For over two decades, the PRIDE Model of Practice has stood as a cornerstone in child welfare, offering agencies a structured and standardized framework. This model is designed to enhance competency-based recruitment, preparation, assessment, and selection of foster and adoptive parents. It also provides crucial in-service training and professional development for foster parents, aiming to create a consistent and high-quality approach across the field. Used extensively throughout the United States and in over 25 countries, the PRIDE Model has significantly shaped foster care practices globally.
But Who Made The Pride Foster Care Training Program? The answer lies with the Child Welfare League of America (CWLA). This esteemed organization developed the PRIDE Model of Practice to strengthen family foster care and adoption services. The CWLA’s vision was to create a 14-step model that positions foster and adoptive families as integral team members in child protection and trauma-informed care.
This comprehensive model aims to achieve several key objectives:
- Clarify the Role of Resource Families: Ensuring that foster and adoptive families understand their vital role as part of the agency team, working towards a shared vision and mission.
- Community Education: Raising awareness within communities about the critical need for resource families to support children in care.
- Strengths-Based Recruitment: Recruiting families based on a comprehensive plan that acknowledges both strengths and needs, ensuring a more effective matching process.
- Comprehensive Training: Delivering pre-service training through both in-person and hybrid formats, focusing on building skills and knowledge around Five Core Competencies.
- Integrated Assessment: Making pre-service training an essential part of the family assessment (home study) process, creating a more holistic evaluation.
- Competency-Based Selection: Selecting resource families based on the Five Core Competencies, ensuring they possess the necessary skills to support children.
- Strategic Matching: Matching children with licensed, approved, or certified resource families to ensure the best possible placements.
- Family Development Plans: Creating individualized development plans to guide the ongoing professional growth of foster parents.
- Ongoing Support and Training: Providing continuous in-service training and essential support systems for resource families.
- Quality Assurance and Strengths-Based Transitions: Implementing a quality assurance process for ending relationships with resource families, utilizing a strengths-based approach even in these situations.
By implementing the PRIDE Model of Practice, agencies can ensure that both staff and resource families are aligned with the agency’s core values, mission, and vision. The model promotes complementary competency-based roles, the use of strengths-based language, and the adoption of culturally responsive best practices. Ultimately, the goal is to achieve positive outcomes that prioritize the safety, well-being, and permanency of children in care.
At the heart of the PRIDE Model of Practice are Five Core Competencies, identified through extensive role analysis. These competencies are crucial for effective foster and adoptive parenting:
- Protecting and nurturing children: Ensuring the safety and well-being of children in their care.
- Meeting children’s developmental needs and addressing their delays: Understanding and responding to the unique developmental needs of each child.
- Supporting relationships with birth families: Recognizing the importance of birth family connections and actively supporting these relationships where appropriate.
- Connecting children to safe, nurturing relationships intended to last a lifetime (permanency): Working towards permanency for each child, whether through reunification, adoption, or other long-term plans.
- Working as a member of a professional team: Collaborating effectively with agency staff, social workers, and other professionals involved in the child’s care.
For agencies seeking to implement the PRIDE Model of Practice, the CWLA offers resources and support through a license program, granting agencies the right to utilize and reproduce CWLA-produced PRIDE materials. Furthermore, the CWLA provides training and consultation services to assist agencies in effective implementation. This support can range from on-site consultation and training for all agency staff involved in foster care and adoption to open enrollment training sessions for staff needing initial or updated PRIDE model training.
To learn more about the PRIDE Model of Practice and how it can benefit your agency, you can explore the resources available through the CWLA. For direct assistance and further information, you can contact Marcus Stallworth, LMSW, Director, Training and Implementation at [email protected], or Gaelle Augustin, Training and Administration Associate at [email protected]. The PRIDE Model of Practice, developed by the Child Welfare League of America, remains a vital program for enhancing the quality and consistency of foster care training and support, ultimately benefiting children and families involved in the child welfare system.
