Title: Types of Support Available for Families with Members Living With Autism Spectrum Disorder | The Arc’s Autism Now Center
Headings: home
at home
Contents
What is Family Support?
Where does Family Support Policy come from?
What is the Desired Outcome of Family Support?
Who is Available to Support Families?
Examples of Family Support Programs/Initiatives
What Does Family Support Value in Practice?
Examples of How Family Support is Used
Who to Contact Regarding Family Support

Content: According to the Family Resource Coalition, family support best practice acknowledges that: Staff and families work together in relationships based on equality and respect. Staff enhance families’ capacity to support the growth and development of all family members – adults, youth, and children. Families are resources to their own members, to other families, to programs, and to communities. Programs affirm and strengthen families’ cultural, racial, and linguistic identities and enhance their ability to function in a multicultural society. Programs advocate with families for services and systems that are fair, responsive, and accountable to the families served. Practitioners work with families to mobilize formal and informal resources to support family development. Programs are flexible and continually responsive to emerging family and community issues. Principles of family support are modeled in all program activities, including planning, governance, and administration. Generally speaking, organizations offering family support programs stick to the principles that the family is the most important population they serve.