Educate families

LEARN: Develop your knowledge

Use person-centered tools to balance safety needs.

Families are protective of their youth. They may need supports and strategies to address their concerns.  

Balancing "important to" and "important for"

Build person-centered skills to prepare for family conversations

Balancing what's important to someone with what's important for someone is a core person-centered thinking skill. Important to is about what really matters to the person. Important for is about the help or support they need to stay healthy, safe and well.

Review Sorting important to/for from Helen Anderson Associates to help you facilitate meaningful conversations and identify shared solutions.

Addressing risks

Identify safety risks and brainstorm potential solutions

As you're working with families, identify situations families consider risky and then brainstorm strategies to address the risks.

If a person needs to learn a new skill, for example, break it down into a series of small steps — and make sure the family is comfortable each step of the way. You might say, "OK, now we'd like to work on taking the bus independently from point A to point B. We'll have staff at each end to make sure your student gets where they need to be." 

Tip: Don't proceed with something a family considers risky without their approval. You don't want to be seen as working against their wishes. Instead, work together to proceed in a way that feels comfortable.

DO: Work with families

Enlist the family's help to build skills.

Building responsibility and skills

How to practice at home

Enlist a family's help to work on new skills and situations. For example, you might ask, "Could you practice packing a healthy lunch at home?" For other ideas, check building responsibility and skills in this toolkit.