Strengthening Families™

Strengthening Families™ is a research-based, cost-effective strategy to increase family stability, enhance child development and reduce child abuse and neglect. It is based on engaging families, programs, and communities in building five key Protective Factors:

  • Parental resilience

  • Social connections

  • Knowledge of parenting and child development

  • Concrete support in times of need

  • Social and emotional competence of children

Using the Strengthening Families™ framework, more than 30 states are shifting policy and practice to help programs working with children and families focus on protective factors.

 
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Family-Centered Coaching

Developed with the support of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Family-Centered Coaching is a set of strategies, tools, and resources that help human service organizations reinvent how they engage with, and help, families that are experiencing poverty. Rooted in an understanding of the institutional forces that prevent families from moving forward, Family-Centered Coaching equips staff with the mindset, tools, and skills to work with families holistically towards financial wellness.

Mindset: family-led & centered: Every family brings strengths, and every family knows best what it needs. Our method uses techniques from goal-setting, motivational interviewing, and strength-based case management to help coaches work with parents to address the needs of the whole family, when and how they need support.

Approach: trauma-informed & fluid: Using a flexible approach that helps coaches establish trust and rapport through a parent’s progressive stages of change, FCC recognizes that families need different things at different times. Instead of focusing solely on setting goals, it allows coaches to address unique situations and life crises as they come up.

Training: experiential training to internalize new skills: Over three days, senior coaching trainers bring current and emerging foundational research to life through interactive role-playing, discussions, and live feedback. Through this transformative experience, coaches internalize Family-Centered Coaching strategies and are able to bring new skills into practice easily.

 
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Standards of Quality

The nationally-adopted Standards of Quality for Family Strengthening & Support are designed to be used by all stakeholders – public departments, foundations, networks, community-based organizations, and families - as a tool for planning, providing and assessing quality practice. The Standards have created a common language across different kinds of Family Strengthening and Family Support programs such as Family Resource Centers, home visiting programs, and child development programs.

The Standards uniquely integrate and operationalize the Principles of Family Support Practice and the Strengthening Families Framework and Approach with its research-based evidence-informed 5 Protective Factors. The vision is that their implementation will help ensure that families are supported and strengthened through quality practice.

The revised version of the Standards, issued in March 2021, reflects an enhanced focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion and addressing community conditions that impact families’ healthy development