Homebuilders®
About This Program
Target Population: Families with children (birth to 18) at imminent risk of placement into, or needing intensive services to return from, foster care, group or residential treatment, psychiatric hospitals, or juvenile justice facilities
For children/adolescents ages: 0 – 17
For parents/caregivers of children ages: 0 – 17
Program Overview
Homebuilders® is a home- and community-based intensive family preservation services treatment program designed to avoid unnecessary placement of children and youth into foster care, group care, psychiatric hospitals, or juvenile justice facilities. The program model engages families by delivering services in their natural environment, at times when they are most receptive to learning, and by enlisting them as partners in assessment, goal setting, and treatment planning. Reunification cases often require case activities related to reintegrating the child into the home and community. Examples include helping the parent find childcare, enrolling the child in school, refurbishing the child's bedroom, and helping the child connect with clubs, sports or other community groups. Child neglect referrals often require case activities related to improving the physical condition of the home, improving supervision of children, decreasing parental depression and/or alcohol and substance abuse, and helping families access needed community supports.
Program Goals
The goals of Homebuilders® are:
- Reduce child abuse and neglect
- Reduce family conflict
- Reduce child behavior problems
- Teach families the skills they need to prevent placement or successfully reunify with their children
Logic Model
The program representative did not provide information about a Logic Model for Homebuilders®.
Essential Components
The essential components of Homebuilders® include:
- Engagement: Use a collaborative and collegial approach to engage and motivate families
- Assessment and Goal Setting: Use client-directed assessment across life domains, ongoing safety assessment and planning, domestic violence assessment, suicide assessment, and crisis planning
- Behavior Change: Use cognitive and behavioral research-based practices and behavioral interventions
- Skills Development: Teach parents and children a wide variety of "life skills" using "teaching interaction" process including practice, feedback, and homework
- Concrete Services: Provide and/or help the family access concrete goods and services that are directly related to achieving the family's goals, while teaching them to meet these needs on their own
- Community Coordination and Interactions: Coordinate, collaborate, and advocate with state, local, public, and community services and systems affecting the family, while teaching clients to advocate and access support for themselves.
- Immediate Response To Referral: Accept referrals 24 hours a day, 7 days a week; therapist and back- up are available 24-hours a day, 7 days a week
- Service Provided in the Natural Environment: Provide services in the families' homes and community
- Caseload Size: Carry caseloads of two families at a time on average, but can be as high as five
- Flexibility and Responsiveness: Tailor services to each family's needs, strengths, lifestyle, and culture
Program Delivery
Child/Adolescent Services
Homebuilders® directly provides services to children/adolescents and addresses the following:
- Noncompliance, behavioral/emotional problems, aggression/anger, truancy, and running away
Parent/Caregiver Services
Homebuilders® directly provides services to parents/caregivers and addresses the following:
- Family conflict and violence, poor parenting skills, depression, aggression/anger, substance abuse, child abuse, and neglect
Recommended Intensity:
Three to five 2-hour sessions contacts per week; an average of 8 to 10 hours per week of face to face contact, with telephone contact between sessions.
Recommended Duration:
An average of four to six weeks. Two aftercare 'booster sessions' totaling up to five hours are available in the six months following referral.
Delivery Settings
This program is typically conducted in a(n):
- Adoptive Home
- Birth Family Home
Homework
Homebuilders® includes a homework component:
Homework is individually tailored based on family goals; usually includes collecting data, practicing skills, and implementing interventions.
Resources Needed to Run Program
The typical resources for implementing the program are:
- A team of 3-5 therapists, 1 supervisor (carries a partial caseload), and 1 secretary/support staff
- A small amount of staff work/office space, supplies, telephone, copier, etc.
- Pagers and /or cell phones
- Clinical staff use their own vehicles for home visits, mileage is paid for all client and program related travel
- Access to a computer and Internet for client records and data collection
Manuals and Training
Prerequisite/Minimum Provider Qualifications
- Therapist: Master's degree in psychology, social work, counseling, or a related field, or Bachelor's degree in same fields plus two years of experience working with families.
- Supervisor: Master's degree in psychology, social work, counseling or a related field, or Bachelor's degree in same fields plus two years of experience providing the program, plus one year supervisory/management experience.
Manual Information
There is a manual that describes how to deliver this program.
Training Information
There is training available for this program.
Training Contact:
- Shelley Leavitt, PhD, Associate Director
Institute for Family Development
sleavitt@institutefamily.org
phone: (253) 874-3630
Training Type/Location:
Workshop training is provided onsite or at headquarters in Federal Way, WA. Program implementation and quality assurance is provided by telephone and on site.
Number of days/hours:
Recommended for clinical staff: 5 days initial training; 8 days of intermediate/advanced training; and 7 additional days of training for supervisors. Program implementation and quality assurance process involves quarterly 2-3 day site visits, 12 hours of records reviews, and 6-8 hours per month phone consultation.
Implementation Information
Pre-Implementation Materials
There are pre-implementation materials to measure organizational or provider readiness for Homebuilders® as listed below:
The Intensive Family Preservation Services Implementation Guide provides policy makers, funders, program developers, and administrators with tools for assessing capacity and planning for implementation of Homebuilders® programs. Topics include:
- Examining need
- Assessing capacity
- Identifying system supports and barriers
- Preparing for program startup.
The guide is available through the Institute for Family Development. To purchase the guide, email Shelley Leavitt, PhD, at sleavit@institutefamily.org, or call her at 253-874-3630.
Individuals can assess their skill readiness to be a Homebuilders® therapist through use of the Initial Professional Development Plan, a 36-item checklist which includes:
- Ability to implement behavioral interventions
- Ability to use critical thinking skills in designing clinical interventions
- Ability to active listen to multiple family members at one time.
The checklist can be found at www.institutefamily.org/pdf/Initial-Pro-Dev-Plan.pdf.
Formal Support for Implementation
There is formal support available for implementation of Homebuilders® as listed below:
The Homebuilders® quality enhancement and training (QUEST) division provides ongoing clinical and program management consultation and site development services to sites replicating the model.
Fidelity Measures
There are fidelity measures for Homebuilders® as listed below:
Each of the 20 Homebuilders® Standards has multiple fidelity measures. They are available at http://www.institutefamily.org.
Implementation Guides or Manuals
There are implementation guides or manuals for Homebuilders® as listed below:
The Homebuilders® Implementation Guide contains program standards, fidelity measures, and clinical and supervisory tools.
Research on How to Implement the Program
Research has not been conducted on how to implement Homebuilders®.
Relevant Published, Peer-Reviewed Research
Child Welfare Outcome: Permanency
Wood, S., Barton, K., & Schroeder, C. (1988). In-home treatment of abusive families: Cost and placement at one year. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training, 25(3), 409–414. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0085362
Type of Study:
Pretest–posttest study with a nonequivalent control group (Quasi-experimental)
Number of Participants:
59 children in 26 families
Population:
- Age — Families First Group: Mean=8.9 years; Comparison Group: Mean=5.4 years
- Race/Ethnicity — 72% White, 15% Black, 9% Asian, and 4% Hispanic
- Gender — Not specified
- Status — Participants were families at risk of having a child placed out-of-home, who were referred to the Families First program.
Location/Institution: Northern California
Summary:
(To include basic study design, measures, results, and notable limitations)
The purpose of the study was to report on a child abuse prevention project designed to keep abused children safely at home. Participants were assigned to either the Families First home-based service program [now called Homebuilders®] or to usual services. Measures utilized include administrative data from the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) regarding financial aid, ethnicity, sex of referred children, or reason for referral. Results indicate that 74% of the Families First children remained at home compared to 45% of the comparison group. Placement costs were also significantly lower for the in-home services group. Limitations include lack of randomization of participants, interview bias, and lack of generalizability due to ethnicity.
Length of controlled postintervention follow-up: 1 year.
Fraser, M. W., Walton, E., Lewis, R. E., Pecora, P. J., & Walton, W. K. (1996). An experiment in family reunification: Correlates of outcomes at one-year follow-up. Children and Youth Services Review, 18(4–5), 335–361. https://doi.org/10.1016/0190-7409(96)00009-6
Type of Study:
Randomized controlled trial
Number of Participants:
110
Population:
- Age — 1–17 years (Mean=10.8 years)
- Race/Ethnicity — 83% White
- Gender — 58% Female
- Status — Participants were children in foster care.
Location/Institution: Utah
Summary:
(To include basic study design, measures, results, and notable limitations)
The purpose of the study was to describe findings from an evaluation of a program developed to reunify foster children with their biological parents. Participants were randomly assigned to receive an experimental family reunification intervention [now called Homebuilders®] or to a routine services control group. Measures utilized include administrative data from the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS). Results indicate that significantly more children in the treatment group returned to their families within the 90-day treatment program than did control group children. Treatment group children also returned in a shorter amount of time than did control children. Children who went through the treatment program spent more time in their own home than did control group children during the 6-month and 12-month follow-up periods. At one-year postintervention follow-up, 70% of children who were in the program remained home as compared to 47% of children in the control group. Limitations include lack of generalizability due to ethnicity and also limited to participants in foster care system.
Length of controlled postintervention follow-up: 1 year.
Walton, E. (1998). In-home family-focused reunification: A six-year follow-up of a successful experiment. Social Work Research, 22(4), 205–214. https://doi.org/10.1093/swr/22.4.205
Type of Study:
Randomized controlled trial
Number of Participants:
120 children
Population:
- Age — 6.4–23.9 years at 6-year follow-up
- Race/Ethnicity — 83% White
- Gender — Not specified
- Status — Participants were children and young adults currently or formerly in foster care.
Location/Institution: Utah
Summary:
(To include basic study design, measures, results, and notable limitations)
The study used the same sample as Fraser et al. (1996), with the addition of 10 young adults who turned 18 during the intervention in that study. The purpose of the study was to report the placement and welfare service histories for children included in the original trial. Participants were randomly assigned to the intervention group [now called Homebuilders®] or to the control group. Measures utilized include administrative data from Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) on total days of public agency involvement during the 6 years, total number of referrals to the DCFS, public agency involvement after DCFS case closure and reason for discontinuing services. Results indicate that groups did not differ on days of DCFS involvement and number of referrals. Groups were also equal in the extent to which they received extensive involvement with services, defined as placement in a foster home, corrections facility, or facility of the Department of Mental Retardation. Experimental families received more services overall, which authors attribute as possibly being a result of the interventions focus on networking families with services. Finally, a greater number of intervention families were classified as having discontinued services due to the family situation being stabilized. Limitations include lack of generalizability due to ethnicity and also limited to former and current participants in the foster care system.
Length of controlled postintervention follow-up: Approximately 5.75 years.
Additional References
Kinney, J. M., Haapala, D. A., & Booth, C. (2004). Keeping families together: The Homebuilder® Model. New Brunswick, New Jersey. Aldine Transaction.
Wood, S., Baron, K., & Schroeder, C. (1988). In-home treatment of abusive families: Cost and placement at one year. Psychotherapy, 25(3), 409-414.
Contact Information
- Charlotte Booth
- Title: Executive Director
- Agency/Affiliation: Institute for Family Development
- Website: www.institutefamily.org
- Email: cbooth@institutefamily.org
- Phone: (253) 927-1550
- Fax: (253) 838-1670
Date Research Evidence Last Reviewed by CEBC: May 2023
Date Program Content Last Reviewed by Program Staff: May 2018
Date Program Originally Loaded onto CEBC: July 2006
