When it comes to adding sibling groups to the tool, there are two options:

For simplicity in the tool, it would be ideal to create one case per sibling group in Family Connections. Many organizations have expressed best practice would be to create one case for all siblings when they will be placed together, and separate cases for each sibling if not.

Of course, please refer to your organization's protocol first if there is one.

It is easiest to create a single case for siblings because you will not need to duplicate any work from case to case. If you find you need to create separate cases, you can use our export/import features to help share data case to case.

Please see details on each option below.

Creating a single case for all siblings will simplify the genogram process and save you some time without duplicating work.

When creating a sibling case, we recommend two options.

In this case, you can start by building out the genogram for this 'case child.' From there, you can duplicate your workspace and change the information that is different for each child. You can create as many workspaces as needed to show the differences in the families or supporters of each sibling.

In this case, you can add each child as a person in the case to add to the specific workspaces that center around them.

A great place to start is with your main workspace/genogram. If you use a Connect Our Kids template, your workspace will center around your case name by default. If you'd like to add additional siblings to the workspace, an easy way to do this would be to double-left click underneath or to the side of the child in the unused grey space depending on the map you’re using. This will add a placeholder for you that you can then use to fill in sibling information. You can even left-click and drag that sibling into the sibling group if there is one on your map. Before taking this step- you will want to learn more about adding people/placeholders to your case and see what works best for you.
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See example below where we've added "in case siblings" and each child to that group

If each child has specific connections, you might also want to create separate workspaces to display that. You have the option to copy the main genogram within the case into a new workspace, and alter it as needed to create a new genogram focused on each individual sibling. Please see an example of the "copy workspace" function below, and read more about duplicating workspaces here.

Creating separate cases for each sibling will keep the people in each case separated and avoid any confusion around the differences in the families or supporters of each sibling. It also may be a requirement of your organization, so please check.

Today, there is no way to copy workspaces from one case to another, so there may be a little more work involved. If you'd like, you can use our export and import features to functionally "copy" people from one case to another.

Start by exporting your first sibling's case. You can read about how to export here.

Once you export the case, you will receive an excel spreadsheet with all the people in the case. The Excel file will need a bit of tweaking before being imported, as the Import feature needs a single sheet Excel file, not the multiple sheets that the Export will initially give you.
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You will then want to import that excel sheet to the next sibling's case. You can read about how to import here.

Please note, genograms are exported as pdf's, so they will have to be recreated in the 2nd sibling's case in order to be "live." You can use the people you have imported to quickly place them into the correct placeholders of your desired template/workspace.
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Please reach out to [email protected] if you need assistance in executing any steps.

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