Supporting the increased use of data collection and analysis as a means to determine
areas of strength and weakness in engaging families (e.g. inclusion of family engagement
standards within the Performance-Based Standards).

Combining resources to establish a single, cross-agency TA/Resource Center on family
engagement or requiring greater levels of collaboration and integration of the current TA
Centers in their support of tribes, states, and local communities.

Providing training for federal staff on the value and importance of family engagement, as
well as on ways to effectively engage families.

Hiring family members (parents/youth) in strategic positions to help support this body of
work,

Changing the language in block and other grants to require the involvement and support
of family partnerships.

Creating a national annual award for outstanding and innovative family engagement
work.

These activities should be linked to the following recommendations, each of which is categorized
within one of the three key areas of focus previously noted.

Center for Juvenile Justice Reform: Safety, Faimess, & Stability For Youth and Families—Recommentations to 5
Strengthen Federal Agency Support of Family Engagement Efforts


AREA OF FOCUS

IIL. Supporting families to become more effective external advocates and assisting them in having
their voice heard in improving policies and practices involving the engagement of families.

Recommendations:

Create a federal family network to serve as an external advocacy group across federal
agencies on family engagement issues. The network should be a model that is easily
adaptable within every tribe, state and locality with each governmental entity being
either encouraged or required to support the development of such a network.
Develop guidelines on how tribal, state and local agencies can provide opportunities
for advocates to impact system decision-making processes.

Help to cultivate an environment at the tribal, state and local levels that supports and
welcomes the participation of external partners as advocates in encouraging system

improvements.

Provide grant support to community agencies for family advocacy trai

Support the creation of advocacy mentoring networks consisting of parents currently
and formerly involved in the systems and designed to provide on-going training to

family and community members on how best to advocate for policy and practice

improvements.

Support internal staff training at all ieveis of government on how to strengthen
families in utilizing their “voice.”

Encourage and support the creation of forums at each jeve!l of government to provide
an opportunity for families and communities to hear about the work in the agency
and provide feedback regarding the current state of family engagement efforts.
Provide funding and technical assistance support for grass roots family mobilization
efforts that serve as a family/community engagement accountability mechanism for
the systems.

Ensure that the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Acts State Advisory
Groups (SAG) and other similar groups created by federal authorizations or
otherwise, encourage and/or support the role of family advocates. This includes

requiring or encouraging the SAG state plans to describe how they will support

family advocacy.

Center for Juvenile Justice Reform: Safety, Faimess, & Stability For Youth and Families—Recommendations to 10
Strengthen Federal Agency Support of Family Engagement Efforts


= Identify ways to utilize schools as a central location to begin and maintain the
engagement process as families penetrate other systems.

Define and support the role of the courts as a convener across agencies and the bench
in improving family engagement.

Support the expansion of the use of mentoring to inchude extended family members
as mentors.

Create a cross-system mechanism for measuring systems’ performance in engaging

families, not just the families’ responsiveness to the system.

Center for Juvenile Justice Reform: Safety, Faimess, & Stability For Youth and Families—Recommendations to 7
Strengthen Federal Agency Support of Family Engegement Efforts


AREA OF FOCUS
I. Creating and embedding family-focused and strength-based policies and practices within each
agency to institutionalize the active and meaningful involvement of family members in their
youth’s care,

Recommendations:
* Identify and support the implementation of policies and practices that effectively

engage families through demonstration programs, training, and technical assistance.
Create a multi-system family engagement resource website that maintains
information on all federal, tribal, state, and local efforts, including legislation,
policies, and practices.

Ensure that all individuals working within or under contract to federal government
agencies are trained.on family engagement. Training should be reinforced through
ongoing supervision and performance measures.

Support the infusion of family engagement principles in workforce development and
family councils in all government facilities to serve as a conduit between families and
facility staff.

« Ensure that each federal agency works in conjunction with their tribal, state and local
partner agencies in the development and use of a family involvement brief, brochure,
and/or orientation session that informs families on how to navigate the respective
system from the local to federal levels.

Support an increase in the engagement of families across disciplines at both the upper
management and direct service levels through ongoing training opportunities at the
tribal, state and local levels that instruct staff on how to better engage families.
Support a national peer-to-peer network that aids families and workers in supporting
each other through distance learning opportunities.

Support multi-systems informational training opportunities on system navigation for
families as they become engaged with additional systems of care.

Develop or support training across systems for staff related to consumer stigma and
sensitivity as it relates to biases former consumers and family members receive from

people in the field.

Center for Juvenile Justice Reform: Safety, Fairness, & Stability For Youth and Families—Recommendations to 6
Strengthen Federal Agency Support of Family Engagement Efforts


Provide incentives/rewards for states that are successful at formally engaging families in
policy development.

Include youth and family input on their experience with relevant service systems as part
of federal, tribal, state and local monitoring and accountability procedures.

Appoint family members to existing federal councils (e.g. the Coordinating Council for

Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention) and encourage the same at the tribal, state

and local levels (e.g. through Children’s Cabinets or other similar policy making groups).

Center for Juvenile Justice Reform: Safety, Faimess, & Stability For Youth and Families—Recommendations to 9
Strengthen Federal Agency Support of Family Engagement Efforts


\ Center for Juvenile Justice Reform
+ georgetown university ~ SPP#

panes amanrers

Safety, Fairness, & Stability
For
Youth and Families—

Recommendations to Strengthen Federal Agency Support of Family Engagement
Efforts

In recent years there has been an increased focus on effective family engagement as a way to
achieve improved outcomes for youth and families that come in contact with the juvenile justice,
child welfare, behavioral health and education systems. Historically, these systems have not fully
engaged families, in part, because families have been viewed more as a problem contributing to
the challenges facing their children, rather than as part of the solution. Further complicating this
situation is the fact that child welfare and juvenile justice systems often act as, or are perceived to
be, coercive institutions with a historical foundation of separating children from parents who are

viewed as inadequate or immoral, substituting the state as the parent (Pennell, Shapiro, Spigner
2011).

Enhancing the level of family engagement in the work of these systems requires them to involve
youths and their families in more significant and meaningful ways (Pennell, Shapiro, Spigner
2011). To better understand the policy and practice implications of moving in this direction; it is
helpful to define family engagement. According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, family is a
“group of individuals with common ancestry, regarded as deriving from a common stock, that are
united by certain convictions or a common affiliation “(Merriam-Webster, 2011). For work
within systems this definition is expanded to include kin as identified by the family. To engage is
to “offer, bind, bring together or interlock “(Merriam-Webster, 2011). This definition provides
additional clarity to the commonly used terms and helps shape the context of the conversation. To
bring the concept of family engagement into our daily practice and allow it to impact our systems,
agencies and organizations must respectfully embrace families as partners in their work.
Unfortunately, such practices have not been the norm, and, while efforts to do so have been
promising, there is much work to be done by the federal government and others to support a
transformation in the work undertaken by tribes, states and local agencies.

To this end, the Center for Juvenile Justice Reform (CJJR)’ at the Georgetown Public Policy
Institute at Georgetown University commissioned a paper titled “Safety, Fairness, Stability:
Repositioning Juvenile Justice and Child Welfare to Engage Families and Communities. > The
paper addresses the history of family and community engagement in the child welfare and
juvenile justice systems, as well as in the behavioral health and education systems. It further
explores the concept of family engagement as it relates to safety, fairness, and stability for
families involved with these systems and includes recommendations for systems improvement.

? For more information on the for Juvenile Justice Reform, please visit our website at http.//cjir.georgetown.edu,
*Paper was authored by Dr. Joan Pennell, Carol Shapiro, and Dr. Carol Spigner. it can be found at hup
Merriam-Webster. (2011). Merriam.webster.com. Retrieved September 20, 2011 from bttp://merriam-webster.com/dictionary/family;
hitp://merriam-webster.com/dictionarv/engage.


We wouid like to acknowledge the meeting attendees who all contributed to the information provided in this
bulletin. Special thanks goes to American Institutes for Research for their assistance in capturing the

proceedings.

Sue Badeau
Casey Family Program/OJJDP
Senior Fellow

Grace Bauer
Campaign for Youth Justice
Family Advocate

Shay Bilchik

Georgetown University

Center for Juvenile Justice Reform
Director

Okori Christopher
American Institutes for Research
Research Associate

Greta Colombi
American Institutes for Research
Senior Researcher

Susan Cyeyk
State of Delaware Division of Prevention &
Behavioral Health Services

Division Director

Robin Delany-Shabazz

OXIDP

Designated Federal Official, Coordinating
Council and FACJJ

Director, Concentration of Federal Efforts

Margaret diZerega
Vera Institute of Justice
Family Justice Program Director

Ernestine Gray
Orleans Parish Juvenile Court
Chief Judge

Catherine Heath
Children's Bureau
Child and Family Program Specialist

Bill Heberle
Missouri Division of Youth Services
Deputy Director

Kordnie Lee
Change Agent Consulting

Christine Leonard
Vera Institute of Justice
Director, Washington DC office

Macon Stewart
Georgetown University
Center for Juvenile Justice
Reform

Agnes Leshner Program Manager
Montgomery Co., MD

Department of Health & Human Services
Director of Child Welfare Services

Millie Sweeney
Tennessee Voices for Children

Director of Programs
Wendy Luckenbill

Mental Health Association of Pennsylvania
Child Policy Coordinator

Eric Lulow

Nationa] Federation of Families for
Children's Mental Health

Youth Involvement Associate

Matthew McGuire
Children's Bureau
Child Welfare Program Specialist

John McLaughlin
U.S. Department of Education
Program Manager

DeAngela Milligan
American Institutes for Research
Research Associate

David Osher
American Institutes for Research
VP, Human and Social Development

Trina Osher
Huff Osher Consulting inc.
President

Bethanie Parrish
SAMHSA
Public Health Advisor

Joan Pennell

North Carolina State University /Center for
Family & Community Engagement
Professor & Center Director

Lianne Rozzell
Families & Allies for Virginia's Youth

Cemter for Juvenile Justice Reform: Safety, Faimess, & Stability For Youth and Families—Recommendations to Strengthen Federal 12

Agency Support of Family Engagement Efforts


CONCLUSION

We commend the federal agencies that have parmered with us in this undertaking for their efforts
to enhance their support of the engagement of families within and across their respective systems.
It is our hope that our recommendations will serve as building blocks through which the federal
agencies may strengthen their existing practice of family engagement and create strong
collaborative relationships among each other in support of this work. The recommendations are
not exhaustive; but do represent the product of a focused and meaningful discussion between
interested parties and federal agency representatives. In that regard, the information should serve
as a starting point for federal agencies to explore how they can better collaborate in their work in
this area. In addition, while the information contained herein is being provided to those agencies
for their consideration, we also believe it has utility at the tribal, state and local levels in

improving cross-systems collaboration on family engagement and hope it will also be used in that
manner,

The reader will note that in this document the term family engagement is used to explore this
body of work. It is a term that is being used within the fields of child welfare, education, juvenile
justice, and mental health to describe how these systems are working with families. However, it is
our goal to see the work in this area evolve beyond engaging families, to fully partnering with
family members to enhance the way our systems function on both a policy and a practice level. It
is our expectation, therefore, that in the future we will be writing about family partnerships in

describing how our systems work with families to achieve better outcomes for “our” children and
youth.

Center for Juvenile Justice Reform: Safety, Faimess, & Stability For Youth and Families—Recommendations to 11
Strengthen Federal Agency Support of Family Engagement Efforts


AREA OF FOCUS

I. Building a systemic infrastructure that formally includes families in the development and
implementation of agency/system policies and practices.

Recommendations:

Create a family engagement toolkit for government employees and contractors that
provides guidance related to formally engaging families at the policy making level.
Require at all levels of government that family advocates are involved in the review of
Request for Proposals (RFP) for client-based supportive services. All RFPs should
require that prospective grantees include a family engagement component in their
response.
Support the formal involvement of family representatives in the process of interviewing
and hiring staff in key line level, management, and administrative positions.
Support the formal involvement of family representatives in the process of creating,
reviewing, editing, designing, and disseminating written and electronic media materials
that define and describe agency policies and procedures so that such materials are
accessible to family members from diverse backgrounds and educational levels.
Ensure that government funded programs, including residential facilities, have staff to
serve as a family engagement point person or ombudsman.
Support the creation of a Family Advocate/Engagement Specialist position at all levels of
government (federal, tribal, state and local), This person, preferably a family member
who has experienced the aforementioned systems, would serve to improve policies and
practices that impact how the agency works with families, including but not limited to,
engaging in the following functions in their formal roles:
© Training staff on family engagement and providing post-training support.
© Supporting an internal family network/council that consists of parents, youth, and
family members.
© Providing on-site case consultation to workers to strengthen their ability to work
with and engage families on a daily basis.
© Training families in advocacy and agency policy to prepare them to participate
more fully and formally in policy development.
* Create multi-agency demonstrations projects on formally engaging families at the
policymaking ievel.

Center for Juvenile Justice Reform: Safety, Faimess, & Stability For Youth and Families—Recommendations to 8
Strengthen Federal Agency Support of Family Engagement Efforts


RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FEDERAL AGENCIES”
As captured above, over the past decade, the federal agencies have increased their level of
activity in the area of family engagement. This has resulted in a ripple effect and is slowly .
changing the level of attention given to the issue at the tribal, state and local levels. However, this
work has primarily been implemented within the silos of each agency, with little cross-systems
collaboration. Given that research has confirmed that many families intersect with multiple
agencies across disciplines, it is incumbent upon the agencies to work together to ensure that all
systems our children and families encounter operate in a family focused, strength based manner.
Since each agency is committed to family engagement and has its own repertoire of family
engagement efforts, by coming together, it is anticipated that the agencies will strengthen each
other’s work in this area. An additional benefit of this type of collaboration is that families will
experience more consistency across agencies at the tribal, state and local levels if they are
working with multiple governmental agencies. As a means of facilitating a cross-agency
approach to family engagement, there are several steps that should be undertaken as a foundation
for building a stronger federal partnership between the agencies. Those efforts should include:

Establishing a common definition of family engagement.
* Developing 2 joint mission statement and principles that are the foundation for the
partnership efforts.

Developing support for family engagement efforts across agencies to reduce siloing
between the agencies and promote joint decision-making.

Developing 2 process to continuously identify and modify federal policies that may
undermine family engagement.

Supporting and/or conducting rigorous research on the impact of family engagement
on child, youth, and family outcomes and system performance.

Identifying foundations or philanthropic organizations that can parmer with the
federal agencies in advancing family engagement efforts.

In addition to these preliminary steps, it is recommended that a number of overarching activities
be undertaken within and across the federal agencies that would strengthen the federal
government's family engagement efforts at the tribal, state and local levels. These activities

include the following:

Conducting a scan of all family engagement related activities in an effort to avoid
duplication of work in this area, streamline efforts, and create greater efficiency and
effectiveness in programs, training, technical assistance, and research.

Requiring greater cross-systems coordination, collaboration, data sharing, and integration
of efforts as appropriate.

* The recommendations are being submitted to each of the referenced federal agencies: The Children’s Bureau, Department of
Education, ONDP, and SAMHSA

Center for Juvenile Justice Reform: Safety, Faimess, & Stability For Youth and Families—Recommendations to 4
Strengthen Federal Agency Support of Family Engagement Efforts


The Department of Education understands the importance of engaging families in an
effort to achieve academic success for youth. In September 2011, as a highlight to their
recent family engagement efforts, DOE issued a newsletter titled "Engaging Families:
Supporting Students from Cradle to Career." A major highlight in the newsletter was an
announcement that DOE will conduct four parent forums and summits during the fall of
2011 as a way of engaging families within the context of their community. The newsletter
further highlighted that DOE has identified five regional Family Engagement Specialists to
work with state and local education agencies to empower parents with information, training
and education needed to be full partners in the academic progress of their children. DOE is
also focusing on integrating their efforts across the agency with the Office of Parental

Options and Information and will be implementing more initiatives in the area of family
engagement.

The Office of Juvenile Justice & Delinquency Prevention recognizes the importance of
having the perspectives of young people and their family members inform programs and
policies. This principle is incorporated into the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention Act of 1974, which created OJJDP and established a framework to support and
guide the nation’s juvenile justice systems and delinquency prevention work. OJJDP
continues to engage families in a variety of capacities, such as funding mentoring and peer
support organizations, requiring grantees to include youth and family members on their
advisory boards, supporting the creation of a Youth Network, and facilitating listening
sessions to provide families an opportunity to give input to specific initiatives and obtain
general information. The increased attention to this issue by OJJDP elevates its importance

for states, tribes, and local agencies and helps give shape to the standard toward which to
work,

The Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration has been a trailblazer in
the area of family engagement through its System of Care (SOC) work. The SOC guiding
principles enforce that families of youth with mental health challenges should be active
participants in all aspects of the planning and delivery of services, in addition to being
involved in developing system policy.’ SAMHSA has various initiatives underway that
further support engagement of families and communities in the area of improving mental
health outcomes. They include the Child Mental Health Initiative, System of Care
Expansion Grant, Statewide Family Network, Youth MOVE (Motivating Others through
Voices of Experience), Healthy Transitions Initiative Grantee Program, Project LAUNCH,
The National Child Traumatic Stress Network, Safe School/Healthy Students, Suicide
Prevention, Circles of Care, and the Technical Assistance Partnership.

* Taken from Activities Supporting Family Driven and Youth-Guided Systems of Care—Center for Mental Health Services—
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Brief September 2011.

Center for Juvenile Justice Reform: Safety, Faimess, & Stability For Youth and Families—Recommendations to
Strengthen Federal Agency Support of Family Engagement Efforts


The symposium? at which this paper was released highlighted family engagement efforts
currently underway in communities across the country. The charge issued from the paper and
Symposium was for professionals working in these systems to continue improving their efforts
around family engagement at the policy and practice levels.

The symposium and publication of the paper heightened the awareness of the U. S. Department of
Health and Human Services: Administration for Children and Families, Children’s Bureau,
Depariment of Education (DOE), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Substance
Abuse-and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), and the U.S. Department of
Justice: Office of Juvenile Justice & Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) with regard to family
engagement. These agencies concluded that there needed to be a collaborative approach between
the agencies in addressing this issue. As a result, a meeting was facilitated by CJJR on September
8" and 9", 2011, that brought together federal agency representatives, community and

* professional organizations, parents, and alumni of the systems to create a set of recommendations
for improving collaboration in how federal agenicies support family engagement policies and
practices at the federal, tribal, state and local levels. The recommendations revolved around the
following three areas of focus:

1 Creating and embedding family-focused and strength-based policies and practices
within each agency to institutionalize the active and meaningful involvement of family
members in their youth's care;

4. Building a systemic infrastructure that formally includes families in the development
and implementation of agency/system policies and practices; and

IIL. Supporting families 10 become more effective external advocates and assisting them
in having their voice heard in improving policies and practices involving the engagement
of families.

CURRENT FEDERAL FAMILY ENGAGEMENT EFFORTS
The efforts to enhance family engagement are being built upon a strong platform of ongoing work
by these federal agencies. They are summarized below, by agency.

The Children’s Bureau provides comprehensive support to states, tribes, communities,
and child welfare professionals through its Training and Technical Assistance (T&TA)
Network. The network supports a variety of centers to address matters related to
Permanency and Family Connections, In-Home Services, Youth Development, Improving
Child Welfare Outcomes through Systems of Care grants, Community-Based Child Abuse
Prevention, and Improving Child Welfare Outcomes by Involving Non-Resident Fathers.
The Children’s Bureau provides matching funds to states, tribes, and communities to
operate all aspects of the child welfare system and supports innovative research and
program development through discretionary grants. The Children’s Bureau has infused into
the work of the T&TA Network and its discretionary grants the importance of family
engagement and the value of family voice in practice development and service delivery.

‘o-sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Administration for Children and Families, Administration for
Children, Youth, and Families, Children’s Bureau; the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Substance Abuse and Mental
Health Services Administration; and the U.S. Department of Justice: Office of Juvenile Justice & Delinquency Prevention

Center for Juvenile Justice Reform: Safety, Faimess, & Stability For Youth and Families—Recommendations to 2
Strengthen Federal Agency Support of Family Engagement Efforts