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Toward Profamily Community System: Enhancement of Early Support

The family is in constant interaction with community through various systems, from informal systems in the community such as everyday environments and everyday social interactions, to formal ones like kindergartens, schools, health institutions, places of employment and other. Both systems, at different levels, offers families needed help and support. Ensuring high quality early care and intervention services provided to young children and families is a current and continuing challenge. Creating a truly comprehensive system entails building stronger alliances within the community, integrating multiple child and family services, and ensuring that these services are responsive to the needs of children and families. Today, there are known many models of community development and they are often used in the field of public health. Although, at first sight may appear, that there is no clear connection between the model of community development and early intervention, early intervention could use these models to ensure quality and accessible support to all community members. These models offer an established framework for the introduction of reforms in community health system and procedures and allow implementation of new approaches /models that includes a partnership with families and the community at large. The initiative “The Oregon Early Childhood System of Services and Support for Prenatal – Age 8” also highlights the importance of investing effort in creating alliances within the community to ensure quality support in the field of early intervention. In the document “Quality Assurance Standards” they emphasize “Effective partnerships” as fifth element of quality assurance. Effective partnership implies that community, private and public sector partners join to ensure children and families can access the comprehensive system of early childhood services and supports necessary for development and well-being. Partnerships create linkages between the home and both public and private sectors. All partners share leadership, maintain open communication, and respect confidentiality. Besides mentioned, the same source cites the following elements of quality insurance in early intervention: Family Centered Practices Comprehensive and Responsive Services Respect for Diversity Qualified Staff and Results-Based Accountability. Community development models offers a process for implementing change with respect to shared decision making with parents and other community members. The process generally involves identifying a community planning team/coalitions, defining community needs and resources, defining the priorities, developing and implementing change strategies, and evaluating the implementation and outcomes related to change efforts. Characteristic of this process of community development with the aim of creating and establishing a comprehensive system of early support (which will be available to all community members) are interdisciplinary, team-based, family-centered approach to assessment and intervention practice. There are many advantages of such models to create strategies for change in the community. Specifically, these models enable the development of strategy that is "tailored" for each community, while respecting the needs and resources in a community. Furthermore, creating strong partnerships within the community ensures that the decisions and choices are placed at the community level which provides support for implementing the overall strategy and ensuring the sustainability of providing comprehensive services in the community. Finally, ongoing evaluation of the impact / result of changes achieved, place focus on results and that leads, on one hand, to results-based accountability of service providers, and on other hand, to availability of “the best practice” to the community members. Also, there is possible to find data in the literature that demonstrate how implementation of community development models leads to significant changes in the community: (1) bringing together community leaders with diverse backgrounds and experience through community planning can broaden community perspective, enhance support for prevention activities, and improve access to resources, (2) community-level systems changes can reduce gaps and duplication in services, enhance communication between key community agencies and systems, and increase sharing of resources, (3) community mobilization and the comprehensive data-based planning process can enable many communities to secure other Federal, State, and local public and private funds. The community which target to establish profamily community system should make efforts in creating a comprehensive system of early support to ensure that all its members, especially children as the most valuable and often most vulnerable members of society, have the opportunity for positive development and, later, full and productive lives. It also means developing a regular system of support and developing systems that could meet the needs of children and families at different levels of risk. Besides mentioned, there is a need to invest in everyday environments and strengthening social interactions in the community as well as in improving formal services that provides support. It is important to have in mind that community consist from everyday environments and everyday social interactions that influence all community members, from schools and community supports that serve most community members and from specialized, professional services that assist children, youth, and families with particular needs and challenges. When schools and formal service systems are united with the positive daily environments and relationships offered by a “healthy” community, children, youth, and families have access to the full range of supports that they need to thrive.

family, community, early support

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