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Working With Community Resources

Family-centered practitioners view all family members, including maternal and paternal relatives, fictive kin, and informal helpers, as important resources and sources of support for the family. They are skilled in engaging informal and formal community resources by involving them, as appropriate, in family assessment and case planning and in providing ongoing support to families before, during, and after services are ended by the formal child welfare agency and other community agencies.

Community Family Support Meetings: Connecting Families, Public Child Welfare, and Community Resources
Kemp, Allen-Eckard, Ackroyd, Becker, & Burke (2005)
In Child Welfare for the Twenty-First Century: A Handbook of Practices, Policies, and Programs
View Abstract
Explores the use of the Community Family Support Meeting (CFSM) in child welfare practice. The CFSM uses participatory family decision-making methods to connect families with informal community resources and community-based social service professionals at times of crisis and transition.

Key Characteristics and Features of Community-Based Family Support Programs
Dunst (1995)
View Abstract
Provides an overview of family support principles and the paradigms, practices, and program dimensions of the philosophy.

What Are Community Partnerships for Protecting Children? (PDF - 108 KB)
Children's Defense Fund (2003)
Explains the core elements of community partnerships for protecting children.

	Related Information Gateway Topics Family-centered practice: Family-centered services Preventing child abuse & neglect: Developing & sustaining prevention programs Preventing child abuse & neglect: Public awareness & creating supportive communities Systemwide: Service improvement/Systems reform - Interagency collaboration

Updated on December 7, 2007