• The Family Strengthening Policy Center
• What is Place-Based, Family Strengthening?
• Family Strengthening Core Areas
• Case Studies
• Family Strengthening Peer Network
• NEW! Latest Family Strengthening Peer Network Meeting Notes

The Family Strengthening Policy Center

The Family Strengthening Policy Center (FSPC) is an initiative of the National Assembly, an 80-year old alliance of leading national nonprofit health & human service organizations.  Funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, The FSPC is part of the Foundation's Neighborhood Transformation/Family Development and Making Connections initiatives.   The Casey initiatives are intended to improve outcomes for children and families living in low income, marginalized communities, by advancing and promoting family strengthening practice.  

By leveraging the National Assembly's network of nearly 70 human and health service organizations, the Center's objective is to influence how family policy is formulated and implemented.

Research shows child outcomes are primarily a result of upbringing and parental involvement.   Universal a ccess to affordable, quality services and support networks are an imperative component to a family's economic success and general well being.   These critical elements are also essential for positive child and youth outcomes.   Family strengthening seeks to incorporate this research evidence into a model that focuses on the entire family within the context of its community.   Prevailing human service interventions have been problem-specific, fragmented and crisis oriented, whereas family strengthening gives priority to the delivery of community based, preventative, and comprehensive services.  

The Center aims to leverage the knowledge of service providers, delivering family centered and place based services by:

•  Identifying initiatives that reduce family isolation, increase connections to economic opportunities, develop sustainable social networks, and improve access to supports and services;

•  Disseminating family strengthening information and resources, electronically and at professional and educational events;

•  Building a network of practitioners and policy makers in order to advance evidence-based practice and a family strengthening public policy agenda;

•  Producing a monthly e-newsletter that highlights research, current news in the field, legislative alerts, organizational profiles, and issue briefs;

•  Maintaining a website which serves as a clearinghouse of information and tools dedicated to family strengthening practices, programs and policy; and

•  Developing policy briefs that highlight emerging and evaluated family strengthening practices and barriers to developing family centered policies for family success.  

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What is Place-Based Family Strengthening?

The Annie E. Casey Foundation defines family strengthening as:

"A deliberate and sustained effort to ensure that parents have the necessary opportunities, relationships, networks and supports to raise their children successfully, which includes involving parents as decision makers in how their communities meet family needs . "

Place-based family strengthening is based on the idea that guides the Casey Foundation's approach to family and community development:

Children do better when their families are strong, and families do better when they live in communities that help them to succeed .

This premise is based on two ideas that are central to the family strengthening approach:

•  Family is the most fundamental factor influencing the lives and outcomes of children. Aside from a child's physical needs, such as food and clothing, children also need an emotionally healthy home environment combined with stable and reliable relationships with adults and caregivers.

•  Families are strong when they are supported by safe and thriving neighborhoods . Strong neighborhoods offer an almost seamless web of vital resources and opportunities such as formal and informal social networks, employers and public services.   By making these networks, economic opportunities and services more accessible to families, neighborhoods thrive and families have the supports they need to succeed.  

Programs and services comprise a family strengthening approach when they are:

•  Family-focused:   Policy and services intentionally address the needs of the family as a whole versus serving only individuals.   Initiatives are structured to engage and support the entire family.

•  Place-based: Families are supported to thrive within the context of their neighborhoods and broader communities.   Job and community economic development are built on local businesses and economic assets unique to each community.   Opportunities are created by utilizing economic assets and vast social networks.   Families are able to access public services comfortably without being stigmatized in their own neighborhoods.     

•  Collaborative:   Partnerships are created across service systems such as health, education, workforce development; local advocacy groups; community based organizations; city government; businesses and employers; and the faith community to create a seamless web of services and supports that address the needs of families.   Local realities and the diversity of needs are incorporated into a flexible and accessible system of services.

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Family Strengthening Core Areas

 The Center's work is organized around three core areas:

•  Family Economic Success : Supporting and facilitating family self-sufficiency, including a living wage with necessary benefits, receipt of public benefits for which they are eligible, and accumulation of assets such as homeownership and savings.

•  Family Support Systems: Building appropriate, stimulating and adequate systems of support for healthy family development that encompass general health, child care, education, and other essential components for family success.

•  Thriving and Nurturing Communities: Place Matters!   Building a nurturing and supportive environment in which healthy families can pursue long term goals is critical for family success over time.   Essential components for family success include access to affordable housing, strong neighborhood institutions, safe streets, supportive social networks, and an environment that promotes community and strengthens bonds between families.

The following chart lists examples of the topical areas the Center will explore in each of the core areas

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Family Strengthening Case Studies

National Assembly member organizations are already leading the way in innovative applications of the Family Strengthening approach. The following initiatives demonstrate key components of a place-based, family-strengthening approach.  For a more in-depth look at family strengthening practices, please take a look at the Policy Briefs section of this website.

HIPPY USA

Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters is a parent involvement and school readiness program that offers free home based early educational services for parents and their three, four, and five year old children.   The HIPPY curriculum enables parents to help their children build early literacy skills while parents build the confidence to teach their children. By employing local parents as home visitors, HIPPY provides community residents with employment and the opportunity to develop professional skills while serving the community.   Through group meetings, HIPPY parents are able to establish meaningful relationships with other parents and build on their knowledge through workshops and presentations.   The HIPPY program has also been recognized as a tool to address other important goals, including drop out prevention, crime prevention, child abuse prevention, family literacy, migrant education, community mobilization, and job training.

Volunteers of America

Through its family emergency shelter, transitional housing, and follow up programs, Volunteers of America in Kentucky is working to keep families intact and helping them to thrive by focusing on the development of self sufficiency skills.   Family support activities include help in finding employment, affordable housing and educational opportunities.   Families can also receive life skills and financial management training and medical services.   Seven out of every ten families in the program return to stable, independent living.

Camp Fire USA

Through its Community Family Clubs initiative, Camp Fire has established 400 Community Family Clubs that are helping to revitalize families and strengthen communities across the country.   Community Family Clubs strengthen once fragmented families, building support networks for both youth and adults. Families come together to share meals and activities and learn to communicate more effectively.   Both parents and youth can develop support groups, learn about resources in their neighborhood that they never knew existed such as referrals to community services and economic resources, participate in English language classes, and experience a genuine sense of community. The work of the Community Family Clubs has resulted in increased parental engagement in the lives of their children, stronger connections and relationships built between families, parent and family involvement in service projects that benefit the community, and greater participant access of services and benefits like immigration law resources, job training, and EITC benefits.

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Family Strengthening Peer Network

Peer Network meetings provide opportunities to share knowledge on family strengthening strategies, learn what other organizations are doing, and find synergies and potential areas of collaboration.   For more information, contact molly@nassembly.org.

Co-Chairs

Caroline Crocoll, USDA Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service (CSREES) Jennifer Davis, Goodwill Industries International

Staff

Molly French

Next Meeting

July 23, 2008 - FSPN will meet 11:00 am - 3:00 pm in Washington, DC .

Dates for additional network meetings in 2008 will be posted here when available.
To participate, please contact molly@nassembly.org.

Past Meetings

April 2008

Meeting Notes

October 17 (Regular Meeting) and October 23 (National Family Week Teleconference) 2007
Meeting Notes

July 2007
Meeting Notes

March 2007
Meeting Notes

November 2006

Meeting Notes

April 2006

Meeting Notes

PowerPoint Presentation: Corporate Voices for Working Families, Model Workplace Supports for Lower-Wage Employees

December 2005

Meeting Notes

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