Building Stable, Resilient Families
Our priority for any child in crisis is simple — to provide them with all they need to give them the best shot of a future in which they can thrive. For a child with a family in crisis — whether through poverty, economic instability, extreme weather, conflict, or other reasons — that means keeping their family together, what we call Family Preservation.
We’re well qualified to practice this: It’s our area of expertise.
For the last 50+ years, we’ve worked with some of the most vulnerable children in the world. When we first met them, some of these children were orphans who had no living family. But another large percentage of these children did have a family, and could have remained with their family — if only they had received the help they needed before they succumbed to a confluence of crises that made life untenable. In our experience, it is when life becomes unmanageable for a family that actually creates most of the orphans we’ve met over the last five decades.
Keeping a Family Intact
Intervene Early
Our work takes us to parts of the world where people live on the edge. These people aren’t just dealing with one crisis at a time. They live each day with a number of crises — extreme poverty, famine, civil unrest and disease, to name a few. Theirs is a daily struggle to survive. So when another crisis lands on them, it can tip the scales and bring them to a terrifying realization that they cannot survive as a family.
That’s when orphans are created — when a family is tipped over the edge.
We know that, by intervening before that point, we can help a family stay together. We can help a family survive, stabilize, and thrive.
With Personalized, Multilayered Help
Our Family Preservation work uses a holistic, multifaceted approach that examines multiple stress points in a family’s life, and tries to address them. We do this because extreme poverty is multifaceted and cannot be addressed by a single solution.
We also recognize that a one-size-fits-all approach isn’t nearly as effective at transforming a child’s life. Each situation is unique, so our social workers assess and personalize the services offered to each child and family.
The services we provide a family might include: food and household provisions, access to healthcare services, school supplies and tutoring for children, and small business grants and financial training for parents.
HOW WE DO IT
Our Family Preservation Programming
Testimonials
In their words…
Ways to donate
How You Can Help
