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Handout 1 Introduction Worksheet Name: Agency: 1. What population do you find is easiest for you to engage? Why is this population easiest for you? 2. What population do you find is hardest for you to engage? Why is this population hardest for you? 3. What is the most memorable event you experienced in college, high school, or on vacation? (Pick something you are willing to discuss with others.) Wisconsin Child Welfare Professional Development System • UW-Madison School of Social Work Engaging to Build Trusting Relationships • Developed: May 2016, Revised June 2017, Revised February 2021 May be reproduced with permission from original source for training purposes

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Page 1: Handout 1...Handout 1 Wisconsin Child Welfare Professional Development System UW• -Madison School of Social Work Engaging to Build Trusting Relationships • Developed: May 2016,

Handout 1

Introduction Worksheet

Name:

Agency:

1. What population do you find is easiest for you to engage?

Why is this population easiest for you?

2. What population do you find is hardest for you to engage?

Why is this population hardest for you?

3. What is the most memorable event you experienced in college, high school, oron vacation? (Pick something you are willing to discuss with others.)

Wisconsin Child Welfare Professional Development System • UW-Madison School of Social Work Engaging to Build Trusting Relationships • Developed: May 2016, Revised June 2017, Revised February 2021 May be reproduced with permission from original source for training purposes

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Handout 2

Core Conditions of Trusting Relationships

GENUINENESS RESPECT EMPATHY COMEPTENCE

Genuineness is being yourself, which requires personal comfort in your professional role. You reflect this condition with congruence in what you say and do. Try to avoid defensiveness, but exhibit openness to what family members feel and want to express. Genuineness helps reduce the emotional distance between you and family members. This condition makes you human. Be aware of your feelings and manage them to allow yourself to interact naturally.

Respect is expression of the value of each person, separate from an evaluation of their behavior. Respect has two aspects: 1) your attitude or ideals about people and 2) your ability to communicate that attitude in observable ways. When communicating respect, you convey regard and acceptance. Respectful values and beliefs include: all people are worthy; each person is unique; people have the right to self-determination and decision making; and people can change. Respect does not condone or approve all thoughts and behaviors but expresses clear expectations.

Empathy is attempting to understand another person’s experience: what it’s like to be in their shoes. Empathy is expressed by communicating that understanding, accompanied by compassion for their experience. You develop a sense of what the situation means for the other person: what they are thinking and feeling. Effective empathic communication reflects your understanding without judging or interpreting. Empathy helps bring you closer.

Competence is demonstration of your skills and technical knowledge. With competence you can guide families through a bewildering and intimidating experience. You can explain how the system you represent works and what processes you will use. You bring specialized knowledge about child welfare, family functioning, human behavior and child development. You exhibit ease and comfort in communicating honestly and empathically. Competence instills confidence in your ability to help families solve problems. Competence earns respect and credibility.

Wisconsin Child Welfare Professional Development System • UW-Madison School of Social Work Engaging to Build Trusting Relationships • Developed: May 2016, Revised June 2017, Revised February 2021 May be reproduced with permission from original source for training purposes

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Handout 3

Core Condition Worksheet

Genuineness Respect Empathy Competency

Describe how the core condition assigned to you will assist in engaging families.

List examples of how you have or would demonstrate that condition with your clients or families you have worked with.

Wisconsin Child Welfare Professional Development System • UW-Madison School of Social Work Engaging to Build Trusting Relationships • Developed: May 2016, Revised June 2017, Revised February 2021 May be reproduced with permission from original source for training purposes

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Handout 4

A lifelong process of critical self-reflection and self-critique

Recognition and mitigation of inherent power imbalances

Developing mutually beneficial partnerships with communities on behalf of individuals and marginalized populations

Advocating for and maintaining institutional accountability

Four Tenets of Cultural Humility

Developed by: Melanie Tervalon, MD, MPH

Jann Murray-Garcia MD, MPH

Wisconsin Child Welfare Professional Development System • UW-Madison School of Social Work Engaging to Build Trusting Relationships • Developed: May 2016, Revised June 2017, Revised February 2021 May be reproduced with permission from original source for training purposes

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Handout 5

The Six Principles of Partnership

1. Everyone desires respect.

All people have worth and a right to self-determination; to make their owndecisions about their lives. Acceptance of this principle leads one to treat clientswith respect and to honor their opinions and worldview. True partnership isimpossible without mutual respect.

2. Everyone needs to be heard.

This principle asks us to “seek first to understand” and is accomplished primarilythrough empathic listening. While empathic listening looks very much like active orreflective listening, what differentiates it is the listener’s motivation. Active andreflective listening are often used to manage or manipulate someone’s behavior sothat the listener can advance his own agenda. Empathic listening is motivated by thelistener’s desire to truly understand someone’s point of view—to enter someone’sframe of reference—without a personal agenda. When one feels heard andunderstood, defensiveness and resistance are unnecessary and solutions can besought.

3. Everyone has strengths.

All people have many resources, past successes, abilities, talents, dreams, etc., thatprovide the raw material for solutions and future success. As helpers, we become involved with people because of their problems; these problems then become a filter that obscures our ability to see strengths. Acceptance of this principle doesn’t mean that one ignores or minimizes problems; it means that one works hard to identify strengths as well as problems so that the helper and the client have a more balanced, accurate, and hopeful picture of the present and the future.

Wisconsin Child Welfare Professional Development System • UW-Madison School of Social Work Engaging to Build Trusting Relationships • Developed: May 2016, Revised June 2017, Revised February 2021 May be reproduced with permission from original source for training purposes

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Handout 5

4. Judgments can wait.

Once a judgment is made, one’s tendency is to stop gathering new information or tointerpret new information in light of the prior judgment. Since a helper’s judgmentscan have an immense impact on a client’s life, it is only fair to delay judgment as longas possible, then to hold it lightly, while remaining open to new information andwilling to change one’s mind. Acceptance of this principle does not mean thatdecisions regarding safety cannot be made quickly; it simply requires that ultimatejudgments be very well considered.

5. Partners share power.

Power differentials create obstacles to partnership. Since society confers powerupon the helper, it is the helper’s responsibility to initiate a relationship thatsupports partnership, especially those who appear hostile and resistant. Clientsmake a choice to cooperate or not, but that choice is greatly influenced by ourskillful use of power.

6. Partnership is a process.

Each of the six principles is part of a greater whole. While each has merit on its own,all are necessary for partnership. Each principle supports and strengthens theothers. In addition, this principle acknowledges that putting the principles intopractice consistently is hard. Acceptance of the principles is not enough; applyingthe principles consistently requires our intention and attention.

Wisconsin Child Welfare Professional Development System • UW-Madison School of Social Work Engaging to Build Trusting Relationships • Developed: May 2016, Revised June 2017, Revised February 2021 May be reproduced with permission from original source for training purposes

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Handout 6

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Handout 7

Solution-Focused Questions

Solution Defining: These questions help family members define the “who, what, why, where, when and how” of the problem and the solution. It helps to identify the nature of the problem and the solutions, as well as who else is interested in this problem or has information that might be helpful in solving the problem. It helps to provide a video replay of how and under what circumstances the problem occurs. This is done by first asking a question such as “Under what circumstance is this likely to occur?” and then following up with the response “and then what happened?”, and following that response to say “and then what happened?”. This sets the condition for the family member to provide a video replay of the circumstances in which the problem exists.

Examples include: • Under what circumstances is this likely to occur?• When this happens (your husband loses his temper and threatens the children), what do

you do?• What are the positives for you in continuing to stay in this relationship?• Who else is concerned about this problem in your family?• What would have to be different for you not to be afraid?• How often did it happen last week?• Who was there when it happened?• Where were you when Johnny had his temper tantrum?

Past Successes: Through the interview process, you can focus on a family’s past successes, that is, when the family member was functioning well enough not to require child protective services intervention. It is empowering to the family member to realize that there was a period in their life when they were more successful than they feel at this moment.

Examples of past success questions include: • It’s not easy to raise three children on your own. How did you do it?• After having been through what you’ve been through, how did you find enough strength

to keep pushing on?• What do you need to do so that you’ll feel good about yourself and in control of your

life again?• What would it take for you to bring back the confidence you had when you were in high

school?

Wisconsin Child Welfare Professional Development System • UW-Madison School of Social Work Engaging to Build Trusting Relationships • Developed: May 2016, Revised June 2017, Revised February 2021 May be reproduced with permission from original source for training purposes

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Handout 7

Exception Finding Questions: In solution-focused interviewing, exceptions are times when problems could have occurred but did not. You and the family need to examine who did what, when, where, and how so that the problem did not happen. Essentially, you are trying to discover how the patterns around the problems are different, especially what is different when the problem does not occur. In addition, problematic behaviors usually happen only within certain physical, relational or social contexts. It is important to find out in detail what happens when the person does not have the problem. That information can be used to identify the abilities the family uses successfully in one setting. Those strengths/abilities could be transferred to another setting.

Examples of exception-finding questions include: • I can see you have every reason to be depressed. When do you suppose you get a little

bit less depressed?• How would you say you are different when you are a little bit less depressed?• When you force yourself to get out of bed and walk the kids to school, what do you

suppose your children will notice different about you?• What would it take to force you to get up in the morning more often?• You are saying that you didn’t drink for five days last week. How did you do it?• Tell me what is different for you at those times when you don’t lose control.• How do you explain to yourself that the problem doesn’t happen at those times?• What would have to happen for you to do it more often?• When the problem is solved, how do you think your relationship with your son will be

different? What will you be doing then that you are not doing now?

Miracle Questions: The miracle question literally asks clients to disregard their current troubles and for a moment imagine what their lives would be like in a successful future. It creates a vivid image or vision of what life will be like when the problem is solved and the family member(s) can see some hope that life can be different.

The question is: Suppose one night there is a miracle while you are sleeping and the problem that brought you to child protective services is solved. Since you are sleeping you don’t know the miracle has happened or that the problem is solved. What do you suppose you will notice that is different the next morning that will tell you that the problem is solved?

Follow-up questions include: • If the miracle happened, what will be the first thing you notice?• If the miracle happened, what will be the first change you notice about yourself?• What will your spouse notice different about you?• If you were to take these steps, what would you notice different around your house?

Wisconsin Child Welfare Professional Development System • UW-Madison School of Social Work Engaging to Build Trusting Relationships • Developed: May 2016, Revised June 2017, Revised February 2021 May be reproduced with permission from original source for training purposes

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Handout 7

Minor miracle questions also help family members look at a more hopeful future. These questions help you and they envision positive outcomes that can become part of the change process. These questions include:

• If you had three wishes, what would they be?• If you had a magic wand and could grant yourself one thing that would solve the

problem/meet the need that your family is now facing, what would you wish for?• If you could paint a picture for me of what your family would be like if all this were

solved, what would that picture look like?

Scaling Questions: Scaling questions are an interesting way to make complex features of a person’s life more concrete and accessible for both the family member and the child protection worker. Scaling questions can be used to assess self-esteem, self-confidence, investment in change, prioritization of problems, perception of hopefulness, etc. They usually take the form of asking the person to give a number from 1-10 that best represents where the family member is at some specific point. Ten is the positive end of the scale, so higher numbers are equated with more positive outcomes or experiences.

Examples of scaling questions include: • On a scale of 1-10, with 10 meaning you have every confidence that this problem can be

solved and 1 meaning no confidence at all, where would you put yourself today?• On the same scale, how hopeful are you that this problem can be solved?• What would be different in your life when you move up just one step?

You can use scaling questions to assess a person’s motivation to change. • On a scale of 1-10, how much would you say you are willing to work to solve the

problem?If they give a low answer you could ask: What do you suppose your husband would say that you need to do to move up one point on the scale?

Coping questions help you examine with people how they manage difficult times and things they might like to change but can’t right now. Coping questions help you to find the areas of resiliency that support people in troubled times. These questions can also help you to identify the personal strengths and other resources that people use to cope and can use to make advances. Coping questions in combination with other questions such as the miracle questions or scaling questions can help you identify what needs to happen to keep coping in the most productive way.

Examples of coping questions include: • What has and is making it possible for you to cope?• How do you keep making it work for you and your family?• Given the nature of everything going on in your life what keeps that smile on your face?• I’m sure there are days you want to pack it up and leave. What helps you stay?• There are lots things people are asking you to do for your children. What helps you meet

those demands?

Wisconsin Child Welfare Professional Development System • UW-Madison School of Social Work Engaging to Build Trusting Relationships • Developed: May 2016, Revised June 2017, Revised February 2021 May be reproduced with permission from original source for training purposes

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Handout 7

Additional Solution-Focused Questions: Often family members have more solutions available than they realize. Solution-focused questions are questions the helper can frame to help the family member direct attention to useful answers that will move them forward. These questions can empower family members to find their own solutions. Here are some additional examples of solution-focused questions:

• What are some of your family’s strengths that can be used to accomplish theplan/steps/changes?

• What needs to change to make you feel safe?• Under what conditions have you been able to make your family safe?• On a scale of 1-10, how important do you think this decision is to your family?• What solutions have worked for you in the past regarding _____ ?• When was the last time didn’t happen?• Who else is interested in helping your family change?• How have you been able to change/accomplish things that are important to you before?• What is the role of other family members in helping your family change?• What do you get from continuing this behavior?• How will this step/service help you?• What is happening in your family that keeps you from doing this?• What would need to be done to help you do this?• What do you want right now?• What would make this possible?• What have you tried that has not worked?• If you could change one thing, what would it be?• When are you and your son able to have a good time together?• When things are going well, what is your family doing?• Describe the last good day you had together.• On a scale of 1-10, how important is it that?• What are the common issues that unite your family?• What do you see as the things that stop you?• What could help you be more in control and less vulnerable?• How can you increase the involvement of each family member in the plan?• On a scale of 1-10, how difficult is it for you to maintain the behavioral plan for Tim?• Where do you feel stuck?• How do you describe what it feels like to be stuck?• What is one step that you could take to move forward?• What is most important to address for you?• When and under what circumstances is this behavior likely to occur?• How and under what circumstances is this behavior likely to occur?• With whom is this behavior likely to occur?• What are some ways you can disrupt/change the patterns of behavior that aren’t working for

you?• What are some ways that the positive/effective behaviors could increase?• What motivates you?

Wisconsin Child Welfare Professional Development System • UW-Madison School of Social Work Engaging to Build Trusting Relationships • Developed: May 2016, Revised June 2017, Revised February 2021 May be reproduced with permission from original source for training purposes

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Handout 8

Exception Questions

There are always exceptions- times that the problem could have occurred, but didn’t.

Exceptions mean that the client has the skills necessary to do something in a more successful way. Our task is to get the exceptions to happen more often.

We are looking for what is different about those times.

Examples • Are there times now or in the past when you were able to … (discipline without abuse, handle

stress without drinking, keep the house clean)? How did you get that to happen?

• When was the last time that… (Johnny did what he was told without arguing, when you supervisedthe children well enough to please your neighbors, when you were taking your medicine)? What doyou do so that the problem doesn’t happen at those times?

• Are there days when you feel…(less overwhelmed, more in control of your temper, more hopefulabout your situation)? What is different about those days?

• When was the last time you had a better day? What was different about that day that made itbetter? Where did that happen? Who was there with you? What might (those people) have noticedyou doing differently that would tell them you were doing better?

• When are you already doing some of what you want (staying calm with the children, keeping thehouse clean, being a good mom)?

• When doesn’t (the problem) happen? What is different about those times? What are you doingdifferently? How are you thinking differently?

• Tell me about times when this (arguing, depression, poor decisions) is a little less of a problem.

• How much of the time would you say (talking back, depression…) is a problem? Oh, so at least X%of the time it’s not so bad. Can you tell me what is happening when it is not a problem?

• What is the longest time you have gone without (the problem)? How did you get that to happen?

• What are you doing or thinking that is helpful?

• Has anything worked in the past to resolve other issues that you might want to test out withthis current situation?

• What other ways do you … (discipline your child, manage stress)?

Wisconsin Child Welfare Professional Development System • UW-Madison School of Social Work Engaging to Build Trusting Relationships • Developed: May 2016, Revised June 2017, Revised February 2021 May be reproduced with permission from original source for training purposes

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Handout 9

Scaling Questions

Perhaps the most versatile of any of the solution-focused tools, scaling questions are a very useful assessment tool. Scaling can be used for many purposes.

As an assessment tool:

On a scale of one to ten, where one is the worst ever, and ten is exactly the way you want it to be, how would you rate your family’s situation today? What number would your husband (child) say?

On a scale of one to ten, where one is this is the worst behavior imaginable, and a ten is this is the best behavior imaginable, how would you rate your child(ren)’s behavior?

To set goals with clients:

On a scale of one to ten, where one is not at all important to you and ten is very important to you, how would you rate finding suitable daycare for your children?

On a scale of one to ten, where one is not important at all and ten is the most important, how important is having a clean house to you?

To evaluate the usefulness of a resource:

On a scale of one to ten, where one is not at all helpful and ten is very helpful, how would you rate going to family counseling?

On a scale of one to ten, where one is not helpful at all, and ten is very helpful, how helpful do you think getting a GED would be for you?

To measure progress:

On a scale of one to ten, where one is you are so depressed you barely made it out of bed and ten is you feel better today than you have in years, where would you place yourself?

On a scale of one to ten, where one is as bad as it can be and a ten is as good as it can be, what number would you say your son’s behavior has been this week?

(Tip: Ask the same scaling question every time you visit a family to see whether they move up the scale.)

Follow-up questions:

You can further define goals, get a deeper understanding of the current situation, and acknowledge progress by the careful use of follow-up questions.

What tells you things are at that number?

What would 1or 2 numbers higher look like?

Has there ever been a time when it was closer to what you want it to be? What will it take for that to happen again?

Suppose things were one or two numbers higher; what would be different? What would you notice? What would the children notice?

How would these differences be helpful? Could they happen? What would it take? …from you? … from CPS?

Wisconsin Child Welfare Professional Development System • UW-Madison School of Social Work Engaging to Build Trusting Relationships • Developed: May 2016, Revised June 2017, Revised February 2021 May be reproduced with permission from original source for training purposes

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Handout 10

Using Solution Focused Tools

Scaling * Exception Finding * Miracle Questions

Scenario: You are working with a parent who has had significant housing instability. He is currently in a homeless shelter with his 2 children. He has been informed that he only has a few more days left at the shelter before he will have to leave. He has not been able to identify a new place that he can stay with his children.

Instructions: The goal of this exercise is for you to explore your client’s views of his situation and explore the client’s potential solutions. To achieve this, create Scaling, Exception Finding and Miracle Questions you could use when talking with him.

Caution: Stay focused on exploring the client’s perceptions and solutions and do not offer your own ideas.

Scaling

Exception Finding

Miracle Question

Wisconsin Child Welfare Professional Development System • UW-Madison School of Social Work Engaging to Build Trusting Relationships • Developed: May 2016, Revised June 2017, Revised February 2021 May be reproduced with permission from original source for training purposes

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Handout 11

Do You Hear What I Hear?

The following are examples of Stephen Covey’s concepts of listening. You may want to jot down definitions or examples during the discussion.

Autobiographical Listening

• Ignoring

• Selective Listening

• Pretend Listening

• Attentive Listening

Empathic Listening

Source: Covey, S. R. (1989). The seven habits of highly effective people restoring the character ethic. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Wisconsin Child Welfare Professional Development System • UW-Madison School of Social Work Engaging to Build Trusting Relationships • Developed: May 2016, Revised June 2017, Revised February 2021 May be reproduced with permission from original source for training purposes

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Handout 12

Technique vs. Intent

Group A Group B

Mr. Harper’s techniques he uses to portray he is concerned and listening

Mr. Harper’s underlying intention in the interaction

Wisconsin Child Welfare Professional Development System • UW-Madison School of Social Work Engaging to Build Trusting Relationships • Developed: May 2016, Revised June 2017, Revised February 2021 May be reproduced with permission from original source for training purposes

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Handout 13

Everyone Desires Respect

Identify the parent that you were assigned:

_____Jeanette _____ Sara _____ Nelson

What did this parent need from their worker to feel respected?

What do you think influenced this parent’s definition of respect in the situation they are experiencing? Why? (Examples: culture, trauma, generation, etc.)

Name one thing you would say or do that would demonstrate your respect for them based on your understanding of what respect means to them?

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Handout 14

Optimal Distribution of Engaging Skills

Exploring Skills Focusing Skills Guiding Skills

Attending • Physical Attending• Psychological

Attending

Summarization Formulating Options

Recognizing Strengths Clarification Suggestions Encouraging the Expressions of Feelings

• Validation• Conciliatory

Gestures• Ventilation

Questions • Open and Closed• Indirect• Solution Focused

Strengths and Needs Based Feedback

Normalization and Universalization

Concreteness Partialization

Objectivity Reframing Professional Advice Reflections Self-Disclosure

Wisconsin Child Welfare Professional Development System • UW-Madison School of Social Work Engaging to Build Trusting Relationships • Developed: May 2016, Revised June 2017, Revised February 2021 May be reproduced with permission from original source for training purposes

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Handout 14

Exploring Skills

These skills are used to help the family tell their story from their perspective. Exploring skills are essential when initiating a trusting relationship and will move to the forefront often during the life of that relationship. Exploring requires a variety of techniques that encourage the speaker to keep talking, to let them know that you are interested and that you value their perspective and concerns. These skills help you achieve your dual purpose: collect information and initiate or maintain a trusting, productive relationship.

Attending conveys interest in the speaker and what they are feeling and want to say.

• Physical attending- use of gesture and body language, attention to all aspects ofcommunication. Encouraging behaviors: nodding, smiling; “I see,” “uh-huh.”

• Psychological attending- observing congruence between verbal and non-verbal communication.Does feeling match speech?

Recognizing Strengths expands the focus beyond whatever problem the agency and worker are addressing. By focusing on strengths, we communicate to the family that we see them as more than the problem and as the source of solutions. Look for positive capacities.

• Try to start conversations with compliments.• Talk about desires and wishes• Look for things you agree about• Respect infers recognition of strengths

Encouraging the Expression of Feelings can help create an emotional connection. Be careful with these techniques. The objective with these skills is to acknowledge feelings and bring them out in the open so that you can move into more rational and productive communication. Validating confirms your acceptance of the family members’ reactions, conveying that they have a voice in the relationship.

• Encourage expression of positive and negative feelings• Avoid defensiveness• Don’t personalize criticism• Use calm language, don’t match volume or intensity• Venting is not productive• Recognize strengths• PROTECT YOURSELF

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Handout 14

Normalization and Universalization point out that what the person is feeling and thinking can be expected under the circumstances and may be similar to what others experience. Take care that the use of these techniques doesn’t minimize individual circumstances and reactions.

• Normalizing statements: “A visit from CPS can be upsetting.” “This would be a tough situationfor anyone.” “I agree that your daughter’s behavior is a cause for concern.” “That would tryanybody’s patience.

• Universalizing statements: “Other parents I have met have tried this.” “I’ve seen other familiesgo there for …” “Some other students are working there.”

Objectivity means you meet the family free of preconceived opinions or foregone conclusions. This technique includes the ability to see different points of view. Previous agency information and current referral material is considered, but not assumed to be current fact.

• Seeks family perspective• Sensitivity to cultural factors• Withholds decisions and judgment• Is assisted by a calm demeanor

Reflections are verbal responses that focus on what a person is telling you. They confirm your attention and convey understanding. Reflections may focus on verbal content, feelings, or both. An effective reflection holds a mirror up to a person and says “This is what I understand. Am I accurate?”

A note on Self-disclosure: Self-disclosure is an exploring technique that can be useful. However, this skill has many drawbacks and should not be used often. Self-disclosure can erode your authority and credibility. It will not effectively bridge cultural differences. Effective use of the recommended exploring skills will negate the need for self- disclosure.

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Handout 14

Focusing Skills

This set of skills helps focus the conversation on the subject which brought the worker and family together. In the focusing stage, information gathered during the exploration stage is expanded and organized to establish a common understanding. Focusing is an essential step that lays a foundation for effective solution planning. These skills help sort out the pertinent information and provide confirmation of fact and intent for family members and the worker. Effective focusing will strengthen the partnership by creating agreement. Solutions will emerge logically.

Summarizing provides structure and flow to the conversation. Good summarizing will address facts and feelings. When summarizing, you put the full picture together as partners. A good summary provides smooth transition to the next part of the discussion.

• Separate the important from the extraneous• Identify useful ideas• Review and confirm decisions• Moves from assessment to planning

Clarification helps assure that you and the family are on the same page. This skill is most useful for blending agency expectations and family wishes. Differences of opinion and areas of agreement will be identified, adding further focus to the conversation as you move towards solutions.

• Safety standards and clear expectations• Agreements on responsibilities• Confirm mutual understanding of facts and plans

Questions encourage family members to speak freely. Effective questions can obtain specific information as well as stimulate discussion of feelings.

• Open questions encourage free narrative.• Closed questions seek specific facts or opinions.• Indirect questions guide without asking: “Tell me” or “I’d like to hear.”• Solution focused questions seek successful behaviors and images of success

Concreteness helps family members be specific in their comments about concerns or problems. This skill is used when a person is vague (“I’m really upset”) or uses generalizing statements (“She’s just awful”). When you don’t understand how someone has reached a conclusion, helping them to be more specific will help them to explain. Concreteness also refers to your ability to be specific and concise. Be clear, communicate at the person’s level and don’t use social work jargon.

Partialization is breaking big things down into smaller components. This skill can bring focus to a discussion and structure to planning. It can also give a family hope that the changes they will make are doable.

Reframing can redefine behavior and move a person into a different perspective. When using this skill, we are asking others to consider a different interpretation of behavior or events. Reframing often changes a problem behavior into a strength.

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Guiding Skills

Guiding skills are used to help formulate decisions and create a path to carry the decisions out. The skills used in guiding synthesize the information gathered in exploring and focusing to develop possible solutions to achieve the desired change. The family in partnership with their team formulates options and chooses goals and steps that will lead to safety, permanence, and well-being. Team members will use the information they have gathered and the observations they have made to provide feedback that can help the family develop a course of action. During guiding, the family and team members will develop and evaluate options that meet family’s needs. Helpers will be offering suggestions and professional advice during guiding. The whole team should be aware of the unique strengths and needs of the family. This will help to ensure that choices considered reflect the family’s resources and draw on the strengths from their culture and community.

Formulating Options: Developing more than one course of action to follow and evaluating the choices presented. Brainstorming can be one of the ways to identify and evaluate options.

Suggestions: Helping to provide ideas to consider addressing a need or to resolve a problem.

Partialization: This technique helps people see the concern/problem/ behavior in pieces that can be addresses separately. This helps to minimize the feelings of being overwhelmed. It supports the mobilization of action on things that can be dealt with.

Professional Advice: This directs family members to specific choices for taking steps to solve a problem or meet a need. You may also give advice in helping a family member to select among options that have been formulated

Strengths and Need-Based Feedback: Positive and developmental feedback can help people to reinforce, maintain or change behavior. Positive feedback can be motivators and can empower the family to action. Developmental feedback can help people see what is not working and the consequences of behavior.

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Functional Strengths

Functional strengths are the skills, capacities, knowledge, values, or attitudes that underly and support a person’s ability to meet their basic needs, and those of their family, and enables them to achieve their life goals.

Functional strengths differ from inventoried strengths in their usefulness in other areas of a person’s life. Inventoried strengths are compliments. Functional strengths are practical.

Example:

Mr. Davis is the single parent of two school aged girls, Katina, age 8 and Anita, age 5. Mr. Davis has raised the girls alone since they were toddlers. Both girls are doing well in school. Their teachers describe them as well behaved and highly motivated to learn. Katina and Anita are also active in gymnastics and ballet at the YWCA.

Inventoried Strengths: 1. Mr. Davis has well behaved daughters.2. Mr. Davis is involved in his daughters in extra-curricular activities3. Mr. Davis values his daughter education

Functional Strengths: 1. Mr. Davis has well behaved daughter

o Mr. Davis teaches his daughter social skillso Mr. Davis has clear expectations for his daughter’s behavioro Mr. Davis has some effective parenting skills

2. Mr. Davis involves his daughters in extra-curricular activitieso Mr. Davis knows the values of an active lifestyle for adolescentso Mr. Davis manages his time to include activities for his daughters

3. Mr. Davis values his daughter educationo Mr. Davis prioritizes his daughters need for his timeo Mr. Davis is aware of the developmental level of his daughters

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SAFETY APPENDIX 7

PARENT/CAREGIVER PROTECTIVE CAPACITIES

The following parental protective capacity areas of assessment are related to personal and parenting behavior, cognitive and emotional characteristics that specifically and directly can be associated with being protective to one’s children. Protective capacities are personal qualities or characteristics that contribute to vigilant child protection. They are “strengths” that are specifically associated with one’s ability to perform effectively as a parent in order to provide and assure a consistently safe environment.

Assessment of a parent/caregiver’s capacity to protect a child begins with identifying and understanding how specific safety threats are occurring within the family system. At this point in the case process a worker determines what specific protective capacities are associated with the threats to child safety. The following definitions and examples should be used as a tool in assisting a worker in identifying the specific protective capacities that must be enhanced.

Children are unsafe because of threats to safety that cannot be controlled or mitigated by the parent/caregiver. Together, the worker and family identify strategies to enhance their capacity to provide protection for their child. For ongoing CPS there are three questions to answer which will then direct case planning:

• what is the reason for CPS involvement (safety threats)?• what must change (protective capacities associated with identified safety threats)?• how do we get there (case plan directed at enhancing protective capacities)?

Through the family assessment process, the Ongoing Services worker identifies enhanced and diminished parent/caregiver protective capacities. Enhanced protective capacities are strengths that can contribute to and reinforce the change process. Conversely, diminished protective capacities are the focus of the case plan. These are the areas that must change in order for parents/caregivers to resume their role and responsibility to provide protection for their children and create a safe home.

Assessing and understanding parent/caregiver protective capacities is the study and decision-making process that examines and integrates safety concerns into the case plan. It begins with the first meeting with the parents and child and is related to understanding personal and parenting behavior as well as cognitive and emotional characteristics that can be directly associated with being protective of one's children. This assessment is directly related to understanding and managing impending danger threats and correlating those identified threats to diminished parent/caregiver protective capacities. Diminished protective capacities are then addressed in the case plan.

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Parent/Caregiver Protective Capacities

Behavioral Protective Capacities

Cognitive Protective Capacities

Emotional Protective Capacities

• Has a history of

protecting • Takes action. • Demonstrates impulse

control. • Is physically able. • Has and demonstrates

adequate skill to fulfill caregiving responsibilities.

• Possesses adequate energy.

• Sets aside her/his needs in favor of a child.

• Is adaptive as a parent/caregiver.

• Is assertive as a parent/caregiver

• Uses resources necessary to meet the child’s basic needs.

• Supports the child.

• Plans and articulates a

plan to protect the child. • Is aligned with the child. • Has adequate knowledge

to fulfill care giving responsibilities and tasks.

• Is reality oriented; perceives reality accurately.

• Has an accurate perception of the child.

• Understands his/her protective role.

• Is self-aware as a parent/caregiver.

• Is able to meet own

emotional needs. • Is emotionally able to

intervene to protect the child.

• Is resilient as a parent/caregiver.

• Is tolerant as a parent/caregiver.

• Displays concern for the child and the child’s experience and is intent on emotionally protecting the child.

• Has a strong bond with the child and is clear that the number one priority is the well- being of the child.

• Expresses love, empathy and sensitivity toward the child; experiences specific empathy with the child’s perspective and feelings.

The following definitions and examples are not to be applied as a checklist, but rather provide a framework in which to consider and understand how to direct CPS services to reduce or eliminate threats to child safety by enhancing parent/caregiver protective capacities.

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Definitions and Examples

Behavioral Protective Capacities

The parent/caregiver has a history of protecting This refers to a person with many experiences and events in which they have demonstrated clear and reportable evidence of having been protective.

• People who have protected their children in demonstrative ways by separating them from danger; seeking assistance from others; or similar clear evidence.

• Parents/caregivers and other reliable people who can describe various events and experiences where protectiveness was evident.

The parent/caregiver takes action. This refers to a person who is action-oriented in all aspects of their life.

• People who proceed with a positive course of action in resolving issues. • People who take necessary steps to complete tasks.

The parent/caregiver demonstrates impulse control. This refers to a person who is deliberate and careful; who acts in managed and self- controlled ways.

• People who think about consequences and act accordingly. • People who are able to plan.

The parent/caregiver is physically able and has adequate energy. This refers to people who are sufficiently healthy, mobile and strong.

• People with physical abilities to effectively deal with dangers like fires or physical threats.

• People who have the personal sustenance necessary to be ready and on the job of being protective.

The parent/caregiver has/demonstrates adequate skill to fulfill responsibilities. This refers to the possession and use of skills that are related to being protective as a parent/caregiver.

• People who can care for, feed, supervise, etc. their children according to their basic needs.

• People who can handle and manage their caregiving responsibilities.

The parent/caregiver sets aside her/his needs in favor of a child. This refers to people who can delay gratifying their own needs, who accept their children’s needs as a priority over their own.

• People who do for themselves after they’ve done for their children. • People who seek ways to satisfy their children’s needs as the priority.

The parent/caregiver is adaptive as a caregiver. This refers to people who adjust and make the best of whatever caregiving situation occurs.

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• People who are flexible and adjustable.• People who accept things and can be creative about caregiving resulting in

positive solutions.

The parent/caregiver is assertive as a caregiver. This refers to being positive and persistent.

• People who advocate for their child.• People who are self-confident and self-assured.

The parent/caregiver uses resources necessary to meet the child’s basic needs. This refers to knowing what is needed, getting it, and using it to keep a child safe.

• People who use community public and private organizations.• People who will call on police or access the courts to help them.

The parent/caregiver supports the child. This refers to actual and observable acts of sustaining, encouraging, and maintaining a child’s psychological, physical and social well-being.

• People who spend considerable time with a child and respond to them in apositive manner.

• People who demonstrate actions that assure that their child is encouraged andreassured.

Cognitive Protective Capacities

The parent/caregiver plans and articulates a plan to protect the child. This refers to the thinking ability that is evidenced in a reasonable, well thought out plan.

• People who are realistic in their idea and arrangements about what is neededto protect a child.

• People whose awareness of the plan is best illustrated by their ability toexplain it and reason out why it is sufficient.

The parent/caregiver is aligned with the child. This refers to a mental state or an identity with a child.

• People who think that they are highly connected to a child and thereforeresponsible for a child’s well-being and safety.

• People who consider their relationship with a child as the highest priority.

The parent/caregiver has adequate knowledge to fulfill caregiving responsibilities and tasks. This refers to information and personal knowledge that is specific to caregiving that is associated with protection.

• People who have information related to what is needed to keep a child safe.• People who know how to provide basic care which assures that children are

safe.

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The parent/caregiver is reality oriented; perceives reality accurately. This refers to mental awareness and accuracy about one’s surroundings; correct perceptions of what is happening; and the viability and appropriateness of responses to what is real and factual.

• People who describe life circumstances accurately and operate in realisticways.

• People who alert to, recognize, and respond to threatening situations andpeople.

The parent/caregiver has accurate perceptions of the child. This refers to seeing and understanding a child’s capabilities, needs, and limitations correctly.

• People who recognize the child’s needs, strengths, and limitations. Peoplewho can explain what a child requires, generally, for protection and why.

• People who are accepting and understanding of the capabilities of a child.

The parent/caregiver understands his/her protective role. This refers to awareness…..knowing there are certain responsibilities and obligations that are specific to protecting a child.

• People who value and believe it is her/his primary responsibility to protect thechild.

• People who can explain what the “protective role” means and involves andwhy it is so important.

The parent/caregiver is self-aware. This refers to a parent’s/caregiver’s sensitivity to one’s thinking and actions and their effects on others – on a child.

• People who understand the cause – effect relationship between their ownactions and results for their children.

• People who understand that their role as a parent/caregiver is unique andrequires specific responses for their children.

Emotional Protective Capacities

The parent/caregiver is able to meet own emotional needs. This refers to satisfying how one feels in reasonable, appropriate ways that are not dependent on or take advantage of others, in particular, children.

• People who use reasonable, appropriate, and mature/adult-like ways ofsatisfying their feelings and emotional needs.

The parent/caregiver is emotionally able to intervene to protect the child. This refers to mental health, emotional energy, and emotional stability.

• People who are doing well enough emotionally that their needs and feelingsdon’t immobilize them or reduce their ability to act promptly andappropriately with respect to protectiveness.

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The parent/caregiver is resilient This refers to responsiveness and being able and ready to act promptly as a parent/caregiver.

• People who recover quickly from set backs or being upset.• People who are effective at coping as a parent/caregiver.

The parent/caregiver is tolerant This refers to acceptance, understanding, and respect in their parent/caregiver role.

• People who have a big picture attitude, who don’t over react to mistakes andaccidents.

• People who value how others feel and what they think.

The parent/caregiver displays concern for the child and the child’s experience and is intent on emotionally protecting the child. This refers to a sensitivity to understand and feel some sense of responsibility for a child and what the child is going through in such a manner to compel one to comfort and reassure.

• People who show compassion through sheltering and soothing a child.• People who calm, pacify, and appease a child.

The parent/caregiver and child have a strong bond and the parent/caregiver is clear that the number one priority is the child. This refers to a strong attachment that places a child’s interest above all else.

• People who act on behalf of a child because of the closeness and identity theperson feels for the child.

• People who order their lives according to what is best for their childrenbecause of the special connection and attachment that exits between them.

The parent/caregiver expresses love, empathy, and sensitivity toward the child. This refers to active affection, compassion, warmth, and sympathy.

• People who relate to, can explain, and feel what a child feels, thinks and goesthrough.

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Examples of Demonstrated Protectiveness

Judging whether a parent/caregiver is and will continue to be protective can be accomplished by examining specific attributes of the person as identified in the previous definitions and examples. Confirmation of how those attributes are evidenced in real life demonstration will provide confidence regarding the judgment that a parent/caregiver is and will continue to be protective in relation to threats to child safety. Here are examples of demonstrated protectiveness:

The parent/caregiver has demonstrated the ability to protect the child in the past while under similar or comparable circumstances and family conditions.

The parent/caregiver has made appropriate arrangements which have been confirmed to assure that the child is not left alone with the maltreating person. This may include having another adult present within the home that is aware of the protective concerns and is able to protect the child.

The parent/caregiver can specifically articulate a plan to protect the child.

The parent/caregiver believes the child’s story concerning maltreatment or impending danger safety threats and is supportive of the child. The parent/caregiver is intellectually, emotionally, and physically able to intervene to protect the child.

The parent/caregiver does not have significant individual needs which might affect the safety of the child, such as severe depression, lack of impulse control, medical needs, etc.

The parent/caregiver has adequate resources necessary to meet the child’s basic needs which allows for sufficient independence from anyone that might be a threat to the child.

The parent/caregiver is capable of understanding the specific safety threat to the child and the need to protect.

The parent/caregiver has adequate knowledge and skill to fulfill parenting responsibilities and tasks that might be required related to protecting the child from the safety threat. This may involve considering the parent’s/caregiver’s ability to meet any exceptional needs that a child might have.

The parent/caregiver is cooperating with CPS’ safety intervention efforts.

The parent/caregiver is emotionally able to carry out his or her own plan to provide protection and/or to intervene to protect the child; the parent/caregiver is not intimidated by or fearful of whomever might be a threat to the child.

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The parent/caregiver displays concern for the child and the child’s experience and is intent on emotionally protecting as well as physically protecting the child.

The parent/caregiver and the child have a strong bond and the parent/caregiver is clear that his/her number one priority is the safety of the child.

The non threatening parent/caregiver consistently expresses belief that the threatening parent/caregiver or person is in need of help and that he or she supports the threatening parent/caregiver getting help. This is the non threatening parent’s/caregiver’s point of view without being prompted by CPS.

While the parent/caregiver is having a difficult time believing the threatening parent/caregiver or person would severely harm the child, he or she describes and considers the child as believable and trustworthy.

The parent/caregiver does not place responsibility on the child for problems within the family or for impending danger safety threats that have been identified by CPS.

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Partners Share Power

Part 1

List examples of the power child welfare workers have over parents and families.

List examples of the power parents have over caseworkers.

What are 5 concrete ways that you can share your power with parents?

Part 2

Who from Annie’s family and community network (ecological system) would you include in your work?

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Using the Six Principles of Partnership Using the family in the BBC video Protecting Our Children, think of ways you could demonstrate each of the Six Principles of Partnership if these were your clients.

Everyone Needs to Be Heard

Everyone Desires Respect

Everyone Has Strengths

Judgements Can Wait

Partners Share Power

Partnership is a Process

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Preparing for Initial Contacts

The following questions can assist you in preparing for your initial contacts. As you consider these questions, think about them from the perspective of your specific job role.

• Why have you made contact with the family? (Your purpose drives intent)

• What are the benefits for a family in meeting with you?

• What expectations will you have of them throughout the process?

• What they should expect from you?

• What should they expect in terms of timelines? What will happen when?

• What are some potential outcomes they can expect?

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Talking Points for Initial Contact Write down the talking points that will be important to include in your initial contacts with families (or others in your work). Remember to use family- friendly language, avoid social work jargon, and be as specific as possible. Reflect the Six Principles of Partnership.

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List of Annie’s Needs

1. Has been substantiated for neglect by the department of social serves (in North Carolina) forallowing an 11-year-old to watch her children

2. Has abused substances including pot, painkillers, and sometimes alcohol. Has mixed two ormore drugs of choice. Not an addict but has bouts of regular substance use.

3. Thinks all social workers and therapists have ulterior motives that are ultimately dangerous toher family’s well-being.

4. In their previous location, the police were called to the trailer on more than one occasion tohandle disturbances.

5. Absolutely hates being told what to do. Very independent person who often bucks authority.

6. Diagnosed as bipolar by a mental health professional. Resistant to taking medication.

7. Verbally abusive with her children when angered-she calls them names, swears at them, yells,etc.

8. Has history of using physical discipline as the primary means of behavior control with kids.

9. Married a man 20 years her senior when she was a teenager, against her parents’ wishes.

10. History of fighting that often gets physical with pushing, shoving, or hitting throughout hermarriage.

11. Always has the latest technology in phones, computers, and video games. Sometimes prioritizesthose purchased overpaying bills.

12. Slow to trust. Very suspicious of anyone from “the system”.

13. Unable to hold down a job for more than six months at a time.

14. Shunned by certain members of her family of origin because of lifestyle choices.

15. Fired more than once for insubordination and fighting with co-workers, supervisors, and bosses.

16. Puts on cartoons to occupy her kids and then sleeps on the couch for several hours in theevenings and especially during the weekends.

17. Lives in a different state than her family of origin. Has almost no contact with her mother. Isaware of few local supports.

18. Is a “single parent” much of the time because her husband drives a truck for a living and is oftenon the road for a day or two at a time.

19. Relies on Tommy to care for and watch out for himself and his younger sister siblings when she

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is busy or sleeping at the house. She feels strongly that this “builds independence”

20. Got started as a parent very early without much female guidance. Her mom disapproves of hermarriage and getting pregnant so early.

21. Dropped out of school at age 17. Never graduated from High School.

22. Right after her move to Wisconsin she made many poor choices as a new parent. She often lefther kids with a neighborhood girl and partied on weekends.

23. Frequently ignores own health issues. Is reluctant to seek medical help for serious concerns.

24. Always broke at the end of the month. Sometimes runs out of basic necessities and has to findways to get additional household supplies like hygiene or cleaning products.

25. Recently moved to Wisconsin when husband was transferred. She has few friends and is goingto have to figure out the network of support all over again here.

26. Has very loose boundaries with her friends. They often take advantage of her generosity.

27. They moved here nine months ago, because her husband’s trucking company was bought out.He now has a new unfamiliar route and sometimes is gone longer than expected.

28. Growing up she was the only girl of five siblings. As the youngest, she picked up “street smarts”and scrappiness from her brothers. She knows how to fight and take care of herself.

29. Family was unprepared for the Wisconsin winter when they first moved here. As fall progressed,the children brought notes home from school saying they needed to wear warmer clothes.

30. Sometimes Tommy or Megan goes to school/preschool with the same clothes on from theprevious day or with unwashed hair. They sometimes smell.

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List of Annie’s Strengths

1. Open to trying new things, takes suggestions and tries them out before discounting them. Verydetermined person who is not easily discouraged by setbacks.

2. Is a cancer survivor. Was diagnosed with a rare type of cancer at age 14. Not expected to livebut did. Doctors called her “a real fighter”

3. Very skilled auto mechanic. Can fix anything with an engine and wheels. Has used this skill tomake extra cash when she runs out at the end of the month.

4. Keeps scrapbooks for each of her kids with phots, school papers, and memorabilia. Has a “song”for each one of them.

5. Once she sets her mind to something, she works at it until she gets it. Is especially motivated bya “challenge” or problem that is difficult.

6. Got her GED, passing the test on the first try after only a month of program-required classes.

7. Has significant periods of time (nine months to a year) with no binging episodes or substanceuse. Her substance use often correlates with depression.

8. Works well with people once she trusts them. Will do anything for you if she feels valued.

9. Savvy about getting information when she needs it. Uses the internet to research anything thatinterests her including parenting dilemmas.

10. Signed her kids up with a local church’s youth group and Sunday School so they have extraactivities on the weekend even though she and her husband don’t attend.

11. Actively involved with the kids. Takes them to the park to play on the playground. Gets rightdown on their level to play. Very engaged and bonded with her kids.

12. When there is food in the house, she cooks hot meals for dinner every night. Her children arewill-fed most of the time.

13. Able to see solutions for friends in trouble and often acts as a mediator between couples orbetween a friend and his or her parent.

14. Is passionate about life and approaches most everything she tackles with great energy and zeal.

15. Able to quickly assess problems in the workplace and develop solutions that work. She excels atjobs where she is allowed to contribute critical thinking.

16. Maintains regular phone contact with a few of her family members including two of herbrothers and grandmother.

17. Fiercely protective of her children. In a previous school, she stood up for her son who was beingbullied first with the school and then with the bully and his parents.

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18. Prefers to handle her own problems rather than rely on the system. Hesitant to get publicassistance even though she qualifies.

19. Even in a small house, she makes sure each child has his or her own space or own room.

20. Excellent basketball player. Plays at the local recreation center on the weekend in pick- upgames.

21. Writes stories about her children and her own childhood. Keeps a journal off and on.

22. Passionately in love with her husband and three children.

23. Very generous person who is always willing to help out friends or family in need in whateverway possible.

24. Spends her free time designing web pages, surging the internet and using social media. Verytech savvy.

25. Likes to plan family events or trips for the weekend when her husband is home. Will surprise thekids with a swim in the lake or a picnic in the summer.

26. Her husband has known her for most of her life and has stuck by her through medical andfinancial stress.

27. Her husband is a loving father when he is home. He plays ball with his oldest son and dolls withthis daughter. Neighbors have described him as an involved Dad with his kids.

28. Her core belief about parenting is to prepare her children to be self-sufficient so they have whatthey need to succeed in life-better than she and her husband have done.

29. Tommy, the oldest child, is very independent, a good helper to his Mom, and does well inschool. He especially likes reading.

30. Don is a very compassionate, soft-spoken, and gentle man. He loves his children and his wife,and he can’t wait to get home to them on weekends.

Wisconsin Child Welfare Professional Development System • UW-Madison School of Social Work Engaging to Build Trusting Relationships • Developed: May 2016, Revised June 2017, Revised February 2021 May be reproduced with permission from original source for training purposes

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Engaging to Build Trusting Relationships Tool Box

CULTURAL HUMILITY Cross-cultural partnerships are built on trust, teamwork, inclusivity, feedback and continual self-reflection to assure we are meeting the needs of our clients.

EXCEPTION FINDING QUESTIONS Find the exceptions in the lives of our families. Exceptions lead to finding strengths. Look for a time when the problem could have occurred but didn’t or didn't exist in the family's life…find out "what did that look like?"

MIRACLE QUESTION Help families to envision what a healthier future may look like… if a miracle occurred and the current problem magically disappeared, what would be different? How would things be better?

SCALING QUESTIONS Most versatile tool that can be used for assessment, goal setting, and to measure progress and safety. Remember your anchors 1= Negative side of the scale; 10 = Positive side of scale. Move up the scale one point at a time.

EMPATHIC LISTENING Listening without reading your own story into what someone else is saying. Empathic listening helps others work through their own thoughts and feelings to unravel their own concerns and solutions become clear in the process.

MANAGE YOUR INNER VOICE Put your agenda to the side, turn off the commentator in your head and use empathic listening skills. Try to really hear and understand where you family is at in their lives.

EXPLORING SKILLS (SEEK FIRST TO UNDERSTAND) Use to build rapport and to inquire to learn. We require folks to discuss private and difficult matters by acknowledging feelings, when we explore, families feel heard.

FUNCTIONAL STRENGTHS These are skills, capacities, knowledge, values, or attitudes that underly and support a person’s ability to meet their basic needs, and those of their family, and enables them to achieve their life goals.

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PROTECTIVE CAPACITIES Personal qualities or characteristics that contribute to vigilant child protection. They are strengths that are specifically associated with one’s ability to perform effectively as a parent in providing a consistently safe environment.

FOCUSING SKILLS Focusing skills lay a foundation for effective solution planning and strengthens the partnership by creating a common understanding that can lead to solutions.

FINDING STRENGTHS When finding strengths with families or an individual try to connect that strength to how it will mitigate safety and risk factors.

NOT KNOWING STANCE/POSTURE Put aside all your assumptions and acknowledge that in fact, you don't know. Remember judgments can wait, this allows us to "seek first to understand." Chances are if I think I already know the answer, I am not really listening.

SHARE YOUR POWER Shared power is shared ownership, families need to feel empowered and solutions should be created with the family. Remember to be flexible.

RESPECT CLIENT POWER We must recognize and respect that families have and need power. We cannot truly share power if we don’t honor the power families have.

COMMUNITY-BASED APPROACH A family’s home, school, neighborhood and community are assets that can provide the family with support and assistance to raise their children in safer environments. We strive to prepare families to function in their community without child welfare involvement.

GUIDING SKILLS Used to help formulate decisions and create a path to carry the decisions out. These skill help develop more than one course of action, provides ideas to consider addressing needs or resolve problems in partnership with the family and their team.

Wisconsin Child Welfare Professional Development System • UW-Madison School of Social Work