Collaborative Family Engagement: Genograms (Family Tree Mapping)
By Leslie Allen
We are well into our 4th year of using Collaborative Family Engagement to engage support networks for our CASA kids. As many of you are aware, Charlotte Tabarini and Jane Funke have volunteered their time and talents on many projects. This includes numerous hours on Family Engagement. Both are still heavily involved in this program, and I am proud to be able to help them grow Family Engagement in our county. In addition, I appreciate everyone’s support and enthusiasm for Family Engagement.
One of the most powerful tools we can use, as Advocates, is creating a family tree (or genogram) on our cases.
Reasons to create a family tree:
- You can learn more about the family,
- You can learn who could possibly be a support system for the child/ren or family,
- If the child is adopted and requests his or her CPS file as an adult, your family tree could help that former foster child locate family that they never knew they had, and
- If the child is adopted and the adoptive parents return him or her to CPS care, your family tree could be instrumental in helping locate family who maybe weren’t appropriate for placement in the past, but are now.
I strongly encourage all PC users to download free genogram software here https://texascasa.org/reminder-genogram-software-available-download.
If you are a Mac user, please email me at Leslie@CASASpeaks4Kids.com about checking out our Family Engagement laptop that has this software available for your use.
I believe that, together, we can use Family Engagement to build strong support networks for the children we serve, and I look forward to continuing this vital work with you all.