New Generation PRIDE Model of Practice Overview

For over two decades the PRIDE Model of Practice has increased opportunities for child welfare agencies to provide a structured framework for the professional development of foster and adoptive families. This Model includes the competency-based recruitment, preparation, assessment, selection, and support of resource parents. The PRIDE Model of Practice is used, in whole or in part, across the United States and in more than 25 countries.

New Generation PRIDE Model of Practice

Child Welfare League of America and FosterParentCollege.com have developed the New Generation PRIDE Model of Practice for agencies and families. The PRIDE Model of Practice is built upon five core competency categories developed through comprehensive role analysis:

• Protecting and nurturing children
• Meeting children's developmental needs and addressing their delays
• Supporting relationships with birth families
• Connecting children to safe, nurturing relationships intended to last a lifetime (permanency)
• Working as a member of a professional team

Strengthening the Quality of Care

The PRIDE Model of Practice provides the opportunity to ensure that staff and resource families commit to your agency's vision, mission, and values. The Model supports staff and parents to have complementary competency-based roles in the care of children. The Practice uses strengths-based language, implements culturally responsive best practices, and teaches trauma-informed skills so that staff and parents can work together to achieve outcomes that support the safety, well-being, and permanency for the children in care.

The PRIDE Model of Practice 14-step model develops and supports foster and adoptive families as team members in child protection. It is designed to strengthen the quality of family foster care and adoption services through:

• Clarifying the role of resource families in support of the agency's vision and mission
• Integrating resource families as integral members of the agency's team
• Educating communities about the importance of resource families
• Recruiting families based on a strengths/needs, comprehensive plan
• Providing hybrid in-person/online pre-service training around Five Core Competencies
• Integrating pre-service training as an essential component of the mutual family assessment (home study) process
• Selecting resource families based on the Five Core Competencies
• Matching children with licensed (approved, certified, verified) resource families
• Creating family development plans to guide ongoing professional development of foster parents
• Providing in-service training and other essential supports
• Ending relationships with resource families, using a strengths-based approach and a quality assurance process

Dynamic, Interactive Learning Approach

The following chart explains the training sequence for FosterPRIDE/AdoptPRIDE, the name of the preservice training/assessment component of the New Generation PRIDE Model of Practice to Develop and Support Foster and Adoptive (Resource) Parents as Team Members in Child Protection and Trauma Informed Care of Children. This training is organized into five in-person group sessions and twelve online training courses. The online courses are bundled into four clusters which are available for viewing 24/7 at the convenience of the parents. Both the online and in-person sessions feature highly dynamic, interactive learning activities that key-in on trauma-informed parenting knowledge and skills.

Sessions and Clusters	Locations
In-Person Session 1 Connecting with the PRIDE Model of Practice	Group meeting site
Cluster 1 The Child Welfare Team Child Abuse and Neglect Child Development	Online
In-Person Session 2 Protecting and Nurturing Children	Group meeting site
Cluster 2 Parent-Child Attachment Understanding Behavior in Foster Children Caring for Children Who Have Been Sexually Abused	Online
In-Person Session 3 Meeting Children's Developmental Needs: Separation and Loss, Trauma, Resilience	Group meeting site
Cluster 3 Working Together with Primary Families Cultural Issues in Parenting Trauma-Informed Parenting	Online
In-Person Session 4 Supporting Relationships Between Children and Their Families	Group meeting site
Cluster 4 Reducing Family Stress Impact of Fostering on Birth Children of Foster Parents Foster Care to Adoption	Online
In-Person Session 5 Planning for Change	Group meeting site

For more information about the PRIDE Model of Practice, go to CWLA.org.