Safety-Organized Practice is a
holistic approach to collaborative teamwork in child welfare that seeks to
build and strengthen partnerships within a family, their informal support
network of friends and family, and the agency. SOP utilizes strategies and techniques
in line with the belief that a child and his or her family are the central
focus and that the partnership exists to find solutions ensuring safety,
permanency, and well-being for children.
Safety-Organized Practice is informed by:
- Solution-Focused
Therapy, based on the work of Insoo Kim Berg, Steve de Shazer, and the
Brief Family Therapy Center (now the Solution-Focused Brief Family Therapy Association);
- Signs of Safety, the
Three Houses, and the Safety House, based on work by Steve Edwards, Andrew
Turnell, Nicki Weld, Sue Lohrbach, Sonja Parker, and many other child
welfare professionals;
- Structured Decision Making by the NCCD Children’s Research Center;
- Group Supervision and
Interactional Supervision, based on work by Sue Lohrbach and Lawrence
Shulman;
- Appreciative Inquiry,
based on work by David Cooperrider and Suresh Srivastva;
- Motivational Interviewing, based on the work of William Miller; and
- most importantly, the
evolving work of hundreds of practitioners around the world to adapt and
integrate evidence-based tools and approaches with best practices in the
field of child welfare.
