Unwrapping Wraparound: Innovations in Care Coordination
By Innovations Institute
Hosts Kim Coviello (Covi) and Conan Green talk with leaders, practitioners, family partners, and researchers about real lessons, challenges, and practical strategies to better support children and youth with complex needs.
Between full episodes, "Care Coordination Field Guide: Skills on the Go" delivers quick, skill-based insights to use right away.
Unwrapping Wraparound is presented by Innovations Institute at UConn School of Social Work: innovations.socialwork.uconn.edu
Getting Your Foot in the Door
How can you shift from people simply attending a care planning meeting to actively participating? In this Care Coordination Field Guide: Skills on the Go short, Covi and Conan share tactics for engaging formal and natural supports, from crafting personalized invitations to addressing barriers to participation. The episode also explores ways to help people understand how they can contribute meaningfully to care coordination, including those without professional training.
Youth Voice and Leadership in Systems of Care with Johanna Bergan
In this episode of Unwrapping Wraparound, Johanna Bergan, Program Manager at Innovations Institute, discusses the importance of youth-driven care and what it means for system professionals to build authentic shared partnerships with young people. Drawing from her own experience incorporating youth voice, Johanna reflects on both the challenges and sources of hope she sees for young people involved in child-serving systems. She also highlights the vital role of youth peer support partners in helping young people feel empowered to make decisions about their care.
Help shape future episodes of Unwrapping Wraparound by sharing your feedback.
CCFG: Skills on the Go — Family Vision
A meaningful family vision shifts conversations from focusing on problems to imagining a positive, hopeful future. In this episode of Care Coordination Field Guide: Skills on the Go, Covi and Conan identify questions care coordinators can use to help young people and their families develop an authentic, individualized family vision. Listeners will gain strategies for identifying and translating a family’s ideas into a shared sense of direction that guides care coordination while serving as a mantra for the whole family.
Help shape future episodes of Unwrapping Wraparound by sharing your feedback.
Beyond the Numbers: Humanizing Wraparound Fidelity & Evaluation
Explore how data can strengthen Wraparound practice while keeping youth and families at the center in the latest episode of Unwrapping Wraparound. Drawing on her experience with quality assurance and fidelity monitoring, as well as her time as a care coordinator, Lydia Cartwright joins Covi and Conan to discuss accessible evaluation, provider feedback, and how tools like the Wraparound Fidelity Index, Short Form (WFI-EZ) and Document Assessment and Review Tool (DART) can support coaching and systems change. The conversation also examines how organizations can use data to guide coaching, improve practice, elevate family and youth voices, and create meaningful systems change.
CCFG: Skills on the Go — Crisis Planning
What makes a crisis plan truly useful? In this Care Coordination Field Guide: Skills on the Go episode, Covi and Conan share five skills for creating clear, practical crisis plans that reflect each family’s strengths, preferences, and experiences. Learn how to identify early signs, outline what to try and when, engage trusted natural and professional supports, and develop a plan families can understand, trust, and use when challenges arise.
Help shape future episodes of Unwrapping Wraparound by sharing your feedback.
Transforming Children's Crisis Care Through Mobile Response
Children and families deserve crisis care that responds with compassion, partnership, and immediacy. This episode of Unwrapping Wraparound welcomes Sarah Quinn, Director of Crisis Systems at Innovations Institute, to discuss how Mobile Response and Stabilization Services (MRSS) are reshaping children’s behavioral health crisis care through relationship-based practice, family partnership, and coordinated systems of care. From defining crisis through a family's perspective to building stronger community partnerships and sustainable crisis systems, this episode highlights practical strategies for keeping children safe, supported, and connected to their communities.
Relevant Resources:
- Crisis 365: Academy for Comprehensive Crisis Care
- Crisis Response Systems
- Mobile Response and Stabilization Services (MRSS)
Follow us on social media1
CCFG: Skills on the Go—Strengths That Matter
Effective care coordination starts with recognizing what families are already doing well—but only if those strengths are specific enough to guide action. In this episode of Care Coordination Field Guide: Skills on the Go, hosts Kim Coviello and Conan Green explore how to identify and document functional strengths, coping strategies, and meaningful supports that lead to stronger planning and better outcomes.
Learn practical techniques for asking strength-based questions, identifying exceptions to challenges, understanding the role of natural supports, and documenting strengths in ways that directly inform intervention. Whether you're a care coordinator or supervisor, this episode offers concrete strategies to help move beyond vague observations and build plans that reflect families' resilience, resources, and everyday successes.
The Birth of Wraparound: A Conversation with John Vandenberg
Forty years ago, Alaska launched an ambitious effort to bring children home from costly out-of-state placements and support them in their own communities. Few could have predicted the initiative would help spark a nationwide transformation in how systems serve children and youth with complex needs and their families.
Join Unwrapping Wraparound hosts Kim Coviello and Conan Green as they sit down with Wraparound pioneer Dr. John VanDenBerg to explore the Alaska Youth Initiative, the early days of Wraparound, and lessons learned from challenging conventional thinking. From collecting groundbreaking outcome data to elevating family and youth voice and building teams around natural supports, John reflects on the journey that helped transform a small state initiative into a global movement that continues to serve families across the world.
Relevant Resources:
Follow us on social media1
CCFG: Skills on the Go—Understanding Family Concerns & Patterns
In this Care Coordination Field Guide: Skills on the Go short, Covi and Conan explore how care coordinators can identify and describe the ongoing patterns, contexts, and stressors affecting children, youth, and families. Listen for practical strategies for replacing vague labels with clear descriptions, recognizing trends across settings, using family-centered language, and documenting concerns in ways that promote understanding, collaboration, and effective planning. Plus, try a quick skill drill to strengthen your documentation and assessment practices!
How do skilled care coordinators move beyond isolated incidents and vague labels? Covi and Conan discuss how to identify patterns, understand concerns in context, and use family-centered language that promotes collaboration, understanding, and effective care planning.
From Skeptic to Champion: Kim Estep on Why Wraparound Works
What happens when a Wraparound skeptic decides to put the model to the test? In this episode of Unwrapping Wraparound, Innovations Institute’s Director of System Design and Implementation, Kim Estep, shares her care coordination journey from clinician to national leader. Along the way, she reflects on the child and family team meeting that changed everything, why supporting the whole family matters, and how strong communities and a confident workforce help make Wraparound successful. Kim also discusses the evolution of the National Wraparound Implementation Center and what it takes to sustain meaningful partnerships with children, youth, and families.
CCFG: Skills on the Go—Listening without Interrupting
In this Care Coordination Field Guide: Skills on the Go short, Covi and Conan explore one of the most challenging—and impactful—skills in care coordination: listening without interruption. In this quick, practical conversation, they discuss how slowing down, embracing silence, and resisting the urge to “fix” can help care coordinators build trust, strengthen relationships, and better understand the experiences of the families they support.
From Awareness to Action with Michelle Zabel
In this special Children’s Mental Health Action Month 2026 bonus episode of Unwrapping Wraparound, Innovations Institute Executive Director Michelle Zabel joins Covi and Conan for a powerful conversation about systems change, workforce support, care coordination, and the role we all play in supporting children, youth, and families. From policy and data to resilience and community action, Michelle shares reflections from decades of leadership in children’s behavioral health—and a call to move beyond awareness and into action.
Right-Sized Support: Inside the FOCUS Model
What happens when families need more than a referral—butless than Wraparound?
In this episode of Unwrapping Wraparound, co-hosts Covi and Conan talk with Lisa Spera about FOCUS, an evidence-informed model designed for the often-overlooked “middle” of care coordination.
Together they explore how FOCUS differs from targeted case management and Wraparound, why “wraparound light” falls short, and how better matching families to the right level of support can prevent unnecessary system escalation.
From system design to real-world impact, this conversationhighlights what it takes to deliver the right support—at the right time—for youth and families.
CCFG: Skills on the Go—Active Listening, Part 1
In this Care Coordination Field Guide: Skills on the Go short, Covi and Conan focus on one of the most essential—and often overlooked—skills in care coordination: active listening. Designed for busy professionals navigating complex systems, this brief episode offers real-world guidance on how to slow down, be present, and build stronger relationships with families from the very first interaction.
Partnership, Purpose & PEARLS
In this episode of Unwrapping Wraparound, Covi and Conan sit down with Toni Donnelly to explore the power of peer parent support. Drawing on her lived experience navigating multiple child-serving systems, Toni shares how authentic peer relationships can reduce isolation, build confidence, and create hope for families. The conversation dives into the evolution of peer parent support, the PEARLS practice model, and what it takes to build a skilled, sustainable workforce. A must-listen for anyone working in care coordination, wraparound, or family-serving systems.
Care Coordination Field Guide: Skills on the Go—Engagement Skills
In the first short-form companion episode of Unwrapping Wraparound, Covi and Conan tackle one of the most fundamental care coordination skills: engagement. In this quick, practical conversation, they reframe engagement as the responsibility of the care coordinator and offer practical tips for building trust, strengthening relationships, and reconnecting when engagement breaks down.
Research, Practice & the Future of Wraparound with Dr. Eric Bruns
In this episode of Unwrapping Wraparound: Innovations in Care Coordination, Covi and Conan sit down with Dr. Eric Bruns, a leading researcher and pioneer in Wraparound implementation and evaluation. Together, they discuss Eric’s journey from frontline care coordination to national research leadership, the development of Wraparound fidelity tools, and what data and experience tell us about the future of care coordination. The conversation explores Wraparound as a system-level intervention, the value of community-based care, workforce and funding challenges, and why family-driven approaches remain central to improving outcomes for children, youth, and families with complex needs.
Introduction: Welcome to Unwrapping Wraparound
Join hosts Kim Coviello (Covi) and Conan Green as they introduce Unwrapping Wraparound: Innovations in Care Coordination. In this brief introduction, they share their vision for the podcast, why Wraparound and care coordination matter, and what listeners can expect from future conversations — including expert interviews, real-world stories, and practical skill-building segments for the care coordination workforce. A great starting point for anyone passionate about Wraparound, care coordination, and strengthening systems of care.