Family Strengthening Programs
How do you define your family?
Family Service believes that the family is the most important unit of society and functions to fulfill its members’ needs for both survival and well-being. “Families” come in many forms. A well-functioning family enhances its individual members’ ability to function both within the family and in the larger community; such a family provides emotional, physical, and economic mutual aid to its members. Ideally, family is characterized by intimacy, intensity, continuity, and commitment among its members throughout the life cycle.
Our Family Strengthening Programs focus on the positives in families. Instead of trying to “fix” problems which naturally occur in family situations, our programs assist families to identify strengths and “grow” them. Our Family Strengthening Programs assist with parenting, transportation, self-sufficiency, parenting support groups, and a new program for young adults with Asperger Syndrome.
Family Strengthening Programs include:
- AACES (Asperger’s Awarenss, Community Education, and Support)
- Drive to Success (formerly Ways to Work)
- LINKS Family Reunification
- Parents As Teachers
- Parent Support Group
AACES (Asperger’s Awareness, Community Education, and Support)
A key component of the AACES program is The Coffeehouse Center of Bucks County.** The Coffeehouse is a community-based program that serves young adults with Asperger’s or PDD/NOS (Pervasive Developmental Disorder/Not Otherwise Specified).
Members of The Coffeehouse:
- Have opportunities to learn positive social skills, test those skills, and establish healthy relationships in a warm and safe community-based environment that is responsive to their needs and interests.
- Select topics for weekly discussion groups. These include communicating with peers, conflict resolution, dating, disclosing information on their Asperger’s, meal preparation, balancing a checkbook, self-advocacy, health, wellness, and more.
Admission criteria to the AACES program includes:
- Age 18-26
- High School graduate or have completed a GED
- A diagnosis of Asperger’s or PDD/NOS
- IQ score 70 or above
- Resident of Bucks County
- Demonstrates motivation to participate in the program, and agrees to adhere to program expectations (explained at admission)
** The Coffeehouse Center is currently accepting names for their waiting list.
The Coffeehouse Center
Location and Hours:
967 N. Newtown Road
Warminster, PA 18974
Monday and Wednesday: 3:30pm-8:00pm and Saturday: 12:00pm-5:00pm
For more information, please contact:
Jane C. Shuster, LSW
Director of Community-Based Services
215-757-6916 ext. 232
jshuster@fsabc.org,br.
Drive to Success
Tammy discusses the important role Drive to Success played in helping her keep a job, go to school, and provide for her family.
The Drive to Success is a self sufficiency & transportation program that provides small car loans to parents or grandparents raising their grandchildren, who cannot get loans elsewhere and meet certain guidelines. The purpose of the loan is to help family member’s purchase or repair automobiles so that they are able to keep a job and care for their families.
Loans of various sizes are given for car repairs or for purchases of used cars. Applicants are required to repay the loan within two years.
Applicants receive assistance to help them achieve their financial, educational and employment goals. They establish positive relationships with lending institutions leading to improved credit standing.
Drive to Success can help people who find themselves struggling in all kinds of situations: single parents, married couples, a mother returning to the workforce, a father who is going back to school.
The Drive to Success Program can:
- Provide you with a working vehicle so you may keep your job and maintain your family unit
- Direct you towards your own financial responsibility and self-sufficiency
- Provide information and referral to other resources that can offer additional support to your family;
- Teach basic financial skills, like household budgeting and credit counseling to prepare you to successfully pay back your loan and gain some financial independence
- Help you establish a good relationship with a bank for your future economic success
For more information, please contact:
Michelle Evans
Assistant Coordinator
215-757-6916 ext. 220
mevans@fsabc.org
LINKS Family Reunification
The LINKS Family Reunification program reunifies children who are in foster care with their parents. As LINKS staff work to reunite these children with their families, they also connect families with other community resources that will support them in preventing re-placement of their children in care and in maintaining long-term stability.
Families receiving the LINKS reunification services normally have significant issues to overcome in order to be reunited. These issues may include substance abuse, domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse, parent/child mental health issues and inappropriate housing. Often times families exhibit a combination of these problems which have led to the placement of their child/ children into the foster care system.
LINKS staff work with families, usually right in their homes, to get the family back together within the first fifteen months of a child being placed in foster care.
The LINKS Family Reunification program is a partnership between FSA, The Bucks County Children and Youth Social Services Agency and the Bucks County Behavioral Health System.
For more information contact:
Lester Ross
Family Center Coordinator
215-757-6916 ext. 226
lross@fsabc.org
Parents As Teachers
Parents as Teachers is a parent education and family support program serving families throughout pregnancy until their child enters kindergarten, usually age 5.
Parents are supported by PAT-certified parent educators that follow the Born to Learn model and are trained to translate scientific information on early brain development into specific when, what, how and why advice for families. By understanding what to expect during each stage of development, parents can easily capture the teachable moments in everyday life to enhance their child’s language development, intellectual growth, social development and motor skills.
As a Parents as Teachers family, you receive all four components of the Born to Learn model:
- Personal visits during which your parent educator will share age-appropriate child development and parenting information, help you learn to observe your child, and address your parenting concerns.
- Parent group meetings where you will share and learn about parenting issues and child development. Parents learn and support each other, observe their children with other children and practice parenting skills.
- Screenings to assess your child’s overall development as well as health, hearing and vision.
- Resource network that links your family to other community services.
Parents as Teachers provide referrals for:
- Economic, environmental, and personal problems
- Food, formula, and baby care items
- Housing
- Medical care for parents and children
- Counseling and psychiatric care
- Continuing education
- Employment
- Debt management/financial planning
- Self-sufficiency
- Family planning
Parents as Teachers is a nationally recognized evidence-based program.
For more information, or to make a referral, contact:
Lester Ross
Program Coordinator
215-757-6916 ext. 226
lross@fsabc.org
Parent Support Group
Bonita shares how the Parent Support Group has made her a stronger parent.
There are several keys to being a good parent–one is information and another is support.
We provide both.
The Parent Support Group meets weekly to provide you with support in making positive changes in your parenting. The purpose of the support group is to improve family relationships and help parents make changes in their families before a crisis occurs.
Led by a professional facilitator, The Parent Support Group is a place where parents come together to share feelings, advice, and tips on being a good parent. In this friendly atmosphere, you will have a place to exchange creative parenting practices based on your own personal experiences. You will develop a lasting network of friends who can be an ongoing resource for you.
The Parent Support Group meets on Tuesday evenings at the Kelly Family Center in Bristol Borough. The Parent Support Group is an affiliate of the Pennsylvania Family Support Alliance.
This program is free.
For more information contact:
Annie Wise
Parent Support Group Coordinator
215-757-6916 ext. 383
awise@fsabc.org
News & Events
A Place to Discover Their Independence
Region Leads US in HIV/AIDS Cases
Schools Are Ideal Setting for Counseling Help
View our newest videos posted throughout our site.
