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SAN MATEO, CA

Edgewood Center for Children and Families
1801 Vicente Street
San Francisco, CA 94116
415.375.7576

Purpose
To expand the Kinship Support Network to provide specialized interventions for kinship families with children who have been exposed to violence.

Interventions
Case management/support: The program offers families in the Kinship Support Network with children who have been exposed to violence comprehensive in-home assessments and provides/links them with services required to promote family stability. These services include phone calls, home visits, and visits to the child’s school. Weekly contact is maintained with the family for 1 year or until the service plan needs are met.

Services for caregivers: Services to support caregivers include support groups, advocacy services, and respite for relative caregivers on weekends and during the week. The program also provides parenting, legal, educational, and medical education.

Home-based psychotherapy: Every family participates in home-based psychotherapy that uses the Lieberman/Van Horn approach. This psychotherapy is provided in weekly sessions averaging 1 hour and engages both a child and a caregiver. Related children in the home and a second caregiver (e.g. grandmother/grandfather) may be included as recommended by the assessment. Collateral service providers may also be involved as needed. The key issues addressed in psychotherapy are the caregiver’s adoption of developmentally appropriate, non-punitive parenting skills, the encouragement of symbolic play, the capacity to put feelings into words, and the expression of negative feelings in nondestructive ways.

Promising or Evidence-Based Practices
Support Services for Kinship Care Providers: Recommendation of the Annie E. Casey Foundation Family-To-Family Initiative. Promising Practices in Child Welfare: Strategic Approaches to Improving the Well-Being of Children in Foster Care. www.aecf.org.

Child Parent Psychotherapy for Domestic Violence (CPP-FV): Child Parent Psychotherapy for Domestic Violence (CPP-FV). Alicia Lieberman, PhD and Patricia Van Horn, PhD. University of San California, San Francisco. Toth, S. L., Maughan, A., Manly, J. T., Spagnola, M., and Cichetti, D. (2002). The Relative Efficacy of Two Interventions in Altering Maltreated Preschool Children's Representational Models: Implications for Attachment Theory. Development and Psychopathology 14(4), 877-908.