By John Kelly, The Chronicle of Social Change, April 9, 2020
Lost in the shuffle of the obvious and only news story going, the federal Prevention Services Clearinghouse has approved Homebuilders, a family preservation model with a large track record of success, for new federal funding under the Family First Prevention Services Act.
Homebuilders, which was developed in 1974 in Tacoma, Washington and as of 2017 was being used in 14 states, received the gold standard “Well-Supported” rating by the clearinghouse. The model deploys therapists with a caseload no higher than three to work with a family for up to six weeks. The interaction takes place in the home, and balances a parent-led discussion of family issues with delivery of supports aimed at addressing basic poverty-related barriers.
The top rating was based on two studies that the clearinghouse found to have strong integrity, one from the mid-1990s and another released in 2002. While the clearinghouse did not establish a link between Homebuilders and child safety – the 2002 study found no decrease in foster care placements attributable to the model – it identified seven favorable effects in the area of child permanency.
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