What Strengthening Families Does:
• Benefits ALL families.
• Builds on family strengths, buffers risk, and promotes better outcomes.
• Builds on and can be integrated into existing programs, strategies, systems and community opportunities.
• Can be implemented through small but significant changes in everyday actions.
• Is grounded in research, practice and implementation knowledge.
Five Protective Factors are the foundation of the Strengthening Families Approach: parental resilience, social connections, concrete support in times of need, knowledge of parenting and child development, and social and emotional competence of children. Research studies support the common-sense notion that when these Protective Factors are well established in a family, the likelihood of child abuse and neglect diminishes. Research shows that these protective factors are also “promotive” factors that build family strengths and a family environment that promotes optimal child and youth development (from cssp.org).
How do we strengthen families in our region?
Families who attend activities and events at regional 5toONE Neighborhood Centers receive unique content specially crafted around the Strengthening Families framework. For example, for a segment on “Concrete Supports in Times of Need” we may work with a local partner to provide free dental screenings, dental health training for parents, and activities for children during playgroups.
Parents are invited to attend Family Coalition meetings to build understanding of regional Strengthening Families efforts and vocalize how they’d like to see these strengths in action based on what they see in their individual communities.
