MiiWrap is the next significant VVDB enhancement of high fidelity Wraparound. In 2005 we began to notice inconsistency in the communication skills and style used by wrapround staff in implementing Wraparound activities. This inconsistency was leading to:
- Failing to engage some youth or parents and disengagement in the process by too many people
- Resistance to the process and behavior change
- Ambivalence and low motivation to make needed changes by too many youth and families
Steven Rosenberg at the university of Colorado and David Duresky, a Wraparound coach and nationally recognized motivational interviewing coach and trainer in southern Florida concurrently proposed Motivational Interviewing as an evidenced-based process that specifically addresses these concerns.
In 2008 we added a brief version of Motivational Interviewing to our Wraparound training curriculum and added it to the training manual the following year. In 2012 and again in 2015 we expanded these sections in our current training manual and then text book Foundations of Wraparound. Even so we were not seeing much change in this inconsistency in communication skills and style.
In 2012 we began recommending separate Motivational Interviewing training for all Wraparound staff and coaches and many programs began requiring this separate training. As part of our certification process we observe hundreds of hours of Wraparound activities and provide coaching and consultation to sites across North America. While adding Motivational Interviewing training to wrapround helped with engagement and motivation, the impact was modest to less than modest in most sites. We came to understand that without integrated coaching, training was having minimal impact. Some early implementors (REST in Seattle, Hull Services in Calgary, and Familywise in Minneapolis) began integrated coaching and were seeing improved outcomes, but without an integrated model progress was uneven.
In 2016 we began training and coaching to an integrated model and saw more consistent impact. The integrated model gave coaches and staff a more unified focus for their efforts. Thus encouraged David Duresky and I began developing an integrated model with integrated training, coaching and textbooks. With the support of the MiiWrap Learning Community consisting of 27 certified trainers, coaches and Wraparound process mentors representing both facilitation and family support across North America, we launched MIIWrap.