Programs and results
What we aim to solve
The families we support have experienced significant traumas and are often locked into multi-generational cycles of poverty and domestic and family violence. These complex cycles and barriers repeat themselves when families lack a network of support or face mental and chemical health challenges, cognitive delays, and histories of family instability. Families’ disproportionate involvement in, and distrust of, child protective services and other public assistance systems often compound these issues. All these factors can create barriers to educational achievement—for both parents and children—which causes cycles to continue. In our community, more families are increasingly stretched thin and stressed and facing barriers preventing their ability to thrive. In recent years, the number of families we serve has nearly doubled and the referrals from the courts and case managers with whom we’re connected continue to increase.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Supervised Visitation & Safe Exchange
FamilyWise is the largest provider of Supervised Visitation & Safe Exchanges in the state. We provide a safe, neutral place for families to come together during difficult child custody situations, as well as in cases of family separation or family violence. We also increase safety for adults by limiting contact between conflicting parents.
Parent Education and Support
Parent Support Outreach Program (PSOP)
PSOP is a voluntary home visiting program designed to build parenting and life skills in order to avoid larger systems involvement. This program helps families identify short and long term goals while accessing a variety of community resources to meet immediate pressing needs, and enhance parenting skills. Providers are available day, evening, and weekend hours to accommodate individual schedules. A provider typically meets with the family weekly or less frequently as needed for three to six months.
In-Home Parent Education
This strengths based program connects families to resources to improve parenting skills, develop connections to the community, and create a safe, nurturing home environment. FamilyWise educators work one-on-one with parents in their home or other community-based settings. Parent educators are available day, evening, and weekend hours to accommodate individual schedules, and typically meet with parents for 2 hours each week for six to nine months. In-Home Parent Education includes a Parent-Child component designed to enhance parent-child relationships, improve parenting, and age appropriate communication skills.
First Step Early Childhood Education
First Step, our nationally-accredited childcare center, gives kids the foundation for a life of learning and prepares parents to support their education. Kids who aren’t ready for school often feel a sense of failure which perpetuates their learning issues and increases their risk for dropping out. First Step is open for all children ages 6 weeks to 5 years and is recognized with the Parent Aware Four Star Rating!
Bright Beginnings Youth Parenting Services
Parenting can be tough–especially for young moms and dads who haven’t had positive role models themselves. Our Bright Beginnings Young Parent Services gives pregnant or parenting moms and dads the tools to become the best parents they can be. We provide parent and health education, life skills, and group support. For those who wish, a caring volunteer mentor is matched with them for additional support.
High Fidelity Wraparound
The goal of Wraparound is to prevent kids with significant mental and behavioral health issues from ending up in residential treatment or correctional facilities. Our staff brings together family supports and professionals to work on a unified plan, goal by goal. The process doesn’t "fix” a family; it teaches them how to manage their own crises. We are the only credentialed program in the Twin Cities.
Parent Assessments
Assessments, required by county social workers to determine the next step in a treatment plan, provde information on parenting competence and the quality of parent-child relationships from the perspective of both the parent and the evaluator.
Where we work
Awards
Four Star Rating 2017
Parent Aware
External reviews

Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of parents engaged in fewer acts of abuse and neglect of their children
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth, At-risk youth, Family relationships
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Number of families who report they are supported in utilizing natural supports in their communities (e.g., family, friends, neighbors, churches, colleges, recreational services)
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Family relationships
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Number of referrals to resources offered
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Family relationships, Social and economic status, Age groups
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Number of children served
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Number of youth mentored
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Bright Beginnings Youth Parenting Services
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Goals & Strategy
Reports and documents
Download strategic planLearn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Our mission is strengthening families by promoting the safety, stability, and wellbeing of children. Our vision is for a world where every child thrives.
The families we serve have experienced significant trauma and are often locked in multi-generational cycles of poverty and family violence, challenges. Through our trauma-informed programs—parent education, teen parenting, supervised visitation, and more—we aim to empower families to meet those challenges. We also work alongside family service providers, providing education and resources to help them be responsive to the needs of vulnerable families. As we work toward our vision of a community where every child thrives, we are focused on these organization-wide goals:
• Reduce or eliminate child abuse or neglect by parents
• Ensure parenting skills maintain the safety and well-being of children
• Help youth reach age-appropriate developmental levels
• Connect families to community resources that ensure sustained success
• Increase the self-efficacy of families
• Equip families to cope with stress, solve problems, and break cycles of trauma
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
FamilyWise serves families across the state of Minnesota by providing trauma-informed support that builds safety, stability, and resilience among the parents, caregivers, children, and communities taking part in our programs.
Positive parent-child relationships and parenting education are critical to the physical, social, emotional, cognitive, and language development of children. As a multi-service agency, FamilyWise focuses on child and family development and community building enhanced by culturally competent services that acknowledge the changing social landscape of area communities. This approach includes opportunities for positive intervention and the recognition that healthy child development is strongly affected by parenting and the home environment.
Our programs focus on natural supports, experiential learning, education, and a therapeutic approach with expertise in trauma-informed care. Each program promotes self-efficacy by working to improve the family’s recognition of their own resilience and the availability of external and professional supports. The results create personal initiative in balance with systems that fulfill the FamilyWise mission to strengthen families and the community.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
FamilyWise promotes safety and stability by providing education and support services to parents and families, creating a deep continuum of services and a circle of care that wraps around families to keep children safe and healthy. The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study and other research demonstrate that exposure to adversity early in life can lead to negative outcomes in adulthood. To help families change that course, our programs focus on natural supports, experiential learning, and a strengths-based approach with expertise in trauma-informed care. Each program promotes self-efficacy by working to improve the family’s recognition of their own resilience, which sets up both generations—parents and their children—for long-term success.
MCCC programs now operate under the FamilyWise name, and FamilyWise has become the Minnesota chapter of Prevent Child Abuse America and the National Circle of Parents. Key programs include:
Bright Beginnings: Voluntary program for teen parents age 14-22 with history of out-of-home placement or justice system involvement. Adolescents receive life skills training, parent education, and mentoring.
Adult Parent Education: Support for families at risk of experiencing abuse or neglect. Guides parents to greater understand their role in providing a safe environment for children.
Supervised Parenting: In cases of family separation or family violence, we offer Supervised Visits or Safe Exchanges between non-custodial parents and their children in a safe environment. FamilyWise is the largest provider of these services in Minnesota.
Wraparound: Strongly-credentialed provider of High-Fidelity Wraparound in the Twin Cities, uses evidence-based elements of family voice and choice and "wrapping" supports around families.
First Step: Highly accredited Early Childhood Development Education Center.
Tribal NEAR Communities: broadens understanding of trauma—Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), historical trauma, and the impact of colonization—and its relationship to individual and community health and wellbeing in our tribal communities
NEAR Communities: Using the national Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Interface curriculum, we build the capacity of community members as certified ACE Interface Presenters so they are empowered to raise awareness about the effects of trauma and the promise of prevention and resilience in their communities. The initiative shares neurobiology, epigenetics, ACEs, and resilience (NEAR) research to catalyze individual and community-driven actions that foster understanding, hope and healing.
Circle of Parents: a strength-based parenting program that offers peer-led circles of support where parents can share challenges and successes and build their own resilience.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
FamilyWise has been keeping children safe and helping families lead stable, healthy, and productive lives since 1976. In July 2020, FamilyWise merged with longtime partner Minnesota Communities Caring for Children (MCCC). By uniting with MCCC, a leader in child abuse prevention and parent empowerment, FamilyWise expands its services statewide and creates an even stronger circle of support around the families and communities we serve.
In terms of defining impact at a high level, the individuals and families served by FamilyWise are successful when they have halted the damaging cycles of violence and poverty. Their successful experiences with FamilyWise’s system of integrated services lessen the community isolation created by family trauma, and begin to repair trust in social systems and the benefits of community participation. In 2019, FamilyWise served 2,512 individuals across 1,018 households through our teen parenting, parent education, and wraparound services, with our programs achieving the following impact and outcomes:
• 89% of parent interactions maintained safety and well-being.
• 98% of supervised parent visits occurred without incidence of violence or unsafe circumstances for the families we serve.
• 92% of families were connected to community resources.
• 94% of children met developmental milestones.
• 76% of children were living in a community setting upon exiting from program.
• 74% of families reached self-efficacy.
Data shows that Circle of Parents successfully increases protective factors—attributes that strengthen families and reduce the likelihood that child abuse will occur. In a 2019 survey, nearly all participants (99%) reported that they have gained additional supportive contacts as a result of the program. The majority of parents report that they have become more aware of local family resources, better understand childhood development, and interact more positively with their children (85%-94%) as a result of Circle of Parents.
Similarly, our NEAR programs have had measurable impact in creating supportive, receptive, and responsive communities for families to aid prevention. A 2019 survey of 4,055 NEAR presentation attendees showed the majority reported they will incorporate their new knowledge about ACEs and resilience into their actions at work (89%) and at home (82%). As one NEAR Communities participant put it, “We need to remember that as community members, we have the ability to hold space for one another in our healing work and that it’s not just the role and responsibility of the mental health professional or the field…We all play a part in healing our communities."
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve
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What significant change resulted from feedback?
Our Supervised Parenting intake appointments were once only held in person, with limited accessibility on evenings and weekends. Intakes are now completed by email, phone, and other means. In our initial piloting phases of our social enterprise eTraining, the feedback regarding content led to us breaking topics into smaller chunks of chapters. Somali community members prefer that things are explained verbally to them: we're marketing with verbal summaries rather than handing out an intake packet or brochures. For wraparound team meetings, if a participant doesn't have the attention span to sustain through a long meeting, we encourage them to connect virtually and then allow space even through verbal mechanisms for people if they need to wander around to listen from afar.
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback, The people we serve tell us they find data collection burdensome, Staff find it hard to prioritize feedback collection and review due to lack of time
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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FamilyWise Services
Board of directorsas of 01/09/2023
Stacy Johnson
TIAA
Shannon Schaaf
Goodwill-Easter Seals Minnesota
Jenny Cook
Best Buy
Juae Son
University of Minnesota
Kim Heinrich
Meritas
Nakisha Smith
University of Minnesota
Julia Quanrud
Reading & Math, Inc
Kristen Joyce
Ameriprise Bank FSB
Leslie Wilbur
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Lisa Smith
SMITH Co.
Sally Wahman
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Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
No data
Gender identity
Sexual orientation
Disability
No data