as a Fatherhood Program Coordinator and Male Engagement Specialist with the National Healthy Start Association and NICHq (National Institute for Children’s Health Equity.) He is certified and licensed in the early childhood intervention model A.B.C. (Attachment Bio-behavioral Catchup), National Fatherhood Initiative 24/7 Dads curriculum, and C.O.S.P. (Circle of Security Parenting) International early intervention program curriculum for parents and children. Lazaro is a practicing artist who utilizes various expressions of art as therapy when engaging with families in the community. Recently relocated from Brooklyn, Lazaro now resides in Burlington County, New Jersey, with his wife, their four children, and the family pet dog, Luke Lugo.

Travis Fuchs

Family Support Advocate, Hunterdon, Mercer,
Somerset, and Warren Counties, embrella

Travis Fuchs is a Family Support Advocate at embrella. Travis is a former licensed resource parent as well as the adoptive father of 5 children. Having previously been a volunteer mentor though embrella’s Heart to Heart program and presenter at CP&P Pride Trainings and recruitment events, Travis is passionate about assisting and educating caregivers as well as advocating for children in care and fostering bonds with birth families.

Yahsana Haskins

SPEP Coordinator, Empower Somerset

Yahsana Haskins is the Statewide Parent Engagement Program (SPEP) Coordinator at Empower Somerset. She is passionate about working within the community and connecting individuals to resources they may need. She learned how mental and physical well being are shaped by community support, which reinforced her belief in helping others and creating healthier environments.