Navigating Child and Family Teams: The Role of the Facilitator

Today, we are highlighting one of the Center’s trainings, “Navigating Child and Family Teams: The Role of the Facilitator.” This is a three-day training for those who facilitate child and family team meetings. A facilitator is someone who is neither the social worker for the family nor the supervisor of that child welfare worker. A facilitator is required when the risk rating of a case is high or for cases open for six months without progress. Facilitators are extremely helpful and are often crucial in cases with conflict, complicated family systems, strained or inaccessible family members, and more. These facilitators make it possible for group members to work together toward a common goal for the child.

This course offered by our Center helps participants learn how to effectively facilitate child and family teams by learning about how the role of the facilitator differs from a traditional social worker. It also provides strategies, fosters discussion, encourages collaboration, and offers participants the opportunity to practice scenarios and prepare materials.

Some of the feedback about this course is provided below.

This class was great, it had everything I needed to do my job.

I enjoyed going into the breakout sessions.

Getting perspectives from each person on how to handle a matter was very interesting as I learned new techniques from each participant. Additionally, I gained knowledge on the various skill techniques when doing CFT.

This training is an example of the work that the Center for Family and Community Engagement is doing to help support facilitators, social workers, families, and children across North Carolina. To learn more about other training courses, you can visit the training page of our website here.