The Family Leadership Model

Latest Update:

CFACE program staff continue to support development and evaluation of the North Carolina Child Welfare Family Leadership Model. Designed to engage child welfare families in policy, program, and practice discussions, the model supports collaboration and partnerships between families and child welfare leadership at the county and state levels. CFACE provides infrastructure and leadership development for the state level Child Welfare Family Advisory Council and three pilot county Family Engagement Committees. Additional programming includes Parent Cafés, which are a core mechanism to engage families and facilitate family leadership opportunities. The Family Leadership Model includes a structured evaluation designed assess family engagement and leadership development. The evaluation informs program design to be responsive to family engagement and leadership goals. 

What’s Next:

Families and child welfare leadership have shared that participation in the activities defined by the Family Leadership Model have provided a new perspective which has resulted in changes to programs, policies, attitudes, and understanding of each other. CFACE program staff will continue to support the growth of this model by bringing together families, child welfare leadership, and community partners to learn from each other as we work to define implementation protocol and resources. Family Leadership Model program implementation recommendations and resources will be developed to assist with replication of the model in other child welfare settings.  

For more information on this project, contact Kara Allen-Eckard at krallene@ncsu.edu