Coaching Family Visits Toolkit
When a child is placed in out of home care, focused visiting is essential to expediting a successful return home. Utilizing visit coaches, the caseworker and the parent identify together what the parent needs to learn and use during visiting in order to bring their child back home. Coached visiting focuses on the presenting issues that brought the child into care, which may include practicing a skill, developing awareness of child developmental needs, or healing a wounded relationship. An individualized visitation plan is a key part of the overall case plan to support the child’s permanency goal.
The Coaching Family Visits Toolkit includes an implementation process for decision-makers, as well as training for supervisors and caseworkers, to promote visits that are purposeful, strategically planned, and coached to increase timely permanency. The training is designed to engage the family in the planning and debriefing process, while placing a strong emphasis on coaching parents before, during, and following visits in order to achieve child welfare outcomes.