Amaia Bravo, PhD in Psychology (2002), is Full Professor of Psychosocial Intervention at the University of Oviedo, in Spain. She codirects the Child and Family Research Group (GIFI) of the Department of Psychology (University of Oviedo) and develops her specific lines in the assessment of needs of unaccompanied migrant children and in mental health problems of children and young people in residential care. Her main area of research focuses on therapeutic residential care programs in Spain, assessing needs and profiles of young people as well as quality of services. She has a long experience training residential workers and practitioners in the field of child care, especially residential care.
Jorge Fernández del Valle es Catedrático de Intervención Social de la Universidad de Oviedo.
Director del GIFI (Grupo de Investigación en Familia e Infancia) cuya línea principal es la evaluación de programas de acogimiento tanto residencial como familiar, y el desarrollo de instrumentos que faciliten la labor de los profesionales de este ámbito. Como investigador pertenece a importantes grupos internacionales como las redes de INTRAC (investigación sobre transiciones a la vida independiente desde la protección infantil), la International Research Network on Foster Care y la red APFEL para la Promoción del Acogimiento Familiar en Europa. Es igualmente miembro del comité directivo de EUSARF (European Scientific Association on Residential & Family Care for Children and Adolescents) y coordinador del Grupo de Trabajo Internacional de Acogimiento Residencial terapéutico junto con Lisa Holmes y James Whitaker.
Sycamores Chief Program Officer Joe Ford is an award-winning youth advocate with 34 years of experience working with young people. At Sycamores, he oversees the Residential, Community Mental Health, and Transitional Independent Living programs. Beginning his career as a crisis management and recreation specialist at Pacific Clinics, he concurrently worked at Five Acres in Altadena, where he served for 17 years as a residential treatment child caregiver, crisis intervention specialist, and director of multiple programs. Later, he worked at the Boys & Girls Club of Pasadena for over 16 years and served on its Board of Directors for over 10 years.
He also sits on the Board of Directors of the Association of Children’s Residential & Community Centers where he served as Board President, and currently sits on the City of Pasadena’s Human Services Commission. Mr. Ford has been recognized for his outstanding work with the 2010 Professional of the Year award from Los Angeles County for dedication and advocacy for children and families, and the 2014 NAACP-Pasadena Branch President’s Award.
Mercedes García Ruiz. Doctora en Psicología. Educadora Social. Sexóloga. Formación en Arteterapia. Experta en Cooperación Internacional.
Coordinadora de programas sociales y de salud con jóvenes. Jefa de Area de Participación en la DG de Salud Pública.
En los últimos quince años ha trabajado en la Dirección General de Infancia y Familias de Asturias como directora de dos centros de menores, técnica en equipo de la sección de Familia. En la actualidad es coordinadora del Observatorio de Infancia y Adolescencia de Asturias. Investigadora , docente y autora de diversos programas de educación sexual, programas de mediación artística y gestión emocional. Colabora en proyectos de cooperación y sensibilización sobre salud sexual con adolescentes en Latinoamérica,
Carla González, PhD in Psychology and Education (2019), works as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oviedo, in the Family and Child and Family Research Group (GIFI). She is also an associate Professor of Developmental Psychology at the University of Cantabria. Her main line of research is related to the emotional and behavioural needs of children in Residential Care. As a result, she has participated in research projects and is the author of several articles in this field. Carla has been working for several years on the practical transfer of this line of work, training and working with social educators in the development of intervention strategies to address these problems. She is currently one of the referents in the support and supervision of CARE model implementation in Cantabria (Spain).
Mercedes Gutiérrez Arriola es Psicóloga experta en Psicología de la Intervención Social y Experta profesional en maltrato infantil. Viene desempeñando su trabajo desde hace 24 años en la Fundación Cuin para la Ayuda y Protección de la Infancia y Juventud de Cantabria.
Dedica sus funciones a la organización y supervisión de los programas e intervenciones socioeducativas en los hogares, así como al apoyo y orientación a los equipos educativos. Es también la responsable del Sistema de Gestión de Calidad de la Fundación
Martha J. Holden, Director of the Residential Child Care Project at Cornell University, is the author of the book, CARE: Creating Conditions for Change, a program model for residential child caring organizations and the lead developer of the Therapeutic Crisis Intervention System (TCI). Ms. Holden provides technical assistance to agencies to implement CARE in residential child caring agencies, juvenile justice programs, schools, and child welfare organizations throughout the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and Spain. Previously Ms. Holden served as an administrator overseeing the day-to-day operations of a residential treatment agency for adolescents.
Lisa joined the School of Education and Social Work at the University of Sussex in January 2022 as Professor of Applied Social Science. Prior to this she was an Associate Professor and Deputy Director of Research in the Department of Education, University of Oxford.
Over the past twenty years Lisa has carried out a range of research and evaluation projects, with a particular focus on the relationship between needs, costs and outcomes of services and support provided to children and families. Lisa has published a range of books, journal articles and project evaluation reports.
Along with her colleagues, Professor James Whittaker and Professor Jorge F del Valle, Lisa is co-chair of the International Work Group for Therapeutic Residential Care and is a board member of the European Scientific Association on Residential And Family Care For Children And Adolescents. In late 2017, along with colleagues at UCL and the University of Oxford, Lisa established the Children's Social Care Data User Group (https://cscdug.co.uk/). The group provides a forum to share expertise and learning between all users and potential users (academic, practice and policy) of children's social care data.
Lisa first started her career in children's social care as an outreach worker in the early 1990s, followed by three years working as a residential social worker in a local authority children’s home in England.
Is a full professor in the Department of Social Work and Social Welfare at the University of Kassel in Germany. Until 2016 she held a tenured professorship at Loma Linda University, California, USA, where she taught for twelve years and continues to be adjunct faculty. Prof. James received her social work education in the United States (PhD 2003, University of Southern California). A primary focus of Prof. James’ current work is understanding the role residential youth care within different cultural contexts.
Mette Lausten is Senior Researcher at VIVE – The Danish Center for Social Science Research.
Mette’s main research areas are analyses of children and young people in need and children and young people in out-of-home care in particular. The analyses contain both cross-sectional and longitudinal data, as well as survey and administrative data, including information on child well-being, involvement in care order decision-making, parental background characteristics, and specific outcome measures such as education and employment.
Mette Lausten has 25 years of experience in quantitatively combining survey and administrative data, the last 12 years with a specific focus on children and young people in out-of-home care. Being the PI of several longitudinal datasets on the wellbeing of children and young people in out-of-home care and focusing on a large number of well-being indicators, the link between register data and questionnaire data provides a unique opportunity for longitudinal analyses of wellbeing amongst and outcomes for young people transitioning out of care.
Mette is an active member of international research networks, including EUSARF, the International Work Group for Therapeutic Residential Care, NORDLOCH, the Nordic Network on Longitudinal Child Welfare Research, and the Nordic Network on Marketization of Child Welfare Services.
Sycamores President & CEO Debra Manners has dedicated her career to improving the lives of children and families in our community and throughout Southern California. A licensed clinical social worker, Ms. Manners received a master’s degree in Social Work from the University of Washington. Her first two professional jobs, working in a women’s prison and a children’s shelter, shaped her commitment to understanding and treating both the immediate and lifelong effects of childhood trauma.
She joined Sycamores in 1987 and has served as President & CEO since 2015. Dedicated to innovative solutions, she has been key to the development of new programs at Sycamores that have become the industry standard, including housing and mental health programs for Transition Age Youth, the use of Parent Partners/Peer Support Advocates, and the use of trauma-informed best practices. She serves on statewide and national boards focusing on behavioral health and child well-being public policy. Through her collaboration with other public, private, and governmental agencies her impact extends far beyond
those served by Sycamores.
Dip SW, BA Hons, Sector Led Improvement Program – No Wrong Door (NWD).
Janice has extensive experience across youth, community and residential provision. She has led several residential homes in England to ‘outstanding’ Ofsted judgements (regulatory and inspection framework) and contributed to the development of award-winning services within the residential and edge of care sector. She is a committed advocate of joined up services for vulnerable adolescents.
As the co-author of North Yorkshire County Council’s NWD model, Janice has been instrumental in the design and effective delivery of this innovative approach. The learning from it has supported many local authorities and organizations to ‘re-think care’ for adolescents.
NWD was chosen as one of three evidence informed models to be rolled out nationally in England between 2019-2024, as part of the Department for Education Strengthening Families, Protecting Children Program. Janice was the author of North Yorkshire’s offer and the strategic lead for the roll out of the program.
Janice is passionate about providing young people with improved opportunities to develop their life chances and believes that relationships are at the heart of practice both with young people, staff teams and key partners. She believes that a ‘learning community’ is vital and that skills, experience and resources can be shared and pooled, which not only benefits young people but delivers more cost-effective services.
Janice is the author of one of the ‘from the field’ chapters in the newly published international volume: ‘Revitalizing Residential Care for Children and Youth – cross national trends and challenges’ (OU Press, Whittaker, Holmes, Del Valle and James 2022).
Es Educadora Social y Experta en Protección a la Infancia y la Adolescencia. Tiene el Master de Protección a la Infancia y la Adolescencia.
Desarrolla su profesión en los Hogares de Ángeles Custodios dentro del sistema de Acogimiento Residencial de Cantabria. Realiza la función de coordinación y orientación del equipo educativo y la de supervisar las intervenciones socioeducativas que se dan en este contexto.
Asume desde 2018 la organización de formación en el Colegio de Educación Social de Cantabria.
Luis Elías Sancirián es Pedagogo, Educador Social por el Colegio Oficial de Cantabria, Máster en Inteligencia Emocional y Máster en Protección a la Infancia y Adolescencia. Desempeña su trabajo desde hace 23 años en Fundación Diagrama Intervención Psicosocial en Cantabria, donde ha tenido responsabilidades en centros para el cumplimiento de medidas judiciales y en los hogares de protección que Fundación Diagrama desarrolla en Cantabria. Actualmente es director de la Residencia de Medidas Judiciales de Parayas y realiza funciones de asesor técnico para la implantación del Modelo CARE en la residencia de Primera Acogida El Acebo.
Jim began his career in 1962 as a child care worker at the Walker School in Needham, Massachusetts, an innovative therapeutic residential care center for emotionally disturbed children under founding executive director, Harvard trained clinical psychologist Dr. Albert E. Trieschman. In 1966, with a newly acquired MSW degree from The University of Michigan he returned to Walker as Assistant Director. Over the next several years, he and Al Trieschman and another psychologist colleague, Dr. Larry Brendtro from the University of Michigan worked with the help of many clinical staff to write what would become an important guidebook for child care staff: The Other 23 Hours: Child Care Work with Emotionally Disturbed Children in a Therapeutic Milieu (Trieschman, Whittaker & Brendtro. Aldine: 1969) which remains in print 55 years later and has also been published in Danish, Dutch, German & Japanese editions.
This early experience in exploring the complexities of a therapeutic milieu have informed Jim’s research and teaching interests over a lifelong career. These interests include the integration of evidence-based practices into contemporary child & family services including therapeutic residential care, therapeutic foster care and intensive community and family-centered treatment alternatives. A frequent contributor to the professional literature, Dr. Whittaker is author/co-author/editor of 10 books and over 100 peer review papers and book chapters. In all, his works have been translated into Dutch, Danish, German, French, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Chinese and Korean.
He presently serves as Charles O. Cressey Endowed Professor Emeritus at the University of Washington School of Social Work, Seattle where he has served as a member of the senior faculty since 1970. For his many contributions to child, youth and family services research and scholarship. Jim is the recipient of Lifetime Achievement Awards from both the Association of Children’s Residential and Community Services (ACRC) in 2011 and The European Scientific Association for Residential and Family Care (EUSARF) in 2018.
