The Prerequisite for School Readiness and Success. Each day in the U.S., hundreds of thousands of youngsters and their families face a multitude of problems associated with poverty, inadequate housing, poor health care and nutrition, difficulty in school, substance abuse, and neighborhood violence. Research indicates that these problems are interrelated at a variety of levels and in complex ways. Children and families at risk of one problem are increasingly at risk for a number of other problems, so much so that it often is difficult to distinguish between problem domains. To the extent that the dynamics of individual and social problems are interrelated, it makes sense that solutions to these problems must also be integrated and multidimensional.
Most services are crisis-oriented.
The social welfare system divides problems of children and families into rigid and distinct categories that fail to reflect the interrelated causes and solutions of the problems. There is a lack of functional communication between public and private sector agencies. Specialized agencies have difficulty crafting comprehensive solutions to complex problems. And finally, services are insufficiently funded. From the perspective of families, the services they need are often not available or not easily accessed.