Family Engagement: Partnering With Families to Improve Child Welfare Outcomes

Engaging families in the casework process promotes the safety, permanency, and well-being of children and families in the child welfare system and is central to successful practice. Effective family engagement occurs when child welfare practitioners actively collaborate and partner with family members throughout their involvement with the child welfare system, recognizing them as the experts on their respective situations and empowering them in the process. This bulletin provides an overview of the foundational elements of the family engagement approach, followed by strategies and promising practices for implementing this approach at the case level, peer level, and systems level.

Table of Contents

Introduction

The benefits of family engagement

Strategies for engaging families at the practice level

Engaging parents as peer mentors at the program level

Promoting family engagement at the systems level

Conclusion

Additional resources

References

We also recommend the following Information Gateway publications:

• Supervising for Quality Child Welfare Practice
  (Bulletins for Professionals)
• Caseload and Workload Management
  (Issue Briefs)
• Working With Kinship Caregivers
  (Bulletins for Professionals)