1. Kentucky Partnership for Families and Children, Inc.
Strategies for
Family Engagement
Quick introduction
Talk about how this type of engagement will make school involvement easier.
Kentucky Partnership for Families and Children, Inc.
Assisting Children, Youth, and Young Adults with Behavioral Health Challenges and Their Families.

2. Handout only?

3. How do you support a family’s strengths?

4. Strength Based Approach
It is an empowering alternative to traditional methods which describe family in terms of dysfunction or deficits.
It fosters hope by focusing on what is successes.
Families are more invested …they feel they are a part.
“Thinking Outside the Box” - Supports based on strengths.
Builds Trust
Empowers people
Fosters behavior change

5. Why Strength Based So People Can Take Control of Their Own Lives in
Meaningful and Sustainable Ways.
Builds trusting and workable relationships
Empowers people
Draws upon personal resources
Creates change
The emphasis on deficits – what a person is lacking – leads to focusing on what is wrong
Ask the family what a good first step would be for their goals?
It doesn’t attempt to ignore the problem, it just helps people see it in a different way.

6. Tips on Engaging Families
Ask open-ended questions
Be non-judgmental
Listen…
Get permission to give advice
Express empathy
What do you think is going well for your family?
If you have been involved in services before, what worked best for you? What didn’t work? How can that inform the way we work together from here?
How would your child(ren) describe the best parts of your family?
Sounds like you have been through some tough times before: what did you do in the past that seemed to work for you and your family?
What’s working well?
Judgement loaded questions
Why did you do that for?
Do you want to be a good parent?
Have you always had such a hard time getting along with people?

7. Empathy Versus Sympathy

8. Values Iceberg What Do You See? What Do You Not See?
What assumptions have been made about you based on what people see?

9. Values My values define who I am based on my culture and experiences!
My values are a reflection of what I care about most in life. 
My values change and grow, like I do.
Look through the values and select your top three values .
Personal values provide an internal reference for what is good, beneficial, important, useful, beautiful, desirable, constructive, etc.
Values generate behavior and provide answers to questions of why people do what they do and in what order they choose to do them.
Examples of same values different look: Spirtuality, family,
Admit that you don’t know. Knowing that we don’t know everything, that a situation does not make sense, that our assumptions may be wrong is part of the process of becoming culturally aware. Assume differences, not similarities.
Suspend judgments. Collect as much information as possible so you can describe the situation accurately before evaluating it.
Empathy. In order to understand another person, we need to try standing in his/her shoes. Through empathy we learn of how other people would like to be treated by us.

10. All these things are connected
Handout
All these things are connected

11. Culture Of…

12. Most Important Possession
POVERTY
People
MIDDLE CLASS
Things
WEALTH
One-of-a-kind objects, legacies, pedigrees
11:30 – 12:00 - Barb

13. Timeframes POVERTY MIDDLE CLASS WEALTH
In the present moment. Decisions made for the moment based on feelings or survival for the short term
MIDDLE CLASS
Fore thinking about future. Decisions based on how it will effect the future.
WEALTH
Tradition and history are most important. Most decisions based on alignment with tradition or status quo.
11:30 – 12:00 - Barb

14. Money POVERTY MIDDLE CLASS WEALTH Use it while you have it.
Need to budgeted to last over long haul
WEALTH
To be stored away, investment and inherited
11:30 – 12:00 - Barb

15. If an individual cannot plan, he/she cannot predict.
If an individual depends upon a random, episodic story structure for memory patterns, lives in an unpredictable environment, and has not developed the ability to plan,
THEN …
If an individual cannot plan, he/she cannot predict.
If an individual cannot predict, then he/she cannot identify cause and effect.
If an individual cannot identify cause and effect, he/she cannot identify consequence.
If an individual cannot identify consequence, he/she cannot control impulsivity.
If an individual cannot control impulsivity, he/she has an inclination toward criminal behavior.
Handout
Delivery (how were the points made?)
How does it tie into the overall message about providing services to people in the culture of poverty?
reactive

16. Remember…
Begin relationships by purposefully listening for strengths and being non-judgmental.
For families to convey respect and collaborate, they must believe they are respected and valued.
Families will have a greater investment in partnering when they have knowledge, skills and supports necessary to understand the system that they’re in.
9:30 – 10:00
Bullitt One: Talk with and not talked too! Seek true and meaningful partnerships with family members by collaborating with them and seeking their insights and perspectives.

17. Contact Information
For more information about Kentucky Partnership for Families and Children, Inc. please visit us at or Barbara Greene at or Carol Cecil at if you have any questions/comments about family engagement.