Editorial: What\u27s Good for Families?

In the midst of the debates in Washington, D.C. over the budget, health care, welfare, and foreign affairs, a central question remains unanswered ~ what is good for families? Part of the ongoing debate has included family preservation which has been both tauted as the solution for society\u27s ills and, simultaneously, as the cause. The reality, of course, is somewhere in between. Family preservation is a new and exciting approach for helping the most basic unit of our society, families, do their job. The principles which guide family preservation grow out of professional helping values and practice experience. Family preservation is a powerful approach to practice which puts the families we are trying to help at the center of the process, not as symptom bearers or dysfunctional systems, but as full partners. While family preservationists enter a family with their eyes wide open to help solve problems, sometimes very serious ones, most of their energy goes to finding strengths and resources in the family in order to meet its needs. It works! And thousands of families who have been helped, along with researchers and other practitioners, sing its praises

Editorial: The Impact of Welfare Reform on Families

On the horizon a huge wave is building, about to crash down on the poorest most hard pressed families in our country. The impact of welfare reform on families and on those who serve them will be profound The degree to which families and workers will be adversely affected is to date not fully understood. Yet as my son concluded, ...basically, if you are on welfare you had better win the lottery or learn to swim in the treacherous waters of poverty! (C. Sallee, personal communication, November, 1996). We are also informed by looking back at the Elizabethan Poor Laws of 1601 where we find the origin of welfare reform. Orphanages, the responsibility of relatives, poorhouses and awarding relief work to the lowest private sector bidder, all introduced in the beginning of the welfare state, are key components of the current reform. The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996 washes away the entitlements and rights created during this country\u27s greatest depression, leaving exposed the stark selfishness of the junk bond 1980\u27s

Editorial: Family Preservation: Collaboration and Teamwork

Tis the season of the National Basketball Association finals and the beginning of the Professional Women\u27s Basketball Association. The skills of collaboration and teamwork required to achieve the ballet of basketball is learned by players over a number of years. On school grounds everywhere, children are learning the techniques and skills necessary to play the game of basketball. Recently, I saw a coach on the sidelines screaming at a young player to make her free-throws, and if she missed, she would have to run laps. This reminded me of traditional services to families which threaten, or at best demand a certain level of performance of parents without providing any true coaching . I often watch our college coach work from a strengths perspective with the team on minute techniques such as the match-up defense and in-bounds plays. This is the approach that family preservation must employ with families, programs, and their communities

Family Preservation Services to At-Risk Families: A Macro Case Study

Although the literature has provided many critiques of research done on family preservation programs, these critiques have usually been limited to the studies \u27 assumptions, approach, or methodology. Because of the nature of these critiques, suggestions for future research in this field of practice have been scattered throughout the literature and have not benefited from a wider historical perspective. This paper examines the historical evolution of family preservation studies in child welfare and suggests future directions for research in the field. Among the suggestions the authors posit are (1) research questions should be framed by what we know about improvements in the lives of families and children served by family preservation programs; (2) future explorations should include areas that have received relatively little attention in current research, including the impact of organizational conditions on service fidelity and worker performance; (3) newer treatment models, particularly those that provide both intensive services during a crisis period and less intensive services for maintenance, should be tested; (4) data collection points in longitudinal studies should be guided by theory, and measures should change over time to reflect the theoretically expected changes in families; (5) complex measures of placement prevention and other measures that capture changes in family functioning, child well-being, and child safety, should be utilized to obtain a full picture of program effects; and (6) multiple informants should be used to provide data about program effectiveness. In addition, the authors will argue that the field should carefully consider the amount of change that should be expected from the service models delivered

Editorial: The Role of Families

Family Preservation is an approach based upon a set of principles and values that are integrated throughout all human systems and services. One of the key principles of Family Preservation is the family as an expert

Editorial

After 20 years of development, research and practice, it is time to begin a journal for family preservation and support. There are many exciting opportunities and issues for consumers and practitioners, as well! Last year most states became deeply invested in new collaboration activities across agency lines and with consumers. This is the high in which this journal was conceptualized. The need for a family preservation journal has also been made clear by the new Congress which wants to provide orphanages, or the Administration which has proposed residential group homes as the ultimate punishment for children who\u27s parents fail to get off of welfare in two years. These challenges make us more determined to redouble the efforts on behalf of all families and serve as a reminder that we need quality research, dedicated staff and political savvy to help families by employing family preservation values, knowledge and skills

Family Preservation and Support: Past, Present, and Future

As the family preservation and support movement evolves rapidly, this article overviews the past, present and future of this approach to policy and services. Building upon several decades of practice experience and research, and now federally funded, program designers are searching for ways to implement system wide change with an array of services all from a family focus, and strengths perspective. Critical issues facing the movement are discussed and a set of benchmarks to judge our future success is presented