There are still spots open for the upcoming Children’s Disaster Services trainings
– register now to secure your spot!
CDS offers two types of training workshops – a standard CDS training and a child life specific training. Child life specialist and students are welcome to attend either training for CDS certification eligibility; only one training is required. See bullet points below for CCLS feedback from both trainings!
1. Standard CDS Training (27-hour overnight, 10 PDUs)
Open to anyone at least 18 years of age and registration is required. Child life specialists will receive 10 PDU’s for this training. Often, the 27-hour training begins at about 5pm on a Friday night and ends Saturday evening, however, some training schedules are different. This training includes an overnight shelter simulation experience. This is a valuable part of the training where participants sleep (often on Red Cross cots) in a room with other participants who they may have just met.
- “It was truly eye opening for me to experience shelter living for a night and get a glimpse into what the children and families (and sometimes volunteers) might be experiencing. I feel like that was very valuable.”
- “I enjoyed getting to know people of various backgrounds and I am excited about the idea of possibly deploying on a team with them in the future.”
- “I liked having flexibility to interact with the learning modules as well as interact with other participants.”
2. Child Life Specialized CDS Training (8 hours, 7 PDUs)
CDS also established a training with CLDR in 2015 that is an abbreviated version of the full training. This training is a one-day training offered twice a year and includes a post-training written assignment to be completed for certification. The assignment focuses on a web and application exercise and a group living questionnaire. This training typically begins at 8am and ends at 4pm. Child life specialists will receive 7 PDU’s for this training.
- “I enjoyed having training modules that factored in my professional training and skills.”
- “It was nice to network and discuss ideas for future collaboration with other CLSs.”
- “There was a lot of info to cram in to a short time! I wish we had more time to interact on certain parts of the training”
