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Frequently Asked Questions: Supporting & Preserving Families

• Questions and answers
• General resources
• Frequently requested information

Questions and answers

• What are family support services?
  Family support services are community-based services that assist and support parents in their role as caregivers. Family support services promote parental competence and healthy child development by helping parents enhance their strengths and resolve problems that can lead to child maltreatment, developmental delays, and family disruption.
  
  
• What are family preservation services?
  Family preservation services are short-term, family-focused, and community-based services designed to help families cope with significant stresses or problems that interfere with their ability to nurture their children. The goal of family preservation services is to maintain children with their families or to reunify them, whenever it can be done safely.

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General resources

• Family Preservation and Support: Family Preservation Programs
• What Is Family Preservation and Why Does It Matter?
• Key Program Elements: Family Support Services (PDF - 184 KB)
• Family-Centered Practice
• Philosophy and Goals of Family-Centered Practice

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Frequently requested information

• Information Packet: Family Preservation and Preventive Programs—Alternatives to Foster Care Placement (PDF - 88 KB)
  Overview of family preservation services and other programs designed to prevent child maltreatment and foster care placement.
  
  
• Information Packet: Promoting Safe and Stable Families (PDF - 89 KB)
  Reviews Federal legislation and policies relating to family support and family preservation programs and identifies principles that have been found to be effective in family strengthening, preservation, and reunification.
  
  
• The Shifting Policy Impact of Intensive Family Preservation Services
  Traces the evolution and impact of intensive family preservation services on State and national policy during the past 20 years.
  
  
• Core Competencies in the Field of Family Support: Essential Knowledge and Skills for Parent Educators, Home Visitors, and Other Professionals Who Work With Families
  Identifies specific skills and knowledge needed by all family support workers and by advanced workers, as well as suggested topics for continued learning.
  
  
• Primary Prevention and Child Abuse: Fostering Supportive Environments for Families (PDF - 86 KB)
  Discusses child abuse prevention and identifies strategies.
  
  
• The Use of Intensive Family Preservation Services With Post-Adoptive Families (PDF - 464 KB)
  Examines the effectiveness of intensive family preservation services when working with adoptive families after finalization.

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Updated on February 4, 2008