Are you a frontline family worker who helps families set and achieve goals that help them build healthy interdependence with their communities? The Family Development Credentialing Program is an interagency course and credentialing program for frontline human service professionals to help families through family development-an approach that helps families identify their strengths and develop a plan to achieve their own goal of healthy self-reliance. Workers who earn this nationally recognized and respected credential may be eligible for undergraduate college credit and continuing education units. The curriculum was developed by Cornell University¡¦s College of Human Ecology and is currently offered in hundreds of communities.
What is the FDC:
~ The FDC Program provides front line workers the skills and competencies necessary to empower individuals and families to solve problems more effectively and to set goals
~ The FDC program is a catalyst for needed change by transforming the agencies and communities interact with families.
~ The FDC Program demonstrates to social service workers how to assist families to take a larger role in shaping their own futures.
Features of the FDC Program
~ 90 hours of empowerment coursework
~ Community based facilitator
~ One-on-one mentoring by portfolio advisors
~ Supportive, interactive learning environment
Curriculum:
~ Family Development
~ Worker Self Empowerment
~ Communicating with Skill and Heart
~ Mutually Respectful Relationships
~ Cultural Competence
~ Home Visiting
~ Collaboration
Benefits:
~ Families recognize personal and family strengths
~ Set long term goals for greater self-reliance
~ Become more involved and partner successfully with community resources
~ Workers report increased self-esteem, confidence, and assertiveness in helping families
~ Set goals for their high education and career advancement
~ Increase knowledge and use of empowerment-based family support skills in working with families
~ Improve communication and relationship skills personally and professionally
~ Organizations report higher staff morale and lower turnover among FDC credentialed workers
~ Develop more effective outreach and networking capacities
The Family Development Training and Credentialing (FDC) Program:
Transforming the way agencies work with families
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Thousands of frontline family workers in hundreds of family-serving agencies across the country have earned the FDC credential through classroom instruction, development of a Skills Portfolio, and passing an FDC credentialing exam. The FDC is well respected nationwide as a professional development program for frontline family workers to learn and practice the skills and competencies of strengths-based family support.
Highlights of the FDC:
♦ To earn the FDC credential, a worker must complete 90 hours of classroom instruction, prepare a Skills Portfolio with support of a portfolio advisor, and pass their state’s credentialing exam.
♦ FDC courses are offered through interagency partnerships by community-based instructors and portfolio advisors who are trained by a state’s credentialing organization.
♦ The FDC was established in 1996 and updated in 2003 with new editions of the core curriculum, Empowerment Skills for Family Workers and new Instructor’s and Portfolio Advisor’s Manuals.
♦ An FDC leadership component, Empowerment Skills for Leaders (Leader’s Handbook and Facilitator’s Manual) was published in Spring 2002. FDC leadership instructors offer this 30-hour community-based series and credentialing program to agency leaders interested in using principles and practices of family development within their agencies.
♦ The FDC is currently available in fifteen states nationwide (Alaska, Alabama, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Maine, Missouri, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, Rhode Island, and Washington).
♦ In some states, workers may be eligible to apply the FDC credential toward college credit though the National Program on Non-collegiate Sponsored Instruction (PONSI). For information about your state’s PONSI status, ask your FDC Instructor.
What do I learn in the FDC Course?
In Empowerment Skills for Family Workers, the name of each chapter describes on of the core competencies and skills of family development:
1) Family Development: A Sustainable Route to Healthy Self-Reliance
2) Communicating with Skill and Heart
3) Taking Good Care of Yourself
4) Diversity
5) Strengths-based Assessment
6) Helping Families Set and Reach Goals
7) Helping Families Access Specialized Services
8) Home Visiting
9) Facilitation Skills: Family Conferences, Support Groups and Community Meetings
10) Collaboration
What is an FDC Skills Portfolio?
An FDC Portfolio documents your ability to use principles and practices of family development taught in the FDC Course. It has three components:
♦ Activities to Extent Learning
♦ Skills Practices
♦ Family Development Plans
As you attend the FDC Course, an FDC Portfolio Advisor meets with you to assist with portfolio development. An Advisor offers verbal and written feedback to help you recognize and identify your own strengths and abilities through the portfolio development process.
Portfolio advisors complete training and periodic updates to offer advisement. At the beginning of portfolio advisement, you and your advisor sign a Statement of Confidentiality to safeguard confidentiality and establish trust and mutual respect.
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Need More Information: Contact the Washington County Partnership office at 573-438-8555
