The National FDC Program moved to the University of Connecticut in 2010, where it is based in a partnership with the Center for the Study of Culture, Health and Human Development(CHHD) at the University of Connecticut. This move provides the FDC Program with many features formerly provided by Cornell University.
The new FDC National Office is located in UConn's main campus in Storrs, CT. Its home, the CHHD, is a university-wide
unit established in 1998 to promote interdisciplinary research, training, and outreach related to human development
and health in cultural context.
For questions on the Family Development Credential program, please contact the National FDC Program Manager during the
hours of Monday-Friday 9:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.
Amy Knight
National FDC Program Manager
University of Connecticut
348 Mansfield Road
Storrs, CT 06269-1058
Phone 860-486-0606
Fax 860-486-0300
Email: nationalfdc@uconn.edu
Today
the Family Development Credential program continues to provide frontline workers with the knowledge and skills they
need to coach families to set and reach their own goals for healthy self-reliance in their communities. Coaches and
clients use the Family Development Plan to focus their sessions on reaching the client's goals. The inter-agency FDC
program is available in communities across the state and country to frontline workers from public, private and non-profit
service systems (e.g., home visitors, case managers, family resource center workers, community health workers).
To earn the FDC, workers take 80 hours of classes and 10 hours of advisement based on Empowerment Skills for Family Workers (Forest 2015), complete a portfolio documenting their ability to apply these concepts and skills, and pass a standardized exam. The first FDC credentials were issued by Cornell's School of Continuing Education in December 1997. Since then more than 12,000 family workers have earned the FDC through affiliated systems nationwide. Many workers earn college credit for earning the FDC, through local community colleges, or affiliated universities and colleges nationwide.
The official Family Development Credential Program trains and coordinates official FDC instructors, updates the FDC curriculum as new research emerges, and conducts and inspires new FDC-related research. Forty-five states now have FDC systems based on the model developed at Cornell; more are developing with our help.
Comprehensive FDC training and field advisement is available through official training programs in local communities across many states. For information about where FDC programs are offered, contact FDC Program Manager at Nationalfdc@uconn.edu or by telephone at: (860)486-0606.
Dr. Claire Forest
National FDC Director