Florida Guardian ad Litem Academy

Each new CAM hire will be enrolled into Onboarding Training 30 - 60 days into their employment. Each CAM will begin Certification Training by month 4 of their employment, possibly sooner.

In no specific order, the CCAM Certification Domains are: Child Advocacy Management, Volunteer Coaching, Relationship Building, Management & Support, Court Preparation and Participation, and Legal, Ethical and Professional Responsibilities.

Begin documenting the dates and times you meet with your CAM from the beginning, as well as any topics discussed. This helps to create a routine from the start. You will spend most of your time at first covering the Onboarding Checklist and tasks listed on that sheet. Please note, only the 30, 60, and 90 day check-ins from the Onboarding Checklist should be included in the 20 hours. The majority of the supervision hours as it relates to CAM Certification should begin once they have started Certification Training with the Regional Trainers. The expectation is that the domains and concepts being taught during the training are being discussed in supervision. CAMs going through Certification Training should be able to apply the concepts and practices to their role / job duties. You will receive specific deadlines from your Regional Trainer for field observations.

Each CAM is required to have 20 hours of supervision. 10 of the 20 hours MUST be individual, one on one supervision. These ongoing supervision hours can be documented on the Multiple Event form or a Single Event from. In addition to these 20 hours, there are 3 field visits that are required.

Each CAM must be observed in three professional settings by their certified supervisor. The observations MUST include: one interaction between CAM and a child, one interaction between CAM and a volunteer, and one additional observation of a CAM in any professional setting (second home visit, second interaction with a volunteer, an advocacy team staffing, a court hearing where testimony is provided, etc.). Each observation is to be followed up by a discussion between CAM and supervisor. This discussion should include feedback from both, CAM and supervisor as to how the interaction went. A summary of the observation and the follow up discussion should be documented on a Single Event form and signed by both the CAM and the supervisor. These observations and discussions following must total 1.5 – 2 hours.

Yes, an electronic signature can be created to sign the PDF. This is the preferred method of signing these forms.

No! Please feel free to send your Regional Trainer any supervision documents as you complete them. This will allow your Regional Trainer to provide any feedback on the completed forms and address anything that needs to be clarified, as you move through the process with your CAM.

Once you are certified, you will need 20 continuing education hours every year. Hours are tracked from July 1 - June 30th the following year. You will be responsible for tracking your training hours. Optima is where you will track your hours; you can enter all the training information including, the training title, the trainer name, and the corresponding certification domain. If a training does not have an accompanying certificate or is taken from a source outside of the Guardian ad Litem Office, a brief summary of the training is required in the note section. This information is what connects an approved training source to your re-certification.

Any training the CAM attends that can fall under the four domains is acceptable. You need to list in the notes section which domain it falls under when you put it in Optima. Books and movies are not acceptable alone. If there is a group reading the book and a formal training out together (questions to be answered, and a discussion about the contents / the concepts learned), that can be included as a training. Trainings that count include, but are not limited to, trainings on the FCB website, courses completed in the I am for the child Academy, circuit trainings that you have not already attended elsewhere (no duplications), DCF Family & Child Summit trainings, and college courses that you can apply to the domains. Many more trainings are acceptable. If there is a trainer and the topic falls under one of the domains, it should be acceptable. If there are any questions regarding a training please reach out to your regional trainer for clarification.