Welcome to the Family Development Training and Credential (FDC) Program website for the state of Pennsylvania.

Welcome to the Family Development Training and Credential (FDC) Program website for the state of Pennsylvania. The Community Action Association of Pennsylvania (CAAP) provides the state home for the FDC program in Pennsylvania and is responsible for coordination throughout the state. CAAP is the Pennsylvania partner with Temple University on the National FDC Board.

History:
A focus on supporting skill development for front line workers began in Pennsylvania in 1993, when the CAAP Board of Directors supported a system of training for family workers in Community Action Agencies. The Iowa University Family Development Specialist Certification Program supported training for more than 300 individuals throughout the state in the next 7 years. It became clear that a different process for staff development was needed to meet the growing needs of CAA staff and the other agencies in local communities that provide service and assistance to families seeking help. CAAP looked for a way to provide locally based training that could foster more long term impact and support. CAAP found a national effort to re-orient practices of individuals who work in human service and education fields so that they are better able to help families achieve goals. It was clear that this kind of "help" in turn leads to families being better able to learn and implement skills needed to achieve goals they set for themselves.

In 2004, CAAP formed an affiliation with Cornell University, whose Family Development Credential (FDC) curriculum and training procedures were originally developed with support of the New York State Department of State, Community Services Division using Community Service Block Grant (CSBG) funding, under the leadership of Evelyn Harris, who directed that office. Ms. Harris contracted the development of FDC through the Empowering Families Project at Cornell. The FDC program grew in NY and spread to 16 other states.

Dr. Barbara Mooney, CAAP Training Director, attended appropriate sessions at Cornell University that enabled her to come back to the state and begin the train-the-trainer approach to implementing FDC-PA in January of 2005.

The Empowering Families Project ended at Cornell University in December 2009. As of January, 2010, Temple University has taken a national leadership role in developing and expanding FDC throughout the country. CAAP is a partner with Temple University, who hosts the Temple National FDC Board and provides leadership to FDC State coordinators in 11 states. This National FDC Board acts to assure that the program is being offered according to the principles originally established at Cornell.

Goals of FDC-PA
The FDC-PA program provides the skills to help front line workers to become more effective in assisting individuals and families learn to take care of themselves and support self-sufficiency. One of the goals of FDC is to advocate for systems change that prioritizes prevention and to promote sustainable economic development that benefits those at the lower income levels. The FDC program is designed to be an interagency training for staff from all public, private and non-profit service systems.

CAAP has worked with CAAs and a wide range of other agencies and organizations to meet the vision of establishing a broad-based family worker training supported through a statewide system , with national standards and local implementation. Through the implementation of the Family Development Credential model of service, two National Goals are addressed:

Goal 4 -- partnerships among supporters and providers of services to low-income people are achieved and
Goal 5 -- agencies increase their capacity to achieve results.

FIND OUT MORE:

ABOUT FDC

FDC-PA Brochure (MS-Word)

IMPLEMENTATION CHART (PDF - 87k)