Families need assistance in identifying and accessing resources to meet basic needs and in securing community-based family support services. Child welfare and family resource and support organizations can work together to improve outcomes for families by referring child welfare clients to family resource programs and providing linkages between programs that serve the same clients. Program developers must think strategically about how an existing array of services might be augmented to form a continuum of supports and services for families. Resources include State and local examples.
Community-Based Family Support: Exemplars With Implementation and Evaluation Strategies (PDF - 1,393 KB)
Casey Family Programs (2016)
Focuses on the need for community-based initiatives, lessons learned regarding implementation and design, and promising evaluation strategies. The brief also includes recommendations and cautions around governance, collaboration, decision-making, sustainability, and community engagement.
Community-Based Parent Support Programs
Trivette & Dunst (2014)
Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Development
Explains community-based support programs, how they differ from traditional human services parenting programs, their goals, and more. The article reviews research questions, recent research, and research implications surrounding the topic of community-based parent support.
State and local examples
Child Protection: Working Together as Community Partners
Michigan Department of Health & Human Services (2018)
Presents a collaborative effort in Michigan to support sustainable, community-based services targeted to families that are substantiated, low-to-medium-risk children's protection cases, or have unsubstantiated referrals to children's protective services.
Community Based Parenting Education
Child & Family Service (2018)
Presents a free, community-based parenting program provided through the Hawaii State Department of Health. The group provides a comfortable learning environment that focuses on positive parenting approaches to enhance parent-child interactions and relationships.
Community Services for Families
Social Advocates for Youth (SAY) San Diego (2018)
Partners with parents to promote child safety and the well-being of the entire family and to help keep children with their parents. The program provides services to families involved with, or at risk of involvement with, child welfare in San Diego who can benefit from parenting assistance and support.
Early Childhood and Family Support
National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice (2018)
Describes the importance of family support services, supports, and opportunities that enable and empower families to successfully nurture their children. The family support approach affirms that all families have strengths as well as needs, it recognizes parents as the experts on their children and families, and it normalizes the need for support for all families.
Family Resources and Support
New York State Office of Children and Family Services
Describes services that offer parents education on positive parenting practices to minimize risk factors, promote healthy child development, improve school readiness, and help families build stronger neighborhoods and communities. The Family Resource Center model is one key strategy that helps provide families with access to the programs and resources they need to help their children grow into healthy, productive members of society.
Family Support
One Hope United (2016)
Works with parents and children to help keep their families safe, healthy, and together. Through family preservation services, counseling, and other programs, parents and guardians learn to identify and prevent potential patterns of abuse or neglect.
Parenting Resources & Support
Family Services of Tulare County (2018)
Provides a spectrum of parenting education resources that keep children safe by equipping parents with healthy, well-balanced parenting skills. Parent educators teach free parenting classes for community members and visit homes or correctional facilities to work with parents.
What Is Community Based Care?
Texas Department of Family and Protective Services
Explores community-based care as a new way of providing foster care and case management services in Texas. The community-based approach meets the individual and unique needs of children, youth, and families.