Through Family Support Centers, the Rhode Island Family Support Initiative helps families obtain legal help, clothing, housing assistance, furniture, health care, Early Head Start, and parent education. Center staff locate appropriate services for families, help them apply, accompany them to community-based services, and provide follow-up advocacy and transportation when necessary. Families are encouraged to connect with other families and to enjoy group activities. Parents and Children Together (PACT) in Honolulu, Hawaii creates opportunities for families and children to identify and address their own strengths, needs, and concerns. PACT’s programs include early childhood education through Early Head Start and Head Start; prevention and treatment of child abuse, neglect, and domestic violence; mental health support; community building and economic development; and family literacy, educational, and vocational activities (ESL, GED, etc.). Family support workers help families in crisis obtain comprehensive health, education, and social services. www.cssp.org/doris_duke/index.html

• Conveniently located community centers that offer non-stigmatized settings for child care, after-school activities, parent support programs, sports and recreation, counseling, employment-related services, classes in English as a Second Language or citizenship, and exercise.
• Activities that connect fragile families with supportive, caring adults
• Family support programs and family-strengthening events and activities
• Neighborhood information, resource, and referral networks (including those that mix children and families with and without special difficulties or risks)
• Provision of assistance with problems as an integral part of their program, or by providing help in finding assistance.

Providers of services and supports establish formal mechanisms to help high-risk families develop responsive, nurturing parent-child relationships and strong, respectful, trusting relationships with support systems. They make available:

	The Maternal Infant Health Outreach Worker (MIHOW) program is a low-cost, parent-to-parent intervention to improve health and child development for low-income families. MIHOW is a partnership between the Vanderbilt University Center for Health Services and community-based organizations in Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and West Virginia. Program staff are mothers who are trusted locally for their energy, integrity, compassion, and community commitment. They visit pregnant women and families with children up to three years old in their homes to listen to parents' concerns; provide information on nutrition, health, and children's development; model positive parenting practices; and link parents to peer support groups and medical and social services. www.mihow.org/overviewpf.html

• Well-trained, supervised adults who offer support during pregnancy, childbirth, and child's early life (e.g., Doulas, home visitors)
• Education (coaching, mentoring, and exposure to models of good parenting) that helps parents learn and incorporate new parenting skills, understand attachment issues, understand child development, and hold realistic expectations for their children's development
• Family support services and centers

Service providers seek opportunities to connect formal services and agencies with neighborhood networks so individual families experience services and agencies as responsive and "on their side."

	Neighborhood Place Ujima is part of a national initiative, Community Partnerships for Protecting Children, which fosters shared decision making between agencies and residents. By combining their knowledge and resources, participants can plan and coordinate services to meet families’ needs. The Connecticut Department of Children and Families collaborates with the Hartford Community Partnership (a resident-led organization that receives financial and technical support from Making Connections) to bring child protective services into neighborhoods in ways that reflect residents’ needs and desires, emphasize preventive action, connect at-risk children and families with neighborhood supports and services, reduce the number of times children are removed from homes, and position DCF officers as community liaisons rather than outside authorities. www.aecf.org/initiatives/mc/sites

Providers of services and supports help families connect to each other. They encourage community organizations and natural helpers to help their hard-to-reach neighbors establish and use informal networks and services to support each other.

	MELD is a Minnesota-based program that involves parents in peer support groups during pregnancy and the child's first two years. Parents discuss parenting needs, learn about child development, and form supportive relationships. MELD’s programs are tailored to specific groups of parents, including new parents, parents of children with special needs, Hmong parents, and Hispanic parents. MELD also trains professionals who work with parents, such as Head Start staff and family service providers. www.meld.org/ Family Focus helps Chicago-area parents prepare their children for school, and meet other parents, make friends, engage in recreational and educational activities, and participate in the community. Family Focus has a special focus on pregnant and parenting teens. Staff and families work together in relationships based on equality and respect and in programs that are flexible and responsive to emerging family and community issues. http://www.family-focus.org