Areas of Work
Improving Outcomes For Families
Contact: Sam Stephens
Self-sufficient families are critical components of healthy communities. Further, families provide the most basic environment that supports the health and positive development of children. Families attend to the full range of development needs of children, including cultural and personal identity, spiritual and moral development, as well as those related to physical well-being and growth and cognitive and language development. Families are also the support system for many adults - parents, the elderly, and young people just starting out.
How families fare and their place in the community and society - based on the economic, educational and residential opportunities and constraints that they face - affect the life options and pathways for their children and for other family members. Therefore, it is important to help families, and their adult members, develop the skills and capacities that will contribute to economic and social stability, and to help communities and systems be responsive to different family needs and circumstances and overcome institutional and other barriers to the development and support of strong families.
Strong families pass on values and strategies for living that can protect their children from the negative influences of poverty, racism, neighborhood violence and weak institutions such as poorly performing schools. Families can also be strong advocates for change within their communities, creating the demand for better schools, safer neighborhoods, and more responsive public services. In many ways, families are the building blocks of successful community efforts to improve outcomes for both children and adults, both in their private roles within the family and in their formally or informally organized collective efforts on behalf of children and other family members.
While we know that strong families can exist in many different environments, strengthening all families and mobilizing their efforts requires attention and support. CAPD has been involved in family support efforts in a number of ways, including assisting in bringing parents and families to the table in community initiatives, evaluating family support programs, and developing approaches to strengthen parent involvement and leadership within community initiatives.
Related Web Sites:
- Chapin Hall
- The Child and Family Policy Center
- Child Trends
- Families and Work Institute
- Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics
- Kids Count/City Kids Count
- National Alliance for Hispanic Health
- National Black Child Development Institute
