At Families Plus, the family selects what support will be helpful to them and their child. These supports come from two sets of services supported by Families Plus:
Health and Community
Families Plus Support Components
Health Component
Psychologists and
Parent Partners
Parent Partners
A licensed psychologist or professional counselor, along with a Parent Partner, is assigned to each child and their family. They consult with parents, caregivers, teachers, coaches, mentors, and volunteers. They organize the community and the health care system to step in early and stay involved with a complete package of support that holds promise to bring the child through into healthy, educated, and productive young adults. They also work with physicians and dental health care providers to ensure no health care needs go unmet.
innovative mental health care program
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A mental health professional designs a plan for each child to improve a problem behavior. The therapist then works with the parents and child, mentors, teachers, and other supporters to work through the problem. Therapists also help mentors and other volunteers cope with the stress of some family situations. The strength of our model and its impact are illustrated by dramatic measurable changes in the well-being of children as they progress through the program.
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addressing complex needs
- A licensed mental health care professional assigned to each child and his/her family to coordinate services and consult with parents, teachers and volunteers.
- Therapy for behavioral problems or emotional distress by a mental health professional
- Complete, annual mental health evaluation
- Assistance, if needed, to access dental checkups twice a year and follow up dental care
- Assistance, if needed, to get a well-child checkup and follow up medical care
- Help for the family to prevent the child from engaging in substance use and abuse
Community Component
Mentors, Volunteers, and Donors
It truly takes a village to raise a healthy child. A sense of community is developed around each Families Plus child and family. The lives of our families are often chaotic and we strive to provide a sense of security. Our staff screens and trains volunteers to help parents provide a highly enriched world for their child.
community support
- Whole volunteer families (the mentoring family) to be permanent mentors to a child
- Tutors to help improve grades that are below a C
- Grade monitoring with help for parents to see that their child’s homework is done
- Assistance to parents in working out problems at school
- Tag-along mentors to work with children on skill-building
- Enrollment fees for sports programs, youth clubs, lessons, and summer camps
- Help to find transportation to doctors’ appointments, sports practices, etc.
- Help cover activity costs for sports, music lessons, and other extracurricular skill-building activities.
- Respite care for the child during crisis
- Assistance to parents in advocating for their child's needs
- Goods and services that the family needs (e.g., rides, washers, dryers, beds)
- Mothers and Fathers-day gifts for the children to give and to learn appreciation
- Assistance to the family when in crisis
- Gifts during Christmas
Mentor support
While living at home with the benefits of being with their own family, Families Plus children also spend time with their mentoring family to experience stability, structure, warmth, and supportive expectations for their behavior and success. Volunteer “mini-mentors” contribute skill-building activities, such as painting or athletic pursuits. Because parents in difficult circumstances and without resources often do not have a stable friend who is there when they need someone, both the mentoring family and the mini-mentor provide that needed support.
Our mentors are a crucial part of our wraparound model. They are volunteers in the community that rise to the occasion.
Our mentors are a crucial part of our wraparound model. They are volunteers in the community that rise to the occasion.
- Community volunteers that offer to have one child into their home and activities as requested by the parents. These volunteers give the parents a break and provide additional experiences for learning and growing
- Can be a whole family with children in the home; an empty nest family; a single adult
- Tend to form healthy relationships with the child and be available for the child indefinitely
- Understand the overwhelming importance of the child’s parents or family caregivers to his or her development
- Offer their time and caring with no compensation other than seeing a child develop well
- Encouraged to have children tag along with their activities and to offer what they can easily give as far as time
