Welcome
MISSION
The mission of the National Family Support Network is to promote positive outcomes for all children, families, and communities by leveraging the collective impact of state networks and championing quality family support and strengthening practices and policies.
EVENTS
Save the Date: May 23 National Forum
The National Forum is an interactive and free virtual event, designed for stakeholders working at the national, state, and local systems and policy levels, will provide the annual progress report on the Blueprint for the Development of Strong Networks of Family Resource Centers and illustrate how participants can support its successful implementation. More than 600 people registered for last year’s event, and 100% of participants rated it as helpful in informing their work.
Schedule
1:15-2:30pm ET - Family Resource Center Virtual Tours
2:45-5:00pm ET – Main Program & Opportunity to Connect with State FRC Networks
Save the Date: 2024 Virtual Together for Families Conference
The biennial Together for Families Conference is a unique virtual event that connects various stakeholders from across the globe in the Family Support and Strengthening Field to focus on best and promising practice for supporting families’ advancement. The conference is held Tuesday-Thursday the week after Canadian Thanksgiving/Indigenous Peoples' Day/Columbus Day every even year. The next Conference, therefore, will be October 22-24, 2024.
Call for Proposals for Together for Families Conference
Interested to connect with colleagues internationally to share ideas and showcase your valuable work - without having to book a flight or dust off your passport? The call for proposals for the upcoming biennial Together for Families Conference is now open! This unique virtual event connects various stakeholders from across the globe in the Family Support and Strengthening Field to focus on best and promising practice for supporting families’ advancement. Proposals at the program and/or systems-level are welcome for 75-minute engaging, interactive skill-building and/or knowledge-sharing sessions related to the conference tracks:
-
Innovative Family Support Practice & Policy
-
Integrating Family Voice, Partnership, and Leadership
-
Widening Access to Concrete and Community-Based Supports to Narrow the Door to Child Welfare Intervention
For more information and to submit, please click here. Proposals are due by Thursday, May 2, at 12 pm ET.
Save the Date: 6/4 Together for Families Conference Kick Off
Save the Date for the upcoming 2024 Together for Families Conference Virtual Kick-Off Event on 6/4, 11:30am-12:30pm ET/4:30-5:30pm IT!
The Kick Off will provide a sneak peek at the conference sessions, first access to Early Bird Registration, and the opportunity to win valuable raffle prizes, such as a complimentary conference registration! Registration information coming soon.
WEBINAR WEDNESDAYS
The National Family Support Network’s free Webinar Wednesdays series raises awareness of Family Resource Centers, Family Resource Center Networks, and the nationally-adopted Standards of Quality for Family Strengthening & Support. Click here to view the 2024 Webinar Wednesday calendar.
April 24, 2:30-4:00pm ET
Family Resource Centers Supporting Parents & Caregivers of Teens
In what ways are Family Resource Centers effectively supporting parents of teens?
This webinar will illustrate how Family Resource Centers work effectively with parents and caregivers of teens, with innovative examples from programs in New Jersey and Hawaii. Presenters will discuss the range of services offered, from lighter touch to comprehensive programs designed to address the unique opportunities and challenges of parenting teens. For more information and to register, please click here.
VIRTUAL TRAININGS
Virtual Standards of Quality Certification Training
The Certification Training details how the nationally-adopted Standards of Quality for Family Strengthening & Support can enhance your work with families. Whether you are program staff setting up a new program or strengthening an existing one, or a funder developing or monitoring programs, the Standards provide a blueprint for implementing best practice, with a particular emphasis on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Learn more here.
April 25 & 26, 2024
-
For more information and to register by April 15 (U.S.) or April 11 (outside of the U.S.), click here.
May 23 & 24, 2024
-
For more information and to register by May 9th (U.S.) or May 5th (outside of the U.S.), click here.
For the full schedule of upcoming trainings, please click here.
Developing & Sustaining Effective Parent Advisory Committees Training
How can an active Parent Advisory Committee enhance a Program's work with families?
This unique, highly-rated training is designed for program managers and direct service staff who work with, or would like to develop, a Parent Advisory Committee (PAC). Whether Programs are exploring setting up a new PAC, or seeking to strengthen an existing one, this training will provide staff with the strategies and tools to maximize the great potential of shared staff-parent leadership. The training is co-conducted by a NFSN staff member and an experienced national Parent Leader. Learn more here.
April 22 & 23, 2024
-
For more information and to register by April 19, click here.
June 24 & 25, 2024
-
For more information and to register by June 21, click here.
For the full schedule of upcoming trainings, please click here.
Standards of Quality Training of Trainers Institutes
The Institutes are scheduled for 7 partial days in order to be accessible to all U.S. time zones.
NFSN Member Networks representatives can learn more, view requirements, and apply here.
Summer
-
July 26, July 29-August 2, & August 5
Deadline to apply: June 26
Fall
-
October 25, October 28-November 1, & November 4
Deadline to apply: September 25
Winter
-
December 13, 16-20, & 23
Deadline to apply: November 13
*Please note that Training of Trainer Institutes must have a minimum of five participants in order to be held.
HIGHLIGHTS
Standards Program-Level Implementation Successes
Is your Program doing great work implementing the Standards of Quality for Family Strengthening & Support? If so, we'd love to hear about it! The NFSN is looking for Programs with success stories of Standards implementation to highlight for a national audience such as presenting at an upcoming Webinar Wednesday, being highlighted in NFSN communications, or featured on the NFSN website. Please complete this form to share your story.
.jpg)
Successful 2023 National Briefing Held
More than 600 people from 48 states, and the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Canada, Ireland and Taiwan registered to participate in the 2023 National Briefing on May 31. The annual interactive virtual event, designed for stakeholders working at the systems and policy levels, highlighted progress towards and opportunities for implementing Supporting & Strengthening Our Nation’s Families: A Blueprint for the Development of Strong Networks of Family Resource Centers. Participant evaluations indicated that 98% rated the Briefing as good to excellent and 100% found it helpful in informing their work. Click on these links to access the recording and the presentation.
The Briefing featured:
-
Community-Based FRC Virtual Visit with Children's Board of Hillsborough County's Plant City Family Resource Center in Florida.
-
School-Based FRC Virtual Visit with Tucson Unified School District's Catalina Family Resource Center in Arizona.
-
How Utah's Family Support Centers raised awareness of the value of their workforce - and successfully advocated for their increased compensation.
-
A public-private funder to funder dialogue about the value of investing in FRCs with Janie Cole, Commissioner of the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources' Bureau for Family Assistance - who nearly doubled the number of FRCs in her state, and Emma Mogendorff, Program Officer at the Sauer Family Foundation, which seeded the development of a new Network of FRCs in Minnesota in partnership with the Association of Minnesota Counties.
-
New Hampshire's example of effectively leveraging its Network of FRCs to support kinship families, and Cheryl Lissak sharing her experience for what a difference it has made for her family.
-
The opportunity to virtually visit and connect with NFSN Member Networks across the nation.
Family Resource Center Learning Hub Launches
The NFSN launched the Family Resource Center Learning Hub, a valuable new free resource developed in partnership with Families Canada by a diverse planning committee with the support of Casey Family Programs. The Hub is designed to provide tools and sample materials for those seeking to develop individual Family Resource Centers. The Hub is organized into the six phases of the newly-released Developing a New Family Resource Center Continuum. Each phase includes accompanying resources.
2022 Virtual Together for Families Conference
The third biennial Together for Families Conference was the biggest ever - bringing together nearly 550 participants from 5 countries: Australia, Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States on Oct 19-21. Co-Hosted by the National Family Support Network, the Center for the Study of Social Policy, and Families Canada, the conference featured 97 diverse presenters in the Family Support and Strengthening Field to focus on best and promising practices for supporting families' advancement. Participant evaluations indicated that 100% rated their overall impression of the conference as good, very good, or excellent with 87% rating it as very good or excellent, and 96% rated the conference as useful to very useful for informing their work. This 4-minute highlights video provides staff and Parent Leader perspectives on Together for Families 2022.
Case Studies Demonstrate Family Resource Centers Save Child Welfare System Millions
The OMNI Institute has released two new reports on cost savings FRCs yield for rural and urban child welfare systems by reducing families' involvement in them. The research was supported by Casey Family Programs.
The key findings are:
-
In 2017, reductions in child maltreatment cases in Westminster FRC's Orange County community saved the child welfare system an estimated $1.82M; in 2016 this savings was estimated at $1.1M. For every $1 invested in Westminster FRC in 2016 and 2017, the Orange County child welfare system saved an estimated $3.65.
-
After a formal partnership between Community Partnership FRC and Teller County child welfare was established, the county saved an estimated $2.5M associated with reductions in child welfare cases. For every $1 invested in Community Partnership FRC, the Teller County child welfare system saved an estimated $2.92
The recording and materials from the webinar that launched the reports can be found on the Webinar Wednesday page.
.jpg)
Kentucky's Family Resource Centers have been providing "Drive-by Cheer-ups" for families, complete with signs, bubbles, music, and dancing - all while practicing safe social distancing! These caravans of cheer have become a welcome sight for home-bound families across the state, distributing stress-relieving bubble wands to help "blow worries away."
Family Resource Centers & COVID-19: Here to Help
In this time of the COVID-19 pandemic, when families are more challenged than ever, Family Resource Centers (FRCs) are uniquely positioned to be of support. Learn how their valuable work is being leveraged to respond to this crisis at the community level, state level, and Federal policy level.
