Obtaining the perspectives of families by involving them in evaluating child welfare services and programs is a critical first step in identifying how services are affecting families. Empowering families to take leadership roles and contribute to decision-making and program planning is key to ensuring that child welfare system reform efforts will ultimately improve outcomes for the children and families being served. The following resources provide information on engaging families in systems change and strategies for promoting shared leadership. State and local examples are included.
Becoming a Family-Focused System: Strategies for Building a Culture to Partner With Families (PDF - 193 KB)
Capacity Building Center for States (2019)
Provides strategies, tips, and examples for how to build a climate in which parents and families feel engaged in policy development, practice initiatives, and communication.
CW360°: A Comprehensive Look at a Prevalent Child Welfare Issue, Special Issue: Child Welfare Reform (PDF - 2,417 KB)
Barry, Bertram, & LaLiberte (Eds.) (2016)
University of Minnesota, Center for the Advanced Studies in Child Welfare
Focuses on the complexities of child welfare reform, ongoing reform efforts, and the need to include frontline staff, families, and communities in the process.
Embracing a “Youth Welfare” System: A Guide to Capacity Building
Capacity Building Center for States (2020)
Addresses how State agencies can shift their focus from a child-focus system to a youth focus system by implementing practices to better support youth and their needs.
Episode 27: Prevention: The Power of the Parent’s Voice [Podcast]
Child Welfare Information Gateway (2018)
Provides guidance for agencies on identifying ways to engage parents and involve them in decision-making at all levels of child welfare involvement as well as lessons learned from practitioners.
Family Empowerment E-Learning
Capacity Building Center for States (2016)
Provides child welfare professionals with an overview of the Family Empowerment Leadership Academy curriculum and discusses key learning points in each of the curriculum's units to help child welfare professionals to better collaborate with families. A free login is required to access this information.
How Can We Prioritize Constituent Voice and Choice?
Casey Family Programs (2019)
Reviews the various levels of involvement for constituent engagement in child welfare systems beginning with systems-level involvement. It describes systems-, peer-, and case-level involvement, including examples of each.
Parent Leadership
FRIENDS National Resource Center for Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention
Provides resources and examples of programs and approaches that promote parent support, education, engagement, and leadership, including a guidebook (PDF - 1,567 KB) on building effective parent and practitioner collaboration.
Strategies for Authentic Integration of Family and Youth Voice in Child Welfare (PDF - 454 KB)
Capacity Building Center for States (2019)
Reviews the importance and benefits of including authentic family and youth voice in the child welfare systems and outlines key steps to engage families and youth in strategic planning and systems change.
A User's Guide to the Family Empowerment Leadership Academy (FELA) Resources (PDF - 313 KB)
Capacity Building Center for States (2019)
Presents a series of resources that can be used to help child welfare agencies build individual, team, and agency capacity to collaborate with families to help parents and family members take a more active role in programs and policies, share insights, and enhance services. The resources include e-learning modules, a training curriculum, and an implementation manual.
State and local examples
California Parent Leadership Team
Parents Anonymous
Presents informational videos on a parent team organized to improve California prevention and treatment polices, programs, and systems to ensure better outcomes for children and families. Members have experience with family-serving systems and have successfully advocated, implemented, and evaluated programs and guided practice strategies, policy, and systems change.
NC Works to Engage, Consult, and Respond to Families on a Systematic Level
North Carolina Division of Social Services and the Family and Children's Resource Program (2016)
Describes the creation of North Carolina's Child Welfare Family Advisory Council, which helps guide policy and practice and provide ongoing consultation around child welfare goals in the State.
North Carolina Collaborative for Children, Youth and Families
Provides a forum for collaboration, advocacy, and action among families, family-serving agencies, and community partners that work to develop recommendations for coordination of services and produce better outcomes for children in North Carolina.
Parent Partners (for Contractors)
Iowa Department of Human Services
Describes the State of Iowa's Parent Partners program, in which parents collaborate with social workers and providers to meet the needs of families, assist in policy and program development, change perceptions in communities, and facilitate trainings, and learning opportunities.