Providers of services and supports constantly look for opportunities to strengthen parents in their child-rearing role and to build strong relationships between young children and their parents and other adult caregivers. Providers recognize the value of informal supports and make them widely available; they help supportive adults (spouses or other partners, kin, neighbors, and informal groups) participate actively in child rearing.
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| The Avance Child and Family Development Program is a community-based intervention that operates throughout Texas to provide education and support to Latino parents with children under age three. It strives to strengthen the family unit; to enhance parents’ ability to nurture their children’s optimal development; to promote educational success; and to foster the personal and economic success of parents. Avance offers a 33-week fatherhood curriculum, covering topics such as child growth and development, handling stress, learning to live without violence, and childhood illnesses. The program also offers classes for a General Education Diploma and English as a Second Language. It teaches parenting and personal skills to more than 60 men per year, encourages fathers’ involvement with their children, and strengthens relationships with their children’s mothers. www.avance.org | |
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Providers of services engage parents in their homes or other familiar settings to promote and model effective parenting skills, through:
- Home visitors, Doulas, Promotoras and other well-trained, supervised adults to offer support during pregnancy, childbirth, and a child's early life.
- Special efforts to reach out to, serve, and support the highest risk families (especially those where young children encounter multiple risks, have developmental or behavioral difficulties, or where parent-child relationships are impaired) through culturally sensitive home visits, peer support, and family support.
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| Homeless families receive needed social services as part of their search and placement in permanent housing under California’s Beyond Shelter’s Housing First Program. A case manager continues working with the family for at least 6 months after the family moves into a new home.
In Healthy Families Arizona, participating families receive weekly visits from specialists who help them with coping skills, child health and nutrition, early developmental assessments, accessing school readiness programs, and obtaining information on other services. Home-visitors are specially trained in cultural competency, substance abuse, domestic violence, and drug-exposed infants.
The Vermont Department of Health, Agency of Human Services runs an Intensive Home Visiting program for families with children under 6 who face challenges associated with young age, social isolation, significant physical and emotional problems, family disorganization, personal safety issues, compromised resources, or substance addiction. The home visitor provides direct support and coordinates additional referrals and support services for the family. http://www.healthvermont.gov | |
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- Coaching, mentoring, and exposure to models of good parenting provided by a range of family services to help parents improve their child-rearing skills and their understanding of attachment issues, and to help parents hold realistic expectations for their children's development.
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| The Baby College of the Harlem Children’s Zone is a 9-week program of workshops that teaches expectant and new mothers about child development and parenting. The course is followed by monthly gatherings to further parenting education and promote mother-to-mother bonding opportunities. | |
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Family support services, centers, and "warm" lines, as well as other service providers, strengthen parents by offering information and support, both during crises and before crises occur. They look for opportunities to encourage supportive adults (spouses or other partners, kin, neighbors, and informal groups) to participate actively in child rearing, and they encourage father involvement with young children.
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Parent encouragement and education are key features of the community-based Maryland Family Support Centers Network. Parenting classes, parent-child activities, and peer education encourage positive and healthy parenting practices.
The Prenatal to Three Initiative of the San Mateo County Health Department (CA) provides home visits, parent support groups, and seminars on child development to low-income pregnant women. The Initiative’s practices are based on pediatrician T. Berry Brazelton's Touchpoints concepts, which hold that parents who have a “map” of their child's behavioral and emotional development are better equipped to navigate child-rearing challenges. | |
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Hospitals, employers, and health and childcare professionals strengthen mother-infant relationships by providing adequate time and other supports for breastfeeding.
Community groups encourage and facilitate policies and practices that minimize administrative demands on families, by sharing client information, using common eligibility definitions and determinations, and conducting common data collection.
The community builds the capacity to monitor:
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The Family Connection is a collaboration of the Georgia Departments of children and youth services, education, human resources, and medical assistance; the Governor's Office of Planning and Budget; Georgia Academy; communities; and private and civic partners working to serve children at risk. Local collaborative partners are funded and receive technical assistance to develop a vision for children and families; assess resources and needs; identify desired results; and develop strategies, benchmarks, resources, and accountability measures to achieve the results. In early 2003 there were 159 Family Connection sites throughout Georgia. www.ph.dhr.state.ga.us/regional/
northwest/partners.shtml | |
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- Program, neighborhood, and community-wide outcomes
- The availability of primary and preventive services in addition to crisis interventions
- The availability of appropriate services and supports to everyone who needs them-both through individual programs and through community-wide decisions and resource allocations
- The cultural and linguistic appropriateness of services
- Barriers of race, language, and culture that might prevent families from obtaining supports
Local collaboratives advocate for supports that help parents balance workforce participation with good parenting. They work to ensure that employers and the rules governing Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) take into account the importance of adequate time for parenting, especially during a child's first year.
Local collaboratives, often with the help of national advocacy groups, work for the adoption of policies that extend provisions of the Family and Medical Leave Act to all workers with very young children by:
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| The National Partnership for Women and Families supports local campaigns to expand the Family and Medical Leave Act and other policies so that they cover more working people and more family needs and include paid leave benefits. www.nationalpartnership.org | |
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- Extending coverage to workers in mid-sized and, eventually, small businesses
- Extending parental leave from three months to six months
- Providing income to workers who take family leave, especially for infants, through a funding pool that combines public funds with contributions from employers and employees
- Allowing the use of unemployment insurance to fund parental leave
Local collaboratives keep funders and policymakers informed about barriers to effective action that require solutions at the funding, policy, or regulatory level.
Local collaboratives work to shape community-wide norms in ways that:
Promote stable family life
- Value support from formal and informal sources, including home visits, family support programs, and parent education
- Promote breastfeeding and responsible, responsive child rearing
- Value time spent parenting
Funders and policymakers promote supports that help parents balance workforce participation with good parenting. In particular, they work to ensure that employers and the rules governing Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) take into account the importance of allowing adequate time for parenting, especially during a child's first year.
Policymakers work to expand provisions of the Family and Medical Leave Act to all workers with very young children by:
- Extending coverage to workers in mid-sized and, eventually, small businesses
- Extending parental leave from three months to six months
- Providing income to workers who take family leave, especially for infants, through a funding pool that combines public funds with contributions from employers and employees
- Allowing the use of unemployment insurance to fund parental leave
Funders provide resources for services and supports that strengthen families through:
- Home visitors, Doulas, Promotoras, and other well-trained, supervised adults who offer support during pregnancy, childbirth, and a child's early life
- Efforts to reach out to, serve, and support the highest-risk families through culturally sensitive
home visits, peer support, and family support
- Coaching, mentoring, and exposure to good parenting models, provided by a range of family services
- Family support services and centers
- Connections between formal services and agencies and neighborhood networks
Funders provide resources for community coalitions to:
- Build community capacity for monitoring and advocacy, to promote responsive caretaking and supportive homes
- Shape community-wide norms that promote responsive caretaking and supportive homes
Policymakers respond to advocates who want to remove or reduce barriers to effective action at the funding, policy, or regulatory level.
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| Family Support America advocates for national and state policies to improve and expand family support programs in communities and to help children and families served by family support programs obtain the basic supports they need. www.familysupportamerica.org | |
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