PURPOSE

CWLA is proud to offer the Traditions of Caring and Collaborating: Kinship Family Information, Support, and Assessment Trauma-Informed Model of Practice to provide both public and private child welfare agencies and organizations with a standardized framework to help their direct service staff use a strengths-based approach to working with relatives who are caring for their younger family members. This kinship model supports the mandates advanced in the federal 2018 Family First Prevention Services Act. A basic premise recognizes the importance of finding and supporting relatives to care for their younger family members when there must be child and parent separation typically because of the trauma of abuse and neglect.

This Model of Practice is based on a conceptual framework that identifies nine issues of concern for kinship caregivers and agency staff who work with them, five competencies needed to address those issues, and four phases of working together to help achieve the three federally mandated outcomes for all children: safety, well-being, and permanence. The model has guiding principles and common definitions, grounded in a caring and collaborating approach to working together to protect and nurture children and strengthen families.

This model differentiates between kinship caregivers and foster parents based on the different dynamics between the inherited role of being someone’s grandparent, other relative, or a non-related extended family member and the acquired role of volunteering to foster. These dynamics recognize that, in some circumstances, children already are living with relatives before child protective services become involved; in other situations, children and relatives may not have ever met. Whatever the circumstances, research indicates that relatives want information and support, but not necessarily formal training programs. And, if child protective services has legal custody of the children, then an assessment must be made for licensing, certification, approval or whatever may be the legal requirements. This model of practice provides a supportive assessment process.

The primary target group for Traditions of Caring and Collaborating is direct-service staff serving at public and private agencies and organizations that provide child welfare, health and mental health, and older adults services, as well as kinship navigator programs and resource centers, community social service and mental health agencies, kinship care resource centers, faith-affiliated, community-based, or other types of support groups. Supplemental content is included for use by child welfare agencies that are assessing families for kinship care, to ensure families have the information and skills they need to qualify for foster care licensing.

A secondary group includes supervisors and administrators who must understand and support this Model of Practice. Research dates back over a decade informing that training is only as effective as the policy that directs it and the supervision that reinforces it. Therefore, a third group could be staff developers but only if the training they organize and offer has the commitment of the secondary group.

The Implementation Guide is for all staff who have policy, program, and practice responsibilities connected with the agency or organization’s kinship care program. It is a reference tool for everyone who is committed to collaborating with kinship caregivers to help ensure the safety and well-being of the children in their care. A commitment to permanence is essential. All children must be connected to at least one adult who intends to provide relationships that are safe, nurturing, and enduring. Research indicates that all children are just one adult relationship away from being a statistic for tragedies such as homelessness, trafficking, substance use, incarceration, poverty, adolescent pregnancy, and suicide.

This content is equivalent to what agencies typically provide to prepare prospective foster families to care for children who are not known to them, but is responsive to the needs and experiences of kinship caregivers.

OBJECTIVES

The objectives of the Traditions of Caring and Collaborating: Kinship Family Information, Support, and Assessment Trauma-Informed Model of Practice are to:

• Clarify why and how kinship care became a policy choice and practice challenge from a historical to present perspective.
• Explain the rationale for collaboration as an approach to a trauma-informed model of practice.
• Provide information and support to address nine major issues of concern that require collaboration with kinship caregivers, specifically: legal, financial, health and mental health, family relationships, child behavior, school, support services, fair and equal treatment, and satisfaction and recommendations.
• Explain five competencies essential for collaborating with kinship caregivers, including respecting knowledge, experience, and skill; building trust by meeting needs; facilitating open communication; addressing the dynamics of attachment versus authority and demographic diversity; and negotiating.
• Apply the five competencies to the four phases of collaboration, which includes engaging families; assessing for ability, resources, and willingness regarding the issues of concern; supporting families; and helping them transition to their communities with appropriate supports.
• Address the nine issues by using the five competencies across the four phases of collaboration to help achieve the three federally mandated outcomes of child safety, well-being, and permanence for every child, recognizing that three significant words are “for the child.” (Ending a sentence with “for the child” is an easy and concise assessment if the statement being made is indeed child-centered.)
• Provide a collaboration approach to the process of helping kinship caregivers and agency staff assess the ability, resources, and willingness of kinship caregivers regarding the issues of concern.
• Share strategies that support the transfer of ideas to actions, emphasizing advocacy.
• Identify the role of supervisors, managers, and administrators in supporting this model of practice.
• Identify other resources needed to implement this Model of Practice.

RESOURCE MATERIALS

The following resource materials have been created to support an agency’s implementation of Traditions of Caring and Collaborating:

Implementation Guide and accompanying PowerPoint slides provide the foundation to help ensure that all staff know their roles and responsibilities in collaborating with the kinship caregiving families your agency is committing to serve.

 Facilitator’s Guide to conduct nine information, support, and assessment meetings for kinship caregivers, and accompanying PowerPoint slides.

 CAREbook which includes all the resources (i.e. handouts), activities for relative caregivers who participate in the information, support, and assessment meetings.

TRAINING & CONSULTATION

Bringing the Traditions of Caring and Collaborating Kinship Family Information, Support, and Assessment Trauma Informed Model of Practice to your agency begins with a telephone consultation. The purpose is to discuss how the model could build upon the strengths of your agency and meet your agency’s need to support kinship caregivers. For agencies that decide to implement Traditions of Caring and Collaborating, CWLA offers two training and consultation options:

(1) Onsite training for all staff responsible for kinship care services

(2) Open enrollment training designed for agency staff from newly licensed agencies that are too small to make bringing CWLA staff onsite cost effective, newly hired staff from Traditions of Caring and Collaborating licensed agencies, and decision makers from agencies considering purchasing the Traditions of Caring and Collaborating license. All staff, supervisors, and managers who work in the kinship care program should participate.

Both “agency-based training and consultation” and “open enrollment training” are provided by CWLA’s senior staff and consultants/trainers who have expertise in kinship care programs and services.

For information and assistance with the Traditions of Caring and Collaborating Kinship Family Information, Support, and Assessment Trauma Informed Model of Practice, please contact Marcus Stallworth, LMSW, Director, Training and Implementation or Gaelle Augustin, Training and Administration Associate.