Parenting Support

Families will require support when faced with problems they are unable to overcome on their own. Ideally support should come from existing networks, such as extended family, religious leaders, and neighbours. Where such support is not available or sufficient, additional family and community services are required. Such services are particularly important for kinship, foster and adoptive caretakers, and child headed households in order to prevent separation and address abuse and exploitation of children. It is also vital for children affected by HIV/AIDS and armed conflict, and those children living on the street.

Parenting support services are typically provided by social and community paraprofessionals. They focus on the individual needs of a child or family, in order to address and overcome issues which may lead to family separation or harm to the child. Such services should be provided within the context of case planning, beginning with an assessment of the child and family situation. By assessing the need first, an appropriate set of services can be offered, such as day care provision, parenting support, household economic strengthening, or psychosocial referral.

Day care services are particularly important for caretakers who are overwhelmed as a result of ill health, cannot provide adaquate care because they need to work, or who are isolated within the community. It provides an excellent opportunity for children to socialise with others, and can offer additional protection and education.

Parenting support provides caretakers with an opportunity to talk about their difficulties, and learn additional techniques for meeting their child’s developmental and relationship needs. It can enable caretakers to cope with behavioural problems, and address abusive parenting techniques, thereby reducing the need for family separation and improving the incidence of successful family reunification.

The literature in this section contains information on family support programmes for vulnerable children, including day care and parenting support.

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Trauma Responsive Child Welfare Systems

Virginia Strand and Ginny Sprang, 2018

This comprehensive reference offers a robust framework for introducing and sustaining trauma-responsive services and culture in child welfare systems.

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2018 Prevention Resource Guide: Keeping Children Safe and Families Strong in Supportive Communities

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Children’s Bureau - Office on Child Abuse and Neglect, Child Welfare Information Gateway, & the FRIENDS National Center for Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention, 2018

The 2018 Prevention Resource Guide was designed to support service providers as they work with families to promote child well-being and prevent child maltreatment.

“It's our children!” Exploring intersectorial collaboration in family centres

Ingunn Skjesol Bulling & Berit Berg - Child & Family Social Work, 2018

This paper presents the results of a qualitative study based on in‐depth interviews and participant observation in 3 Norwegian family centres.

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Parent-to-Parent Tips for Visits

Rise Magazine, 2018

This video from Rise Magazine features tips from parents who have had their children placed in foster care in the U.S. to other parents in the same situation on how to handle visits with their children in the care system.

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2018 Prevention Resource Guide: Keeping Children Safe and Families Strong in Supportive Communities

Children’s Bureau, Administration on Children, Youth and Families , 2018

This Resource Guide was developed to support service providers in their work with parents, caregivers, and their children to prevent child abuse and neglect and promote child and family well-being.

DOVCU Learning Brief 1: The effect of DOVCU’s integrated package of interventions on children and families at risk of separation

ChildFund International, 2018

This learning brief analyzes quantitative data from the first of the project’s stated objectives: examining the extent to which “Deinstitutionalization of Orphans and Vulnerable Children in Uganda” (DOVCU) project interventions decrease vulnerabilities for households and children at risk of separation.

Data Supplement to the 2017 Home Visiting Yearbook

James Bell Associates and the Urban Institute - National Home Visiting Resource Center, 2018

The Data Supplement to the 2017 Home Visiting Yearbook presents 2016 data on early childhood home visiting, a proven service delivery strategy that helps children and families thrive.

He awa whiria—braided rivers: Understanding the outcomes from Family Start for Māori

Fiona Cram, Min Vette, Moira Wilson, Rhema Vaithianathan, Tim Maloney, and Sarah Baird - New Zealand Council for Educational Research, 2018

This article explores how an approach based on he awa whiria can work in practice in the examination of the efficacy for Māori whānau (families) of the government’s intensive home-visiting programme, Family Start.

Capacity Development Plan for family support, foster care and adoption

Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation, 2018

This Plan presents key findings and 23 recommendations, sub-divided into short-term, medium-term and long-term actions, for an effective and efficient implementation of foster care, adoption and family support in Cambodia.

Doing Child-Protection Social Work with Parents: What Are the Barriers in Practice?

David Wilkins & Charlotte Whittaker - The British Journal of Social Work, 28 Dec 2017

For many social workers, participatory practice may seem an unachievable goal, particularly in the field of child protection. This paper discusses a significant programme of change in one London local authority, as part of which the authors undertook 110 observations of practice and provided more than eighty follow-up coaching sessions for workers.

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