Free To Grow
Mailman School
of Public Health
Columbia University
722 West 168th Street,
8th Floor
New York, NY 10032
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The Cards
Family Assessment: General
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About 10 years ago, The Cards was developed by an in-home family counseling program based in Seattle, Washington. Staff of the program, which dealt with families where child abuse occurred, discovered that most of the families also had members with substance abuse problems. Traditional assessment tools elicited little or no accurate information from families about these difficulties, especially when the child protective service system was involved. So staff, working directly with families, created The Cards as an assessment tool that was engaging and fun to use.
This self-assessment tool allows individuals and families to look at their values and strengths, and to understand how these qualities can help them cope on a daily basis. Once the assessment is complete, in partnership with the helper, the individual or family builds a plan evolving from their values and strengths. The Cards are three sets of sorting cards individuals and families use to identify and prioritize what is important to them. The Cards include an instruction manual, pen/pencil, and paper. The Cards and the process are easy to use; the "players" require only an explanation of the process and help in prioritizing decisions.
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Evaluation
While this strategy has not been formally tested in a quasi-experimental study, practitioners have been testing The Cards. Data suggests that Families who have used The Cards report that they were empowering, helping them to assess their strengths and weaknesses.
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