Community Practice Model

Vision: Children live safely and productively with their families and in their schools and communities.

Core Values:

CONNECTED. Young people thrive with caring adults and families.

ENGAGED. Families and young people are engaged in decisions about their care.

PRODUCTIVE. Services are meaningful and responsive to children’s needs.

LOCAL. Children are best served in their home communities.

Our service community...

 Overall Beliefs:

  • believes that, when possible, children are best served when families are provided the supports necessary to raise them safely, that services should prevent family disruption, and that keeping children and families together is the best possible use of resources.
  • believes that every child has a right to connections with biological family and other caring adults, that life-long family connections are critical for children, and that family connections, which consider the child’s wishes, should be promoted and preserved.
  • believes that congregate care placements should focus on children’s needs, be family-focused, temporary, and prepare them for return to family and community life.

 Collaboration:

  • is committed to working collaboratively (sharing our purpose, role, concerns, decisions, and responsibility), to holding each other accountable for quality service planning and delivery, to working as an interdisciplinary team with diverse areas of expertise and skills, and to communicating with genuineness, empathy, and respect.
  • is committed to continually developing a community practice model, including using joint, interagency trainings to promote knowledge and the shared practice model across the community.
  • is committed to aligning infrastructure and available resources to support the community practice model.
  • is committed to collecting and sharing data and information for the benefit of children, families, and the service community.

Approach:

  • is committed to preserving children’s safety as a first priority, maintaining timely and thorough safety responses, and separating children from dangerous caregivers.
  • is committed to parents never having to relinquish custody unnecessarily to receive services for their children.
  • is committed to kinship care as a priority over foster care.
  • is committed to achieving permanent, safe, nurturing families for children.
  • is committed to hearing, valuing, and considering the voices of children and families in the decision-making process and to support meaningful family and youth participation and engagement in service planning and delivery, as well as in policy and service development.
  • recognizes families as experts about their own families.
  • is committed to treating children and families with dignity and respect, as well as to preserving and protecting each individual’s rights to self determination.
  • is committed to being strengths-based, and to serving each unique family with innovation, flexibility, creativity, and responsiveness (e.g., timely, effective, and efficient services).
  • is committed to being culturally proficient and linguistically accessible to all families, and to valuing family perspectives, goals, and plans.
    • Whenever possible, prior to provision of services, the provider will make efforts to seek information on acceptable behaviors, courtesies, customs and expectations that are unique to families of specific cultures and ethnic groups
    • The provider recognizes that families from different cultures will have different expectations for acquiring self-help, social, emotional, cognitive and communication skills.Consideration is given to culturally accepted understanding of human development and parenting practices.
    • The provider recognizes that religion, spirituality and other beliefs may influence how families respond to mental or physical illness, disability and death.
    • The provider ensures that toys and other play accessories are representative of the various cultural and ethnic groups within the local community and the society in general.
    • The provider will ensure bilingual or multilingual staff or trained/certified interpreters are utilized during assessment, treatment, meetings with clients and families.
    • The provider will utilize interpretation services to communicate in the client’s language of origin, when needed.
    • The provider considers the cultural definition of “family” when involving the client’s network of support. When possible, natural, culturally-relevant social networks of support are used to encourage social connections & acculturation.
    • Whenever feasible, evidence-based treatments/practices are adapted by the provider for effectiveness with clients of culturally & linguistically diverse groups.
    • Consideration is given by the provider to current/past experiences clients have had in this country or their country/area of origin.
    • Provider ensures that on-going staff training on working with diverse populations is made available by the provider.

Continuous Improvement:

  • is committed to continuous development of the local service array, such that comprehensive and least restrictive services are available in our community.
  • is committed to using data to inform management, practice, and policy decisions.
  • is committed to using trauma informed and evidence-based services.