According to the Family Resource Coalition, a national organization monitoring family resources and family support programs, at least 15 states have implemented statewide family support initiatives to date. Regardless of whether or not family support does in fact represent such a paradigm shift, there are a number of salient differences in family support models in contrast to traditional, deficit-based models. First, family support services are often more comprehensive than focused on a single problem and, at the same time, involve families in more intensive relationships with fewer service providers. In addition, family governance, the process through which parents influence the kinds of activities conducted by family support programs, is critical to family support programming. Although not every parent is immediately receptive to the increased responsibility that goes along with family governance, structured group experiences, facilitated by parents with a greater affinity for leadership roles, are often successful in drawing such families into the process of collaboration.
Family support embraces a wide spectrum of approaches to strengthening family functioning.
The structured experiences with natural leaders in the community are empowering because they offer opportunities for the unlearning of dependency based belief systems that have been reinforced by past experiences with traditional services. Family systems models are highly compatible with family support because of their ecological, developmental perspective. Behavioral parent training and communication skills training have been used to build on the existing strengths of families by giving information about child development and teaching parents alternatives to physical punishment. Regardless of theoretical orientation, family support practices are based on the fundamental assumption that interpersonal growth can occur throughout a lifetime, especially when families have access to social support networks that can buffer the ordinary, and extraordinary, stresses of living. Another important feature of family support is the recognition that, while all families share commonalities, effective interventions must accommodate the needs of individual families.