Educational and Treatment Council, Inc. Family Resource Center – Kinship Navigator Program

The Educational and Treatment Council, Inc. Family Resource Center (ETC FRC) serves families across Calcasieu Parish and surrounding rural communities in southwest Louisiana. ETC FRC operates one of the only mobile FRC outreach units in the state and formally includes fictive kin—non-relatives such as godparents or close family friends—on equal footing with relatives in kinship programming. Their mission is to ensure youth safety, enhance family functioning, and reconnect families with their community through prevention and intervention services.

Organization Profile

ETC FRC is deeply rooted in southwest Louisiana and plays a critical role in reaching families who may otherwise face barriers related to distance, transportation, or stigma. Many of the kin caregivers served by ETC FRC hesitate to seek help when they unexpectedly take on the care of additional children. ETC FRC meets families where they are, reducing these barriers through trusted, visible, and consistent community presence.

By proactively participating in parish-level collaborative meetings, service provider convenings, and community events, including community baby showers hosted by local agencies and churches, ETC FRC ensures that kin caregivers and other families know where to find support before a crisis occurs. Staff are regularly invited to serve on committees and coalitions, strengthening coordination across systems and reinforcing ETC FRC’s role as a trusted community partner.

Through this active engagement, ETC FRC maintains a real-time understanding of emerging community needs and responds with culturally responsive, relationship-based support that reflects the lived realities of families in southwest Louisiana.

Collaborating for Impact

ETC FRC partners with schools, health systems, and statewide kinship initiatives. Staff are highly visible in the community—meeting families where they are and ensuring every kin caregiver, whether relative or fictive kin, feels welcomed into services.

Program Innovation & Results

Kinship Navigator Program

ETC FRC’s Kinship Navigator Program blends emergency assistance, evidence-based parenting education, and peer support for relatives and fictive kin raising children. Services are delivered both at the center and through the mobile outreach team that visits each parish weekly.

Innovation #1: Mobile Outreach Unit

ETC FRC operates a fully staffed mobile FRC that delivers case management, kinship navigation, parenting classes, and emergency supports directly to families. This model removes transportation and awareness barriers for rural families, ensuring no caregiver is left behind.

Innovation #2: Inclusion of Fictive Kin

ETC FRC expands eligibility to include fictive kin—trusted adults like godparents and close family friends—without requiring legal guardianship. As long as they are the primary emotional and caregiving support for the children in their care, they qualify for full services. This model helps children remain safely with caregivers they already know and trust.

Program in Action: A Family Restored

When grandparents raising their grandchildren lost their home in a fire, ETC FRC stepped in immediately, covering hotel costs for the first week, securing funds for a deposit and initial rent for a new apartment, and coordinating with the school and community to gather donations. Even after the family moved into permanent housing, ETC FRC continued to help, replacing an uninsured air conditioning unit and connecting the grandparents to counseling resources.

The result: The children remained safely with their grandparents, avoiding child welfare placement, and the family regained stability.

What They’ve Learned

• Meeting immediate needs first (food, rent, clothing) stabilizes families for long-term success.
• Outreach must be proactive: “We make sure we are where the people are.”
• Cross-training ensures all staff can support any kinship family.
• Tiered engagement levels based on family needs build trust and adapt to family needs over time.
• Blending safety education (safe sleep, car seat, CarFit) with peer support creates a whole-family safety and support model.

Results & Replication

Evaluation

ETC FRC tracks satisfaction surveys, placement stability, and service usage. Results consistently show high family satisfaction; children remain with someone with whom they are familiar and feel safe, and child welfare entry is successfully prevented.

Replication Potential

• A mobile FRC outreach model can be extremely valuable for rural communities.
• Stage-based engagement is adaptable to diverse contexts.
• Blending safety education with peer support can create a holistic model.

This spotlight is part of a national series celebrating innovation in Family Resource Centers serving kinship/grandfamilies. To learn more about how Family Resource Centers support kinship/grandfamilies, see Family Resource Center Services and Supports for Kinship/ Grandfamilies, a resource created by the National Family Support Network and the Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network.

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