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CORPORATE FOUNDATION FOR CHILDREN

Organization Directory Page

• Organization description

• Source of official student records

• Titles of all evaluated learning experiences

• Descriptions and credit recommendations

The Corporate Foundation for Children (CFC) was formed as a partner to the Children’s Trust Fund of Alabama in 1987 in response to the startling statistics of child abuse and neglect. The CFC’s mission is to prevent child abuse and neglect in all its forms; its goal is to provide a safe and healthy environment to enable children to reach their full potential. The CFC determined that the best way to prevent child abuse and neglect is to strengthen families. Therefore, in 1999, the CFC created the Family and Child Training System (FACTS). FACTS was designed to provide strengths-based family support practices throughout the Southeast.  In 2005, a new name was given to the FACTS program, and this division of the CFC is now known as Positive Innovations. Positive Innovations provides a variety of services and products, including, but not limited to, technical assistance, networking, consulting services, training, and the creation of opportunities for professional growth and development through the Family Development Training and Credentialing Program (FDC).

Source of official student records: College of Human Environmental Sciences, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487.

Titles of all evaluated learning experiences
Family Development Credential Program

Descriptions and credit recommendations

Family Development Credential Program
Location: Various approved facilities throughout Alabama.
Length: 90 hours over 6 months (45 hours didactic, 45 hours preparing for and supporting supervised field experience); in addition, a minimum of 100 hours of supervised competency-based field experience.
Dates: January 2001 - December 2006.
Objectives: The Family Development Credential Program is an integrated learning experience, involving both a classroom and field service component. Many of the following learning objectives apply to both the classroom instruction and the field service component; however, they are listed under separate sections to better illustrate how the skills and knowledge acquired in Part 1 are applied in Part 2. Part 1, classroom instruction: >Family Development: Explain the core principles underlying the empowerment and family support approach to family development; explain ways in which the empowerment approach is the opposite of the deficit approach; name major roles played by family development workers; explain why helping families achieve healthy interdependence within their communities is healthier and more realistic than self sufficiency. >Worker Self Empowerment: Identify a personal vision for work, which can serve as a source of motivation and direction for setting goals; identify the supports and stressors in one’s life, using the Family Circles Assessment, and design a personal stress management and wellness program. Building Mutually Respectful Relationships with Families: Begin positive relationships with families in ways that communicate respect for the family’s culture and preferences; see the strengths in families and reflect these strengths back to family members; appreciate the importance of confidentiality based on respect for families’ privacy; keep notes and communicate with co-workers appropriately to protect each family’s privacy. Communicating with Skill and Heart: Discuss how to use mutually respectful communication to avoid being submissive or aggressive; balance listening and expressing oneself; listen skillfully and understand non-verbal communication; use I messages to speak with clarity and respect and encourage a response to clarify understanding. >Cultural Competency: Explain what cultural competency is, why it is vital for family workers, and ways in which it is a life-long process; explain barriers to cultural competency in terms of discomfort with differences, and lack of information or misinformation; give examples of various kinds of oppression and how they can be internalized, creating barriers to growth and change with individuals and groups. >Ongoing Assessment: Discuss and apply seven basic principles of empowerment-based assessment in working with families. >Home Visiting: Clearly establish the purpose of home visits; adopt ways to keep oneself safe on home visits. >Helping Families Access Specialized Services: Discuss why specialized services are often needed to help families reach their goals for healthy self-reliance; discuss what services are available in the local area and how to find and access these services. >Facilitating Family Meetings: Discuss the purpose of support and advocacy groups so that the family worker can encourage families to participate. >Collaboration: Discuss the differences among coordination, cooperation, and collaboration, and choose the most appropriate method for each situation that requires working together with others; discuss why systems-level collaborations are sometimes needed in order to help families become self-reliant; recognize common pitfalls of collaboration; discuss how to turn pitfalls into advantages; discuss the major case management functions of a family development worker and how to use collaboration to fulfill each function; discuss how interagency training can promote interagency collaboration. Part 2, Field Service Component: >Family Development: Work the family support approach into ongoing programs. >Worker Self Empowerment: Develop a plan for working on a strengths basis with supervisors, based on an understanding of personal goals and needs and those of supervisors, sharing information, and lending support; develop a perspective on the difficulties of balancing work and home life and identify what is working well and what one would change. >Building Mutually Respectful Relationships with Families: Work with families in ways that build their capacities to meet their needs directly through healthy interdependence with family, friends, and the community; end relationships with families in ways that avoid dependency yet support families’ future development. Communicating with Skill and Heart: Communicate effectively with families, coworkers, and people from other agencies or community organizations; create an empathetic atmosphere that will encourage the other person to talk openly; promote cooperative solutions to conflicts. Cultural Competency: Be sensitive to and adjust verbal and nonverbal communication, given the cultural backgrounds of families; use translators appropriately, as needed; appreciate the special issues and barriers to cultural competency in terms of discomfort with differences, and lack of information or misinformation. >Ongoing Assessment: Use the Family Development Plan as the basis for ongoing assessment to promote family self-reliance; conduct assessments in plain language focused on the family’s current situation and future goals and with appropriate confidentiality; treat family information with respect for the family’s confidentiality. >Home Visiting: Establish rapport and mutually respectful relationships with families in the families’ homes; use the Family Development Plan to focus home visits on the family’s goals, and avoid over-dependence. >Helping Families Access Specialized Services: Develop a resource guide to local services; make and follow through on referrals; support families as they use specialized services, making sure the services support the family’s self-reliance goals. >Facilitating Family Meetings: Help families identify and strengthen their informal helping networks; help families facilitate their own family conferences; set up and facilitate community meetings or support or advocacy group meetings in a way that supports families. >Collaboration: Collaborate effectively with individuals, families, other workers, and agencies; represents one’s agency appropriately in interagency-level collaboration. NOTE: The classroom component concludes with a written examination. The field service component concludes with the student’s submission of a portfolio of competency-based activities and exercises to be used in assessing the student’s grasp of the skills and competencies required to receive the credential.
Instruction: The Family Development Credential (FDC) Program is intended to help redirect the way health, education, and human services are delivered to families. This redirection is moving systems away from crisis-oriented and fragmented services toward an empowerment and family support-based approach, emphasizing prevention, interagency collaboration, and a greater role for families in determining services. The FDC Program is an integrated learning experience, involving both a classroom and field service component, the latter under the mentorship of an FDC field advisor. Topics covered include: family development: worker self empowerment; building mutually respectful relationships with families; communication; cultural competency; ongoing assessment; home visiting; helping families access specialized services; facilitating family meetings, support groups, and community meetings; collaboration.
Credit recommendation: Part 1 only: In the lower division baccalaureate/associate degree category, 3 semester hours (didactic) in Child and Family Development, Human Services, Human Sciences, Social Sciences, Social Work, or related disciplines. Part 1 and 2: In the lower division baccalaureate/associate degree category, 7 semester hours (3 didactic and 4 field service) in Child and Family Development, Human Services, Human Sciences, Social Sciences, Social Work, or related disciplines (10/01). NOTE: Credit can be awarded for Part 1 only. Credit is not recommended, however, for Part 2 only; Part 2 must be combined with Part 1. NOTE: The Family Development Credential is awarded only to those who complete Parts 1 and 2.

Updated 10/03/06

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