Pennsylvania Child Welfare Resource Center
PITT

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Program Development

INTENT: We are identifying the values and principles that are the foundation to our approach in working with children, youth, and families in Pennsylvania. We will promote and celebrate these values and principles in our continual efforts to improve safety, permanency, and well-being for Pennsylvania’s children, youth, and families.

CORE VALUES:

Service Excellence:  

Continual efforts will be made to ensure all services and practices are of the highest quality

Honesty:

Showing integrity and principled behaviors, rooted in a shared mission, vision, values, in the way you treat others while recognizing our own biases and challenges

Accountability:

Working proactively to accept and promote responsibility for achieving positive outcomes for children, youth, and families

Respect:

Acknowledging the worth of every person, treating each with dignity, regard and consideration

Engagement:

Involvement of partners, including youth and families throughout all phases of the child welfare system, from policy planning to case-related

Diversity:

To acknowledge and embrace differences as a beneficial tool when engaging  others

FRAMEWORK:  We believe these values should drive the scope, shape, and approach to working with children, youth and families.  The practice principles listed below are ways we demonstrate our belief in these core values. We believe how we do our work is as important as the work we do.

PRACTICE PRINCIPLES:

Child, Youth, & Family Engagement

  • We believe children, youth, and families are experts on themselves
  • We will ensure children, youth, and families are fully engaged/involved in all decisions impacting their life
  • We believe children, youth, and family input is vitally important and will be treated with respect and value
  • We will maintain and promote lifelong connections
  • We will ensure system planning and reforms are driven by children, youth, and families

Strength-Based Approach

  • We believe that every child, youth, and family has strengths and the capacity to change, grow and prosper
  • We believe that all children, youth, and families have intrinsic worth and we will assist them in utilizing their strengths to meet their needs
  • We believe all challenges have solutions grounded in family and community strengths
  • We believe every community has strengths and resources for children, youth, and families
  • We believe every child and youth deserves a safe, permanent, and nurturing family

Collaboration/Integration

  • We believe children, youth, and families are best served by agencies working together to provide a single, coordinated delivery system
  • We believe children, youth, and families are best served by agencies that create partnerships to guarantee the best possible, and most effective services  to achieve optimal outcomes
  • We believe children, youth, and families are best served by a system that demonstrates a commitment to teamwork through inclusion and meaningful collaboration

Cultural Awareness/Responsiveness

  • We believe that cultures, beliefs and traditions are important and will be respected, valued, and celebrated
  • We will continue to pursue cultural competence for our work with children, youth, and families and ensure services are culturally relevant
  • We believe children, youth, and families are best served by a system that not only works with, but also respects and enhances their diversity
  • We will ensure community connections are maintained and all work with children, youth, and families is developmentally appropriate

Staff Development

  • We believe staff are a precious commodity and valuable resource
  • We believe children, youth, and families are best served by staff that are  provided with the necessary resources, and opportunities for professional development
  • Staff who are competent, confident, and committed to families and their profession are more effective 
  • We believe improving staff retention is essential to improving outcomes for children, youth, and families
  • We will ensure staff are prepared to work effectively with children, youth, and families in a solution-focused manner

Organizational Commitment

  • Organizations who model these principles and values achieve better outcomes for children, youth and families
  • We affirm that leadership must demonstrate a commitment to actualizing these values and principles
  • We believe systems must be inclusive and rely extensively on input from children, youth, and families

 


Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare Pennsylvania Children and Youth Administrators  
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