Strengthening Families

Family Support Program (All Regions)

The Family Support Program provides a range of prevention and early intervention services to strengthen families and reduce risk factors in order to prevent family disruption or alternately to be able to reunify children with their families. The program uses a strength-based, solution focused planning model in its work with families and identifies the individual strengths of parents as well as overall family strengths.

The Family Support Program provides:

• Parent Support Education involves individual work with parents in their home to enhance their parenting skills and abilities and build on their existing strengths.
• Respite involves the provision of safe alternative care for children so that parents are able to attend programming, classes and therapy.
• Supported Family Time involves supporting parents who have children in the care of the Agency engage in a gradual resumption of their role as the caregiver to their children in order to facilitate reunification. Individual support is provided to the family in order to resolve identified concerns and enhance the parent's competencies and strengths.
• Emergency Support - In times of crisis the Agency provides families with support such as transportation, emergency food, milk and diapers, emergency respite and support services.

Family support services are accessed through referrals from your family services worker or intake worker.

Parenting Support and Education

Through various parenting and support education programs, MCFCS strives to provide a supported learning environment where parents can learn from each other. MCFCS regularly offers the following programs in different regions at various times throughout the year - Triple P Parenting, Nobody's Perfect and Young Mother's and Kookums Program.

Differential Response / Family Enhancement

Differential Response / Family Enhancement involves changing the manner in which families are approached following a report of child maltreatment, and the types of services that are provided to families following such a report, rather than responding with the traditional investigative approach. This allows the Agency to provide a supportive service focusing on the overall needs of the family and the well-being of the children. Services are goal focused and time limited (up to 270 days). Planning builds on identified strengths and focuses on needs identified through an assessment process with the family. Sharing circles, with the support of the program's cultural worker, and planning meetings with extended family members, are used to broaden families' support networks.

Winnipeg's Family Enhancement team consists of 5 family enhancement workers, 2 family enhancement mentors and a cultural worker.