Family Strengthening Definition
The phrase family strengthening is a broad term and can mean many things to human service organizations. Incorporating family strengthening into its civic engagement work, the Alliance for Children and Families begins to define the term around improving lives and bolstering the chances of success for children, families and communities. Family types are defined as those:
- With low income/low wealth
- In neighborhoods of concentrated poverty
- With additional barriers (family structure, low literacy, limited English proficiency, criminal records, dislocation from community development)
- Whose functioning is compromised by chronic health/mental health issues (addiction, parental depression)
- Where child removed by child welfare/juvenile justice system
- Where caretaker removed by corrections/immigration
In addition to the family-types identified above, family strengthening is a two-generation approach, working to strengthen lives of both children and adult caregivers. This component includes:
- Stabilizing and strengthening the economic conditions of an adult generation of workers
- Equipping their children with the knowledge, skills, experiences, values and opportunities necessary to participate in the mainstream economy when they grow up
- Improving the quality of the places in which our most vulnerable children and families live.
(Source: Annie E. Casey Foundation)
