As a matter of fact, it is widely accepted in both the human services and education fields that the involvement of the family is a prerequisite for the child’s success.U.S. Children’s Bureau is a division of the U.S. To assist professionals working in child welfare, juvenile justice, behavioral health, early education, and education with accessing current strategies and resources on family engagement across these fields, the Department of Health and Human Services created the Family Engagement Inventory (FEI).
Family Engagement may have different definitions depending on what field of practice you are working in.
- Behavioral Health: Focuses on getting families and providers to effectively communicate information, needs, values, and attitudes necessary to develop a beneficial alliance for the child.
- Engaging families and helping them make important decisions is a family-centered and strength-based approach to child welfare.
- Early Childhood Education: Engagement involves ongoing, goal-directed relationships based on communication and honesty.
- Education: Engagement includes interactions with schools and meaningful communication between parents and the academic institution.
- Families can have influence and impact on the programs, systems, policies, and practices affecting these services for children.
The interactive FEI website offers a number of other resources related to family engagement, including:
- Summary of research about the benefits of family engagement by field of practice.
- Engagement of the family strategies at the practice, program, and system level.
- Validated and evaluated family engagement practices.
- Family involvement resources to helpful information and websites that provide additional literature about processes, methods, and programs.
Transform Consulting Group strives to stay up to date on the latest news, research, and information that will help our clients achieve their goals. Get in touch with us today for a free consultation if you want to improve the engagement of your organization with families.
