Family is the center of a child’s life, a child’s first and most influential teacher. Strengthening Families is an effort to help families give their children what they need to thrive. It’s about taking advantage of your unique strengths as a caregiver and ensuring you have the skills and supports you need to make sure your child — and your family as a whole — is safe, secure and happy.

Five Protective Factors for Families

What is a Protective Factor?

A protective factor is a characteristic that makes a parent, child or family more likely to thrive and less likely to experience a negative outcome. It may be helpful to think of protective factors as characteristics that help children and families thrive and help balance any risk factors they may have in their lives.

The Strengthening Families Protective Factors Framework is built around five protective factors

Parental Resilience

Resilience is the process of managing stress and functioning well even when things are difficult. All parents manage different amounts of stress in their daily lives. There are two different components of parental resilience – the ability to cope with stress in general and the ability to parent well in times of stress.
When asked, parents have described this protective factor as:

  • I will continue to have courage during stress or after a crisis.
  • Resilience = Courage
  • Resilience means being strong AND flexible.

Social Connections

Sometimes being a parent can be very stressful. It’s easier to handle parenting challenges when we have positive relationships with family, friends and neighbors. Having a network of caring people in our life helps us feel secure, confident and empowered and helps us become better parents.

When asked, parents have described this protective factor as:

  • I have people who know me (friends) and at least one person who supports my parenting.
  • Social Connections = Community
  • Parents need friends.

Knowledge of Parenting and Child Development

By learning what our children need to do their best, we can give them the best start in life, enjoy parenting more and build strong, healthy families.

When asked, parents have described this protective factor as:

  • I stay curious and am responsive to what my child needs.
  • Knowledge of Parenting and Child Development = Health
  • Being a great parent is part natural and part learned.

Concrete Supports in Times of Need

All families have times of need, whether it’s the birth of a new child, raising a child with special needs, the loss of a job, finding academic supports or dealing with mental illness, substance abuse or domestic violence. However, knowing where to get help in the community can make things much easier.

When asked, parents have described this protective factor as:

  • My family can access basic needs when they need it.
  • Concrete Supports in Time of Need = Freedom
  • We all need help sometimes.

Social and Emotional Competence of Children

Helping children develop social-emotional competence allows them to manage their emotions and build healthy relationships with their peers and adults. As parents, the things we do to model and help our children learn these skills make a huge difference. Fostering children’s ability to talk, regulating their behavior and interacting positively with others is key to their development.

When asked, parents have described this protective factor as:

  • My child feels loved, a sense of belonging and can get along with others.
  • Social and Emotional Competence in Children = Compassion
  • Social and emotional competence in children means helping your children communicate and give them the love and respect they need.

Building Community

Families as Advocates and Leaders

The Strengthening Families Protective Factors Framework encourages parents and professionals to work together as partners and to acknowledge parents as the leaders in their families.

All parents are advocates and leaders in the lives of their children. They advocate for their children’s well-being and, as their children grow, they develop as leaders and as parents. Families can be advocates and leaders at home, in their children’s schools, in their neighborhood, in their community or within the larger society. Their advocacy and leadership may be far-reaching, shaping the development of children, programs, schools and other families for years to come.

Family advocates may speak up for themselves or others to address needs, clarify rights and aid in problem-solving. Parents may advocate for their own children or join with others to represent the needs of many children. Family leaders use and develop resources and services to strengthen their families. They speak and act from those experiences.

Parent Cafés

Parent Cafés are safe spaces where parents and caregivers talk about the challenges and celebrations of family life. The Cafés provide opportunities for reflection and peer-to-peer learning, exploration of personal strengths and the Protective Factors and opportunities to use experiences to help strengthen their families.

Cafés are structured discussions and offer an approach that engages and affirms parents as leaders. Further information about the Parent Café process can be found on the Be Strong Families website.

Parent Café Training Institutes taking place in Pennsylvania

In Pennsylvania, local teams consisting of family members and/or organizational staff may apply to attend a Be Strong Parent Café Training Institute. For more information please contact Pennsylvania Strengthening Families.

Resources for Families

The following are resources and interactive tools that may be helpful for parents and caregivers to better understand the Strengthening Families Protective Factor Framework and help build protective factors within their families:

In Pennsylvania

COMPASS is an online tool for Pennsylvanians to apply for many health and human service programs and manage benefit information.

Pennsylvania 2-1-1 is a free, accessible, 3-digit telephone number available to everyone, giving residents easy access to health, housing and human services information in one place.

Pennsylvania’s Early Learning Resource Centers (ELRCs) provide a single point-of-contact for families, early learning service providers, and communities to gain information and access services that support high-quality child care and early learning programs. ELRCs can help families find the best child care for their children. They offer links to services like:

  • Child Care Works, Pennsylvania’s child care subsidy program
  • Keystone STARS, Pennsylvania’s quality improvement program for child care providers
  • PA Pre-K Counts and Head Start
  • Early Intervention Services

Pennsylvania’s Promise for Children is a campaign to help caregivers make good choices about their children’s early learning and choose quality early learning programs that are right for their families.

Early Learning GPS (Guiding Parents Smoothly) provides helpful resources to you and your infant, toddler or preschool-age child.

Pennsylvania’s Early Intervention program provides support and services to families with children, from birth to age five, with developmental delays and disabilities.

The Pennsylvania Department of Education’s Office for Safe Schools Bullying Prevention webpage contains resources for parents, educators, and professionals serving children and youth in school and out-of-school settings.

Pennsylvania Department of Health’s Special Kids Network Helpline assists providers and parents of children and youth with special health care needs access to local services and supports.

Help in PA – Resources for Your Family’s Health is a resource page from the Pennsylvania Department of Health for pregnant women, infants, children, children with special health care needs and their families. Click on a specific county or view the Statewide Resources PDF to access a variety of resources.

Safe Kids Pennsylvania, through the Pennsylvania Department of Health, promotes the prevention of childhood injuries in Pennsylvania through education, collaboration and advocacy. The website provides information and resources on car/road safety, home safety, sports/play safety and seasonal safety.

Pennsylvania Family Support Alliance provides education, support and training programs to make Pennsylvania safe for children.

National Organizations

American Academy of Pediatrics is an organization of pediatricians committed to the optimal physical, mental and social health and well-being for all infants, children, adolescents and young adults. Visit HealthyChildren.org, AAP’s parenting website.

Zero to Three’s mission is to ensure that all babies and toddlers have a strong start in life.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Essentials for Parenting webpage will help parents of toddlers and preschoolers handle some common parenting challenges and provide resources for parents of children of all ages.

Center on the Social Emotional Foundations for Early Learning (CSEFEL) is focused on promoting the social-emotional development and school readiness of young children birth to age five. Visit the Family Tools section of the website.