ABSTRACT
In this and the next chapter we describe the development, characteristics and approaches to evaluation associated with family service centres in the United States. Our aim in these two chapters is to identify both practice and practical aspects of service delivery and appraisal that will be of relevance to UK family centre providers. We start with a brief historical overview. Within the USA, the family service movement in the 1990s stresses the importance of family support and the delivery of diverse services to enhance family capability to achieve independence. Because of the growing problems of domestic violence, the recent child welfare laws in the United States (such as the amendments of the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Law) have provided incentives to state and local governments to fund family preservation initiatives. Historically, family service centres have always been providing community-based or home-based services, ‘in the belief that [many of] these families may not be amenable to conventional office-based clinical or educational services’ (Whittaker 1991, p. 1). Home visiting services and home-based therapy are recent familycentred initiatives funded by the federal and state governments. Although the aims of these initiatives are similar to the traditional friendly visitor programmes, they are not only home-based but also family-centred, focusing on healthy developments of all members in the family. The main purpose of home visiting programmes is to assess the needs of families and provide support in their local environment so that both formal and informal resources can be accurately identified and effectively utilized. Many family service centres provide these programmes and share the same philosophy of improving the well-being of children, providing support for parents, and promoting the concept of healthy families. The dual-focus approach that stresses the development of children and the family has become the most popular treatment modality (see Maluccio 1991 for an historical overview of family preservation). For example, in a recent study conducted by Powell
(1993) home visiting programmes in the United States have been proven effective but they vary in terms of populations served, programme goals, types of services, intensity of services, and staffing patterns. In order to improve the service delivery system and be responsive to the communities that support family-centred services, it is essential to assess their effectiveness in terms of keeping families together healthily and to identify ways in which to design and evaluate service planning and implementation processes.
