Family Support Services’ (FSS) programs are designed to help parents as they work to overcome challenges to effective parenting. These challenges include prior trauma, a history of neglect or abuse, substance abuse, mental illness, poverty, inadequate housing, and lack of social support.

We believe that parents want the best for their children. But parenting is a difficult job and young parents may need support. As their children’s first teachers, parents lay a strong foundation for the future during the infant and toddler years. Children’s later ability to learn and subsequent emotional health are strongly tied to their parents’ parenting skills.

Our programs help parents understand how young children, birth to five-years old, develop and grow. We teach the importance of play, reading, nutrition, and positive parent-child interaction. Our staff also provides developmental screening for all children, and, when needed, assists parents as they navigate the Early Intervention system. FSS social workers offer families parenting education, information on child development, linkages to a broad array of community resources, and advocacy services.

Four FSS Child Welfare programs support families with young children:

• Family School is a center-based parenting education program. It works with families to prevent child abuse and neglect, keeping families safely together whenever possible. Family School also supports families working towards reunification after children have been placed in foster care.
  
  
• SCOH ( Services to Children in their Own Homes) provides intensive home visiting services to young families requiring parental support.
  
  
• Family Partnership is a voluntary, home visiting, preventive program that provides timely parenting assistance for families with young children. We reach out with targeted social work support to help families before they are in crisis.
  
  
• SAFE (Services to Assist Families Excel) is a home-visiting initiative. Our social workers help families whose babies and young children are at risk for poor health outcomes.
  

To contact us please email childwelfare@FSSinc.org.

Not all of FSS’s costs are covered by funding from government contracts. FSS’s relies on private foundations, and individual donors, to support many aspects of our programs.  To make a donation that will benefit Child Welfare programs, Click here to visit the Support FSS page and look for donation options (by mail or through paypal) on the right sidebar.

To learn about structured FSS volunteer opportunities and programs available to college and post graduate students visit our Jobs/Volunteer web page. For School/Community service opportunities see the Super Citizens Program.