	Child and Family Development and Support Services

Introduction

Administration and Management

Service Delivery Administration Standards

Service Standards

PA-CFD 10: Family Support Services

Families are linked to formal services and supports, and identify and use an informal support network.

NA The program model is not designed to provide supportive services.

PA-CFD 10.01

Families are helped to reduce social isolation and develop positive connections with others by:

maintaining and strengthening their relationships with others within the family, including the extended family; and
developing and expanding their informal networks, including connections with friends, neighbors, and community members.

PA-CFD 10.02

Families are helped to access community services that meet basic needs and help them care for their children, including, as appropriate:

food and nutrition services;
health services;
housing services, including transitional living arrangements;
transportation services;
financial assistance;
child care; and
respite care.

PA-CFD 10.03

Families are helped to access community services that promote self-sufficiency and positive life course development, including, as appropriate:

educational and literacy services, including special education;
vocational and employment services, including career development and job placement; and
parent education services and support groups.

PA-CFD 10.04

Families are helped to access community services that address needs and problems that may impede effective parenting, including, as appropriate:

counseling services;
mental health services;
services for substance use conditions; and
domestic violence services.

Research Note: Some home visiting research suggests that the presence of mental health, substance use, and domestic violence problems may limit the effectiveness of interventions intended to reduce the incidence of child maltreatment and emphasizes the importance of ensuring that providers are prepared to: (1) recognize the presence of these risk factors, and (2) respond by linking families with all needed services.

QUICK JUMP TO


	PURPOSE: Families participating in Child and Family Development and Support Services delivered through strong community partnerships gain new competencies, improve child health and well-being, improve family functioning, and make family-community connections.

RELATED FILES


	FAMILY Two or more people who consider themselves family and who assume obligations, functions, and responsibilities generally essential to healthy family life. Child care and child socialization, income support, long-term care, and other caregiving are among the functions of family life. The definition of "family" will rest with an individual's indication of who plays a family member role, including current or former foster family, adoptive family, extended family members, fictive kin, or significant others. Organizations that believe family is the central constellation in a child's life, and that family attachments are of primary importance for human development, will strive to work with professional staff to develop a common understanding of "family."


	SERVICE One or more organization-operated programs or activities that have a common general objective and deploy the organization's material and human resources in a planned and systematic manner. An organization that publicly promotes or identifies itself in writing as offering a service, is licensed to deliver a service, assigns personnel and/or space to a service, or allocates financial resources to a service is considered to offer that service.


	COMMUNITY A specific group of people living in the same locality and who may share a common culture, values, and norms. Communities can also be defined by race, religion, ethnicity, age, occupation, political status, tribal affiliation, interest in particular problems or outcomes, or other common bonds. The term "community" encompasses worksites, schools, tribes, residential neighborhoods, business districts, recreational areas, and health and human service sites.


	LINKED The means by which individuals access services that may or may not be provided by the organization itself. These terms are used interchangeably when individuals are linked to services either directly or by referral. See also CONNECTED.


	PROGRAM A system of services offered by an organization. For example, an organization providing a mental health service may offer several mental health programs to different populations, e.g., a mental health program for adolescent teens. The word "program" can be used interchangeably with the word "service" or to describe specific programs.


	ISOLATION The practice of separating a person from others and placing him/her in a monitored, non-locked or "quiet" room in order to calm the person. A person in isolation is physically prevented from leaving the designated space or room where s/he is placed. For purposes of COA accreditation, isolation is distinguished from TIME-OUT.


	RESEARCH For purposes of COA accreditation, all forms of internal or external research involving persons served except internal program evaluation and outcomes research, or educational projects performed by students and interns that are part of their professional training.