Family Time Coaching

This training provides an overview of family time coaching, an evidence-supported model for parent-child visitation that focuses on family strengths and individual needs of the child. The course is tailored for staff who are in the role of supervising or coaching parent-child visitation. It will explore the importance of family time for children in the child welfare system as an effective strategy to expedite reunification, prevent re-entry into child welfare, mitigate the impact of trauma, and promote healthy child development and parent-child attachment.

After attending this training, participants will be able to:

• Facilitate pre-and post-family time meetings with parents to plan for each visit and to debrief afterwards
• Support parents to identify their child(ren)’s needs and plan to meet them during family time, linking needs and strengths to those identified in the CANS by the Child and Family Team
• Effectively coach parents during family time to meet their children’s needs
• Elicit parents’ strengths and help them utilize these in family time
• Support parents to manage their own thoughts and feelings during visits to keep family time as the best possible experience for their children
• Link the family time plan to the child welfare case plan, including the safety goals

Participants will develop skills to provide family time coaching for child(ren) and parents and to advocate for a family time coaching approach within their child welfare agency or system of care.