URL: http://www.safe-families.org/ Website Overview: A website devoted to providing a "Safety Net" for families who are in crisis. Safe Families for Children has three core objectives. They are: 1. Child welfare Deflection, 2. Child Abuse Prevention, and 3, Family Support and Stabilization. SFFC uses a network of Safe Families and Safe Family churches to provide short term relief to families to provide a safe alternative to child-welfare custody. SFFC professes to have six "Hallmarks of a Safe Family Model": *Biological parents maintain full custody *Volunteer families are extensively screened and supported *Six-week average length of stay (ranging from two days to a year) *Average age of child in SFFC care is 4.5 *Close working relationships between Safe Families, the local church, and the referring organization *Commitment to reunite the family as soon as possible The major categories covered are Host families, Agencies, Join SFFC, Safe Church, Request a Family, Family Friends, Request a Family, SFFC Student Edition, Refer a Family, and SFFC Network.
4. I feel this site is very credible. It was well designed, well organized. All links were up to date and well maintained. The organization was selected as the Drucker Award for Nonprofit Innovation winner in 2010 which included a $100.000 first place prize (made possible in part by Coca-Cola) Many links were to third party objective newspapers like The Minneapolis Star Tribune and The Orange County Register. All articles linked were recent. I believe the information provided is accurate. One reason I believe it is because in order to sign in an individual must have an invitation. Another reason I believe it is credible and the information is accurate is the affiliation with social service providers. A map of the Unites States is provided and click on the any State links to a list of agencies SFFC is affiliated with. SFFC Began in Chicago in 2002 but is "rapidly becoming a national model." I checked out many of the agencies affiliated with SFFC in Illinois. They are all well known/ established and affiliated with organizations like the united way. Also I found it comforting that the organizations and the homes affiliated with the group were a mix of Catholic social services and Protestant or Baptist Social Services. The first agency listed and typical of the list is Baptist Children's Home and Family Services founded in 1918. and The fact that SFFC and its affiliated church organizations can put aside the centuries old Catholic/Protestant conflict and work together for the benefit of children speaks well of their organization and their cause. I did note however that no official state organizations were listed as agencies. I guess that is to be expected if the goal of SFFC is to intervene and offer shelter in the "four million of five million calls each year of suspected child abuse or neglect. Also the agencies involved do have are affiliated with Churches and therefore I must concede that beyond helping the children the organization advances Christian agenda. No child is forced to pray or denied because of their faith but if you were a child and you felt the church rescued your family how would you feel towards the church? Not that that is a bad thing. I personally am a Christian myself, yet for this review I will attempt to be impartial. The website purports to help families with many issues including "drug addiction, domestic abuse, incarceration, illness….financial crisis, unemployment, and homelessness. The short term assistance provides support for parents to get working and arrange childcare. What I learned about Work, Family, and Community by exploring this site is that there are many more organizations that exist and are making a difference in lives every day than I ever imagined. I had no idea of the thousands of families who are opening up their homes to children to make a difference in their lives if only on a short term basis. I am surprised at the organization, security and networking involved. In Feel SFFC is a honorable and benificial organization that exemplify the best practices of networking within a community we have learned in this course.
started by lbracy on 03 May 12
URL: http://www.safe-families.org/
Website Overview: A website devoted to providing a "Safety Net" for families who are in crisis. Safe Families for Children has three core objectives. They are: 1. Child welfare Deflection, 2. Child Abuse Prevention, and 3, Family Support and Stabilization. SFFC uses a network of Safe Families and Safe Family churches to provide short term relief to families to provide a safe alternative to child-welfare custody. SFFC professes to have six "Hallmarks of a Safe Family Model":
*Biological parents maintain full custody
*Volunteer families are extensively screened and supported
*Six-week average length of stay (ranging from two days to a year)
*Average age of child in SFFC care is 4.5
*Close working relationships between Safe Families, the local church, and the referring organization
*Commitment to reunite the family as soon as possible
The major categories covered are Host families, Agencies, Join SFFC, Safe Church, Request a Family, Family Friends, Request a Family, SFFC Student Edition, Refer a Family, and SFFC Network.
4. I feel this site is very credible. It was well designed, well organized. All links were up to date and well maintained. The organization was selected as the Drucker Award for Nonprofit Innovation winner in 2010 which included a $100.000 first place prize (made possible in part by Coca-Cola) Many links were to third party objective newspapers like The Minneapolis Star Tribune and The Orange County Register. All articles linked were recent. I believe the information provided is accurate. One reason I believe it is because in order to sign in an individual must have an invitation. Another reason I believe it is credible and the information is accurate is the affiliation with social service providers. A map of the Unites States is provided and click on the any State links to a list of agencies SFFC is affiliated with. SFFC Began in Chicago in 2002 but is "rapidly becoming a national model." I checked out many of the agencies affiliated with SFFC in Illinois. They are all well known/ established and affiliated with organizations like the united way. Also I found it comforting that the organizations and the homes affiliated with the group were a mix of Catholic social services and Protestant or Baptist Social Services. The first agency listed and typical of the list is Baptist Children's Home and Family Services founded in 1918. and The fact that SFFC and its affiliated church organizations can put aside the centuries old Catholic/Protestant conflict and work together for the benefit of children speaks well of their organization and their cause. I did note however that no official state organizations were listed as agencies. I guess that is to be expected if the goal of SFFC is to intervene and offer shelter in the "four million of five million calls each year of suspected child abuse or neglect. Also the agencies involved do have are affiliated with Churches and therefore I must concede that beyond helping the children the organization advances Christian agenda. No child is forced to pray or denied because of their faith but if you were a child and you felt the church rescued your family how would you feel towards the church? Not that that is a bad thing. I personally am a Christian myself, yet for this review I will attempt to be impartial. The website purports to help families with many issues including "drug addiction, domestic abuse, incarceration, illness….financial crisis, unemployment, and homelessness. The short term assistance provides support for parents to get working and arrange childcare.
What I learned about Work, Family, and Community by exploring this site is that there are many more organizations that exist and are making a difference in lives every day than I ever imagined. I had no idea of the thousands of families who are opening up their homes to children to make a difference in their lives if only on a short term basis. I am surprised at the organization, security and networking involved. In Feel SFFC is a honorable and benificial organization that exemplify the best practices of networking within a community we have learned in this course.