
Assessing Family Engagement
Child- and family-serving systems of care should be engaging families at all levels, including in direct services delivered at the individual level, and at the systems-level where policies, practices, and services are created or amended.
Family Voices has developed tools to assess family engagement at both the systems-level (the Family Engagement in Systems Assessment Tool) and the individual-level (the Family-Centered Care Assessment).
The Family Engagement in Systems Assessment Tools
The Family Engagement in Systems Assessment Tools include:
A User’s Guide
- Provides instructions for use of the Family Engagement in Systems Assessment Tool
- How to score the tool and use your results
- Appendices includes example uses and definitions of terms
The Family Engagement in Systems Assessment Tool (FESAT)
- A 20-item self-assessment tool that organizational staff and families use together to assess family engagement in policies, programs, and other systems-level initiatives
FESAT Score Sheet
- An excel file that helps organizations understand if staff and families had the information and supports they needed to participate in systems-level initiatives
The Family Engagement in Systems (FES) Toolkit
- A compilation of strategies and resources to help improve family engagement
Webinar: Intro to the FESAT
- Learn about the various uses of the FESAT.
- Preview the supporting set of resources in the FES Toolkit.
- Learn how the FESAT could be used with your organizational partners to assess and improve family engagement in systems-level initiatives.
The FESAT is available for use free of charge. Please complete the form at the link below and you will be redirected to a page where you can download the Users’ Guide, FESAT, Score Sheet, and FES Toolkit. We will not share your information; we request this information to track usage of the FESAT and potentially to contact you relating to any need for technical assistance and/or your experiences with the FESAT.
Contact Beth Dworetzky at FESAT@familyvoices.org for questions or technical assistance in use of the tools.
What Users are Saying About the Tools
“The language in the tools sets a standard for family engagement and for what meaningful family engagement in a systems-level change looks like.”
“Family engagement exists on paper, but it is not always meaningful. I would like to see the FESAT and FES Toolkit be used by all Title V and Medicaid programs.”