The NWI envisions a future in which all children and youth, regardless of the complexity of their needs, are connected to caring adults and have access to appropriate services and supports so they can be healthy, experience positive development, and live and thrive in their homes and communities.
Mission
Since 2004, the National Wraparound Initiative has worked to promote understanding about the components and benefits of care coordination using the Wraparound practice model, and to provide the field with resources and guidance that facilitate high quality and consistent Wraparound implementation.
In 2014, the NWI launched the National Wraparound Implementation Center (NWIC). NWIC supports states, communities, and organizations to implement Wraparound effectively through training and workforce development, organizational- and system-level technical assistance, and evaluation support.
Methods
Wraparound care planning and management is a primary component of a coordinated, community-based, family-driven, and youth-guided system of care. When communities and states invest in high-quality Wraparound implementation, they also promote meaningful, progressive systems change on behalf of young people with complex needs and their families.
Over the past 10 years, the National Wraparound Initiative (NWI) has engaged national experts in a process to define the Wraparound practice model, develop standards, compile specific strategies and tools, and disseminate information about how to implement the Wraparound model in a way that can achieve positive outcomes for youth and families. As a result, the Wraparound movement has become more cohesive and more credible:
- Wraparound care coordination is now implemented in nearly every one of the United States, with almost half of all states having a statewide Wraparound initiative.
- The Wraparound evidence base has expanded to the point that Wraparound is considered as "research-based" by an increasing number of state and national inventories. Research has also illuminated the importance of specific implementation supports for Wraparound, further guiding the field.
- A range of standardized and validated fidelity, and implementation measures now exist, helping Wraparound programs and initiatives to be more accountable to funders – as well as youth and families – and facilitating continual improvement in quality and outcomes.
Whereas the NWI was founded out of a need to better define Wraparound practice and implementation support, the NWI is now focused on directly supporting youth, families, and communities to implement high-quality Wraparound. In addition to launching NWIC, the NWI continues to support “real world” implementation through four primary functions:
- Supporting community-level planning and implementation through implementation blueprints, self-assessment tools, and technical assistance.
- Promoting professional development of Wraparound staff by providing implementation strategies and tools; a framework for staff development; quality assurance for training and coaching; and access to the National Wraparound Implementation Center.
- Ensuring accountability through dissemination of fidelity measures, external reviews of practice via the Wraparound Structured Assessment and Review (WrapSTAR), and a web-based system for tracking implementation and monitoring fidelity and outcomes.
- Sustaining a more vibrant and interactive national community of practice by bringing together hundreds of NWI members and dozens of affiliates nationally who provide energy and resources while also benefiting from sharing information and being linked together.