Thursday, September 3rd, 2026 | 6 to 8:00 pm
Presented by Eileen Mayers Pasztor, DSW
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Every Child Has a Story: Understanding their Developmental Puzzle Pieces
September 3 @ 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Register in advance for this meeting.
Every child arrives with a unique story. Their behaviors, emotions, strengths, relationships, culture, and life experiences become the puzzle pieces that shape who they are and how they experience the world. For children and youth who have experienced abuse, neglect, separation, or multiple family transitions, some of those pieces may be missing, fractured, or difficult to understand. Yet each piece has meaning.
Join nationally respected child welfare leader, educator, and foster and adoptive parent Dr. Eileen Mayers Pasztor for an engaging in-person workshop exploring the many influences that shape children’s development. Together, we will examine how early experiences, attachment, trauma, brain development, family relationships, culture, health, education, and community all contribute to a child’s growth and behavior.
Rather than asking, “What’s wrong with this child?” participants will be encouraged to ask, “What experiences have shaped this child, and what do they need from me now?” Through this strengths-based, relationship-centered lens, caregivers will gain a deeper understanding of children’s adaptive behaviors while discovering practical strategies to nurture healing, resilience, and relational permanency.
Whether you are a resource parent, kinship caregiver, adoptive parent, social worker, or child welfare professional, this workshop will strengthen your ability to see the whole child—not simply the behaviors they present today, but the potential they hold for tomorrow.
About the facilitator, Eileen Mayers Pasztor, DSW. Eileen has had the privilege of knowing Cherie for many years through the shared experiences of being foster and adoptive parents and trainers. Eileen also is a social worker who served as a public agency child welfare caseworker and supervisor. She later became the national program director for foster care, adoption, and kinship care at the Child Welfare League of America (CWLA). She is the principal of developer of models of practice to recruit, assess, train, and retain foster and adoptive parents and support kinship caregivers that are used nationally and in other countries as well. After 25 years teaching at the Cal State University, Long Beach School of Social Work, she now is a professor emerita. She volunteers to do workshops, serve on advocacy committees and continues developing training for organizations such as FosterParentCollege.com and writing articles for Fostering Families Today. Being committed to the NASW Code of Ethics is foundational to Eileen: competence, dignity, integrity, importance of relationships, service, and advocacy.