Community support is an influential factor in the levels of resilience children develop, and most communities already offer at least a basic set of services. Most community services are crisis oriented, reactively addressing the immediate needs of people who are faced with problems which have already occurred, rather than working proactively with prevention strategies to reduce the need for intervention. Similarly, many services concentrate on a family's weaknesses rather than their strengths. Because of the growing need for community services, decreased funding and the limitations of existing staff, services are generally provided to families and children rather than developed in collaboration with them. It is far easier to make relatively rapid decisions about what is best for children and families than to spend the considerable time and energy it takes to learn about the complexities of their problems, and what their own goals and objectives might be.
Availability is another critical flaw in the delivery of community services.
In some cases, the services people need are simply not available. For others, even if the services are available they may be inaccessible. And there is no single agency responsible for helping them navigate their way through the maze, either. For still others, the services offered may be unacceptable either because the services contradict their cultural values or because acceptance of the services make the families feel that they have lost control of their lives. One of the most serious yet most easily remedied ways community service programs fall short is that they function independent of one another.