The Cornell Family Development Credential Program (FDC) emerged in the mid-1990s from a research-policy collaborative between the Cornell University College of Human Ecology’s Department of Human Development, and New York State’s Council on Children and Families’ Commissioners’ Work Group on Family Support. This Commissioners’ Work Group, representing fifteen major state family-serving agencies, sought Cornell’s expertise to reorient state family services from the deficit approach, to a strengths-based partnership approach. This group recommended establishing the statewide interagency Family Development Credential to teach front-line family workers how to apply Cornell research on the ecology of human development and parental empowerment with their families and communities, and agency leaders to effectively reorient policies and systems. New York State Department of State provided funding and policy support to Cornell to develop the interagency Family Development Credential (FDC) system and operate it in perpetuity. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation supported infusing the FDC into existing New York State systems and community colleges, as well as establishing mechanisms to help other states launch similar systems.
Today the Cornell Family Development Credential program continues to provide frontline workers with the knowledge and skills they need to coach families to set and reach their own goals for healthy self-reliance in their communities. Coaches and clients use the Family Development Plan to focus their sessions on reaching the client's goals. (Refer to Typical Coaching Sessions). The interagency FDC program is available in communities across the state and country to frontline workers from all public, private and non-profit service systems (e.g. home visitors, case managers, family resource center workers, community health workers, and teacher aides). To earn the FDC, front-line workers take 90 hours of classes based on Empowerment Skills for Family Workers (Forest 2003), complete a portfolio documenting their ability to apply these concepts and skills, and pass a standardized exam. The first FDC credentials were issued by Cornell’s School of Continuing Education in December 1997. To date, 5,071 front-line workers in New York State have earned the Cornell FDC; thousands more have earned the FDC through affiliated systems in other states. Many workers earn college credit for earning the FDC, through local community colleges, the State University of New York’s Regents College, or PONSI-affiliated universities and colleges nationwide.
The Cornell Empowering Families Project trains and coordinates official FDC instructors, updates the FDC curriculum as new research emerges at Cornell and elsewhere, and both conducts and inspires new FDC-related research. To date sixteen states have adapted or replicated the FDC by establishing Cornell-affiliated training and credentialing systems.
Comprehensive FDC training and field advisement is available through official training programs in local communities across New York State and many other states. For information about where FDC programs are offered, technical assistance and support for training programs or other inquiries about the FDC curriculum, contact Katie Palmer-House, FDC Senior Trainer, kep26@cornell.edu. For Credentialing or Portfoilio review information contact Joan Padula, jmp32@cornell.edu
