CFF is excited to announce that we have been recognized as a TOP WORKPLACE by The News Journal for the 14TH YEAR IN A ROW! The process was based on a survey conducted by Energage last spring, where staff were asked to rate our workplace culture and provide insight into what makes CFF unique.
In the words that a member of our staff shared in the survey which was highlighted at the awards ceremony: “I love my job because I am a valued member of my team. I feel safe to try new things within the organization, and advocate for the staff and families I work with. I get the opportunity to make a real difference in our community”
This award is truly a testament to our staff who show up every day to champion Delaware's children and families!
You should have received your registration for the LeadU Supervisor Training on September 12th from 12 to 4 PM. This virtual session is designed to empower and equip you with the skills needed to lead effectively.
Quality Excellence Starts with YOU!
Reminder of Important
Record Review Q2 Dates
Q2 Record Review and Outcomes
Timeline:
August 21st - 28th: Program Manager to complete their assessments of PQI. Week of September 1st: Outcomes reports sent to program managers.
The adoption team contributed the article on the following page to the newest issues of the Child Welfare League of America’s The Children’s Voice magazine. This is the third time Lynn Fraipont and Mike McHugh have had articles featured in their magazine about our agency’s work!
Workingwiththe PRIDEModel of Practice
Abby Fischer, Lynn Fraipont, Wendy Atanacio, and Mike McHugh
Child-Specific Recruitment (CSR) with Prospective Adoptive Families:Adapting the PRIDE Model of Practice
According to CWLA’s PRIDE Model of Practice to Develop and Support Resource Families as Team Members in Child Protection and Traumainformed Care of Children, safe and nurturing families are hard to find. This is the strength-based approach to the historically deficit perspective that children are hard to place. It is estimated that up to 25% of adoptions/ guardianships are disrupted before finalization, and up to 20% of children experience dissolution (also known as discontinuity), meaning they are separated from their families, according to the Child Welfare Information Gateway (2021). “Matching” and “connecting” work can be challenging when providing diligent child-specific recruitment (CSR) efforts that consider families who have been assessed and prepared by different agencies. Assessing the ability, resources, and willingness of families to provide permanency for children who have loss and trauma histories is complex. Decisions cannot be based on intuition, bias, and past experiences; evidenceinformed tools and measures are crucial.
CWLA
using the PRIDE Model of Practice’s child- and familyspecific permanency assessment, connecting, and supporting tools. This approach strengthens CSR-informed decision-making, emphasizing mutual assessment and ongoing support when and after children join families.
Goodness of Fit: Specific Families for Specific Children
At Children & Families First (CFF), based in Wilmington,Delaware, and founded in 1884, our name is also our commitment. We engage more than 25,000 individuals annually statewide. The CFF Foster Care and Adoption team has developed an innovative approach
InCSR, we consider families who participated in training and have been mutually assessed, prepared, and approved to become adoptive families (often by other agencies); however, that assessment process occurs for an unspecified child. This is quite different from exploring a particular family’s ability, resources, and willingness to make a lifetime commitment to a specific child. We consult with families to discern the goodness of fit, maximizing teamwork and minimizing trauma to reduce the chance of disruption. Our approach helps prospective adoptive parents understand the predicted likely experience of parenting the identified child. Versions of these tools may have often been completed during the prospective adoptive family’s preservice preparation and training. They must be modified to address changes and relationships within the family constellation when
expectations and life experiences intersect and are affected by the needs of the particular child. This is a proactive approach to connecting families and children instead of the traditional matching approach based on generalized surface criteria—or, at other times, the “place and pray” strategy of quickly checking off the boxes and reducing workload volume.
Traditional parenting techniques that might have worked with birth children are not necessarily effective in creating attunement and building a relationship with a child joining a family through adoption. Evidence-informed tools assist the family as a wholein assessing themselves and the specific child they are considering, including encouraging them to ‘time travel” forward with that child in mind; our work is child-specific, not child-generic recruitment. If families and agencies understand the differences between these two approaches, they will understand the value of focusing on this new adaptation.
Incorporating the PRIDE Model of Practice into CSR
families. During this time, some families may self-select out of the process after discerning how the child’s trauma and loss experiences may affect the family. Other families may be selected out of the process when the level of agency support required for the child and the family cannot meet their needs. Ideally, the family completes the tools with the worker for a broadened understanding of how to meet the needs of all the children in the family and how their family’s individual life experiences will affect parenting the specific child.
CWLA
CSR workers diligently review family assessments (adoption home studies), interview families, and analyze the child’s profile with them before considering presenting families to permanency planning decision-makers. While every adoption involves some level of a leap of faith, we strive to partner with families to take that leap while being informed, aware, and prepared for the beauty and challenges of raising a specific child who has experienced grief and loss. Using the PRIDE Model of Practice tools is a robust and evidence-informed means of doing this. It allows families and workers to assess in depth the family, including children already there and those who will join. This model offers tools for readiness, understanding, guidance, and real-life support based on the family’s ability, resources, and willingness to parent children of trauma to adulthood and beyond. Parents and children must become “loss managers” by using the present to address the past to go forward.
The process starts with the child’s profile, the family’s assessment, similar tools the family has completed during their preservice training, and the worker’s firsthand knowledge about the child. Hour-long consultations are held biweekly with the family members; these can occur virtually when working with out-of-state
Using PRIDE Model of Practice tools creates opportunities for teamwork between the child’s worker, family worker, state worker, and child attorney to develop an objective understanding of the goodness of fit. We can never guarantee that a child and family will be successful together. Still, we owe it to the children we serve to do our best. As stated by PRIDE Model of Practice original co-developer and our longtime colleague, Dr. Eileen Mayers Pasztor: “To be a parent—birth, grand, foster, or adoptive—and to be a child welfare professional is a privilege, not a right. But for children to be connected to safe, nurturing lifetime relationships is a right, not a privilege.” n
Reference
Child Welfare Information Gateway. (2021, August). Discontinuity and disruption in adoptions and guardianships. Administration for Children and Families, Children’s Bureau. https://cwig-prod-prod-drupal-s3fsus-east-1.s3.amazonaws.com/public/documents/s_discon.pdf?VersionId= Vaj6gEb1CwQ5kU1.VT63H6rKShYIkxzS
Abby Fischer, LCSW, has worked in child welfare for 10 years and is a former teacher. She is the Program Administrator and Data Analyst for Children & Families First’s Foster Care and Adoption Program.
Lynn Fraipont, PhD, formerly a special education teacher, has worked in foster care and adoption for 13 years. She has four sons who joined her family through adoption.
Wendy Atanacio, BA, is a social worker for Children & Families First’s Adoption and Foster Care Program. She has more than 25 years of experience and training supporting children and families in New York, New Jersey, Texas, and Delaware and is eager to share these insights in strengthening permanency.
Mike McHugh, MS, is an adoptive and former foster parent who has been working in child welfare for more than two decades.
Save the Date: 4Cs | September 25
Please SAVE THE DATE for our next 4Cs: Caring, Courageous, Collaborative Conversations!
MOBILIZING FOR CHANGE: THE POWER OF INFORMED, STRATEGIC, AND UNITED COMMUNITIES
SEPTEMBER 25, 2024 4:00P TO 5:00P via ZOOM REGISTRATION LINK COMING SOON!
In Case You Missed It...Happenings
Around CFF
Below are a few photos of events you may have missed:
1) CFF was the charity beneficiary of the 2024 Best of Delaware Party We raised over $7,000, which will directly support CFF programs!
2) Seaford Community of Hope program hosted a Family Leadership Academy and Resource Fair at Seaford High School
3) Dr J, The Honorable Judge Peter Jones, and The Honorable Judge Eliza Hirst presented at the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges Conference in Phoenix, AZ They discussed traumainformed and inclusive best practices when interacting with children and families with trauma histories
Vision Coalition Future of Education Town Hall Series
Join the Vision Coalition at any of the Town Hall events throughout Delaware this fall Connect with community members and advocates to discuss:
Student-Centered Funding - 9/4
Early Care and Education - 9/5 (facilitated by Kirsten!)
Post-Secondary Success - 9/9
Educators and Leaders - 9/11
Student-Centered Learning - 9/12
Student-Centered Supports - 9/16
All sessions begin at 6:30 pm
You must register to get the ZOOM link! bit.ly/2024vtownhalls
