Improve Grade-Level Reading

Research the Strengthening Families Initiative

Currently, the Strengthening Families approach is being applied in 36 states. The Strengthening Families Initiative is a research- informed approach to build five Protective Factors in children and families:

· Parental resilience. The ability to cope and bounce back from all types of challenges.

· Social connections. Friends, family members, neighbors, and other members of a community who provide emotional support and concrete assistance to parents.

· Knowledge of parenting and child development. Accurate information about raising young children and appropriate expectations for their behavior.

· Concrete support in times of need. Financial security to cover day-to-day expenses and unexpected costs that come up from time to time, access to formal supports like TANF and Medicaid, and informal support from social networks.

· Children’s social and emotional development. A child’s ability to interact positively with others and communicate his or her emotions effectively.

Research shows that these factors reduce the incidence of child abuse and neglect, by providing parents with tools they need to parent effectively, even under stress. These protective factors are not just about preventing child abuse. They are the same factors that produce optimal child development.

The factors provide a research base for a range of family outreach and support components of any program, home visits (like Parents As Teachers), family resource centers, family service workers for Head Start and other child care programs. By building relationships with families, outreach workers can recognize signs of stress and build families’ Protective Factors with timely, effective help. [i]

This comprehensive approach shows great promise because:

The Protective Factors have been demonstrated to work and are informed by extensive, rigorous research.

· Activities that build the Protective Factors can be built at little cost into programs and systems that already exist in every state, such as early childhood education and child welfare.

· Strengthening Families has widespread support from social science researchers, state child welfare officials, early childhood practitioners, and policy experts.