Family time provides a crucial opportunity for young children in foster care and their parents to have meaningful interactions and to form positive healthy connections. In response to a need to provide guidance to child welfare professionals and parents on how to create meaningful family time for very young children, the PDN Child Welfare Committee (a group of early childhood mental health experts and practitioners) developed a suite of resources that helps these various audiences understand the research that underpins the importance of family time, and use practice tips to ensure family time promotes healthy relationships between parents and children. You can click on the links below to access resources that are specifically tailored to the various adults who engage with young children in foster care. If you have any questions or comments about these resources, feel free to email us at info@irvingharrisfdn.org.
- Resource for parents (a printable version without large photos can also be accessed here)
- Resource for caregivers
- Resource for case workers
- Resource for Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) and guardian ad litem (GAL)
- Resource for supervisors
- Resource for attorneys
- Resource for judges
- At-A-Glance: Meaningful Family Time with Young Children
Sharing the resources
If you would like to share one or all these resources with institutions, networks or agencies who might be interested in them, feel free to use the language below to describe their purpose and creation:
“The Meaningful Family Time suite of resources was designed to help adults who serve very young children in the child welfare system create meaningful family time visits. The resources provide a brief overview of the research that underpins the importance of family time, reflection questions, and practice tips to put the research into practice. They are tailored to specific audiences (e.g. attorneys, case workers, caregivers, judges, supervisors, GAL/CASA and parents) so that their content is relevant and practical. The suite of resources was created by a national network of early childhood mental health experts and practitioners (the Harris PDN Network) and funded by the Irving Harris Foundation.”