Child Welfare Information Gateway
Skip to main content
  • U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
  • Administration for Children & Families
  • Children's Bureau
Child Welfare Information Gateway
REPORT ABUSE OR
NEGLECT
FIND HELP WITH A
PERSONAL SITUATION   

Home Topics Publications Library State Resources More Tools & Resources News & Events
REPORT ABUSE OR
NEGLECT
FIND HELP WITH A
PERSONAL SITUATION   
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Chat
  • Free Subscriptions
  • Resources in Spanish
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Chat
  • Resources in Spanish
  • Shopping Cart
  • Home
  • Topics
    • Family-Centered Practice
      • Philosophy and Key Elements of Family-Centered Practice
      • Family-Centered Practice Across the Service Continuum
      • Engaging Families
      • Family-Centered Casework Practice
      • Family Group Decision-Making
      • Engaging Communities to Support Families
      • Creating a Family-Centered Agency Culture
    • Child Abuse & Neglect
      • Definitions of Child Abuse & Neglect
      • Identification of Child Abuse & Neglect
      • Risk Factors That Contribute to Child Abuse and Neglect
      • People Who Engage in Child Abuse or Neglect
      • Impact of Child Abuse & Neglect
      • Child Abuse & Neglect Fatalities
    • Preventing Child Abuse & Neglect
      • National Child Abuse Prevention Month
      • Overview: Preventing Child Abuse & Neglect
      • Promoting Child & Family Well-Being
      • Public Awareness & Creating Supportive Communities
      • Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Programs
      • Developing & Sustaining Prevention Programs
      • Evidence-Based Practice for Child Abuse Prevention
      • Evaluating Prevention Programs
    • Responding to Child Abuse & Neglect
      • Introduction to Responding to Child Abuse & Neglect
      • Reporting Child Abuse and Neglect
      • Assessment in Child Protection
      • Differential Response in Child Protective Services
      • Child Protection Casework Practice
      • Responding to Child Maltreatment Near Fatalities and Fatalities
      • Trauma-Informed Practice in Child Welfare
      • Collaborative Responses to Child Abuse & Neglect
    • Supporting & Preserving Families
      • Supporting Families With Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders
      • Introduction to Family Support and Preservation
      • In-Home Services Involved With Child Protection
      • Family Support Services
      • Resources for Managers of Family Support and Preservation Services
      • Family Preservation Services
    • Out-of-Home Care
      • National Foster Care Month
      • Overview: Out-of-Home Care
      • Foster Care
      • Group and Residential Care
      • Kinship Care
      • Casework Practice in Out-of-Home Care
      • Transition to Adulthood and Independent Living
      • Placement Decisions
      • Resources for Foster Families
    • Achieving & Maintaining Permanency
      • Overview: Achieving & Maintaining Permanency
      • Reunifying Families
      • Recruiting and Retaining Resource Families
      • Permanency With Relatives and Kin
      • Guardianship
      • Permanency for Specific Youth Populations
      • Legal and Court Issues in Permanency
      • Interjurisdictional Placements
      • Working With Children, Youth, and Families in Permanency Planning
      • Working With Children, Youth, and Families After Permanency
      • Resources for Administrators and Managers About Permanency
      • Resources for Families About Permanency
    • Adoption
      • National Adoption Month
      • All-In Foster Adoption Challenge
      • Children's Bureau Adoption Call to Action
      • Adoption and Guardianship Assistance by State
      • Introduction to Adoption
      • Ethical Issues in Adoption
      • For Adopted People
      • For Adoption Program Managers & Administrators
      • For Expectant Parents Considering Adoption and Birth Parents
      • How to Adopt
      • Laws Related to Adoption
      • Parenting After Adoption
      • Preplacement Adoption Casework Practice
      • Postplacement Adoption Casework Practice
      • Search & Reunion in Adoption
    • Management & Supervision
      • Administering & Managing Child Welfare Agencies & Programs
      • Child Welfare Practice Improvement
      • Disaster Preparedness & Response
      • Ethical Practice & Client Rights
      • Evaluating Program and Practice Effectiveness
      • Funding
      • Information Systems & Data
      • Supervising Child Welfare Services
      • System Reform
      • Training
      • Workforce
    • Systemwide
      • Assessment
      • Behavioral Health & Wellness
      • Courts
      • Cultural Responsiveness
      • Diverse Populations and Communities
      • Domestic Violence
      • Human Trafficking
      • Laws & Policies
      • Service Array
      • Statistics
      • Well-Being
      • Youth
  • Publications
    • Publications Series
    • Browse by Topic
    • Browse by Title
    • índice de Títulos en Español (Spanish Title Index)
  • Library
    • Library Services
    • Library Search Help
  • State Resources
    • State Statutes
    • National Foster Care & Adoption Directory
    • State Guides & Manuals Search
    • State-Related Organizations Lists
    • Adoption and Guardianship Assistance by State
  • More Tools & Resources
    • Related Organizations
    • Learning Center
    • Resources From the Children's Bureau
      • Children's Bureau Discretionary Grants
      • The Story of the Children's Bureau
      • Children's Bureau Video Series
    • Child Welfare Information Gateway Podcast Series
    • Multimedia
      • Videos
      • Webinars
    • Family Engagement Inventory
  • News & Events
    • Free Subscriptions
    • Adoption Triad
    • Children's Bureau Express (CBX)
    • The Grantee Connection
    • New on Information Gateway
    • New From the Children's Bureau
    • Event Calendar
  • Home
  • Topics
  • Systemwide
  • Domestic Violence
  • Casework Practice With Families Affected by Domestic Violence
  • Engaging Families in Domestic Violence Services

Engaging Families in Domestic Violence Services

The following resources and strategies address how to engage families who have experienced domestic violence, including case planning, family group conferencing, and team decision-making, including State and local examples.

Episode 16: Family Group Decision-Making: Implementing the Family Group Conference [Podcast]
Child Welfare Information Gateway (2017)
Offers a podcast on using Family Group Decision Making to engage families exploring a model developed by the Kempe Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse and Neglect. 

Guide for Engaging and Supporting Parents Affected by Domestic Violence (PDF - 1,710 KB) 
Blumenfeld (2016) 
National Center on Domestic Violence, Trauma, and Mental Health 
Presents guidelines for supporting parents affected by domestic violence and offers strategies for engagement with these parents and ways to enhance parenting. Suggestions on how to work with families experiencing domestic violence are also included. 

How Can Domestic Violence Programs Partner With Home Visiting Programs to Better Support Survivors and Their Children?
Hood & Kelly (2019) 
National Resource Center on Domestic Violence, VAWnet 
Explores how domestic violence programs and home visiting services can work together as a way to reach and engage families involved with child welfare to try to prevent domestic violence and/or help survivors heal from trauma. 

Opportunities for Progress: Better Serving Families With Domestic Violence Through the Family First Prevention Services Act (PDF - 3,369 KB) 
Center for the Study of Social Policy (2019) 
Explains the Family First Prevention Services Act of 2018, which created new opportunities for domestic violence and child welfare agencies to work together to serve and engage families. This paper outlines challenges to this partnership and highlights best practices for supporting children and families involved in child welfare and domestic violence services. 

Promising Futures: Best Practices for Serving Children, Youth, and Parents Experiencing Domestic Violence
Futures Without Violence (2016) 
Presents general information and statistics about the effects of domestic violence on children and families and outlines guidelines for enhancing our services for children and youth. The website offers tools to assist programs in revisiting their policies and practices to better support the mother-child relationship and interventions for children and youth. A section on parenting by violent men is also included. 

Promising Practices and Model Programs: Trauma-Informed Approaches to Working With Survivors of Domestic and Sexual Violence and Other Trauma (PDF - 420 KB) 
Phillips, Lyon, Fabri, & Warshaw (2015) 
National Center on Domestic Violence, Trauma, and Mental Health 
Presents results from interviews with leaders of domestic violence programs about trauma-informed practices used to engage survivors of domestic and sexual violence. Some examples of the trauma-informed approach include support groups, counseling services, emotional safety planning, creative arts therapy, and wellness programs. 

Supporting Children, Parents, and Caregivers Impacted by Domestic Violence
National Center on Domestic Violence, Trauma and Mental Health (2019) 
Provides information for domestic violence and child welfare professionals and others on how to engage children and families impacted by domestic violence. The website includes links to a 2014 webinar series on trauma-informed services for children and adult survivors of domestic violence and additional tip sheets and resources, including one for engaging teens and one for children and youth. 

(Back to Top)

State and local examples

Domestic Violence in Child Welfare (PDF - 555 KB) 
Virginia Department of Social Services (2015)
Presents Virginia's manual for dealing with cases of domestic violence within child welfare, which addresses family meetings on page 24 and discusses questions to ask during the meetings, how to act when perpetrators are present, safety during meetings, and more. 

Domestic Violence Resource Guide (PDF - 1,567 KB) 
Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (2018)
Offers a resource guide for child welfare professionals in Texas working on domestic violence cases and includes a section on engagement. The engagement section begins on page 3 and highlights engaging several populations, including children, adult survivors, and the person using violence. 

Engaging Families Affected by Domestic Violence [Webinar] 
The Family and Children's Resource Program (2019)
Presents a webinar from North Carolina on how child welfare professionals can identify and engage batterers and how to create effective family service agreements with families impacted by domestic violence.  

Intimate Partner Violence Practice Guide (PDF - 674 KB)
Connecticut Department of Children and Families (2018) 
Provides guidance for child welfare professionals in Connecticut working on domestic violence cases and includes a section on family engagement on page 22. The section describes family engagement as a family-centered, strengths-based approach to working with families and lists ways to partner with the nonoffending parent and keys to listening to children. 

(Back to Top)

Spotlight On

Issue Brief on Protective Factors for Survivors of Domestic Violence 

Quality Improvement Center for Domestic Violence and Child Welfare (2019) 

Issue Brief on Relational and Systemic Accountability for Persons Who Use Violence

Quality Improvement Center for Domestic Violence and Child Welfare (2019)

Children's Bureau - An office of the Administration for Children and Families

Child Welfare Information Gateway is a service of the

  • Children’s Bureau
  • Administration for Children and Families
  • U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
↑ Back to top
  • HOME
  • TOPICS
    • Family-Centered Practice
    • Child Abuse & Neglect
    • Preventing Child Abuse & Neglect
    • Responding to Child Abuse & Neglect
    • Supporting & Preserving Families
    • Out-of-Home Care
    • Achieving & Maintaining Permanency
    • Adoption
    • Management & Supervision
    • Systemwide
  • National Initiatives
    • National Adoption Month
    • National Child Abuse Prevention Month
    • National Foster Care Month
  • Publications
    • Publications Series
    • Browse by Title
    • Browse by Topic
    • Índice de Títulos en Español
  • Library
    • Search the Library
  • State Resources
    • State Statutes
    • National Foster Care & Adoption Directory
    • State Guides & Manuals
    • State Related Organizations Lists
    • Adoption Assistance by State
  • More Tools & Resources
    • Related Organizations
    • Learning Center
    • Children's Bureau Resources
    • Information Gateway Podcast
    • Multimedia
    • Family Engagement Inventory
  • NEWS AND EVENTS
    • New on Information Gateway
    • New From the Children's Bureau
    • Event Calendar
  • ABOUT US
    • How to Report Child Abuse or Neglect
    • Find Help With a Personal Situation
    • Frequently Asked Questions
    • Glossary
    • Search A to Z
  • Contact Us
    • 1-800-394-3366
    • info@childwelfare.gov
    • Subscribe to Free Updates
    • Chat With Us
  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on YouTube
  • POLICIES & HELPFUL LINKS
    • Disclaimer and Policies
    • Privacy Policy
    • Accessibility
    • FOIA requests
    • No FEAR Act data
    • Office of the Inspector General
    • Performance reports
    • Vulnerability Disclosure Policy
    • USA.gov
    • Download Acrobat Reader
  • ↑ Back to top