What is the FDC?

The Family Development Training and Credentialing Program (FDC) is a major National initiative that provides frontline workers with the skills and competencies they need to empower families to attain a healthy self-reliance and interdependence with their communities.​

This interagency training and credentialing program is available in communities across the state and country to frontline workers from all public, private, and non-profit service systems (e.g. home visitors, case managers, family resource center workers, community health workers, and teacher aides).​

The FDC was developed under a partnership between the New York State Dept. of State, Division of Community Services and Cornell University’s College of Human Ecology, where the curriculum was developed. The National FDC trains official FDC instructors and the University of Connecticut issues the credential.​

Fifteen state agencies working as the Interagency Work Group on Family Support and Empowerment under the leadership of the NYS Council on Children and Families, have advised the FDC. There are nearly 20,000 frontline workers who have earned the Family Development Credential.​

Many services and interventions, being fragmented, problem-specific, and crisis driven, are not as effective as they could be at helping families achieve long lasting changes in their lives. ​

Why is the FDC necessary?​ ​

For too long, services have been available only when a family is in crisis or about to disintegrate. Public interventions have focused on “rescuing and fixing” families rather than helping families develop their capacity to solve problems and achieve long-lasting self-reliance.​

Now on both state and national levels, families, service providers and policy makers are joining together to reorient the way services are delivered toward a more family-focused and strengths-based approach.​

The FDC is critical to achieving this goal because it can ensure that frontline workers across all systems are using the same highly effective approach to helping families. The FDC will provide all state and local agencies with accessible, high quality training resources.

What is the FDC achieving?

For families – Services are more focused on helping families use their strengths and set and reach their own goals.​

For frontline workers – The FDC offers quality, sequential training enabling workers to develop skills and competencies needed to work effectively with families. The FDC also provides a career pathway or avenue into college for workers with little or no formal training or higher education.​

For States – With its interagency nature, the FDC is transforming the way agencies work with families – fostering collaboration, reducing duplication, and providing a way to streamline training for frontline workers. The FDC credential is recognized by all major family-serving agencies.

What is the family development process?​ ​

1. The family develops a partnership with a family development worker.​
2. A family development worker helps the family assess its needs and strengths; this is an ongoing process.​
3. The family sets its own major goal (such as getting off welfare, or providing healthy care of a disabled family member) and smaller goals working toward the major goal, and identifies ideas for reaching them.​
4. The family development worker helps the family make a written plan for pursuing goals with some tasks being the responsibility of the family members and some the worker’s. Accomplishments are celebrated, and the plan is continually updated.​
5. The family learns and practices skills needed to become self-reliant.​
6. The family uses services as stepping-stones to reach their goals.​
7. The family’s sense of responsible self-control is restored. The family (and each individual within the family) is strengthened by the family development process so they are better able to handle future challenges.​

 Who uses FDC?

Many kinds of organizations have adopted FDC as a foundational training for their frontline staff and leaders, and have witnessed its value. Below are just a few examples: 

• Head Start/Early Head Start 
• Early Childhood Education programs 
• Colleges & Universities 
• Government & state social services  
• Community Action Agencies/organizations/programs 
• Parent groups 
• Government & state agencies 
• Educational service centers 
• Family strengthening collaborative programs 
• Economic opportunity commissions 
• YMCA/YWCA 
• Faith-based organizations 
• County school districts & Office of Education 
• Community & life services 
• Child Development Associations