How to Practice Family Engagement

Each year, our Connecting the Dots publication unites research and practice by highlighting diverse perspectives on timely social work topics. The Winter 2025 publication tackles the many definitions and methods of family engagement.

At the Texas Institute for Child & Family Wellbeing, our work hinges on the idea that children and families thrive when the professionals serving them center their voices and needs. Too often, those being served have their opinions ignored and their seat at the decision-making table denied. However, lived experience is crucial for informing practice and reaching successful and positive outcomes for children and families.

By having families lead the decision-making process, professionals ensure solutions meet their specific needs. In the field of child welfare, practicing family engagement with birth caregivers, relatives, and fictive kin can help professionals better understand those at the heart of the case. And outside of systems, leveraging the expertise of families can create stronger and more connected communities—ultimately preventing harm and cultivating care.

In this edition of Connecting the Dots, we invited researchers, service providers, designers, and those at the heart of the system to share what meaningful engagement looks like. You’ll learn how to involve families every step of the way in projects and community programs, find out the key to supporting children and caregivers in resolving their cases, and see firsthand the importance of engaging communities. 

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How to Practice Family Engagement

Hear directly from those with lived experience.

A Grandmother’s Love: Family Engagement and Kinship Care
Kinship caregiver Teri Brent shares advice for child welfare professionals who want to meaningfully engage parents and children.

Honoring Youth Voice Through Adoption
Adoptee June Waters tells her story of entering the child welfare system with her siblings and staying connected with her birth parents and extended relatives.

Tips from service providers and experts in the field.

Family Engagement as a Relational Approach
By Samantha Zuniga Thompson, LCSW-S
Our director of capacity building offers strategies child welfare professionals can use to enhance family engagement in their work.

Building Strong Communities Through Family Engagement
By Alix Mammina
A child welfare professional with decades of experience explains how Family Resource Centers across Texas connect communities.

Compassion Through Co-Design: Using Human-Centered Design to Promote Family Engagement
By Kate McKerlie, MSSW, MPH
Our director of communications shows how human-centered design can be used to create a family engagement multimedia campaign.