Josiah White’s is thrilled to announce that we recently became an accredited Teaching Family Association agency.
Teaching Family Association is the accrediting agency of Teaching Family Model (TFM), a relational, evidenced-based, trauma-informed model of care focused on increasing life skill development in children and teens. Adopting this model ensures that we are able to provide the most effective training for our ministry staff and foster parents, and the best possible outcomes for the children, teens, and families we serve.
“One of our core definitions of how we will succeed as an organization is to provide a superior model of care,” said Ron Evans, President and CEO. “This accreditation emphasizes our commitment to have the best people using the best practices for the best result. As a distinctively Christian mission organization, it is imperative that we do all things with excellence as a reflection of Christ’s love for all people.”
The accreditation process has taken almost two and a half years. Josiah White’s is grateful to Methodist Home for Children (MHC) in North Carolina, who mentored us through the process of training and implementing the model. MHC staff visited our campus monthly and also helped our regional offices provide training to our foster parents.
“Becoming an accredited agency has probably been the most challenging project we have invested in during my nearly 30 years at Josiah White’s, and it has been the most transformational as well!” said Tracey Riggle, Program Director for Foster Care. “It is truly rewarding to see staff and foster parents who want to have tangible goals and skills to work on with their children ultimately see the positive behavior changes. When people truly invest in the Teaching Family Model, it works!”
When using the TFM, caregivers engage in daily teaching interactions to help children and teens learn social and relationship skills. Residential staff, now called Family Teachers, develop these skills using a motivation system that is positive and strengths-based, while still holding youth accountable for their choices. In addition, TFM equips foster parents with parenting skills and strategies aimed at quality care for children and teens. The skills children and youth learn through the model will then translate to better parent-child interaction, improved school behavior following placement, and increased work readiness.
“At some level, TFM should impact every area of our organization to some extent,” said Josh Bowyer, Vice President and Executive Director of Residential Services. “The spirit of the Teaching Family Model is that it becomes who we are, not what we do. In terms of direct impact, TFM probably has had the biggest impact on our Family Teachers and Residential Supervisors. For the Supervisors and the Family Teachers, we completely rewrote the script on what it meant to do that job with excellence, and the majority responded by exceeding the expectations.”
“Being accredited by TFA assures students, parents, referral sources, and other constituents that they can trust that our services for students and families are at the highest standard. Those who refer teens to Compass Rose can be assured that teens in our care will be in a trauma-informed environment that consistently provides emotional and physical safety, nurture, and structure,” said Mike Haarer, Vice President and Executive Director of Compass Rose Academy.
Official recognition of our accreditation will be taking place at the TFA Conference at the end of the month.
Josiah White’s is honored to be an accredited TFA agency and is excited for what this accreditation will mean for our future as an organization.
