3.-Gathering-the-Family-Story.NMWraparound.06.2023-1

Sep 2, 2026

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Wraparound facilitators use a structured “Gathering the Family Story” approach to understand each family’s life domains in a holistic way. The process emphasizes curiosity, openness, positive regard, and deep listening to identify strengths, vision, unmet needs, informal supports, and safety/stability concerns. It guides facilitators to ask open-ended, permission-based questions that draw out functional information without seeking a chronological narrative or jumping into problem-solving until action planning.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryForms

FormatDOCX

Pages10

Reading Time4 min

AccessFree to download

The Form

General Tips

Opening/Setting the Context

Strengths

Examples of Questions for Youth

Examples of Questions for Parents/Caregiver

Initial engagement with a family and gathering their story requires curiosity, openness, a sense of positive regard and deep listening for Strengths, Vision, Needs, Informal/Natural Supports and Safety/Stability issues. It also requires the ability to ask questions that will help draw out the story and the information you will need to create a strong working alliance, form a team and develop an effective Action Plan. Gathering the family story “is like meeting a person with whom you wish to develop a relationship. It is like meeting someone for the first time at a social gathering and getting to know them better through conversation. Some of the best people to converse with are the ones that know what questions to ask to get us to talk about the things that mean the most to us. When we walk away from that kind of interaction we feel validated regarding who we are, our work, or whatever it was we shared about from the core of our being.” (Excerpted from “The Exploratory Interview”, Family Partnership Institute, San Jose, CA) The Form The Gathering the Story Form starts with a list of life domains intended to guide a Wraparound facilitator in a discovery of understanding that is holistic and comprehensive. A facilitator should seek to understand the functionality status of each domain, barriers to each domain when relevant, while also identifying strengths that allowed the person to persevere through the challenges of said domain. Even though behavior is closely tied to functionality a Wraparound facilitator’s goal is to always search for the “Unmet Need” that is driving the behavior. Upon having a holistic perspective of each life domain, a Wraparound facilitator can begin to formulate the Wraparound elements needed to start Action Planning. General Tips Focus on open-ended questions. Start with less personal questions and move to more personal questions. Ask permission to take notes. You are NOT trying to get a chronological story. Do NOT problem-solve or identify strategies (this is the last step when you are developing an Action Plan during the team meeting. Resist the urge to jump to it unless there is an imminent safety and stability concern) Opening/Setting the Context Explain context and why understanding their full story (needs, values, strengths, hopes, barriers etc.) is important to partnering with them and achieving their hopes for the future. “I would like to use this time to get to know you/your family better. As you know, with Wraparound we are interested in learning about much more than your problems or what brought you here. We want to build a team and a plan based on your hopes for the future and using the strengths that you already have.” Strengths Do not rely on or stop at asking “Tell me about your strengths.” Many people cannot answer that question easily and/or may think it is bragging if they do. You also often don’t get a sense of functional strengths (strengths that people use in their daily lives to cope, thrive, achieve, etc.) Remember you are listening for strengths of the family as a whole and of each individual member. Listen for and observe strengths in all of your interactions with the family. Think about the following categories when you are trying to identify strengths: Attitudes/Values: summarizes the values and attitudes which the family holds. E.g: a strong sense of tradition, a respect for the privacy of others, a concern for family loyalty, a belief in independence, etc. Skills/Abilities: this category includes hard skills as well as soft “social” skills. E.g.: hobbies and interests such as wood working or math, ability of the family to plan ahead or cook together, etc. Attributes/Features: this category includes descriptive statements one can make about the family or an individual in the family. E.g.: family spends time together, family is organized, family is emotionally attached, etc. Preferences: statements in this category chronical family preference and build a base in wh

FAQs

What is the purpose of Gathering the Family Story in Wraparound facilitation?

It helps the facilitator understand the family holistically across life domains so the team can identify strengths and the unmet needs driving behavior to support action planning.

What kinds of questions should facilitators use?

Use open-ended questions, start with less personal topics, ask permission to take notes, and avoid trying to get a chronological story.

Should facilitators problem-solve or develop strategies during the story gathering?

No. The focus is on discovery and listening; problem-solving and strategy development come later in team action planning unless there is an imminent safety and stability concern.

Sep 2, 2026

Upload by Jiven