Program Goals

The overall goals of the PRIDE Model of Practice (Parent Resource for Information, Development, and Education) are:

• Meet the protective, developmental, cultural, and permanency needs of children placed with foster and adoptive families, with an emphasis on trauma-informed practices
• Strengthen families (birth, blended, foster, and adoptive)
• Strengthen the quality of family foster care and adoption services by providing a standardized, structured model of practice for:
• The recruitment, mutual assessment, pre-service training, and selection of foster and adoptive parents
• Foster parent in-service training
• Ongoing professional development
• Share resources among public and voluntary child welfare agencies, colleges and universities, foster and adoptive parent associations, and national child welfare organizations

Logic Model

The program representative did not provide information about a Logic Model for PRIDE Model of Practice (Parent Resource for Information, Development, and Education).

Essential Components

The essential components of the PRIDE Model of Practice (Parent Resource for Information, Development, and Education) include:

• Approach:
• The PRIDE Model of Practice recognizes that knowledgeable and skilled foster/adoptive parents are integral to quality family foster care and adoption services.
• Like child welfare workers, foster/adoptive parents must be recruited, assessed, prepared, trained, and selected to work as members of a professional team to protect and nurture children and strengthen families.
• The PRIDE Model of Practice views foster/adoptive parent preservice and inservice training as components of an overall process to develop and support foster/adoptive families.
• Recruitment and Retention are reconceptualized as planning, development, and support as depicted in the Points of Engagement list below.
• Planning:
• Goals: Clarify the agency mission for the foster/adoptive parent
• Role: Identify how foster/adoptive parents help achieve the agency mission
• Local Needs Assessment: How many foster parents do you need, for whom, where
• Development
• Community Education, Recruitment Strategies
• Respond to Inquiries
• Info Packet Preparation for Foster Parent/Adoptive Parent
• At-Home Consultation
• Mutual Decision
• Matching: Placement based on integration of family map and child's map – prep for first 336 hours (2 weeks)
• Support
• Family Development Plan
• On-going collaboration with Foster Parent/Adoptive Parent
• In-service training (see PRIDE Core below)
• Conclude formal relationship
• PRIDE In-Service (Core) Training: PRIDE Core includes 11 competency-based in-service training modules, totaling 87 hours of training, and range in duration. Each module includes a Trainer's Guide and a PRIDEbook. The Trainer's Guide provides the content and process instructions for leading the sessions. The PRIDEbook contains all the resource materials participants will use in the sessions and at home worksheets, a summary of session content, and resource readings. Foster PRIDE Core modules include:
• Module 1: The Foundation for Meeting the Developmental Needs of Children at Risk (12 hours)
• Module 2: Using Discipline to Protect, Nurture, and Meet Developmental Needs (9 hours)
• Module 3: Addressing Developmental Issues Related to Sexuality (3 hours)
• Module 4: Responding to the Signs and Symptoms of Sexual Abuse (6 hours)
• Module 5: Supporting Relationships between Children and Their Families (9 hours)
• Module 6: Working as a Professional Team Member (9 hours)
• Module 7: Promoting Children's Personal and Cultural Identity (6 hours)
• Module 8: Promoting Permanency Outcomes (12 hours)
• Module 9: Managing the Fostering Experience (6 hours)
• Module 10 (Under revision): Understanding the Effects of Chemical Dependency on Children and Families (15 hours)
• Module 11: Understanding and Promoting Child Development (3 hours)
• Module 12: Understanding and Promoting Preteen and Teen Development (3 hours)
• Work Tools: The PRIDE Model of Practice emphasizes the following specific, non-negotiable clinical components that must be in place in the development, licensing/certifying, and support of foster/adoptive families. Foster/Adoptive parents must:
• Believe in the agency's mission and commit to their role in achieving it
• Apply the competencies to their round-the-clock care of children
• Understand the dynamics of attachment and loss (pathway through the grieving process) and how it applies to children, birth parents, and themselves
• Understand the implications of parenting children with traumatic stress (jigsaw puzzle child) and be able and willing to provide trauma-informed parenting, using a balance of structure and nurture
• Be active participants in family time (parent/child visits)
• Help children understand their birth family with "no shame, no blame"
• Know the stages of disruption and be able to ask for help at the first sign of "diminishing pleasure"
• Be willing to engage in ongoing professional development
• Recognize that adopting is making a lifetime commitment to a child and fostering is making a commitment to being meaningful to a child's lifetime
• Recognize that to be a foster/adoptive parent is a privilege, not a right; but for a child to be protected and nurtured is a right, not a privilege

Program Delivery

Parent/Caregiver Services

PRIDE Model of Practice (Parent Resource for Information, Development, and Education) directly provides services to parents/caregivers and addresses the following:

• Supporting foster and adoptive families who are willing, able, and have the resources to meet the needs of traumatized children and their families

Recommended Intensity:

As a strengths-based approach, the program builds upon the unique strengths and needs of the participating agencies and adoptive/foster families. Thus, the intensity depends upon the point of engagement (POE) being implemented, see Essential Components for list of points of engagement and training curriculum.

Recommended Duration:

Parallel to intensity, the duration also depends upon the point of engagement.

Delivery Settings

This program is typically conducted in a(n):

• Community-based Agency / Organization / Provider
• Public Child Welfare Agency (Dept. of Social Services, etc.)

Homework

PRIDE Model of Practice (Parent Resource for Information, Development, and Education) includes a homework component:

The PRIDE Model of Practice preservice preparation and assessment includes a worksheet for each session titled, "PRIDE Connection." The aim is to help prospective resource parents apply what they are learning to their ability, willingness, and resources regarding the competencies. This worksheet is used as a framework for discussion between the families and their respective family development specialists (the staff person responsible for the "home studies"). This is critical in assessing the clinical dynamics identified in the above section titled "Work Tools."

Languages

PRIDE Model of Practice (Parent Resource for Information, Development, and Education) has materials available in a language other than English:

Spanish

For information on which materials are available in this language, please check on the program's website or contact the program representative (contact information is listed at the bottom of this page).

Resources Needed to Run Program

The typical resources for implementing the program are:

• PRIDE Resources (Materials)
• The PRIDE Model of Practice Handbook
• FosterPRIDE/AdoptPRIDE Pre-Service Preparation and Assessment (Integration of Training and Family Assessment) Products:
• Trainer’s Guide
• The PRIDEbook for participants
• 35-minute DVD Making a Difference
• 35-minute DVD Developing Family Resources
• 35-minute DVD FosterPRIDE/AdoptPRIDE Program Vignettes
• 17-minute DVD Family Forever, developed by the Annie E. Casey Foundation
• An experienced child welfare worker and an experienced foster parent or adoptive parent to run the foster parent trainings
• Space at tables for 15-30 participants
• A VCR and DVD player
• Monitor
• Easel stand
• Easel paper

Manuals and Training

Prerequisite/Minimum Provider Qualifications

There is no formal educational requirement. Implementation of the PRIDE Model of Practice requires a diverse set of child welfare skills including administration, management, supervisory, direct practice, family assessment, and group facilitation. The PRIDE Model of Practice would best be implemented by agency staff and resource families who reflect the 6 principles of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Code of Ethics (competence, dignity, integrity, importance of relationships, service, and advocacy).

Manual Information

There is a manual that describes how to deliver this program.

Training Information

There is training available for this program.

Training Contact:

• Marcus Stallworth, LMSW, CWLA Director of Training and Implementation
  Child Welfare of America
  www.cwla.org/pride-training
  mstallworth@cwla.org
  phone: (202) 878-0086

Training Type/Location:

Onsite through contract with an agency; or through participation in open-enrollment courses offered in CA and various other states.

Number of days/hours:

For pre-service component: 3 to 6 days. To learn how to conduct a training is 3 days. To learn how to do family assessments, an additional 3 days. For in-service: varies according to length of module.

Relevant Published, Peer-Reviewed Research

Currently, there are no published, peer-reviewed research studies for PRIDE Model of Practice (Parent Resource for Information, Development, and Education).

Additional References