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"PROMISING PRACTICE"
FOR FALL 2007:
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a program description with your colleagues
through the BRYCS Clearinghouse.
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Hmong Child and Family Team
Meetings
Administering Organizations
Catawba
County Social Services (CCSS), Family and Children's Services
Division and the United
Hmong Association (UHA) of North Carolina
Program Objectives and Unique
Needs Addressed
The Child and Family Teams (CFT) model is a family and community
centered child welfare approach to helping families have a
voice and direct input into plans that are developed to ensure
the safety and well being of their children and to strengthen
the family unit.
In 2000, managers of Catawba County Social Services (CCSS)
noticed that their agency’s child protection workers
were experiencing difficulty in gaining the trust and cooperation
of the Hmong families they were working with. Mr. Billy Poindexter,
one of the social workers of CCSS, met with Mr. Tong Yang,
the Executive Director of the United
Hmong Association (UHA) of North Carolina to begin to
discuss how they could collaborate. After some initial collaborative
activities, Mr. Poindexter held a training with leaders from
the United Hmong Association on Family
Group Decision Making (FGDM) and it was determined that
there are values within the Hmong culture that are similar
to those which the model is based on, such as the importance
of family and community. In July 2003, CCSS began using a
statewide model called Child and Family Team (CFT) meetings,
which is heavily infused with FGDM values and practice. This
is the specific family and community centered child welfare
model that is used today with families throughout most of
North Carolina, including the Hmong.
Program Description
As stated, Child and Family Team (CFT) meetings are heavily
infused with FGDM values and practice. CFT meetings are a
part of the differential response approach to working with
all families across North Carolina and the model is family-centered,
strengths-based, and solution focused. Families involved with
CCSS are offered the opportunity to have a meeting to discuss
and create plans related to the safety, permanency, and well-being
of their child(ren). The meeting is scheduled at a time and
place of the family’s choosing and the family is involved
in selecting participants to be invited. The family is treated
as the expert on their strengths and needs and all meeting
participants are involved in identifying planning options.
The meetings are facilitated by trained, in-house volunteers,
who maintain a neutral stance throughout the meetings. The
plan that is created during the meeting and is crafted with
the family’s own words as much as possible. If a family
is involved with child protective services, CCSS tries to
schedule a meeting within a month of initiating services.
“Family alone time,” which is a component of FGDM,
is offered to families as an element of their CFT meeting,
but requires additional preparation. It is not utilized with
every family, but has been very useful when offered and accepted.
CFT meetings have been particularly useful with the Hmong
community, as they promote many Hmong values. For example,
some of the values that CFT meetings and Hmong culture share
in common are:
- Family: The Hmong have an old saying:
“To be with a family is to be happy. To be without
family is to be lost.” Also, the phrase “ib
tsev neeg” means “one house people” and
refers to having extended family under one roof.
- Culture: There is great pride in being
self-sufficient and in providing for one’s family
as tradition dictates.
- Partnership: The Hmong language does
not have an exact word for “partnership,” but
“collaboration,” which is the essence of partnership,
is “kev koom tes.”
- Safety: The Hmong phrase is “saib
kev ruaj ntseg,” which literally means “to keep
out of trouble.”
- Community: The Hmong say, “Hmoob
yuav tsum hlub Hmoob,” which means, “Hmong have
to look after their own.”
- Future: In the Hmong culture the family
is the center of a person’s success for the future.
To care for family is to care for the future.
Due to persecution and negative experiences with governments,
the Hmong have traditionally been hesitant to become involved
with governmental agencies. Yet, the CFT process has allowed
the community to interact with a governmental agency in such
a way that their voice is heard and culture is respected.
The model has helped to build a strong bridge between the
agency, representing the larger community standards of child
welfare, and this population’s suspicions of social
workers. Culturally based differences continue to be “thorny,”
but this process of collaboration has greatly assisted the
development of trust.
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Materials Used in Program
Groups Served by Program
CFT meetings are offered to all families with whom the agency
becomes involved, which includes any Hmong families. Approximately
7,000 Hmong individuals live in Catawba County, which is the
third highest concentration of this population in the country.
Even though Hmong cases amount to only about one-half of one
percent of the cases accepted for services by CCSS, they are
often among the most trying because of language and cultural
barriers.
Program Funding
The half-time CFT Facilitator is funded directly by county
funds. This is off set by state and federal funds available
for child welfare services when eligibility criteria are met.
Program Staffing and Required
Staff Training
Staffing:
CCSS has a half-time CFT Facilitator, who provides consultation
to referring workers, trains volunteer facilitators, provides
on-going training and coaching to staff and volunteer facilitators,
facilitates CFT meetings, and tracks outcomes of CFT meetings.
Staff Training:
The collaboration between CCSS and the United Hmong Association
(UHA) has resulted in several cultural competency trainings
led by UHA leadership. The trainings often include information
on Hmong history, culture, and practices as well as panels
of Hmong citizens who share their stories. In addition, trainings
have been held for Hmong community leaders on concepts and
standards of child protection. Communication of these foreign
ideas has also been achieved through public service announcements
on the local Hmong radio station.
Regarding CFT training, North Carolina Department of Social
Services has contracted with a vendor to provide practice
training to social workers involved with family meetings.
In Catawba County, all workers in our Child Welfare division
have attended the North Carolina State Family Centered Meeting
Project two-day orientation training on CFT meetings and those
who are listed as third party facilitators have attended the
four-day facilitator training offered by North Carolina State
University’s Family
Centered Meetings Project. NCSU-FCMP also sponsors quarterly
forums for facilitators to discuss situations around facilitating
meeting. Catawba County has begun a library of articles written
by Mr. Billy Poindexter that address specific lessons from
CFT meetings held in-house. Some of these articles have been
reprinted in the Jordan Institute’s Family Matters publication
and in the North Carolina Department of Social Services Multiple
Response System newsletter.
Program Evaluation
- Process Evaluation: CCSS has adopted
an evaluation form used in CFT meetings held by our workers.
This is a voluntary document that uses a Likert Scale format
for evaluating the participants’ experience of the
meeting as well as their assessment of the appropriateness
of the plans developed.
- Outcome Evaluation: Currently, a longitudinal
study is being developed in-house that will track 56 families
who had a CFT meeting in 2003, the first year the model
was used. Families are being tracked for recidivism, placement
of children, and recurrence or absence of similar issues
coming to the attention of CCSS.
Program Outcomes
- Process Data: In 2006, responses from
188 CFT participants (not including professionals) gave
an overall 94% satisfaction rate with the process of CFT
meetings. This number represents all families who utilized
CFT meetings, not just the Hmong.
- Outcome Data: The longitudinal study
is not complete, but short term outcome data from a 2005
study reveals that 93% of families who participate in CFT
meetings do not have children enter the foster care system
within six months of the initial meeting. [Note: In 2003,
there were no Hmong families who completed CFT meetings;
however, there were Hmong families who utilized CFT meetings
in 2004 and beyond. CCSS has plans to eventually analyze
the data from those years as well, which will provide specific
information on outcomes of the Hmong families.]
- Additional Outcomes:
- Hmong Staff at CCSS: Due to the successful
relationship that has formed between CCSS, the United
Hmong Association, and the general Hmong community,
CCSS has hired several Hmong individuals. Hmong workers
provide credible interpretation and translation with
families when language is a complicating factor. In
addition, the Hmong staff at CCSS are available to provide
cultural information and to serve as liaisons with the
community as needed.
- Conference Presentations: Mr. Tong
Yang, the Executive Director of the United Hmong Association,
and Mr. Billy Poindexter of CCSS have co-presented at
a number of national conferences on the use of CFT and
FGDM with the Hmong community.
- Advisory Board: Mr. Billy Poindexter,
of CCSS, has been appointed to serve as a member of
the United Hmong Association’s Advisory Board.
Program Additional Comments
Establishing trust with a new refugee or immigrant community
can be challenging. CCSS’ relationship with the Hmong
community is something that they have been developing for
years, and that takes continued nurturing. Change is made
one step at a time and every success, no matter how small,
is celebrated. The staff at CCSS say that the most important
factor in establishing and maintaining their relationship
with the Hmong community has been openness in communication.
When there are challenges, they are “put on the table”
and discussed without judgment or accusations. It has also
been extremely important for CCSS to acknowledge that the
integration of the Hmong community into the child welfare
system is a two-way process. In other words, it is not just
about how the Hmong community needs to change in order to
fit existing systems, but that there are things CCSS needs
to change in order to effectively work with Hmong community
members. In addition, the CCSS staff say that other key elements
of building trust with the Hmong community have included:
following-up on questions, ongoing contact with the community’s
leaders, and showing consistent respect.
Program Contacts
Catawba County Social Services
Billy Poindexter, CFT Facilitator/Coordinator
Billy@catawbaCountyNC.gov
(828) 695-4521
Catawba County Social Services
Cyndy Benson, Children’s Services Program Manager
CYNDY@catawbacountync.gov
(828) 695-4433
United Hmong Association
Mr. Tong Yang
tyang@uhanc.org
(828) 324-2322
Program Dates
This Promising Practice began in 2002; it is still operating
as of August 2007. |
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