Please join us in congratulating Kate Shafer on earning her Family Centered Treatment (FCT) Level I Practitioner Certification. Kate previously served our agency as a Family Support Specialist before moving into FCT, and that background shows in the way she works with families today: patient, practical, and genuinely invested in helping them stay together.
Kate's path to this certification started before she ever joined Paradigm. She interned in CPS with the South Dakota Department of Social Services while earning her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Sioux Falls. That early experience gave her a firsthand look at the child welfare system from the inside, and it's part of what drew her to family preservation work in the first place.
FCT asks a lot of its practitioners. It's an intensive, home-based model built on the belief that families know their own lives better than anyone walking through their front door, and that real change happens when we meet them where they are instead of handing down a plan. That mindset lines up closely with Paradigm's C.A.R.E.S. model, especially Collaboration and Respect, both of which Kate brings to every family she works with. Earning Level I certification means she's put in the supervised hours and demonstrated skill across all four phases of FCT, which is no small accomplishment on top of a full caseload.
Congratulations, Kate. We're proud to have you on the FCT team. If you know someone who'd thrive doing this kind of work, family-centered, home-based, and genuinely relationship-driven, we're hiring. Reach out to Paradigm to learn more about joining our FCT team.
