Baltimore Rising, Inc. - Family Strengthening
Why the Need for Family Strengthening
Heads of households in Baltimore City are made up of single mothers, single fathers, grandparents, and coupled parents who are in need of support to ensure a healthy, stable environment for their families. Preventative measures are essential to preventing crime and domestic violence and ensuring that families are given the skills and resources they need to thrive.
Baltimore Rising and its team of therapists and mentors are focused and committed to strengthening the family as a whole. We are in the business of investing in long-term partnerships that strengthen families in the communities. If we invest in the children and their families today, we can have a better community tomorrow.
The Family Strengthening Principle
The principle of family strengthening utilizes a skills-based model. Strong communication skills are used as the basis for exploring and clarifying feedback and decision-making, which are essential to being able to capably deliver the model. What makes the family strengthening model unique is that the focus is placed on every member of the family, and everyone is given a fair opportunity to engage in the discussion.
Family strengthening is a framework for service delivery that is rooted in the following principles:
- life begins in the family, an institution that connects its members to each other and connects the family to the community;
- within a family strengthening meeting, conflicts within the family can be mediated, and children, adolescents, and young adults can discuss and get support for finding peaceful solutions to issues related to gang violence, bullying, and retaliatory violence. In turn, this type of interaction can have a positive long term impact on families and individuals;
- family is the most fundamental factor influencing the lives and outcomes of its members;
- strong families are essential to the development of individual human potential;
- family-focused policies and services intentionally address the needs of the family as a whole or collective unit instead of serving only individuals, thus helping the individual to be successful in contributing to the context of family and community;
- training in the family strengthening model increases the capacity of systems and agencies to deliver services that not only recognize and acknowledge the role of families, but also are based on the strengths of the family;
- strengthened and empowered families build on their capacities to be the leaders in nurturing their members and the communities in which they live.
Fri. August 29, 2008