What Is Strengthening Families?
The Strengthening Families™ approach is built on two key beliefs: 1) All families have strengths, and 2) All families need support. The Strengthening Families Protective Factors Framework shifts the focus from “what’s wrong” to “what’s strong” and encourages us to see strengths and promote the development of protective factors that keep families strong.
The Strengthening Families Approach
- Benefits ALL families
- Builds on family strengths, buffers risk and promotes a better quality of life
- Can be implemented through small but significant changes in everyday actions
- Builds on and can become a part of existing programs, strategies, systems and community opportunities
- Is grounded in research, practice and implementation knowledge
The five Protective Factors are the foundation of the Strengthening Families™ approach. Extensive research supports the common-sense notion that when these protective factors are present and robust in a family, the likelihood of child abuse and neglect diminishes.
The Strengthening Families Protective Factors Framework is:
- A purposeful and intentional approach to working with families in all child- and family-serving systems
- Understandable concepts for parents and professionals to grasp
- A universally inclusive approach that values the input of parents working side-by-side with professionals
- Common sense (or logical) linkages to many federal and state requirements
- Support for all child and family service systems to view the connectedness of our work
- A common language for all of us to adopt
The following logic model summarizes how implementation of the Strengthening Families™ approach leads to the outcomes we are working toward: strengthened families, optimal child development and reduced likelihood of child abuse and neglect.