by Roy Sanders, Accreditation Liaison
The Center for Spiritual Care and Pastoral Formation, CSCPF, intends to provide accreditation to learning centers that provide clinical pastoral education according to a rigorous education outcome expectation. Outcome based education that assures employers professional interfaith care providers. (Interfaith in this context refers to the behavior of providing care according to the patient-client-parishioner’s faith practice versus the practitioner.)
Employers of all disciplines expect that professional education comply with the Department of Education principles. They expect professional to practice according to consistent standards of practice.
While most clinical pastoral educators provide rigorous and collegiate level education, accreditation assures employers the practitioner candidate is truly professional. Receiving accreditation from the Center of Spiritual Care and Pastoral Formation requires adherence to a set of Common Outcomes from which the learning center develops its educational standards.
The Center for Spiritual Care and Pastoral Formation intends to become a Full Member of the Association of Professional and Specialized Accreditors, ASPA. ASPA membership helps assure that the Outcomes set by CSCPF meet the education rigor set by the Department of Education, D.O.E. ASPA set forth a Code of Good Practice that is congruent with D.O.E., the Division of Higher Learning, and CHEA organizations. Once membership is affirmed, learning centers accredited through CSCPF will be able to market itself themselves as; “Accredited through the Center of Spiritual Care and Pastoral Formation, CSCPF; an ASPA member organization.” (The learning center is not a member of ASPA. The learning center is an accredited program of a membership organization.)
