“Within each person lies a bone-deep longing for freedom, self-respect, hope, and the chance to make an important contribution to one’s family, community, and the world...No government program can help families become self-reliant, integrated members of their communities unless it is built on a recognition of the power of this bone-deep longing for freedom, self-respect, hope and the chance to contribute.” — Claire Forest (Christiann Dean), creator of the FDC Curriculum
Family Development redirects the way health, education, and human services are delivered to families. It moves systems away from crisis-oriented, fragmented services toward an empowerment, support-based approach to working with families. Family Development emphasizes strength-based partnerships, mutual respect, interagency collaboration, and family-centered services.
Family
Support America
Family Support Is ...
A set of beliefs and an approach to strengthening and empowering families
and communities so that they can foster the optimal development of children,
youth, and adult family members.
A type of grassroots, community-based program designed to prevent family
problems by strengthening parent-child relationships and providing whatever
parents need in order to be good nurturers and providers. These programs
have been proliferating across the country since the 1970s.
A shift in human services delivery that encourages public and private
agencies to work together and to become more preventive, responsive, flexible,
family-focused, strengths-based, and holistic—and thus more effective.
A movement for social change that urges all of us—policymakers,
program providers, parents, employers—to take responsibility for
improving the lives of children and families. The family support movement
strives to transform our society into caring communities of citizens that
put children and families first and that ensure that all children and
families get what they need to succeed.
68.248.104.69/content/home.htm
Family
Development Association of New York State
fdanys.org
MidSouth
Regional Family Development Credential Program (Missouri, Kansas
and Arkansas)
web1.umkc.edu/mofdc/whatis/default.asp
California
Family Development Credential Program
hdys.communitycollege.org/fdp/index.htm
Children
Now
Children Now is a national organization for people who care about children
and want to ensure that they are the top public policy priority.Children
Now is taking a strong leadership role in improving the health and education
of children.
http://childrennow.org/
Early
Childhood Research & Practice (ECRP) sponsored by the Early
Childhood and Parenting (ECAP) Collaborative at the University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign, covers topics related to the development, care, and
education of children from birth to approximately age 8. ECRP emphasizes
articles reporting on practice-related research and development, and on
issues related to practice, parent participation, and policy. ECRP also
includes articles and essays that present opinions and reflections, and
letters to the editor. Beginning with the Spring 2004 issue (Vol. 6, No.
1), ECRP is a fully bilingual (English and Spanish) journal.
ecrp.uiuc.edu
KIDS
COUNT
A national and state-by-state statistical effort to track the status of
children in the United States sponsored by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
aecf.org/kidscount
Research
on Benefits of Early Childhood Education
nwrel.org/scpd/sirs/3/topsyn3.html
Center
for Nonviolent Education and Parenting
nonviolentparenting.com
National
Foster Parent Association
National organization dedicated to supporting foster parents/families,
a consistently strong voice on behalf of all children.
nfpainc.org
Zero
to Three
Dedicated to the Healthy Development of Infants & Toddlers.
zerotothree.org
All Free Things
A searchable directory of FREEBIES including games,
screensavers, music, clip art, webmaster resources, and more.