Family Development Credentialing Program
The Family Development Training and Credentialing (FDC) Program is a
training program for frontline workers designed to reorient human
service practice to the family support approach. It offers a
research-based comprehensive curriculum in family support principals,
which significantly improves the ability of frontline workers to help
the families and individuals they work with to set and reach their own
goals. After successful completion of 90 classrooms hours of
instruction, a standardized exam, and portfolio development under the
guidance of a community-based Field Advisor, workers receive a
credential issued by a credentialing university in the District of
Columbia.
The FDC curriculum teaches workers the family development
process, which begins first and foremost with the family worker
developing a respectful partnership. After assessing the family needs
and strengths the family then sets its own major goal- goals are not
set for them. The worker assists the family in making a written plan
with the responsibility for tasks divided between the family and the
worker; the plan is continually updated. This process strengthens
families, empowering them to be more self-reliant and thus better able
to handle future challenges.
"Within each person lies a bone-deep longing for freedom, self-respect,
hope, and the chance to make an important contribution to one's family,
community, and the world. Without healthy outlets for this longing, the
desire for freedom turns into lawlessness, the need for self respect is
expressed in aggression and violence, and hopelessness is translated
into dependency, depression and substance abuse. No government program
can help families become self-reliant, integrated members of their
communities unless it is built on a recognition of the power of this
bone-deep longing for freedom, self-respect, hope and the chance to
contribute.""
The Empowerment Skills for Leaders Institute is a component of the
Family Development Program, designed to help leaders build on specific
skills and competencies that workers have learned through
strengths-based family development. Leaders will get an in-depth,
interactive, and reflective program that encourages personal and
organizational transformations. The training was developed for all
levels of leadership in organizations from board members and executive
directors to frontline supervisors. Empowerment Skills for Leaders
helps leaders to identify the areas where empowerment-based change with
the organization can begin to make meaningful differences in family
support programs and agency-based outcomes.
This series will help organizations:
- Develop and offer services and programs consistent with the philosophy and practices of family development.
- Actualize the benefits of interagency collaboration in achieving outcomes-based goals of family development programs.
- Learn the core principles and competencies used by family workers trained in Family Development Credential Training.
If you are interested in learning more about the FDC program, please contact
Phillip Terrell.
The Outcome Measurement Project
The Healthy Families/Thriving Communities Collaboratives are committed
to performance-based service delivery. The Collaboratives wish to hold
themselves accountable to the communities they serve and the funders
who support their efforts. To that end, the Collaboratives launched the
Outcome Measurement Project to implement an internal measurement system
that will provide quantitative information about the impacts the
Collaoboratives are making on DC families and children.
In 2003, the seven Collaboratives began developing an outcome
measurement system to identify and demonstrate the meaningful impact of
their activities. At that time, a software program called
Efforts-to-Outcomes was purchased to give the Collaboratives the
capability to track the amount and types of efforts required to obtain
a desired outcome.
DC Metropolitan Foster and Adoptive Parent Association
The DC Metropolitan Foster/Adoptive Parents Association (DCMFAPA)
offers foster/adoptive parents and other concerned individuals an
opportunity to participate in fulfilling DCMFAPA purposes, which
include:
- Promoting the general welfare of children who need protective care
everywhere: at home, in communities, in institutions, and in public,
private and religious schools.
- Promoting the interests of foster/adoptive children and to improve existing services to them.
- Improving the image of foster/adoptive parents to their community, state, and nation.
- Developing a better understanding of the problems of foster
home care, both by persons involved in caring for children and by the
general public.
The D.C. Metropolitan Foster and Adoptive
Parent Association was organized in February 1971. It was incorporated
March 2, 1977. The goals of the Association are:
- To provide city-wide peer support, and peer advocacy
- To provide public awareness and recognition of the skillful
parenting roles and accountability of foster, adoptive, and kinship
families.
- To protect the rights and needs of all foster, adoptive, and kinship parents and children.
- To form strong advocacy voices including legislative and social policies eyes and ears groups.
- To encourage citywide membership and structure focusing on mission and active participation.
- To engage in the quality assurance of program and services to assess expected outcomes and accountability.
- To serve as direct service support and resources in
partnership with foster, adoptive, and kinship parent, human resources
professional and community leaders.
The Association meets the 3rd Saturday of each month except for August at
Child and Family Services Agency, room 5133, 400 6th St. SW,
Washington, DC 20024.
To learn more about the DC Metropolitan Foster and Adoptive Parent Association, please contact
Angela Byrd or visit
www.dcmfapa.org.
