There is a practice called Family Interaction that helps parents whose children are in foster care learn from foster families. It’s proven effective and nationally recognized as something that helps birth parents create a safe home for the child(ren) to return to.
We knew it was something great, but we needed to figure out how to communicate how it works and why we believe in it. We needed to explain it to birth families, to foster families, to agency employees and to court officials. So in this new partnership approach, guess what we did?
We asked people that already recognized the value to help us spread the word to their peers. No preset ideas. No training as usual. We wanted out of the box. And guess what? When we asked, we got it!
Chris and I took on Family Interaction together, and we started with our agencies. What did our staff know? Who did our staff know that already practiced Family Interaction? What did families think of it? What was practical and what was not?
Wendy
