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Wraparound

What is Wraparound & Family Team Conferencing (FTC)

Wraparound is a planning process that follows a series of steps to help children and their families realize their hopes and dreams and meet their goals. This enables families to be free of child welfare and other systems involvement and increases their skills in navigating community resources. Rather than a “one size fits all” program, the wraparound model is driven by specific family needs. The steps below outline wraparound and Family Team Conferencing in more detail.

The initial conversation with the child and family, and others who are close to them, establishes a partnership with the family and the CARES staff, determines team membership, and develops an initial set of strengths and needs from which the team will work.

At the initial Family Team Conference (FTC), the team reviews each member’s perspective and issues relating to strengths and needs. The strengths focus is established and is central to the team’s operation.

Through consensus and the process of normalization, the team identifies a vision, a unified picture developed by the FTC team, of how things will be for the child and family when involvement with CARES is completed.

The team participates in a thorough exploration of the family’s needs across life domains. Life domains are areas of the family’s life that present challenges, such as a place to live, mental health, and cultural, social, spiritual, educational, vocational, financial and safety issues. CARES staff lead the conversation, assuring family voice, while checking with team members for other needs and shared understanding of the family’s needs.

The team, using family voice and perspective, selects the most important needs to address during the time frame of the meeting. While family needs are critical, system needs are also considered and prioritized, if needed.

The team brainstorms strategies that will help the family move to the better life they defined in their vision statement. These actions must be tied to the strengths and culture of the child, family, team and community.

Team members commit to tasks with specific follow-up dates.

The team documents the plan and develops mechanisms for knowing when it’s working and makes plans to change it, as necessary. As time goes on, the team determines strategies for transition to more informal, responsive supports, fading system involvement.

The wraparound process brings people together from different parts of the whole family’s life. With help from a coordinator, people within the family’s life work together, coordinate their activities and blend their perspectives of the family’s situation to create desired change and help strengthen children, families and communities. The family decides how often they would like to schedule their FTC meetings — weekly or as infrequently as every six weeks. Life circumstances will occur outside the FTC, and the family might decide they want to call an FTC. The family and team members can determine at any time that an FTC needs to be convened to discuss new circumstances or information that warrants additional planning.

10 Principles of the Wraparound Process

Family and youth/child perspectives are intentionally elicited and prioritized during all phases of the wraparound process. Planning is grounded in family members’ perspectives, and the team strives to provide options and choices such that the plan reflects family values and preferences.

The wraparound team consists of individuals agreed upon by the family and committed to them through informal, formal, and community support and service relationships.

The team actively seeks out and encourages the full participation of team members drawn from family members’ networks of interpersonal and community relationships. The wraparound plan reflects activities and interventions that draw on sources of natural support.

Team members work cooperatively and share responsibility for developing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating a single wraparound plan. The plan reflects a blending of team members’ perspectives, mandates and resources. The plan guides and coordinates each team member’s work toward meeting the team’s goals.

The wraparound team implements service and support strategies that take place in the most inclusive, most responsive, most accessible, and least restrictive settings possible and that safely promote child and family integration into home and community life.

The wraparound process demonstrates respect for and builds on the values, preferences, beliefs, culture and identity of the child/youth and family and their community.

To achieve the goals outlined in the wraparound plan, the team develops and implements a customized set of strategies, supports and services.

The wraparound process and plan identify, build on and enhance the capabilities, knowledge, skills and assets of the child and family, their community and other team members.

Despite challenges, the team persists in working toward the goals included in the wraparound plan until the team reaches agreement that a formal wraparound process is no longer required.

The team ties the goals and strategies of the wraparound plan to observable or measurable indicators of success, monitors progress in terms of these indicators and revises the plan accordingly.

How is wraparound and the Family Team Conference approach different?

  • It is based on the strengths of you, your family and your community.
  • It is something your family does. It is not something you are told to do.
  • It is a team effort with you, your child, service providers, and other people or supports that are important to you.
  • It is a process that respects who you are and focuses on what you need.
  • It is a process where every team member decides to never give up and provides the care, support and commitment necessary to bring about success.
  • It values the importance of social networks or “natural supports.”
  • Wraparound celebrates success and sets realistic goals.
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“CARES saved my family. My daughter was out of control, and I had no idea how to help her or me. But the CARES staff helped me and my family. My daughter now gets good grades.”

— Lisa S., CARES Parent