Oral | Incorporating the CARE model to Improve Family and Program Outcomes
Tracks
| Thursday, June 12, 2025 |
| 2:30 PM - 3:00 PM |
| P5 |
Synopsis
This presentation discusses the Quality Parenting Center (QPC) at Waterford Country School, which uses the CARE Model to create a home-like environment for supervised visitation. The program focuses on maintaining parent-child attachment, reducing abandonment, and preserving cultural connections.
The CARE Model shapes everything from room design to parent collaboration, emphasizing a strength-based, trauma-informed approach. The session will highlight how the model influences program design, staff behavior, and family reunification plans, showing how it has led to positive outcomes even in cases where reunification wasn’t initially the goal.
Speaker
Emily Thomson
COO
Waterford Country School
Incorporating the CARE Model to Improve Family and Program Outcomes
Biography
Emily Thomson is the Chief Operating Officer at the Waterford Country School, a non-profit human services agency located in Southeastern Connecticut. She started her professional career at the agency in 2001 as a Clinician, working with abused and neglected youth before transitioning to the Program Director of the Residential Treatment Program. She is currently a professional level trainer for Cornell’s TCI program and a CARE: Creating Conditions for Change Educator. She holds a master’s degree from Connecticut College in Psychology.
Ashley Barker
Program Director
Waterford Country School
Incorporating the CARE Model to Improve Family and Program Outcomes
Biography
Ashley Barker is the Program Director of The Quality Parenting Center at Waterford Country School. Ashley earned her Master of Social Work degree from Rhode Island College and is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW). She has extensive experience working with children and families in a variety of settings, including her role as a Social Worker in Therapeutic Foster Care/Intensive Family Preservation and a Clinician in the Therapeutic Boarding Program at Waterford Country School. She is also experienced in private practice.
