Recent News: (Click below to find out more!)

UMKC Awarded Missouri Children's Trust Fund Grant for the FDC Program

UMKC Ranked as one of the "Top 25 'Best Neighbor' Universities" in New England Board of Education Study

UMKC Awarded Presidential Distinction for Community Service

Be Aware Now Child Abuse & Neglect Prevention Conference Sponsored by Missouri Children's Trust Fund

MidSouth Regional Family Development Credential Program One Page Research Summary

"Within each person lies a bone-deep longing for freedom, self-respect, hope, and the chance to make an important contribution to one's family, community, and the world...No government program can help families become self-reliant, integrated members of their communities unless it is built on a recognition of the power of this bone-deep longing for freedom, self-respect, hope and the chance to contribute."

- Christiann Dean, creator of the FDC Curriculum 

Introduction

The MidSouth Regional Family Development Credential (FDC) Program is a program for frontline workers in Missouri, Kansas and Arkansas designed to reorient human service practice to the family support approach.  The Program offers a research-based, comprehensive curriculum in family support principles, which significantly improves the ability of frontline workers to help the families and individuals they assist to set and reach their own goals for self-reliance.  After successful completion of 90 classroom hours of instruction, a standardized exam, and a portfolio developed under the one-on-one guidance of a community-based Portfolio Advisor, workers receive the Family Development Credential.†
 
For too long, human services have been available only when a family is in crisis or about to disintegrate.  Services are fragmented, problem-specific, crisis-driven and not very effective in empowering families to achieve long lasting self-reliance.  This provision of the "services approach"-- as it's called --rarely works.  There is a widespread consensus among families, workers, and policymakers that services for families must change.  The FDC program offers skills development in the more effective "family support approach."

                     The Family Support Approach  

The FDC Program is a catalyst for this needed change by transforming the way agencies interact with families.  This systematic, comprehensive program of study demonstrates to social service workers how to assist families to take a larger role in shaping their own futures.  The curriculum teaches workers the family development process, which begins first and foremost with the family and worker developing a respectful partnership.  After assessing the family's needs and strengths, the family sets its own major goal - goals are not set for them.  The worker assists the family in making a written plan with the responsibility for tasks divided between the family and the worker; the plan is continually updated.  This process strengthens families, empowering them to be more self-reliant and thus better able to handle future challenges. 

An important component of the FDC Program is the community-based, collaborative interagency nature of the classes.  Public health workers sit beside workers from Catholic Charities, Child Protective Services, Head Start and other organizations in an interactive classroom setting designed to break down stereotypes and foster an atmosphere of mutual respect amongst the frontline workers, who very often serve the same families.

The FDC Program urges you to learn more about the program and endorse the participation of your organization and personnel.  The results will be happier, healthier, and more productive employees and families.

Features of the FDC Program

• 90 hours of classroom instruction
• Family support-based curriculum
• Community-based facilitators
• One-to-one mentoring by local field advisors
• Supportive, interactive learning environment
• Portfolio documentation of worker skills and knowledge
• Family Development Credential issued from a University in your state: for Missouri, the University of Missouri-Kansas City; for Kansas, Kansas State University; and for Arkansas, efforts are currently underway to find the best fit for the MidSouth Regional FDC program

Topics the Program Covers

• Family Development: A Sustainable Route to Healthy Self-Reliance
• Communicating with Skill and Heart
• Taking Good Care of Yourself
• Diversity
• Strengths-based Assessment
• Helping Families Set and Reach Their Own Goals
• Specialized Services
• Home Visiting
• Facilitating Family Conferences, Support Groups, and Community Meetings
• Collaboration

What Happens in Family Development

• The family develops a partnership with a family development worker.
• A family development worker helps the family assess its needs and strengths; an ongoing process.
• The family sets its own major goal (such as getting off welfare, or providing healthy care of a disabled family member), they start with smaller goals that help work toward the major goal, and develop their own ideas for reaching these goals.
• The family development worker helps the family make a written plan for pursuing goals.  Some tasks are the responsibility of the family members, and some are the worker's responsibility. Accomplishments are celebrated, and the plan is continually updated.
• The family learns and practices skills needed to become self-reliant.
• The family uses services as stepping stones to reach its goals.
• The family development process strengthens the family (and each individual within the family) so they are better able to handle future challenges. The family's sense of responsible self-control is restored.

FDC Works for Families, Workers and Communities

• Family members recognized their strengths, set their own goals and developed plans to reach those goals;
• Families increased their involvement in agencies, school and community organizations and participated in ways that reflect self-empowerment.
• Workers reported increased self-esteem, confidence, and assertiveness in helping families as well as in setting goals for higher education and their careers;
• Supervisors reported higher staff morale and lower turnover;
• Workers further developed outreach and networking capacities so that families gained more access to services at interagency and cross-system careers;
• Agencies incorporated use of FDC empowerment-based assessment tools to help families identify their own strengths and create plans to achieve short and long-term goals of family self-reliance;
• Agency directors, policy makers, and state officials expressed commitment to efforts to implement empowerment.

†For Missouri, the credential is issued by the University of Missouri-Kansas City.  For Kansas, the credential is issued by Kansas State University.  Organizations in Arkansas are only beginning to offer the FDC program and efforts are underway to collaborate with a University in Arkansas to issue the credential.

‡Crane, B. (2000).  Building a theory of change and a logic model for an empowerment-based family support training and credentialing program. (Doctoral dissertation).  Ithaca, NY:  Cornell University.
 

Contacts in the Regional Office at the University of Missouri-Kansas City

 

Jennifer N. Hill
MidSouth Regional FDC Program Office
Program Assistant
phone: (816) 235-2298

fax: (816) 235-5193

email: hilljn@umkc.edu

 Brenda Bone
Missouri FDC Collaboration Manager
phone:  (636) 789-4403

 Deborah B. Smith
Regional Director, FDC Program
University of Missouri-Kansas City
phone: (816) 235-2529

Saundra Barker

Portfolio Reviewer

797 W. Lockwood Ave.
St. Louis, Mo.63122
email: psbarker@sbcglobal.net