Peers in Children, Youth and Family Services- Core Competencies

Peers in Children, Youthand Family ServicesCore CompetenciesFor over 20 years, public service providers have implemented Peer Partners asdirect service providers in Children, Youth and Family services. Peer Partners havebecome a requirement for many public funded systems’ whether, the services arefunded by; Child Welfare, Justice, Probation, Health and/or other departments ofgovernment. Peer Partners Children Services has increasingly become a bestpractice in recognition that lived experience offers a unique benefit to clients andtheir family as well as, benefits to agencies, systems and communities. Moreover,many of these systems’ reform efforts, transformations, promising practices, andinitiatives identify this role as a critical element to improved outcomes. For over15 years FVC primaries have capturing lessons learned from local, state andnational communities experiences of Peer Partners. Glaring concerns across thespectrum of Peer in children, youth and family services are: A) Lack of role claritywith in the agency they work B) Consistent training specifically designed forbuilding the competencies and skills of the Peers Partners. C) Absence ofsupervision and coaching designed for their role. In 2003 FVC’s directors began thedevelopment and testing of Peer Partners’ Standard of Practice and CoreCompetencies. Within this document are the findings of crucial core competencies,that are vital to advancing the practice of peers in children, youth, and familyservices. These core competencies should be utilized when developing jobdescriptions, training curricula and supervision programs.

Peers in Children, Peers in Children, Youth and Family ServicesYouth and FamilyServicesCore CompetenciesBACKGROUNDFor over 20 years, Public Agencies have supported the roles of Peers as direct serviceproviders in Children, Youth and Family services. Peers have become a requirement formany public funded systems’ whether, the services are funded by agencies such as;Child Welfare, Justice, Probation, Health and/or other social and health relateddepartments of government. Peers Children, youth and family services hasincreasingly become a best practice in recognition that lived experience offers aunique benefit to clients, families, agencies and communities. Moreover, manysystems’ reform efforts, transformations, promising practices, and initiatives identifythis role as a critical element to improved outcomes.Peer lived knowledge of systems help families navigate, and coordinate the multiplesystems of care and support involved in their lives. Systems such as, probation, childwelfare, special education, prison, and behavioral health. This coupled with theirknowledge of community resources and networks helps facilitate linkages, self-sufficiency, and hope within clients/family and communities.While many public systems and community based organizations have integrated thesepositions into their agencies and programs, it is also recognized that we have theresponsibility to provide Peers with proper orientation, training, support networks, andsupervision.Following the principles of trauma informed practice, we also need to acknowledgethat Peers have their own experiences that are valuable in working with clients. At thesame time, we need to recognize that they may be at different stages of their ownhealing. Therefore, best practice calls for ongoing support, mentoring, coaching, andsupervision.While agencies are moving toward integration, additional feedback from Peers sindicates that they are few in numbers, many feel isolated within the organizationthey work at, and would benefit from ongoing professional development external totheir employer. 1

Family Voice Consulting www.familyvoice.us June 21, 2016 CORE COMPETENCIES The following pages contain the Core Competencies for all levels of Peer engagement from pre hire to leadership roles. The competencies should be enforced regardless of funding provisions, as the fundamental role of a Peer is to serve as a navigator and support for children, youth, families and communities.Peers in Children, Youth and Family Services Interview - Pre Employment Customer Orientation: The ability to demonstrate concern for fostering one's clients, system and community representatives. Personal Credibility: Demonstrated establishment that one is a peer and is perceived as a peer, responsible, reliable, and trustworthy. Technical Expertise: The ability to demonstrate depth of knowledge and skill in navigating public systems and community resources 2

Level One Peers in Children, Youth and Family ServicesEstablishing Focus: The ability to develop and communicate goals insupport of client and systems.Providing Motivational Support: The ability to enhance others'commitment to the work.Empowering Others: The ability to convey confidence in clients' ability tobe successful, especially at challenging new tasks; delegating significantresponsibility and authority; allowing clients’ freedom to decide how theywill accomplish their goals and resolve issues.Developing Others: The ability to work with others and coach them todevelop their capabilities.Written Communication: The ability to express one clearly and conciselydocumenting clients goals, and actions taken to achieve the goals.Interpersonal Awareness: The ability to notice, interpret, and anticipateothers' concerns and feelings, and to communicate this awarenessempathetically.Influencing Others: The ability to gain others' support for ideas, andsolutions.Building Collaborative Relationships: The ability to develop, maintain,and strengthen partnerships with others who can provide information,assistance, and/or support.Initiative: Identifying what needs to be done and doing it before thesituation requires it.Fostering Innovation: The ability to develop, or support the introductionof new and improved method, or approaches.Results Orientation: The ability to focus on the desired result of one'sown or one's client’s goals, setting challenging goals, focusing effort onthe goals, and meeting or exceeding them.Self Confidence: Faith in one's own ideas and capability to be successful.Stress Management: The ability to keep functioning effectively whenunder pressure and maintain self-control in the face of trauma, hostilityor provocation.Flexibility: Openness to different and new ways of doing things;willingness to modify one's preferred way of doing things 3

Family Voice Consulting www.familyvoice.us June 21, 2016 Level Two Strategic Thinking: The ability to analyze with the clients’ their strengths and weaknesses in order to co-develop tools/strategies and/or resources. Innovative Orientation: The ability to look for and seize opportunities; willingness to take calculated risks to achieve goals. Thoroughness: Ensuring that one's own and others' work and information are complete and accurate; carefully preparing for meetings and presentations; following up with others to ensure that agreements and commitments have been fulfilled.Peers in Children, Youth and Family Services Level Three Fostering Teamwork: As a team member, the ability and desire to work cooperatively with others on a team; as a team leader, the ability to demonstrate interest, skill, and success in getting groups to learn to work together. Managing Change: The ability to demonstrate support for innovation and for organizational changes; helping others to successfully manage change. Forward Thinking: The ability to anticipate the implications and consequences of situations and take appropriate action to be prepared for possible contingencies. 4 Conceptual Thinking: The ability to find effective solutions by taking a holistic, abstract, or theoretical perspective.

An integrated shared vision from all systems, communities Peers in Children, Youth and Family Servicesand families encompasses’ the health and well-being ofchildren, youth and families The focus of the work is onimproving the public service system because of thecritical role played by public services in meeting theneeds of children, youth and families. The public servicesystem plays a vital role in assisting individual children,youth and families to achieve health, well-being andsuccess, and in turn promotes the health of thecommunity at large.Public service system is a broad descriptor includingpublicly administered agencies (for example, schools,physical health, developmental disability, child welfare,probation, mental health, alcohol and drug services, andso forth) as well as private agencies, faith communitiesfunded by and/or working in concert with public agencies Family Voice Consulting [email protected] Telephone: 858-384-2437Let FVC guide your organizations’ advancement of a systematized peer programfor children youth and families 5