Wraparound Blog

Supporting successful collaboration between youth partners and family partners in wraparound

June 30, 2020 | Maria Hermsen-Kritz

As the two peer providers on a Wraparound team, youth partners and family partners play a key role in ensuring the principle of youth and family voice and choice is upheld. But while their roles are similar in nature, when there is tension between a young person and their parent or guardian, the youth partner and family partner may feel like they are working on two separate teams.

Pathways and NWI recently released a practice brief addressing some of the ways youth partners and family partners can work collaboratively in order to support youth and families involved in the Wraparound process, as well as how to resolve some barriers that frequently arise. These included clarifying roles from the beginning, emphasizing the importance of confidentiality, working to promote positive communication between the youth and family, and using their lived experience to provide perspective to the team. The brief also included real-life scenarios and discussion questions and was accompanied by a study guide which provides answers to the questions. Download the practice brief and study guide here.

Staff from Pathways also participated in a webinar which covered the material from the practice brief. You can view the webinar and download the slides here.