About MiiWrap

What is MiiWrap®?

There are some things that seem to naturally go together: children and laughter, wind and waves, love and life, sun and moon, and Wraparound and Motivational Interviewing. The last two are Evidenced-Based Practices designed to assist families and individuals facing significant complex needs for behavior change in their lives. Together wraparound and motivational interviewing have over 70 years of combined research and implementation across the globe. Alone they offer powerful opportunities to reclaim lives, fused together, these two models support, strengthen and increase the potential for the positive change for a wide range of individuals and families.

The Wraparound process aims to achieve positive outcomes by providing a structured, creative and individualized team-based planning and implementation process that, compared to traditional treatment planning and service provision, results in plans that are more effective and more relevant to the child and family.  The inclusion of natural supports improves sustainable outcomes. Motivational interviewing is a directive, client-centered counseling style for eliciting behavior change by helping clients explore and resolve ambivalence. While Wraparound is focused on the process and structure of helping families, Motivational Interviewing is more focused on counselor style and relational and conventional change. Together they provide an excellent MiiWrap of structure and style.

MiiWrap is the next significant VVDB enhancement of high fidelity Wraparound.  Motivational Interviewing Informed Wraparound (MiiWrap) combines the Principles and Activities of Wraparound with the Mindset, Relational Communication Skills and Change Communication Skills of Motivational Interviewing.  VVDB has carefully integrated these processes through eight years of consultation with Motivational Interviewing experts, implementation research, field testing with programs across North America and the assistance of a learning community of Wraparound coaches, trainers, supervisors and program managers representing both facilitation and family support.  The resulting integrated process retains the identity and researched components of each process making enhancements to both to create a focused and integrated process.

Why MiiWrap Works

MiiWrap is a team supported process for individuals and families with complex needs. MiiWrap is an evidenced-based practice that integrates the strengths of Wraparound with those of Motivational Interviewing. MiiWrap is unique in providing:

  • Specific relational communication skills to improve engagement, especially in those historically hard to engage.
  • Specific skills for determining the reasons for and reducing resistance.
  • Specific skills to evoke and improve motivation and commitment to change.
  • A unified and focused Mindset that defines how we provide MiiWrap.
  • Behavior change activities that streamline and enhance the Wraparound activities with Motivational Interviewing strategies.

MiiWrap Mindset and Principles

The MiiWrap Mindset that puts words to the culture of serving others that all staff strive to create.  The Mindset is an integrated view of service that guides MiiWrap training, practice, coaching and supervision. The MiiWrap principles enhance current wraparound principles to define how services are provided.

We believe that all people despite history and level of challenge are capable of positive behavior change.

Behavior change is best accomplished when staff and youth and families work in a collaborative partnership.

The MiiWrap staff actively guide without imposing their own values, goals, and solutions.

A team-supported process will result in improved and sustained outcomes. 

MiiWrap improves engagement, motivation, and outcomes over previous versions of Wraparound. 

MiiWrap integrates two evidence-based practices to emphasize the importance of team in lasting change. 

MiiWrap is collaborative, strength-based, individualized, and family-driven. 

Who is MiiWrap for?

Many populations could benefit from MiiWrap, including children and youth with behavioral challenges and their families, people with complex needs in the legal system, homeless youth and adults, and transition age youth. 

History of MiiWrap

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, leading to resistance and low motivation.

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.

We began integrating Motivational Interviewing into Wraparound training curriculum in 2008. We expanded the role of Motivational Interviewing in Wraparound until we began teaching an integrated MiiWrap in 2016. 

History of MiiWrap

Wraparound and Motivational Interviewing make sense together to us, learn how we went from those to MiiWrap.
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Integrating Wraparound and Motivational Interviewing

It took more than seven years and help from hundreds of people across North America to integrate Wraparound and Motivational Interviewing.
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MiiWrap as an evidence-based practice

Wraparound and Motivational Interviewing are backed by years of research. MiiWrap draws on this and is itself under continual study.
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