General Information
In New Jersey
The Rutgers Family Development Credential (FDC) Program is a professional development course and credentialing program offered through the Institute for Families. In the training, participants learn and practice the skills that are necessary to provide strength-based family support.
FDC trainings funded by the New Jersey Department of Human Services, Division of Family Development are provided for Abbott district family workers. These individuals serve as liaisons between preschool programs and the families that they serve in the thirty-one low income communities collectively referred to as Abbott districts.
The Family Development Credential program offers quality, sequential training designed to provide family workers with baseline competencies and skills needed to empower families to attain a healthy self-reliance and interdependence with their communities. In addition, the FDC credential granted by Rutgers University reflects a standard of excellence recognized by major family-serving agencies and has been approved by the National College Credit Recommendation Service for seven-college credit recommendation.
Participants receive 90 hours of training, led by a qualified FDC instructor, over several months. Technical assistance is provided to family worker coordinators who serve as portfolio advisors for the FDC program. In the framework of the program, portfolio advisors provide guidance to family workers in the areas of skills practice and the development of a skills portfolio that documents their work. The comprehensive FDC training and portfolio review process will be provided through Institute for Families at Rutgers School of Social Work.
The credential is granted by Rutgers University, after it is determined that a candidate's skills portfolio has met the standards established by the university and the candidate has passed the curriculum based written exam developed by Rutgers University.
The training sessions are targeted to meet the specific needs of New Jersey family workers and are scheduled regionally to assure accessibility to participants.
For more information on the National FDC program, please visit www.familydevelopmentcredential.org