Family Centered Model: A Way to Address Implicit Bias
By: August 12, 2021
SHIELDS published an article in the Los Angeles SENTINEL news outlet. The SENTINEL is the largest Subscriber paid African American owned newspaper on the West Coast with a readership of 150,000 and over 70 years of service to the community.
At SHIELDS for Families, we focus on family-centered services. For example, SHIELDS utilizes a family-centered model for our perinatal substance use disorder (SUD) treatment program for women called Genesis. At Genesis, participants work in group and individual sessions and with SUD counselors during the day. Meanwhile, their babies are cared for in our child development center next door. In addition to the child development center, our Heroes and Sheroes program provides afterschool programming for the participants’ school-aged youth. And to not forget the fathers, we have our Fatherhood program, which offers parenting classes, groups, and family-centered events to help nurture the men we work with.
When you Commit to The Family-Centered Model, you Begin to Develop this Type of Culture
During special events, say a Fatherhood or Christmas event, all family members are welcome. At the same time, case managers, therapists, and other staff that work with their respective family members join in the event. Consequently, we create lasting bonds with families in the community. In this sense, we serve the family, not the individual. And as we collaborate between programs and members of the family, we create our community. This community helps our team transcend the original definition of a social worker. We are extended family, advocates, and coworkers. We are with these families through multiple generations, loss, struggles, triumphs, graduations, new jobs, and more.