FAMILY DEVELOPMENT
Purpose
The Family Development Program provides caring and professional family support to help develop positive family relationships by teaching parenting, living, communication and behavior management skills. This program helps children, youth and parents struggling with a variety of issues and are referred to this program from their local Child and Family Services office.
Process
The first step to reduce and overcome risk factors is an honest assessment and discussion with the McMan team. Families work collaboratively to determine goals and outcomes and identify how to reduce or eliminate the need for intervention. Safe visitation, in-home visits, meetings, counselling and behaviour modeling are just a few of the ways we help participants. Active participation is required to achieve safe and healthy independence.
Outcomes
McMan, Families and Child and Family Services work collaboratively to achieve best outcomes for children and families. The hope is that families will experience a reduction in risk factors and an increase in capacity to positively and effectively parent their children.
Services offered through the Family Development
program include:
• Family preservation
• Family reunification
• Family search and engagement
• Family group conference facilitation
• Coached visitation
• Supervised visits
• Signs of Safety® mapping
• Signs of Safety® assessments
• Signs of Safety® words and pictures
• Suicide intervention
• Parent education
• Alternate dispute resolution
• “Pop-in” visits in high-risk situations
• Youth in transition
• Life skills
• Employment preparation/education
• Grief and bereavement counselling
• SAFE home studies
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Program accredited by:
Program funded by:
Success Story
Ashley had been struggling with prescription drugs and alcohol for a number of years before Child and Family Services (CFS) apprehended her two children ages 6 and 8 and placed them with the children’s grandparents. CFS then contracted McMan to provide supervised access visits for Ashley between her and her children. Ashley was very resistant to McMan and adversarial towards her parents at the beginning of McMan’s involvement. Over the course of several months she learned to trust the McMan staff and she began to see how her addiction issues were negatively impacting her and her children’s lives. She then began to work diligently on goals with the McMan staff and with the support of McMan, she was successful in completing an Addictions Treatment Program as well as built a strong support system within her church and community. The children were then returned home with McMan providing them in-home support concentrating on instruction and support with parenting strategies and information including child development, discipline, relationship building and basic structure and routine. Ashley, with the support of her McMan worker, her family and her community, was not only successful in maintaining her sobriety but demonstrated that she could parent her children who were so thrilled to be back in her care and living as a family again. Ashley was also able to reconcile with her parents who are now an integral part of her support system. CFS closed the file and Ashley and her children are grateful for the support and guidance provided by McMan.