Preventive services are designed to strengthen the family’s ability to function more effectively and independently in order to prevent family breakup and to reunite as soon as possible if a breakup is necessary.
Philosophy
The philosophy guiding preventive services requires a community-based, family-focused, child-centered approach to service delivery. The foundation is the belief that the family is, and should continue to be, the central structure around which a caring and self-sufficient society must be built. The family is the best environment for raising children and caring for vulnerable members. Accordingly, the family must be able to provide the necessary nurture, protection, shelter, and education for its members.
For these services, a family means an adult(s) and children under age 18 related by blood, marriage, adoption, or an expression of kinship who function as a family unit.
Service Purpose
Preventive Services are supportive and rehabilitative services provided to children and their families for averting out-of-home placement of the child. These services enable a child placed in foster care to return home or reduce the likelihood that a child who has been discharged from foster care will return to foster care.