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 Pennsylvania FDC program and is responsible for coordination in Pennsylvania. CAAP has entered into a contractual agreement with Cornell University to assure that the program is being offered according to the principles established by Cornell.

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 Community Action Agency staff. The Iowa University Family Development Specialist Certification Program supported training for more than 200 individuals throughout the state.

To increase our capacity to provide this skill development in a more intense and locally driven way, in 2004, an affiliation with Cornell University was formed. Their Family Development Training and Credential (FDC) curriculum and training procedures was an outgrowth of the Iowa training that had also begun in New York State. FDC was developed with support of the New York State Department of State, Community Services Division using federal Community Service Block Grant funds for Community Action Agencies, under the leadership of Evelyn Harris, who directs that office. The Cornell FDC program has grown in NY and is currently also active in 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.

There is 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. This in turn leads to families being better able to learn and implement skills needed to achieve their goals. Stimulated by this national effort for the "helping professions," 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 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.

The new CAAP affiliation with Cornell will help to meet the vision of establishing a broad-based family worker training supported through a statewide system that is locally implemented. 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.

The FDC Program is a community-based, training and credentialing program for frontline workers (both paraprofessionals and college graduates who do not have a social work credential) which teach a strengths-based, empowerment model of practice.

The Family Development Training includes 80 hours of classroom work based on the Cornell Empowerment Skills for Family Workers curriculum, 10 hours of portfolio advisement and each participant develops a portfolio to demonstrate understanding of the implementation of the content of the classroom sessions. There is a final exam at the end of the program. Successful participants receive the Family Development Credential, which is issued in Pennsylvania by Indiana University of PA (IUP).

The participants are also eligible to receive a transcript for 7 college credits from Excelsior College in New York, through the national Program on Non-collegiate Sponsored Instruction (PONSI) credit recommendation.

FIND OUT MORE:

ABOUT FDC

FDC-PA Brochure (MS-Word)

IMPLEMENTATION CHART (PDF - 45k)