Overview
The UMBC Home Visiting Training Certificate Program is a six module (7 day) series that is offered over a twelve-week period. Trainings are in person and cover the following topics:
- Communication (two days)
- Parenting
- Substance Abuse
- Mental Health
- Healthy Relationships
- Culture
More details about each module can be found under curriculum (https://homevisitingtraining.umbc.edu/curriculum)
Two types of professionals participate in the training: home visitors and their supervisors from various jurisdictions across the state of Maryland. Participants will receive one of two certificates:
- A Home Visitor Certificate (43 hours) or
- A Home Visitor & Supervisor certificate (45 hours).
- Please note these certificates are NOT CEU's.
Participation in our training requires individuals to have at least 6 months of home visiting experience. We conduct two trainings per year (spring & fall) at the training center at UMBC South Campus Research & Technology Park. At this time the training is not open to individuals but to home visiting sites/teams across the state of Maryland.
*Virtual Only Training Update*
Due to the COVID-19 virus, our Home Visiting Training Certificate Training will be offered virtually until further notice.
The course requirements and topic areas listed above will remain the same. To accommodate the training virtually, trainees are asked to watch 4.5 hours of online videos/programs at your own pace per topic, participate in a 1.5-hour discussion of the topic with the entire training group, and then complete an online evaluation of the training material. Motivational communication will involve two rounds of these activities, with an additional 30-60 minute small group role-play session between the two Communication Sessions. The 1.5-hour entire group discussions will take place remotely via Webex on the dates identified below.
Spring 2023 Training Dates
TRAINING REGISTRATION IS OPEN! Use webform below to submit your request.
*ALL TRAININGS WILL BE HELD VIRTUALLY UTILIZING OUR ONLINE PLATFORMS WEBEX AND BOX
February 8th - Communication Day 1 & Program kickoff
February 22nd - Supervisor only meeting
March 1st- Communication Day 2
March 15th - Cultural Sensitivity
March 29th - Parenting/Child Development
April 12th- Healthy Relationships
April 26th - Mental Health
May 10th - Substance Use & Graduation
Cost -
Currently, this training is free of cost and is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under grant number HRSA D89MC26357, “Maryland State Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting.”
Additional Trainings -
A regional training for Home Visitors, DHS Child Welfare, Reunification, and Protective Services, and Infant and Toddlers program staff to be more effective and helpful to substance exposed mothers and children. The regional trainings allow workers in related areas to better connect and collaborate to benefit and serve substance exposed mothers and children. The training includes an online component of seven (7) modules which participants must complete within 2 weeks prior to the one day in person training.
Content areas covered in both the online and in person training include:
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Understanding issues of substance exposed mothers, infants, and children from a multi-professional, multidisciplinary perspective.
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Developing trauma-informed perspectives and conversation skills, and understanding compassion fatigue and its impact on one's ability to work with populations that have experienced trauma.
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Understanding the challenges of addiction and dynamics of recovery (slips, relapse, recycling, using stages of change perspective).
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Developing better understanding of treatment options, the role of courts and legal system, and child welfare.
Currently, this training is not open for public registration. Please check back for more information on additional training opportunities.
This two-day training emphasizes a collaborative process for goal planning with families who are home visited. GPS focuses on using motivational communication to set, plan, implement, and revise/evaluate SMART goals. Coaching of the skills provided in this training occurs over a 12 week period to improve skill use and retention.
Content areas covered in both the online and in person training include:
- Foundations of goal setting (SMART goals, characteristics of good goals, differentiating goals from values).
- Applying the stages of change model and motivational communication strategies to the goal planning process to increase understanding of how people change.
- Developing a better understanding of the goal planning process and collaborating with a family to meet their goal by recognizing family and caregiver strengths, barriers, and resources.
- Identifying challenges to implementing goals and strategies to overcome these challenges.
- Providing feedback to evaluate and revise goals, as well as understanding common challenges that interfere with GPS.
- Practicing goal setting and planning skills with role plays.
This one-day training provides a framework for coaching home visitors in using motivational communication strategies to set, plan, implement, and revise/evaluate goals. Coaches are trained in negotiation and providing feedback, and are given a coaching manual to guide sessions over a 12 week period.
Content areas covered in the in person training includes:
- Defining coaching and explaining how it differs from supervision and other professional roles.
- Discussing the characteristics and benefits of coaching.
- Understanding barriers to coaching and practicing strategies to address common challenging situations.
- Providing feedback and evaluating performance through the use of motivational communication skills.
- Helping home visitors practice the core skills of effective goal planning.
- Preparing for and implementing coaching manual.
Evaluation
As part of training, home visitors and supervisors participate in an evaluation. This is embedded in the 42 hours of in-class curriculum content and will involve completing short surveys and interviews at the beginning and end of each training day. It may also consist of completing a more time-involved evaluation (e.g., responding to standardized mothers as if in a real home visiting scenario) at the beginning of the first day of training and end of the last day. Receiving a certificate is contingent upon completing all the course activities and course evaluations and demonstrating adequate performance during the course of the training programs. These evaluations will also help Training Center faculty and staff to continuously monitor training success.
Title
UMBC Home Visiting Training Certificate Program Graduates





