Questions and answers
- What is family-centered practice?
Family-centered practice is a way of working with families, both formally and informally, across service systems to enhance their capacity to care for and protect their children. Family-centered practice includes a range of strategies, including advocating for improved conditions for families, supporting them, stabilizing those in crisis, reunifying those who are separated, building new families, and connecting families to resources that will sustain them in the future.
General resources
Family-Centered Practice and Practice Models
Frequently requested information
Frameworks for Family-Centered Practice (PDF - 2,949 KB)
Discusses key principles for family-centered child welfare practice and emphasizes the need to develop a practice framework built on the input of staff, community, and consumers of services.
Practice Models
Offers links to State practice models.
Family Engagement: Partnering With Families to Improve Child Welfare Outcomes
Comprehensive Family Assessment Guidelines for Child Welfare
Addresses the components of comprehensive family assessment, shows the linkages to service planning and service provision, and illustrates how child welfare agencies can support their use.
Professional Development in FGDM
Presents numerous resources on the importance of involving family groups in making decisions about children who need protection or care.