Offered in Georgia by Sheltering Arms’ Georgia Training Institute, in Collaboration with Temple University

Sheltering Arms Early Education & Family Centers has been selected by Temple University as the coordinator for the national Family Development Credential program in Georgia. The centerpiece of the program is the training course, “Empowerment Skills for Family Workers.” This course is a comprehensive, strength-based training for professionals working with families, empowering them to work with skill and heart. Professionals completing the course earn the Family Development Credential (FDC). Georgia joins eighteen other states in the FDC network—Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and the District of Columbia.

To date, professionals from a wide range of public and private agencies and businesses across the nation have earned the Family Development Credential (FDC): family support staff, home visitors, social welfare and community action workers, nurses, probation officers, advocates, teachers, case managers, Head Start family workers, Office for Aging staff, youth workers, police officers, community health workers, probation officers, TANF workers, child protective case workers, and program volunteers.

Although the Family Development Credential benefits professionals and organizations, families are those most impacted by this project, and, by extension, their communities. The FDC helps family support professionals to assess the needs and strengths of families and to assist them in setting and achieving goals that foster self-reliance. With its interagency nature, the FDC transforms the way organizations work with families by fostering collaboration, reducing duplication, and providing a way to streamline training.

Sheltering Arms’ Georgia Training Institute also offers a Leadership Course which is designed to support the frontline worker course, training those who supervise and manage professionals working with families on the FDC principles. The course teaches leaders how to facilitate the work of frontline family development professionals and how to create policies and operating environments supportive of a strength-based approach to working with families. Additionally, the Georgia Training Institute offers an Instructor Institute for the FDC program, ensuring the FDC trainings and credential are accessible to family support professionals throughout the state.

Temple University research has documented that, by earning the FDC, front-line family support professionals develop more effective skills in helping families, while at the same time reducing stress and promoting well being in their own lives.

For more information on the Family Development Credential Program and other professional development opportunities at Sheltering Arms’ Georgia Training Institute, contact Diane Bellem at 404-523-2767, x 2245 or dbellem@shelteringarmsforkids.com.