Mound View Neighborhood Resource Center

The partnership is a community wide effort to support families and prevent child abuse, neglect and domestic violence. The concept is to bring families, neighbors and professionals together as PARTNERS in solving the problems families' face, in identifying the strengths of each family, and in preventing family violence. Everyone is part of the solution.

Goals of the Partnership for Safe Families:

• Children in participating neighborhoods will become less likely to be abused or neglected.
• Children who come to the attention of child protective services will be less likely to be re-abused or neglected.
• Serious injury to children due to abuse and/or neglect will decrease.
• Children and families in participating neighborhoods who come to the attention of the community system for protecting children will be less likely to re-experience domestic violence.
  

The partnership is based on the approach of "community child protection:"

• A collaboration of public and private agencies, citizens, and professionals who have joined together to help keep children safe.
•  
  A chance for members of the community to be involved in helping families locate and use the services they may need.
  

Key partnership Strategies to meet these goals are:

• PATCH - A team comprised of CPS workers and service providers is stationed at Family Resource Centers. The Team assesses families that come to their attention and construct individualized plans involving different service providers. The PATCH Team closely monitors the safety of children already know to the CPS agency and can help other families solve problems that, if left unresolved, might escalate and put children in serious jeopardy.
• Domestic Violence: Recognizing the overlap between child abuse and domestic violence, the Partnership has devised a community-based response that addresses these problems under one comprehensive approach geared towards ensuring the safety of the entire family. A Domestic Violence Specialist is out based at the Jane Boyd Family Resource Center and participates in Family Team Meeting and Case Coordination with the CPS workers.
• Family Support: Family Support Workers based at Family Resource Centers and in several nonprofit organizations assist families with a range of issues such as parenting, child development, health, housing, employment etc. Family Support Workers represent an essential "early intervention" strategy to help those families whose children may be at risk, but do not require full-scale intervention by the CPS agency.
• Neighborhood Partners: The partnership has recruited and trained 23 Neighborhood Partners, local residents who organize events for parents and children and help families who may be isolated within the neighborhoods to take full advantage of local resources.
• Shared Decision Making and CPS Policy Change: Neighborhood partners and local residents join with public and private providers to set direction and support policy changes in the CPS system. Residents are a part of the Administrative and Steering Committees and serve on organizational work committees to carry out the plan to meet community outcomes for community child safety.
• Individual Course of Action: The ICA practice has been adopted by the Partnership and promoted as "best practice" for families in the community. Over 40 public and private agency staff and Neighborhood Partners have been trained to facilitate Family Team Meetings, and 10 agency partners have been trained to implement the Quality Service Review process.