Strive Program
Since 2014, Partners for Our Children (P4C) has been working in close collaboration with the Washington State Department of Children Youth and Families (DCYF) to develop, test, and implement training to support parents and children in the context of family time. This collaboration led to the development of the Strive Supervised Family Time ProgramTM to increase the quality of visits between parents and their children, reduce trauma, and increase the likelihood of successful reunification. Strive promotes the utilization of trained visit supervisors to help parents navigate visits to create a structured and positive visitation experience for children.
The Strive program has been culturally adapted to better serve two unique communities. From 2018 through 2022, P4C and Cowlitz Tribal Health Seattle collaborated to create and pilot test a cultural adaptation of the Strive program. The program was delivered by Native American Strive Family Time Partners to Native American parents having family time with their children aged birth to five. And from 2017 through 2020, the Strive team partnered with Uniting, an NGO serving the Australian state of New South Wales, to adapt and deliver Strive (from birth to 8 and later from 9-14) as part of their Permanency and Family Support Programs.
Strive was rated by the California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare (CEBC) as having High Relevance for Child Welfare and received a scientific rating of 3 – Promising Research Evidence. Strive was also listed as a “Promising Practice” with the Washington State Institute for Public Policy (2020). See additional Strive-related articles on our Publications page.
For more detailed information download our Strive program overview.
Strive Online Learning
Our most recent addition to Strive programming is an online training series that provides affordable, accessible, and tailored training based on its tested and effective program (originally a five-week, in-person model). Our online training equips both parents and family time providers with the tools, support, and confidence to make family time truly special. Rooted in a strengths-based, trauma-informed approach, we aim to nurture parent-child bonds, ease the pain of separation, and pave the way for healing and successful reunification.
We believe that every family deserves the chance to create meaningful, loving moments together especially, when separated by child welfare involvement. The program’s approach improves the family time experience by building trusted relationships between parents and the professionals involved in their family time, fostering a sense of hope. This helps parents navigate and engage more fully in family time and ultimately, creates positive emotional connections with their children.
This online option allows for self-directed learning and provides a cost effective option to standardize family time provider and parent training more broadly, especially when an in-person program is not feasible.
Provider Course
This eight-module course equips child welfare providers with strategies, tools and skills to support parent and children in the context of family time visits. Learn more about Strive’s online provider training course.
Parent Course
