What is Wraparound?
Wraparound is a strengths-based, family-centered and team-driven approach to providing comprehensive care for children with complex needs. It is designed to support children and families in a way that keeps the child in the home and community rather than institutional settings. The Wraparound model builds on each family’s unique strengths, assets and preferences to create a highly individualized care plan. This plan aligns with the goals and requirements of all involved system partners, ensuring a highly collaborative and coordinated process.
This team-based approach fosters open communication and shared accountability among all team members, ensuring that supports are coordinated, culturally responsive and aligned with the family’s unique goals. Additionally, Wraparound is family-driven—placing the family’s voice and choices at the center of decision-making and empowering them to take an active leadership role throughout the process. By focusing on what works best for each family and surrounding families with natural supports, Wraparound promotes sustainable solutions, fostering resilience, long-term well-being and reduced reliance on formal system intervention.
In California, Wraparound is a vital part of the Children's System of Care (CSOC), working collaboratively across agencies to ensure the best outcomes for children and their families.
Wraparound Principles
The Ten Principles of Wraparound are the foundation and guiding light of the Wraparound process. The Ten Principles were developed over time by Wraparound’s early pioneers through exploring and refining what works best when working with youth and families with complex needs not met by traditional service models. These principles, formalized and outlined by the National Wraparound Initiative (NWI) in the Ten Principles of the Wraparound Process (external link), uphold Wraparound’s commitment to empowering families, promoting resilience and achieving positive, long-lasting outcomes for youth and families.
California has adopted these same principles in its definition of High-Fidelity Wraparound practice, with a few modifications of language. These principles are:
Family Voice and Choice
Families are central to the planning process. Their perspectives, preferences, and values drive decision-making.
Natural Supports
The team actively seeks out and encourages the full participation of team members who are connected to the family independent of formal system relationships. The plan incorporates and builds on the family's network of personal relationships and community connections that will persist after system intervention ends.
Individualized
Services and plans are uniquely customized to meet the specific needs of each youth and family. Strategies are developed based on the individual needs, strengths, culture and preferences of each youth and family, avoiding generic or one-sized-fits-all approaches.
Team Based
The Wraparound process is guided by a collaborative team, which includes the child, family, professionals, and natural supports (like friends, neighbors, or community members), who are committed to the youth and family’s success.
Strengths Based
The Wraparound team identifies, builds-on, and enhances the youth’s, the family’s, the team’s and the community’s knowledge, skills, and assets to sustainably meet youth and family needs. Strengths are the foundation for building solutions to challenging behaviors, problems, or symptoms viewed as indicators of unmet needs. Teams focus on utilizing strengths to build resilience, rather than focusing solely on eliminating problems or deficits.
Collaboration
All team members work cooperatively and share responsibility for developing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating the Wraparound plan. The plan reflects a blending of team members’ perspectives, mandates and resources into a singular, unified, and comprehensive plan.
Community Based
The wraparound team implements service and support strategies that take place in the most inclusive, most responsive, most accessible, and least restrictive settings possible. Teams work to ensure youth and families have opportunities to participate fully in everyday activities and environments that support their growth and connection to home and community life.
Culturally Relevant and Respectful
The Wraparound process demonstrates respect for and builds on the values, preferences, beliefs, culture, and identity of the youth and family, and their community. The Wraparound team ensures services and supports are relevant and responsive to the youth’s and family’s unique identity.
Outcomes Based
Goals and strategies in the Wraparound plan are tied to observable or measurable indicators of success. The Wraparound team regularly monitors progress in terms of these indicators and revises the plan as needed to ensure continued improvement.
Persistence
Challenges or setbacks are viewed as indicators of a need to adjust the Wraparound plan and not as team, youth or family failure. The team remains committed to the child and family, working toward shared goals as long as necessary until the team agrees that a formal Wraparound process is no longer required.
Download our Overview and Principles of Wraparound
Wraparound Phases
The Wraparound approach involves four phases: Engagement, Plan Development, Implementation, and Transition. The following is a snapshot of each phase, highlighting how Wraparound teams, system partners, and community supports work together to help families achieve their vision for a better future
Engagement Phase
The Wraparound team begins by building trust and mutual respect with the youth and family, while also initiating connections with key system of care partners and community-based supports. The focus is on understanding the family's culture, strengths, needs, and long-term vision. Community and system partners are invited to participate in early conversations to ensure a shared understanding of the Wraparound approach and to begin identifying how their roles and resources can support the family.
Plan Development Phase
The Wraparound team develops a comprehensive plan of care that addresses identified needs across multiple life domains. The facilitator guides the team through a collaborative planning process to establish individualized goals, strategies, and action items that constitute a singular, unified plan. All team members work together to ensure planned services are coordinated, streamlined, and aligned with the family vision.
Implementation Phase
The plan of care comes to life. All team members take responsibility for specific actions to implement planned strategies that move the team closer to their mission. Regular meetings allow the team to assess progress, share updates, and make necessary adjustments, ensuring that all partners remain accountable and responsive to the evolving needs of the youth and family.
Transition Phase
The team prepares the youth and family for life beyond formal Wraparound. This involves gradually decreasing professional involvement while reinforcing natural supports and long-term community connections. When ongoing formal supports are necessary, team planning ensures continuity of care and coordination between remaining system partners. The team celebrates progress and works together to ensure the family is confident and equipped to navigate challenges independently.
Principles of Wraparound in Everyday Language
Looking for a description of the Wraparound principles that is easy to understand without the fancy terms? Look no further! Our 10 Principles of Wraparound in Everyday Language handout is a part of our mission to make Wraparound knowledge and resources accessible to all.