Family support is not a program. It is a philosophy. Family support seeks to strengthen and empower families and communities so they can foster the optimal development of children, youth and adult family members. Family support involves a commitment to change all services by making them available to all families (not just those "at risk"). It emphasizes prevention — not crisis intervention — as the best means to help families.

Nebraska Family Resource Centers embrace the philosophy of family support. They promote multi-agency coordination and support programs that provide comprehensive direct services to Nebraska families through a variety of settings. The following Premises and Principles of Family Support were developed by Family Support America (formerly the Family Resource Coalition of America).

• Primary responsibility for the development and well-being of children lies within the family, and all segments of society must support families as they rear their children.
• Assuring the well-being of all families is the cornerstone of a healthy society and requires universal access to support programs and services.
• Children and families exist as part of an ecological system.
• Child-rearing patterns are influenced by parents’ understandings of child development and of their children’s unique characteristics, personal sense of competence, and cultural and community traditions and mores.
• Enabling families to build on their own strengths and capacities promotes the healthy development of children.
• The developmental processes that make up parenthood and family life create needs that are unique at each stage in the life span.
• Families are empowered when they have access to information and other resources and take action to improve the well-being of children, families and communities.

• Staff and families work together in relationships based on equality and respect.
• Staff enhance families’ capacity to support the growth and development of all family members — adults, youth and children.
• Families are resources to their own members, to other families, to programs, and to communities.
• Policies and practices affirm and strengthen families’ ethnic, racial and linguistic identities and enhance their ability to function in a multicultural society.
• Programs are embedded in their communities and contribute to the community-building process.
• Programs advocate with families for services and systems that are fair, responsive and accountable to the families served.
• Practitioners work with families to mobilize formal and informal resources to support family development.
• Programs are flexible and continually responsive to family and community issues.
• Principles of family support are modeled in all program activities, including planning, governance and administration.

A print copy of the FRCCN Family Support Module is available online or by calling 402.223.6040.

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