Skip to content

Resource Parent Programs

Scientific Ratings in this Topic
  • 1 Well-Supported by Research Evidence
  • 2 Supported by Research Evidence
  • 3 Promising Research Evidence
  • 4 Evidence Fails to Demonstrate Effect
  • 5 Concerning Practice
  • NR Not able to be Rated

Topic Areas

Topic Areas

Definition

Resource Parent Programs are defined by the CEBC as programs that focus on the location, identification, recruitment, education, training, support, and retention of adults who are interested in being resource parents or who are already resource parents. A resource parent can be a relative (kinship), a nonrelated extended family member (NREFM), or a nonrelated foster parent. Since 2009, the CEBC has highlighted resource parent recruitment and training programs. In order to include resource parent programs that focus on identification, education, support, and retention, the CEBC revised and expanded this topic area in May 2018.

  • Target population: Potential and current resource parents
  • Services/types that fit: Interventions to locate new resource parents or to provide training and support for new or existing resource parents
  • Delivered by: Child welfare workers or trained paraprofessionals
  • In order to be included: Program must specifically target the location, identification, recruitment, education, training, support and/or retention of resource parents as a goal
  • In order to be rated: There must be research evidence (as specified by the Scientific Rating Scale) that examines outcomes such as improvement in resource parent recruitment or retention, the knowledge or skills of resource parents, or permanency, safety, and well-being outcomes for the children in their care.

Downloadable Topic Area Summary

Definition

Resource Parent Programs are defined by the CEBC as programs that focus on the location, identification, recruitment, education, training, support, and retention of adults who are interested in being resource parents or who are already resource parents. A resource parent can be a relative (kinship), a nonrelated extended family member (NREFM), or a nonrelated foster parent. Since 2009, the CEBC has highlighted resource parent recruitment and training programs. In order to include resource parent programs that focus on identification, education, support, and retention, the CEBC revised and expanded this topic area in May 2018.

  • Target population: Potential and current resource parents
  • Services/types that fit: Interventions to locate new resource parents or to provide training and support for new or existing resource parents
  • Delivered by: Child welfare workers or trained paraprofessionals
  • In order to be included: Program must specifically target the location, identification, recruitment, education, training, support and/or retention of resource parents as a goal
  • In order to be rated: There must be research evidence (as specified by the Scientific Rating Scale) that examines outcomes such as improvement in resource parent recruitment or retention, the knowledge or skills of resource parents, or permanency, safety, and well-being outcomes for the children in their care.

Downloadable Topic Area Summary

Why was this topic chosen by the Advisory Committee?

The Resource Parent Programs topic area is relevant to child welfare because child welfare relies on foster/resource families and relatives to care for children who have been removed from the homes of their parent(s) or guardian due to abuse and/or neglect. At a time, when many counties and states are finding an increase in the needs for families for foster children, there is a declining pool of families available. Without a sufficient pool of families available for placement, it is difficult to match a child's needs to a family who can provide for a child's particular needs and issues. Placement becomes an exercise in finding a bed for a child rather than finding a family that is trained and given the necessary support to care for children that have special needs due to the abuse or neglect they have experienced. The need to increase the pool of trained families for foster children is important for the field of child welfare. The Advisory Committee is interested in finding innovative and evidence-based strategies that have been effective in the recruitment, training, and support of families that care for foster children. Counties have used traditional methods for finding these resource families and need new strategies for finding and supporting foster/resource families.

Danna Fabella, Director, Linkages Project
Child and Family Policy Institute of California
Sacramento, CA

Why was this topic chosen by the Advisory Committee?

The Resource Parent Programs topic area is relevant to child welfare because child welfare relies on foster/resource families and relatives to care for children who have been removed from the homes of their parent(s) or guardian due to abuse and/or neglect. At a time, when many counties and states are finding an increase in the needs for families for foster children, there is a declining pool of families available. Without a sufficient pool of families available for placement, it is difficult to match a child's needs to a family who can provide for a child's particular needs and issues. Placement becomes an exercise in finding a bed for a child rather than finding a family that is trained and given the necessary support to care for children that have special needs due to the abuse or neglect they have experienced. The need to increase the pool of trained families for foster children is important for the field of child welfare. The Advisory Committee is interested in finding innovative and evidence-based strategies that have been effective in the recruitment, training, and support of families that care for foster children. Counties have used traditional methods for finding these resource families and need new strategies for finding and supporting foster/resource families.

Danna Fabella, Director, Linkages Project
Child and Family Policy Institute of California
Sacramento, CA

Topic Expert

Resource Parent Recruitment and Training Programs was one of new topic areas launched in 2009. John Orme, PhD was the topic expert and was involved in identifying and rating any of the programs with an original load date of March 2009 or earlier (as found on the bottom of the program's page on the CEBC). The topic area has grown over the years and in 2018, the topic area was revised and expanded. All of the Resource Parent Programs added since 2009 were identified by CEBC staff, the Scientific Panel, and/or the Advisory Committee. For these programs, Dr. Orme was not involved in identifying or rating them.

Topic Expert

Resource Parent Recruitment and Training Programs was one of new topic areas launched in 2009. John Orme, PhD was the topic expert and was involved in identifying and rating any of the programs with an original load date of March 2009 or earlier (as found on the bottom of the program's page on the CEBC). The topic area has grown over the years and in 2018, the topic area was revised and expanded. All of the Resource Parent Programs added since 2009 were identified by CEBC staff, the Scientific Panel, and/or the Advisory Committee. For these programs, Dr. Orme was not involved in identifying or rating them.

Programs

Treatment Foster Care Oregon – Adolescents

TFCO-A (previously referred to as Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care - Adolescents) provides foster care treatment for children 12-17 years old with severe emotional and behavioral disorders and/or severe delinquency. TFCO-A aims to create opportunities for youths to successfully live in families rather than in group or institutional settings, and to simultaneously prepare their parents (or other long-term placement) to provide them with effective parenting. Four key elements of treatment are (1) providing youths with a consistent reinforcing environment where they are mentored and encouraged to develop academic and positive living skills, (2) providing daily structure with clear expectations and limits, with well-specified consequences delivered in a teaching-oriented manner, (3) providing close supervision of youths' whereabouts, and (4) helping youth to avoid deviant peer associations while providing them with the support and assistance needed to establish pro-social peer relationships. TFCO also has versions for preschoolers and children. Treatment Foster Care Oregon for Preschoolers (TFCO-P) is rated separately on this website. Treatment Foster Care Oregon for Children (TFCO-C) has not been tested separately, but has the same elements as TFCO-A except it includes materials more developmentally appropriate for younger children.

Scientific Rating 1

KEEP SAFE

The objective of KEEP SAFE is to give parents effective tools for dealing with their child's externalizing and other behavioral and emotional problems including trauma and to support them in the implementation of those tools. Curriculum topics include framing the foster/kin parents' role as that of key agents of change with opportunities to alter the life course trajectories of the children placed with them. Foster/kin parents are taught methods for creating a safe environment, encouraging child cooperation, using behavioral contingencies and effective limit setting, and balancing encouragement and limits. There are also sessions on dealing with difficult problem behaviors including covert behaviors, promoting school success, encouraging positive peer relationships, and strategies for managing stress brought on by providing foster care. There is an emphasis on active learning methods; illustrations of primary concepts are presented via role-plays and videotapes. There is also a component of the model that involves having the youth meet weekly with a skills coach. The emphasis is on developing and maintaining positive peer relationships, increasing skills to deal responsibly and safely to avoid drug use and participation in health-risking sexual behavior, and to help these youth problem solve difficulties and stresses in social relationships with adults and at school. KEEP SAFE is also rated in the Placement Stabilization Programs topic area. Please click here to go to that entry.

Scientific Rating 2

Together Facing the Challenge

TFTC is a training/consultation approach to improving practice in treatment foster care (TFC). The intervention was built from a naturalistic study of "usual care" TFC to determine what practice components were related to improved outcomes for youth. It also incorporates elements from existing evidence-based treatments to fill identified gaps in usual care practice. The resulting model includes training/consultation for TFC supervisors as well as training for treatment foster parents. TFTC is designed as a train-the-trainer approach, so that TFC administrative/supervisory personnel can learn the model and train treatment foster parents.

This program will provide training on practical parenting and supervisory skills and techniques.

Scientific Rating 2

Treatment Foster Care Oregon for Preschoolers

TFCO-P (previously referred to as Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care for Preschoolers) is a foster care treatment model specifically tailored to the needs of 3 to 6-year-old foster children. TFCO-P is designed to promote secure attachments in foster care and facilitate successful permanent placements. TFCO-P is delivered through a treatment team approach in which treatment foster parents receive training and ongoing consultation and support. Children receive individual skills training and participate in a therapeutic playgroup, and family of origin (or other permanent placement caregivers) receive family therapy. TFCO-P emphasizes the use of concrete encouragement for prosocial behavior; consistent, nonabusive limit-setting to address disruptive behavior; and close supervision of the child. In addition, the TFCO-P intervention employs a developmental framework in which the challenges of foster preschoolers are viewed from the perspective of delayed maturation.

Scientific Rating 2

FPC-IHS Blended In-Person and Online Pre-Service Training for Resource Parents

The FPC-IHS Blended In-Person and Online Pre-Service Training for Resource Parents combines four in-person classroom sessions with ten self-paced online training courses from FosterParentCollege.com (FPC). The classroom sessions are used to present local/state information or required training, conduct group activities, and allow the agency and prospective resource parent to assess whether a child should join their family. The interactive online courses, viewed independently, are provided in three clusters that cover core resource parent training and serve as a gateway to treatment foster care:

  • Online Course Cluster 1: The Child Welfare Team, Child Abuse and Neglect, Parent-Child Attachment, and Understanding Behavior in Foster Children
  • Online Course Cluster 2: Child Development, Cultural Issues in Parenting, and Working Together with Primary Families
  • Online Course Cluster 3: Caring for Children Who Have Been Sexually Abused, Reducing Family Stress, and Foster Care to Adoption

Scientific Rating 3

FosterParentCollege.com®

FosterParentCollege.com® (FPC) is an online training venue for foster, adoptive, and kinship parents. Interactive multimedia courses, offered 24/7 through the site, provide both pre-service and in-service training on clinical aspects of and parent interventions for children's problematic behaviors. Instructional content is based on social learning theory and attachment theory. As of January 2024, there are 51 self-paced FPC online courses available in English, 22 of which are also available in Spanish. Included are 6 advanced parenting workshops (in English only) that provide in-depth training on specific behavioral and emotional problems utilizing discussion boards and individualized assignments. FPC courses can be taken individually via the internet using a mobile device or a computer. A strategic partnership with the Child Welfare League of America (CWLA) integrates FPC pre-service courses within the CWLA New Generation of PRIDE Model of Practice using a blended approach to pre-service training, which is also highlighted on the CEBC at this link.

Scientific Rating 3

KEEP

The objective of KEEP is to give parents effective tools for dealing with their child's externalizing problems, trauma, and other behavioral and emotional problems and to support them in the implementation of those tools. Curriculum topics include framing the foster/kin parents' role as that of key agents of change with opportunities to alter the life course trajectories of the children placed with them. Foster/kin parents are taught methods for creating a safe environment, encouraging child cooperation, using behavioral contingencies, strategies for self-regulation, effective limit setting, and balancing encouragement and limits. There are also sessions on dealing with difficult problem behaviors including covert behaviors, promoting school success, encouraging positive peer relationships, and strategies for managing stress brought on by providing foster care. There is an emphasis on active learning methods; illustrations of primary concepts are presented via role-plays and videotapes. An adaptation of KEEP, for foster and kinship parents of teenagers called KEEP SAFE, has been reviewed by the CEBC and is rated a 2 –Supported by Research Evidence on the CEBC Scientific Rating Scale in the areas of Behavioral Management Programs for Adolescents in Child Welfare and Resource Parent Recruitment and Training Programs. KEEP SAFE has also been rated a 3 –Promising Research Evidence in the area of Placement Stabilization Programs; that entry is accessible here.

Scientific Rating 3

National Training and Development Curriculum for Foster and Adoptive Parents

NTDC, the comprehensive no-cost curriculum, is designed to tackle separation, loss, grief, and trauma in adoption and foster care. This cutting-edge resource offers adoptive, kinship, and foster parents flexible education that aims to empower them over the course of time and at the right time. Training is provided both as a synchronous classroom-based learning experience and through asynchronous “Right-Time” online modules that are available at any time for NTDC participants to build further knowledge, skills, and self-efficacy. While this training originated from key concepts to support children with intense service needs, it is designed to be used in any out-of-home placement, including with kin or adoptive caregivers.

Note: NTDC has also adapted to address the unique needs of indigenous communities; however, this separate manualized version is not part of this program review.

Scientific Rating 3

Neighbor To Family Sibling Foster Care Model

The Neighbor To Family Sibling Foster Care Model was developed by Gordon Johnson as the Neighbor To Neighbor model while he was President & CEO of The Jane Addams Hull House Association. The unique child-centered, family-focused foster care model is designed to keep sibling groups, including large sibling groups, together in stable foster care placements while working intensively on reunification or permanency plans that keep the siblings together. Neighbor To Neighbor began in 1994 serving targeted communities in Chicago where the majority of children came into foster care. The program uses a community-based, team-oriented approach, including foster caregivers and birth parents as part of the treatment team. Trained and supported foster caregivers are key to the model's success. Neighbor to Neighbor professionalized this key role by placing these trained foster caregivers on the payroll with salaries and benefits. Foster families, birth families, and children receive comprehensive and intensive services including individualized case management, advocacy, and clinical services on a weekly basis. Mr. Johnson incorporated the Neighbor to Neighbor model in 2000 as the Neighbor To Family Sibling Foster Care Model, retaining Neighbor to Neighbor's essential components and expanding its operating model and geographic presence beyond Illinois.

Scientific Rating 3

Pressley Ridge’s Treatment Foster Care (PR-TFC) Pre-Service Curriculum

Pressley Ridge's Treatment Foster Care (PR-TFC) Pre-Service Curriculum is designed to be used by agencies to provide 30 hours of training to incoming treatment foster care (TFC) parents by going through all 10 units in the curriculum. Integrated multimedia resources within the curriculum include PowerPoint slides, video vignettes demonstrating therapeutic skills taught during training, and experiential activities (e.g., role plays). All trainers use the PR-TFC Pre-Service Curriculum training manual that provides clear objectives and requirements, and parents also receive a manual with training content, homework, and reading assignments. The PR-TFC Pre-Service Curriculum is a competency-based program rooted in social learning theory, behaviorism, working alliance, and trauma-informed care. The underlying beliefs of the curriculum focus on TFC parents as change agents for youth in their care. This means that TFC parents are taught that youth's behavior can change and how to teach youth the skills necessary for effective living.

Scientific Rating 3

ARC Reflections

ARC Reflections is a skills-building curriculum for foster and other resource caregivers, with an emphasis on building trauma-informed capacities in the child welfare resource caregiver community. Based on the core Attachment, Regulation and Competency (ARC) framework, ARC Reflections emphasizes understanding and responding to youth behavior from a trauma-informed lens, development of safe caregiving relationships, support for youth regulation, and the caregiver role in facilitating developmental competency.

Scientific Rating NR

CORE Teen

CORE (Critical Ongoing Resource Family Education) Teen, grounded in trauma-informed and culturally responsive parenting skill acquisition, is designed to increase the parenting efficacy of resource parents for youths with behavioral challenges, thereby it aims to reduce the risk of placement disruption and increase permanency options for such youths while also recruit new resource parents.

Scientific Rating NR

Connecting

Connecting is a program for foster/relative caregivers and the teens (11-15 years old) in their care. It uses a trauma-informed approach and is designed to help strengthen family relationships and help families develop skills to reduce risk of drug use, risky sexual behavior, and violence among teens. The program includes two DVDs and a workbook with step-by-step activities that families complete at their own pace. Families receive weekly check-in contacts from a trained family consultant to answer questions about the program, facilitate use of the materials, and encourage families to complete the program. The book includes ten chapters covering background information, activities for caregivers to do alone and to do together with the teen, and ideas to help caregivers take care of themselves. Each chapter has references to video segments on the DVDs to promote discussions between caregivers and teens, demonstrate skills, or provide examples of how other foster families have dealt with similar issues.

Scientific Rating NR

PRIDE Model of Practice (Parent Resource for Information, Development, and Education)

PRIDE Model of Practice (Parent Resource for Information, Development, and Education) is a competency-based model of practice designed to strengthen the quality of family foster care and adoption services by developing and supporting foster and adoptive families who are willing, able, and have the resources to meet the needs of traumatized children and their families. A model of practice means that all staff and foster/adoptive parents who work with at-risk children and their birth families share the same vision, mission, goals, values; use the same strengths-based child and family-friendly words; demonstrate the same standard of child welfare work practices; and share accountability for outcomes. The PRIDE Model of Practice is based on five essential competency categories for foster/adoptive parents, developed from a comprehensive national analysis of the roles of foster and adoptive parents and grouped into the following five categories: (1) Protecting and nurturing children (safety child welfare outcome); (2) Meeting children's developmental needs and addressing developmental delays (well-being child welfare outcome); (3) Supporting relationships between children and their families (permanency child welfare outcome); (4) Connecting children to safe, nurturing relationships intended to last a lifetime (permanency child welfare outcome); and (5) Working as a member of a professional team (essential to achieve the above four categories). CWLA (Child Welfare League of America) is proud to offer the PRIDE Model of Practice to help public and private child welfare agencies recruit, develop, assess, support, train, and retain resource families to be team members in achieving Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) outcomes.

Scientific Rating NR

Parents as Tender Healers

PATH is a ten-week curriculum developed to train prospective foster parents. Sessions are intended to help parents decide whether fostering or adoption is appropriate for them. Sessions address:

  • How resource families differ from birth families
  • How and why children in the welfare system develop survival behaviors
  • The different roles of birth, legal, and caregiving parents
  • Characteristics of successful resource families
  • The types of abuse and neglect experienced within the child welfare system, survival behaviors developed, and the emotional issues underlying these behaviors
  • The impact of separation and trauma on children, and the importance of emotional attachment
  • Understanding issues faced by children in transition, and identifying existing and future family strengths and support
  • Tools and techniques to help children develop attachment
  • Disciplinary techniques for children who have experienced trauma

The final session consists of a panel discussion with experienced Resource parents and children.

Scientific Rating NR

Permanency Navigator Program – Adoption Network Cleveland

The Permanency Navigator Program - Adoption Network Cleveland provides supportive services to help families who are seeking to provide a permanent home for a child-in-need be successful in completing the adoption or guardianship process. The permanency navigator, who is a paraprofessional, provides peer-support and education to help parents set realistic expectations, overcome barriers and access resources.

The Permanency Navigator Program should be part of nonprofit organization that is not the adoption agency, and the permanency navigator can therefore be seen as a safe, neutral source of information and support. The permanency navigator is available to families by phone and in person to help families stay engaged in the process, answer questions, provide technical assistance and refer to resources.

Through a partnership with the public child welfare agency, the permanency navigator reaches out to families seeking to become foster or adoptive parents, or those who have gotten bogged down in the process. The permanency navigator is also available to families who seek out the service.

Scientific Rating NR

Resource Parent Curriculum

The Resource Parent Curriculum (RPC) (officially titled Caring for Children Who Have Experienced Trauma: A Workshop for Resource Parents) is an eight-module workshop designed to educate resource parents on the effects of trauma on the children in their care. The workshop is led by a professional facilitator and a co-facilitator with lived experience as a resource parent. The RPC features activities in each module where caregivers apply the concepts learned to a child currently placed in their home. Each module also includes interactive group activities and discussions to promote shared learning.

The content of RPC is centered on nine Essential Elements of Trauma-Informed Parenting. The Essential Elements are centered around recognizing trauma's impact, understanding and providing physical and psychological safety, understanding and managing difficult behaviors and emotions, respecting and promoting relationships, developing a strengths-based life story, practicing advocacy, promoting trauma-informed services, and practicing parent self-care.

Scientific Rating NR

Solihull Approach Foster Carer Course

The Solihull Approach Foster Carer Course is intended for foster carers who want to know more about their foster child's development and about sensitive and effective caring. It aims to develop a framework for foster carers to think about carer/child relationships which can be developed into a lifelong skill. This in turn promotes understanding of their foster child's behavior and aims to help develop effective strategies to manage the child's behavior.

Scientific Rating NR

Trauma Informed PS – MAPP

TIPS-MAPP is a 30-hour preparation and selection program for prospective foster and adoptive parents. Each component of TIPS-MAPP is designed to enable participants to develop ability and skills to be effective and satisfied foster parents or adoptive parents, as well as to assess their willingness and readiness to assume the roles. Additionally, the components provide the agency with information for the family's decision-making. The TIPS-MAPP is designed to help prospective adoptive and foster families develop abilities that are essential for foster parents to promote children's safety, permanence and well-being. These families are supported through a mutual selection process, which emphasizes open communication and trust between prospective foster families, adoptive families and child welfare workers, using common criteria for assessment and a problem-solving approach to areas of concern. The TIPS-MAPP approach emphasizes shared decision making, problem solving and mutual selection, all of which are integral to building mutual trust and teamwork.

TIPS-MAPP evolved from PS-MAPP which was updated in 2013, with the guidance of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN), to include trauma-informed practice methods. PS-MAPP was a comprehensive preparation and selection program for foster and/or adoptive parents developed after the passage of the Adoption and Safe Families Act in 1997. PS-MAPP was created out of consultations with the National Foster Parent Association Board of Directors and out of years of experience with the MAPP (Model Approach to Partnerships in Parenting) family of programs. The program has been updated in 2018 to include “reasonable and prudent parenting “standards as well as case examples that are relevant to the most current challenges in child welfare. Additionally, TIPS-MAPP has a culturally responsive version that addresses specific needs of Native American children and families.

Scientific Rating NR

Trauma Systems Therapy–Foster Care

TST-FC is a 4-module group-based training for resource parents and birth parents of youth in foster care. It is designed to provide training on definitions and impact of trauma, as well as specific approaches and interventions to parent more effectively, including a focus on parental self-care. TST-FC provides a trauma-informed approach based on the Trauma Systems Therapy (TST) model. Staff within a foster care agency are identified and trained to be TST-FC trainers. TST-FC can be used as a stand-alone model, or in conjunction with full TST implementation.

Scientific Rating NR

Trauma-Integrative Treatment Foster Care

TI-TFC is a component-based treatment framework that through specialized training for the treatment parent and social worker addresses complex trauma, development disabilities, and medically fragile conditions of children who are placed in foster care and the children's families. In TI-TFC, the foster parent is referred to as the treatment parent. The primary focus of change in TI-TFC is the treatment parent's relationship with the child and the child's birth family. Key components are the recruitment, training, supervision, and support of treatment parents in developing and maintaining these relationships.

Social workers provide treatment parents with in-home training, supervision, support, and interventions within the focus of change. The Social Worker, in collaboration with the treatment parents and team, facilitates the development of a treatment plan which integrates permanency planning, outpatient treatments, school, and community services.

Assessment, treatment planning, and interventions are driven by the meaningful use of the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) measure and its integration within the Attachment, Regulation, and Competency (ARC) Mapping tool.

A key component of TI-TFC is the recruitment, training, and supervision of Treatment parents and social workers.

Scientific Rating NR

Programs

Treatment Foster Care Oregon – Adolescents

TFCO-A (previously referred to as Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care - Adolescents) provides foster care treatment for children 12-17 years old with severe emotional and behavioral disorders and/or severe delinquency. TFCO-A aims to create opportunities for youths to successfully live in families rather than in group or institutional settings, and to simultaneously prepare their parents (or other long-term placement) to provide them with effective parenting. Four key elements of treatment are (1) providing youths with a consistent reinforcing environment where they are mentored and encouraged to develop academic and positive living skills, (2) providing daily structure with clear expectations and limits, with well-specified consequences delivered in a teaching-oriented manner, (3) providing close supervision of youths' whereabouts, and (4) helping youth to avoid deviant peer associations while providing them with the support and assistance needed to establish pro-social peer relationships. TFCO also has versions for preschoolers and children. Treatment Foster Care Oregon for Preschoolers (TFCO-P) is rated separately on this website. Treatment Foster Care Oregon for Children (TFCO-C) has not been tested separately, but has the same elements as TFCO-A except it includes materials more developmentally appropriate for younger children.

Scientific Rating 1

KEEP SAFE

The objective of KEEP SAFE is to give parents effective tools for dealing with their child's externalizing and other behavioral and emotional problems including trauma and to support them in the implementation of those tools. Curriculum topics include framing the foster/kin parents' role as that of key agents of change with opportunities to alter the life course trajectories of the children placed with them. Foster/kin parents are taught methods for creating a safe environment, encouraging child cooperation, using behavioral contingencies and effective limit setting, and balancing encouragement and limits. There are also sessions on dealing with difficult problem behaviors including covert behaviors, promoting school success, encouraging positive peer relationships, and strategies for managing stress brought on by providing foster care. There is an emphasis on active learning methods; illustrations of primary concepts are presented via role-plays and videotapes. There is also a component of the model that involves having the youth meet weekly with a skills coach. The emphasis is on developing and maintaining positive peer relationships, increasing skills to deal responsibly and safely to avoid drug use and participation in health-risking sexual behavior, and to help these youth problem solve difficulties and stresses in social relationships with adults and at school. KEEP SAFE is also rated in the Placement Stabilization Programs topic area. Please click here to go to that entry.

Scientific Rating 2

Together Facing the Challenge

TFTC is a training/consultation approach to improving practice in treatment foster care (TFC). The intervention was built from a naturalistic study of "usual care" TFC to determine what practice components were related to improved outcomes for youth. It also incorporates elements from existing evidence-based treatments to fill identified gaps in usual care practice. The resulting model includes training/consultation for TFC supervisors as well as training for treatment foster parents. TFTC is designed as a train-the-trainer approach, so that TFC administrative/supervisory personnel can learn the model and train treatment foster parents.

This program will provide training on practical parenting and supervisory skills and techniques.

Scientific Rating 2

Treatment Foster Care Oregon for Preschoolers

TFCO-P (previously referred to as Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care for Preschoolers) is a foster care treatment model specifically tailored to the needs of 3 to 6-year-old foster children. TFCO-P is designed to promote secure attachments in foster care and facilitate successful permanent placements. TFCO-P is delivered through a treatment team approach in which treatment foster parents receive training and ongoing consultation and support. Children receive individual skills training and participate in a therapeutic playgroup, and family of origin (or other permanent placement caregivers) receive family therapy. TFCO-P emphasizes the use of concrete encouragement for prosocial behavior; consistent, nonabusive limit-setting to address disruptive behavior; and close supervision of the child. In addition, the TFCO-P intervention employs a developmental framework in which the challenges of foster preschoolers are viewed from the perspective of delayed maturation.

Scientific Rating 2

FPC-IHS Blended In-Person and Online Pre-Service Training for Resource Parents

The FPC-IHS Blended In-Person and Online Pre-Service Training for Resource Parents combines four in-person classroom sessions with ten self-paced online training courses from FosterParentCollege.com (FPC). The classroom sessions are used to present local/state information or required training, conduct group activities, and allow the agency and prospective resource parent to assess whether a child should join their family. The interactive online courses, viewed independently, are provided in three clusters that cover core resource parent training and serve as a gateway to treatment foster care:

  • Online Course Cluster 1: The Child Welfare Team, Child Abuse and Neglect, Parent-Child Attachment, and Understanding Behavior in Foster Children
  • Online Course Cluster 2: Child Development, Cultural Issues in Parenting, and Working Together with Primary Families
  • Online Course Cluster 3: Caring for Children Who Have Been Sexually Abused, Reducing Family Stress, and Foster Care to Adoption

Scientific Rating 3

FosterParentCollege.com®

FosterParentCollege.com® (FPC) is an online training venue for foster, adoptive, and kinship parents. Interactive multimedia courses, offered 24/7 through the site, provide both pre-service and in-service training on clinical aspects of and parent interventions for children's problematic behaviors. Instructional content is based on social learning theory and attachment theory. As of January 2024, there are 51 self-paced FPC online courses available in English, 22 of which are also available in Spanish. Included are 6 advanced parenting workshops (in English only) that provide in-depth training on specific behavioral and emotional problems utilizing discussion boards and individualized assignments. FPC courses can be taken individually via the internet using a mobile device or a computer. A strategic partnership with the Child Welfare League of America (CWLA) integrates FPC pre-service courses within the CWLA New Generation of PRIDE Model of Practice using a blended approach to pre-service training, which is also highlighted on the CEBC at this link.

Scientific Rating 3

KEEP

The objective of KEEP is to give parents effective tools for dealing with their child's externalizing problems, trauma, and other behavioral and emotional problems and to support them in the implementation of those tools. Curriculum topics include framing the foster/kin parents' role as that of key agents of change with opportunities to alter the life course trajectories of the children placed with them. Foster/kin parents are taught methods for creating a safe environment, encouraging child cooperation, using behavioral contingencies, strategies for self-regulation, effective limit setting, and balancing encouragement and limits. There are also sessions on dealing with difficult problem behaviors including covert behaviors, promoting school success, encouraging positive peer relationships, and strategies for managing stress brought on by providing foster care. There is an emphasis on active learning methods; illustrations of primary concepts are presented via role-plays and videotapes. An adaptation of KEEP, for foster and kinship parents of teenagers called KEEP SAFE, has been reviewed by the CEBC and is rated a 2 –Supported by Research Evidence on the CEBC Scientific Rating Scale in the areas of Behavioral Management Programs for Adolescents in Child Welfare and Resource Parent Recruitment and Training Programs. KEEP SAFE has also been rated a 3 –Promising Research Evidence in the area of Placement Stabilization Programs; that entry is accessible here.

Scientific Rating 3

National Training and Development Curriculum for Foster and Adoptive Parents

NTDC, the comprehensive no-cost curriculum, is designed to tackle separation, loss, grief, and trauma in adoption and foster care. This cutting-edge resource offers adoptive, kinship, and foster parents flexible education that aims to empower them over the course of time and at the right time. Training is provided both as a synchronous classroom-based learning experience and through asynchronous “Right-Time” online modules that are available at any time for NTDC participants to build further knowledge, skills, and self-efficacy. While this training originated from key concepts to support children with intense service needs, it is designed to be used in any out-of-home placement, including with kin or adoptive caregivers.

Note: NTDC has also adapted to address the unique needs of indigenous communities; however, this separate manualized version is not part of this program review.

Scientific Rating 3

Neighbor To Family Sibling Foster Care Model

The Neighbor To Family Sibling Foster Care Model was developed by Gordon Johnson as the Neighbor To Neighbor model while he was President & CEO of The Jane Addams Hull House Association. The unique child-centered, family-focused foster care model is designed to keep sibling groups, including large sibling groups, together in stable foster care placements while working intensively on reunification or permanency plans that keep the siblings together. Neighbor To Neighbor began in 1994 serving targeted communities in Chicago where the majority of children came into foster care. The program uses a community-based, team-oriented approach, including foster caregivers and birth parents as part of the treatment team. Trained and supported foster caregivers are key to the model's success. Neighbor to Neighbor professionalized this key role by placing these trained foster caregivers on the payroll with salaries and benefits. Foster families, birth families, and children receive comprehensive and intensive services including individualized case management, advocacy, and clinical services on a weekly basis. Mr. Johnson incorporated the Neighbor to Neighbor model in 2000 as the Neighbor To Family Sibling Foster Care Model, retaining Neighbor to Neighbor's essential components and expanding its operating model and geographic presence beyond Illinois.

Scientific Rating 3

Pressley Ridge’s Treatment Foster Care (PR-TFC) Pre-Service Curriculum

Pressley Ridge's Treatment Foster Care (PR-TFC) Pre-Service Curriculum is designed to be used by agencies to provide 30 hours of training to incoming treatment foster care (TFC) parents by going through all 10 units in the curriculum. Integrated multimedia resources within the curriculum include PowerPoint slides, video vignettes demonstrating therapeutic skills taught during training, and experiential activities (e.g., role plays). All trainers use the PR-TFC Pre-Service Curriculum training manual that provides clear objectives and requirements, and parents also receive a manual with training content, homework, and reading assignments. The PR-TFC Pre-Service Curriculum is a competency-based program rooted in social learning theory, behaviorism, working alliance, and trauma-informed care. The underlying beliefs of the curriculum focus on TFC parents as change agents for youth in their care. This means that TFC parents are taught that youth's behavior can change and how to teach youth the skills necessary for effective living.

Scientific Rating 3

ARC Reflections

ARC Reflections is a skills-building curriculum for foster and other resource caregivers, with an emphasis on building trauma-informed capacities in the child welfare resource caregiver community. Based on the core Attachment, Regulation and Competency (ARC) framework, ARC Reflections emphasizes understanding and responding to youth behavior from a trauma-informed lens, development of safe caregiving relationships, support for youth regulation, and the caregiver role in facilitating developmental competency.

Scientific Rating NR

CORE Teen

CORE (Critical Ongoing Resource Family Education) Teen, grounded in trauma-informed and culturally responsive parenting skill acquisition, is designed to increase the parenting efficacy of resource parents for youths with behavioral challenges, thereby it aims to reduce the risk of placement disruption and increase permanency options for such youths while also recruit new resource parents.

Scientific Rating NR

Connecting

Connecting is a program for foster/relative caregivers and the teens (11-15 years old) in their care. It uses a trauma-informed approach and is designed to help strengthen family relationships and help families develop skills to reduce risk of drug use, risky sexual behavior, and violence among teens. The program includes two DVDs and a workbook with step-by-step activities that families complete at their own pace. Families receive weekly check-in contacts from a trained family consultant to answer questions about the program, facilitate use of the materials, and encourage families to complete the program. The book includes ten chapters covering background information, activities for caregivers to do alone and to do together with the teen, and ideas to help caregivers take care of themselves. Each chapter has references to video segments on the DVDs to promote discussions between caregivers and teens, demonstrate skills, or provide examples of how other foster families have dealt with similar issues.

Scientific Rating NR

PRIDE Model of Practice (Parent Resource for Information, Development, and Education)

PRIDE Model of Practice (Parent Resource for Information, Development, and Education) is a competency-based model of practice designed to strengthen the quality of family foster care and adoption services by developing and supporting foster and adoptive families who are willing, able, and have the resources to meet the needs of traumatized children and their families. A model of practice means that all staff and foster/adoptive parents who work with at-risk children and their birth families share the same vision, mission, goals, values; use the same strengths-based child and family-friendly words; demonstrate the same standard of child welfare work practices; and share accountability for outcomes. The PRIDE Model of Practice is based on five essential competency categories for foster/adoptive parents, developed from a comprehensive national analysis of the roles of foster and adoptive parents and grouped into the following five categories: (1) Protecting and nurturing children (safety child welfare outcome); (2) Meeting children's developmental needs and addressing developmental delays (well-being child welfare outcome); (3) Supporting relationships between children and their families (permanency child welfare outcome); (4) Connecting children to safe, nurturing relationships intended to last a lifetime (permanency child welfare outcome); and (5) Working as a member of a professional team (essential to achieve the above four categories). CWLA (Child Welfare League of America) is proud to offer the PRIDE Model of Practice to help public and private child welfare agencies recruit, develop, assess, support, train, and retain resource families to be team members in achieving Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) outcomes.

Scientific Rating NR

Parents as Tender Healers

PATH is a ten-week curriculum developed to train prospective foster parents. Sessions are intended to help parents decide whether fostering or adoption is appropriate for them. Sessions address:

  • How resource families differ from birth families
  • How and why children in the welfare system develop survival behaviors
  • The different roles of birth, legal, and caregiving parents
  • Characteristics of successful resource families
  • The types of abuse and neglect experienced within the child welfare system, survival behaviors developed, and the emotional issues underlying these behaviors
  • The impact of separation and trauma on children, and the importance of emotional attachment
  • Understanding issues faced by children in transition, and identifying existing and future family strengths and support
  • Tools and techniques to help children develop attachment
  • Disciplinary techniques for children who have experienced trauma

The final session consists of a panel discussion with experienced Resource parents and children.

Scientific Rating NR

Permanency Navigator Program – Adoption Network Cleveland

The Permanency Navigator Program - Adoption Network Cleveland provides supportive services to help families who are seeking to provide a permanent home for a child-in-need be successful in completing the adoption or guardianship process. The permanency navigator, who is a paraprofessional, provides peer-support and education to help parents set realistic expectations, overcome barriers and access resources.

The Permanency Navigator Program should be part of nonprofit organization that is not the adoption agency, and the permanency navigator can therefore be seen as a safe, neutral source of information and support. The permanency navigator is available to families by phone and in person to help families stay engaged in the process, answer questions, provide technical assistance and refer to resources.

Through a partnership with the public child welfare agency, the permanency navigator reaches out to families seeking to become foster or adoptive parents, or those who have gotten bogged down in the process. The permanency navigator is also available to families who seek out the service.

Scientific Rating NR

Resource Parent Curriculum

The Resource Parent Curriculum (RPC) (officially titled Caring for Children Who Have Experienced Trauma: A Workshop for Resource Parents) is an eight-module workshop designed to educate resource parents on the effects of trauma on the children in their care. The workshop is led by a professional facilitator and a co-facilitator with lived experience as a resource parent. The RPC features activities in each module where caregivers apply the concepts learned to a child currently placed in their home. Each module also includes interactive group activities and discussions to promote shared learning.

The content of RPC is centered on nine Essential Elements of Trauma-Informed Parenting. The Essential Elements are centered around recognizing trauma's impact, understanding and providing physical and psychological safety, understanding and managing difficult behaviors and emotions, respecting and promoting relationships, developing a strengths-based life story, practicing advocacy, promoting trauma-informed services, and practicing parent self-care.

Scientific Rating NR

Solihull Approach Foster Carer Course

The Solihull Approach Foster Carer Course is intended for foster carers who want to know more about their foster child's development and about sensitive and effective caring. It aims to develop a framework for foster carers to think about carer/child relationships which can be developed into a lifelong skill. This in turn promotes understanding of their foster child's behavior and aims to help develop effective strategies to manage the child's behavior.

Scientific Rating NR

Trauma Informed PS – MAPP

TIPS-MAPP is a 30-hour preparation and selection program for prospective foster and adoptive parents. Each component of TIPS-MAPP is designed to enable participants to develop ability and skills to be effective and satisfied foster parents or adoptive parents, as well as to assess their willingness and readiness to assume the roles. Additionally, the components provide the agency with information for the family's decision-making. The TIPS-MAPP is designed to help prospective adoptive and foster families develop abilities that are essential for foster parents to promote children's safety, permanence and well-being. These families are supported through a mutual selection process, which emphasizes open communication and trust between prospective foster families, adoptive families and child welfare workers, using common criteria for assessment and a problem-solving approach to areas of concern. The TIPS-MAPP approach emphasizes shared decision making, problem solving and mutual selection, all of which are integral to building mutual trust and teamwork.

TIPS-MAPP evolved from PS-MAPP which was updated in 2013, with the guidance of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN), to include trauma-informed practice methods. PS-MAPP was a comprehensive preparation and selection program for foster and/or adoptive parents developed after the passage of the Adoption and Safe Families Act in 1997. PS-MAPP was created out of consultations with the National Foster Parent Association Board of Directors and out of years of experience with the MAPP (Model Approach to Partnerships in Parenting) family of programs. The program has been updated in 2018 to include “reasonable and prudent parenting “standards as well as case examples that are relevant to the most current challenges in child welfare. Additionally, TIPS-MAPP has a culturally responsive version that addresses specific needs of Native American children and families.

Scientific Rating NR

Trauma Systems Therapy–Foster Care

TST-FC is a 4-module group-based training for resource parents and birth parents of youth in foster care. It is designed to provide training on definitions and impact of trauma, as well as specific approaches and interventions to parent more effectively, including a focus on parental self-care. TST-FC provides a trauma-informed approach based on the Trauma Systems Therapy (TST) model. Staff within a foster care agency are identified and trained to be TST-FC trainers. TST-FC can be used as a stand-alone model, or in conjunction with full TST implementation.

Scientific Rating NR

Trauma-Integrative Treatment Foster Care

TI-TFC is a component-based treatment framework that through specialized training for the treatment parent and social worker addresses complex trauma, development disabilities, and medically fragile conditions of children who are placed in foster care and the children's families. In TI-TFC, the foster parent is referred to as the treatment parent. The primary focus of change in TI-TFC is the treatment parent's relationship with the child and the child's birth family. Key components are the recruitment, training, supervision, and support of treatment parents in developing and maintaining these relationships.

Social workers provide treatment parents with in-home training, supervision, support, and interventions within the focus of change. The Social Worker, in collaboration with the treatment parents and team, facilitates the development of a treatment plan which integrates permanency planning, outpatient treatments, school, and community services.

Assessment, treatment planning, and interventions are driven by the meaningful use of the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) measure and its integration within the Attachment, Regulation, and Competency (ARC) Mapping tool.

A key component of TI-TFC is the recruitment, training, and supervision of Treatment parents and social workers.

Scientific Rating NR