Leaping into Wraparound

In 1996, I was working as a therapist for a level 14 residential treatment facility in Santa Clara County. I had been working in group homes and residential facilities for the last five years and had become somewhat disillusioned in the process. It felt to me like our work was ‘uphill’ with youth angry at us for their situation, and families frustrated with the apparent lack of progress with their children’s behavioral issues. Even more frustrating was that any work we may have done with the youth in the program would drop soon after they went home. With this in mind, I decided to have sessions in the families’ homes with the approval of my clinical supervisor and it already felt better meeting with the families in their home environment rather than a sterile office setting. We got to know each other better in their home environment and they could work on things during their weekend visits.

Then one day, I received a call from another provider in the county, EMQ at the time, introducing themselves as one of my youth’s newly assigned “Wraparound team.”  They described the process and invited me and my family into our first CFT meeting. From the first step of the process, it felt right and wonderful. We would meet to begin the 30-day transition of the youth back into the family home with support. The Wraparound team would get to know the whole family prior to the youth coming home and would already have an understanding of the family’s current support system. I was hooked by the process and knew that I needed to be a part of it.

The Early Days in California

Joining the EMQ UPLIFT Program as a facilitator in early 1997 was exhilarating.  At that time, the program was still in its infancy and was serving just over 40 youth but would quickly reach about 80 by the end of the year. We received regular and intense trainings. We had coaching throughout our time and had some of the Wraparound pioneers meeting with us regularly like Pat Miles and Mary Grealish. They would listen to our challenges and impart their wisdom. In those early days, we were still expanding and revising Wraparound principles, but we lived and breathed them. We had seventeen principles when I worked there once! Eventually these principles were refined and combined to the ten principles we have now.

In our trainings, we learned about the evolution of the Wraparound process from its early use in 1985 in the Alaska Youth Initiative. This was done so that youth in-state could use natural supports as their primary team during a time when most youth that required care were being sent to out-of-state residential facilities. We also learned a lot about the 1970s work by Kaleidoscope Chicago, which served underrepresented families with culturally competent services, which eventually morphed into its own Wraparound process. Understanding these origins helped us understand the nuances of the principles that were so key to maintaining fidelity to the model we were building.

In those early days, we felt like trailblazers. We were given the principles as tools to be innovative in our approach with minimal constraints. We harnessed youth and family strengths to create music clubs and hiking groups. We sought family voice and cultural understanding in CFT through food and inviting curanderos onto teams. We definitely had our learning moments as well. Like when we tried a full summer camp and unintentionally mimicked a level 14 residential placement, causing some difficult trauma responses in a good number of the youth who attended.

Trailblazing and innovation are the keys to the success of the Wraparound process. Most pilot projects are borne out of necessity.

In California’s case, it was the recognition by EMQ that residential programs were not demonstrating the desired outcomes. Most youth did not fare better post-placement. Wraparound promised a path to work together with the family to find a path to a better outcome. The foundational principle of being outcome-based ensured a shared goal for that path.

So EMQ partnered with Santa Clara County to use existing residential placement (their group home rate) funds to invest in the process. It was this partnership that inspired the name for their new program United Partners Linked and Investing in Families of Today (UPLIFT). The program quickly gained interest within the county. Partnered with families, teams trained in the process and honed their skills under the “In Vivo” supervision model that would transition to the more robust live coaching process.

It was these early pioneering efforts that led to the spread of Wraparound practice in California and paved the way for the future success that Wraparound would see in working with youth and families. As we move forward with expanding and improving practice, it is imperative that we carry on with the persistence and innovation of those who led the way before us, and that we continue to develop our programs with the same trailblazing spirit that makes Wraparound unique. 

For a timeline on how Wraparound got its start, we encourage you to read this next article in Wraparound Connections:

The Trail to High Fidelity Wraparound

Wraparound’s history is perhaps best described as organized anarchy - the interplay of bright ideas, fortunate coincidences, and who showed up to the meeting.