What Is Family Support?

Family Support is not a single service, but rather a flexible constellation of services and supports which are customized to meet the varied and changing needs of each individual and family. A family support program recognizes and values the contribution of natural or informal supports such as extended family members, friends, neighbors, church congregations, and community organizations. In addition to utilizing natural supports, a family support program helps families to access existing formalized services such as the Child Care Assistance Program, Children's Miracle Network, Energy Assistance, Children's Special Health Services, Home-Based Services, etc.

A family support coordinator assists families to identify and access a broad range of natural and formalized services to meet their family's identified needs. One of the "hats" frequently worn by the family support coordinator is that of advocate on behalf of the family. The role of advocacy is best accomplished by someone independent of any agency or entity that might also be providing services for a family. Otherwise a family support coordinator might be placed in the precarious position of advocating for the desires of a family that are in direct conflict with the desires of one's employer.

Another very essential tenet of a family support program is a pool of flexible funds that can be utilized to purchase services or supports not otherwise available and to assist families with extraordinary expenses. For example, rather than establishing a formal program to provide for home modifications, the flexible funds might be utilized to purchase the needed modifications from private contractors. Another example would be assistance with extraordinary expenses such as the purchase of diapers or nutritional supplements. These are items that would be covered by funding mechanisms, i.e. Title XIX, if the child were in a residential placement but are not covered when the child lives with his/her family.

In lay terms family support is often conveyed in the phrase "whatever it takes" to maintain and strengthen the family's ability to provide care at home. Families receiving family support services often comment that it allows them to "just be a family".