Michigan has a very successful family preservation program that has been working for a number of years, We must be real clear about the goals of family preservation. The goal of family preservation programs is to enable children and youth to remain safely with their families. It is incorrect to suggest, as some have, that family preservation is about keeping children in unsafe homes. That is nonsense. That is not what family preservation is about.
Family preservation is about ensuring that children and youth can remain safely in their own homes.
That is what it is about. Trained caseworkers are on the scene in the home within 24 hours of referral. Services are provided in the home on a daily basis, where caseworkers can monitor danger signals, and work with parents and children to limit any threat of violence. I spent a whole day in the Bronx, where the home builders program was running a program with families. There are no more complicated situations than those that exist in New York City and in an urban area such as Chicago, which are complicated by drugs, AIDS, and crazy things that we would rather families did not have to deal with.