Safe Babies Training | First3years

Safe Babies 2025 Training Series

Embark on a transformative learning experience with our Safe Babies Training Series, meticulously designed to empower child welfare professionals. Throughout the year, our dedicated Safe Babies team orchestrates comprehensive training sessions aimed at equipping professionals with the knowledge and skills crucial for safeguarding the well-being of our youngest community members. Collaborating seamlessly with trusted community partners, we ensure the delivery of dynamic and engaging training sessions tailored to meet the diverse needs of all child welfare stakeholders. Join us on this journey of continuous education, as we strive to create a safer and nurturing environment for the most vulnerable in our community.

1.5 clock hour training certificate available after completion of post event survey

MCLE'S available upon request

Quiet Whispers: Unseen Stories of Babies in the System

April 17, 2025

10:00 - 11:30 AM

Summary: This session will explore the often-overlooked experiences of babies in the child welfare system—those who cannot speak for themselves, yet whose early encounters shape their futures in profound ways. Through the lens of infant mental health, we’ll challenge the myth that early separations are easily forgotten. Together, we will uncover the hidden costs of developmental trauma, emphasizing that every decision about placement and reunification must prioritize the child's emotional and psychological needs. Using creative dialogue, we will "speak for the baby," giving voice to what infants might experience during moments of loss, transition, and change.

This webinar aims to equip professionals—attorneys, judges, social workers, service providers, CASA, direct service staff and more—with evidence-based strategies to reduce trauma, foster secure attachments, and focus on relationships. Our goal is to shift the perspective from viewing babies as isolated individuals to understanding them within their vital relational networks, ensuring their well-being in the long term.

Learning Objectives:

Understand the impact of early separation and developmental trauma on infants' immediate well-being and long-term development.
Gain insights into the critical role of attachment in shaping a child’s emotional and psychological health.
Learn practical strategies that professionals can apply to support infants and families within the child welfare system.
Deepen their understanding of the parent-child relationship, shifting from seeing babies in isolation to considering their essential relational context.

Presented by:

Heather Pugh, MS Infant/Child Specialist, IMH-E®

Heather Pugh is an Infant Mental Health Training Specialist based in Fort Worth, Texas, with over a decade of experience working alongside infants, toddlers, families, and the professionals who support them. With a background spanning early intervention, child welfare, statewide training initiatives, and strategic planning, she is passionate about bridging the gap between research and real-world practice.

Heather believes that relationships are at the heart of all meaningful work, whether supporting families, mentoring professionals, or shifting systems. She is committed to challenging the status quo in child welfare, advocating for approaches that prioritize connection, healing, and family preservation. Now, she is working to bring reflective consultation into the child welfare space, fostering a culture of curiosity, self-awareness, and intentional practice among professionals.

Through engaging, thought-provoking trainings, Heather encourages professionals to reflect on their role in the lives of young children and families, helping them build stronger, more supportive systems.

The Parent-Baby Paradox: Supporting One Means Saving Both

May 15, 2025

10:00 - 11:45 AM CST

Summary: The child welfare system often treats parents as problems to be managed and babies as innocent victims to be saved. But this oversimplified view ignores a deeper truth: a baby’s best chance at healing is directly tied to their parent’s healing. True safety and well-being aren’t built through separation- they’re built through connection and support.

In this reflective and emotionally grounded session, we’ll explore how biases about parents- especially those navigating poverty, trauma, and mental health challenges- shape decisions, policies, and case plans. We’ll unpack how these biases ripple through the system, ultimately disrupting the very parent-child relationships babies rely on to grow, heal, and thrive.

Grounded in the science of infant mental health, attachment, and trauma, this session invites participants to pause and reconsider: Are current approaches truly protecting babies, or are they perpetuating cycles of harm?

Through storytelling, reflective practice, and a closer look at tools like reflective consultation, we’ll consider how slowing down, challenging assumptions, and making space for complexity can create more effective, healing-centered support- for parents, for babies, and for the professionals tasked with making life-altering decisions.

Because when parents heal, babies heal. And when we center connection over compliance, we begin to break the cycles of harm- one family, one relationship at a time.

Learning Objectives:

Explore how implicit bias and personal narratives shape professional perceptions of parents- and how these biases influence decisions that impact a baby’s safety, stability, and future relationships.
Examine how relational connection during the first three years directly shapes a baby’s brain development, emotional well-being, and lifelong resilience- and why separation often causes more harm than protection.
Reflect on how reflective consultation offers a space for professionals to process their own experiences, examine bias, and strengthen their ability to hold parents and babies with empathy and clarity.

Presented by:

Heather Pugh, MS Infant/Child Specialist, IMH-E®