Review Strengthening Families
What we’ve already learned
Aligning practice with developmental science (ACES)
•Strengthening Families is a research-based approach that can help systems, programs and workers align their practice with what we know about developmental science.
•Brain development research points us to early childhood (the first three years in particular) and adolescence as critical periods of development. Strengthening Families focuses on early childhood while the parallel Youth Thrive initiative focuses on protective and promotive factors for youth •Looking at early childhood in particular, Strengthening Families emphasizes the importance of nurturing and responsive relationships with caregivers
•A fast growing body of research underscores the effects of traumatic experiences on children and youth – effects that can carry into the rest of a young person’s life. We know now that the presence of a buffering adult can be critical in helping children come through stressful experiences without negative effects on their development. But we also know that typical system responses to children’s traumatic experiences can exacerbate those negative effects – such as removal from the home, or punishment for “misbehavior” when children react to their experiences.
•Strengthening Families helps professionals shift their practice to better align with developmental science, to be more responsive to trauma, pay attention to developmental issues and support parents and caregivers in nurturing the children in their care.
Building protective and promotive factors, not just reducing risk (6 Protective Factors)
- Promotive Factors: conditions or attributes of individuals, families, communities, or the larger society that actively enhance well-being
- Protective Factors: conditions or attributes of individuals, families, communities, or the larger society that mitigate or eliminate risk
What we’ll cover in this section
A changed relationship with parents (Family/Youth- Driven)
- Strengthening Families represents a shift for many systems that are designed to serve children. Programs and service providers in these systems sometimes see parents as irrelevant to their work, or worse, as obstacles to achieving the outcomes we all want for children. But we know that children grow up in families, not programs – and we cannot achieve good outcomes for children without engaging their parents as partners.
- Working from a protective factors approach, workers and service providers will support parents’ ability to parent effectively and involve them as partners in achieving good outcomes for children. Programs also have a role to play in engaging parents in mutually supportive relationships that build protective factors.
- Programs that work in this way will also engage parents as partners, leaders and decision-makers at the program level.
- Parents who have had positive experiences shaping the programs that serve their children can then be engaged in helping design systems and policies that work for children and families.
An approach – not a model, a program or a curriculum (Strength-Based)
“This isn’t something you can go and do- but something that is added or enhances current program components.”
- Strengthening Families is not a scripted, structured program or model designed to be implemented in a specific setting.
- It is not an “evidence-based program” but rather, an evidence-informed approach that can be adapted to many different settings and service delivery models.
- It is an approach that can be applied in any setting that serves young children and their families. Strengthening Families is implemented through small but significant changes in how professionals interact with families. It is not parallel to, but integrated into existing practice.
- Cross-sector implementation is core to the approach. Strengthening Families brings together program-level and system-level partners from multiple sectors that serve children and families – providing a common language and set of outcomes to work toward.