Wraparound Blog
The Wraparound Community Gathers (and Has a Trivia Contest)
September 14, 2025 | NWI
After a long hiatus, over 1,100 champions of youth and family well-being came together in community last July in Washington DC, as the Innovations Institute at UConn School of Social Work hosted our field’s first Training Institutes since 2018.
In addition to inspiring keynotes and workshops, appearances by Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and Sesame Street’s Cookie Monster, and an amazing performance by the young people of the East of the River Steel Band, the Training Institutes also provided an opportunity for over 50 Wraparound champions to gather at a Wraparound reception co-hosted by UW WERT and the National Wraparound Implementation Center (NWIC).
The highlight of the Wraparound reception was the tribute provided by Ira Lourie to the memory of Karl Dennis, who passed away on June 20, 2025, at the age of 88. Ira also signed copies of the book he co-wrote with Karl, Everything is Normal Until Proven Otherwise: A Book About Wraparound and Unconditional Care. Everyone in the Wraparound community should read Karl’s collection of incredible and inspiring stories from his 27 years leading the Kaleidoscope agency in Chicago.
Fittingly, after Ira’s tribute, attendees demonstrated their passion for Wraparound (as well as winning WERT water bottles!) as we played Wraparound Trivia. (The questions are below!)
It was uplifting to see how enduring the spirit of Wraparound remains so many decades after it first revolutionized how we provide help to youth and families. It was also encouraging to see how many champions – new and old – continue to seek to uphold Wraparound’s values, which are as relevant today as they were 30 years ago.
How many Wraparound Trivia Questions can you answer correctly?
- What is the mascot of the National Wraparound Implementation Center?
- What city hosted the first National Wraparound Implementation Academy in 2015?
- What city hosted the first ever “Wraparound Family Reunion” in 1990?
- What state’s Wraparound initiative was the focus of the 1988 monograph “One Kid at a Time” by John Burchard, Sara Burchard, and Jon VanDenBerg?
- What year was the first ever peer reviewed journal article on Wraparound published?
- What was the name of the organization that Karl Dennis led for 27 years?
- Who was the lead author on the first “Wraparound User’s Guide for Families”?
- For what outcome was the strongest effect size found in the 2021 Wraparound meta-analysis?
↓ Scroll for answers ↓
ANSWERS: (1) A turtle. (2) Portland, OR. (3) Pittsburgh. (4) Alaska. (5) 1990.* (6) Kaleidoscope. (7) Pat Miles. (8) Residential placement.
* Burchard, J. D., Clarke, R. T., Hamilton, R. I., & Fox, W. L. (1990). Project Wraparound: A state-university partnership in training clinical psychologists to serve severely emotionally disturbed children. In P. R. Magrab, P. Wohlford (Eds.), Improving psychological services for children and adolescents with severe mental disorders: Clinical training in psychology (pp. 179–184). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association