Kansas MAPP Leader Program

The Role of Leaders

PS-MAPP Leaders, DT Leaders and Caring for Our Own Facilitators are responsible for coordinating and facilitating the two complex and parallel processes of preparation and selection. Both processes occur during the group meetings, through the written work completed by the prospective families and in the family consultations.

In most agencies leaders are responsible for talking with prospective parents before they attend the first meeting. This telephone contact is the first introduction of the family to the agency and to the program. The role of the leader is to begin the partnership building with that first contact.

As soon as the prospective parents arrive at the first meeting it is the leader’s role to:

• make them feel welcomed and comfortable;

• engage them in their preparation to assess, enhance and develop the skills essential for successful fostering and adopting (See Section E, Criteria for Mutual Selection);

• engage them in their preparation to make a decision by successfully using tools designed for that purpose (See Section F, Family Assessment: The Strengths Approach);

• enable them to decide about becoming foster or adoptive parents at the end of the two to three month process; and

• gather enough assessment data to help the agency make an informed decision about selecting the family to become a foster or adoptive family.

Group leaders carry out their roles in the group setting using essential group facilitation skills. They also carry out their roles with family members in the home.