Tonya Glantz

Building 9 (SSW) 133 (401) 456-4623 tglantz@ric.edu

Background

Tonya has been working in the field of child welfare for over 15 years. She began her employment at the Department of Children, Youth and Families in 1990 as a social caseworker. For the next seven years, she worked directly with children and families on issues of family preservation and permanence. From 1997 through 1999, Tonya joined DCYF's Adoption Training Unit as a clinical training specialist. In this position, Tonya's recruited, trained and supported families seeking to adopt DCYF children who were in need of permanent and loving families. Additional projects associated with this position included developing and expanding the recruitment of adoptive families within the gay and lesbian community and community training on issues related to permanency for children.

In 1999, Tonya expanded her professional focus and began working as a clinical training specialist within DCYF's Staff Development and Training Unit. Tonya's role in this new unit embraced a wide range of training and program development topics all related to permanency and well being of children and families. A great deal of Tonya's time is spent training agency and community staff on issues related to Family Centered Practice, visitation, permanency planning and promoting cross-system collaboration. Tonya also acted the project coordinator for DCYF's 2001 Family Centered Practice initiative, which spanned several years. The focus and integration of Family Centered Practice is a defining philosophy and practice approach within the DCYF and at the core of the Department's Federal Program Improvement Plan.