Promoting a Community Approach to Strengthening Families
According to the Center for the Study of Social Policy, “collaboration across multiple systems is central to the Strengthening Families approach.” Because this is an approach rather than a model or specific curriculum, Strengthening Families™ can be applied by practitioners in a wide variety of systems that serve families. In Pennsylvania, members of the Strengthening Families Leadership Team represent a variety of types of programs including early childhood education, family centers, home visiting programs, parent education, the K-12 system, public health departments, local nonprofit groups, child welfare and more.
The Strengthening Families™ approach can provide a shared language for how we support families in a strengths-based way and create environments where they can build protective factors. For example, how each program or agency connects families with concrete supports in times of need may vary, but all can agree to do so in a way that maintains family dignity, reduces stigma and honors both their strengths and opportunities for growth.
Explore the links below to learn how the Strengthening Families™ approach might look in communities.
National Organizations that Incorporate the Strengthening Families Approach
- The Center for the Study of Social Policy’s (CSSP) website section Strengthening Families Collaboration contains resources about messaging and community-level work. The Strengthening Families Systems section explores how this approach can guide the systems that impact families and children. CSSP also provides a scripted curriculum, which contains the module Taking a Community Approach to Strengthening Families.
- In the Building Healthy Communities section of their website, the Children’s Trust Fund Alliance provides tips, resources and examples of how communities around the United States have utilized the protective factors and a strengths-based approach to work with families to improve community well-being and prevent child maltreatment.
- Child Welfare Information Gateway provides a variety of resources that explore community approaches to building protective factors. Each year they publish a Prevention Resource Guide with articles, tips and resources for community members, families and practitioners. Protective Factors Approaches in Child Welfare examines how several types of protective factors frameworks (including Strengthening Families) are incorporated into child welfare systems around the United States.
Other Resources that Support a Community Effort to Support Families and Prevent Child Maltreatment
- The Center for Schools and Communities (CSC) produced a Community Asset Mapping Series which covers how this community development tool can identify existing resources in the community by involving its members. The Family Support Team at CSC also hosted a webinar on this topic.
- The Centers for Disease Control has a resource called Making the Case: Engaging Businesses,which explores how programs that support families and promote public health can partner with businesses to prevent child maltreatment and promote family well-being.
- The Community Tool Box is a resource available from the Center for Community Health and Development at the University of Kansas. The Community Tool Box includes a plethora of free resources that support community development and social change efforts.
- Center for the Study of Social Policy (n.d.) Strengthening Families as a platform for collaboration. Retrieved from: https://cssp.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Strengthening-Families-as-a-Platform-for-Collaboration.pdf