When I was getting my Masters in Social Work, my advisor suggested a field placement at Homebuilders™. At that point I had no idea what Homebuilders™ was, what kinds of interventions they provided, or what skills I might learn. I’d never actually worked with a family in their home. It turned out to be an incredible experience—an introduction to a set of values about families as well as the opportunity to learn skills and interventions that truly helped families. That was the start of my IFPS career. After I finished my MSW I went to work for Homebuilders™. A few years later I joined the Family Preservation Practice Project, a collaboration between the University of Washington School of Social Work and Behavioral Sciences Institute, which developed the Homebuilders™ program. That project gave me the opportunity to have one foot in the clinical side and one foot in the academic side of IFPS.
The Family Preservation Practice Project offered a group of MSW students a concentration of studies in Family Preservation Services. I worked with staff and faculty from the School of Social Work to develop curriculum that taught the philosophy, theory, research, and skills of family preservation. Each student in the project had a field placement at Homebuilders™. Although Homebuilders™ had offered field placements for a number of years, the project offered an opportunity to hone that experience for students by adding Master’s level courses in conjunction with field placements.
One of the goals of the project was to develop students who could step easily into family preservation programs. At the same time we recognized that some students in the Family Preservation Practice Project would not continue in this field, but would go on to other jobs in other clinical situations. We quickly realized they would do so with an understanding of the value of IFPS and a set of skills that would serve them well in their chosen practice.
The structure of IFPS, its focus on evidence-based practice and the intensity of the intervention created a unique experience for these students. The Family Preservation Practice Project, through its curriculum and classroom experience, prepared students for their field placement experience. The field placement broadened, accelerated and integrated the classroom learning.
Certainly, the focus of the field placement was to provide an opportunity for students to put what they were learning in the classroom into practice, but it wasn’t a direct translation. The students learned what it means to walk into a family’s home with the ability to respond to what was going on that day—to understand that you may have a plan but the situation might need another direction. Students learned to have the flexibility to step back and say, for example, “Here, give me the broom. I’ll sweep the floor while you change the baby’s diapers. Don’t worry about it. Yes, we have an appointment, but we can do this while we talk.” For many students, that ability was a major step to take—to understand what it means to be present with a family, while observing, teaching and helping them go through their day-to-day life.
We had the advantage in The Family Preservation Practice Project of having Homebuilders™ therapists—very experienced Homebuilders™ therapists—teaching and guiding students through their field placements.
One of the things we heard from those students was that an amazing part of the experience was having a relationship with practicum instructors who were: 1) skilled practitioners on the front line, 2) who fully understood the integration of theory and practice, and 3) were skills-based and evidence-based in how they thought, approached students, and worked with families.
Students in the Family Preservation Practice Project came in with a real interest in family preservation but no real understanding of the evidence-based Homebuilders™ model. They graduated from the program after going through both the classroom process and the field placement with an understanding of:
- The rationale for family preservation services
- Current policy context and policy initiatives for family preservation
- The value base of family preservation
- Theory bases underlying family preservation
- Theoretical and practical knowledge of the Homebuilders model™
- Culturally responsive family preservation practice
- Basic skills needed by family preservation practitioners
Posted by Peg Marckworth