Sharon Kingsley 2000
HDFS Major, Women's Studies minor
Additional Education: PA Child Welfare Competency-Based Training and Certification Program; Conferences on Reactive Attachment Disorder
Job Title: Resource Home Coordinator
Employer: COBYS Family Services
Position Description: As a Resource Home Coordinator, Sharon recruits, trains and approves new foster or adoptive families. She also takes referrals for children who need to be placed in foster or adoptive care and matches them with appropriate families within COBYS network of resource families.
Salary Range: $24,000 - $38,000
Previously Held Positions: Reunification Caseworker, Foster Care Caseworker
Courses Found Most Helpful: Dynamics of Family Interaction & Child, Adolescent, & Adult Development – very useful as a basis for understanding the children in the foster care system and their biological parents. Strategies – extremely helpful in understanding how to develop a comprehensive program, as I have the responsibility of maintaining and updating our training program for new resource families. Statistics – I use the information I learned in Statistics on a monthly basis, as I compile and analyze the statistics regarding the referrals I receive from county Children and Youth agencies, as well as information regarding the openings for children in our resources homes. Race, Ethnicity, & Gender
How HDFS Program Helped to Prepare her:
Family Studies provided a foundation for me to understand the dynamics of the Child Welfare system and the children, birth parents, foster and adoptive families in it. I gained critical thinking skills necessary to prepare foster and adoptive families as they enter into the foster care system, and to match a foster child with the most appropriate family. My coursework prepared me to simultaneously be an independent worker and a member of a team of people working to protect and nurture hurting children.
