One Person Can Make a Difference: Stories of Strong Communities and Their Outreach Workers
Tóm tắt
Building on the conclusion of the U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect (1993) that child protection should be a part of everyday life, Strong Communities for Children is a neighborhood-based strategy designed to keep children safe by mobilizing communities to enable informal support for the children’s parents. This article describes the role of the outreach workers who were responsible for engaging communities in dialog, action, mutual assistance, and resource provision geared toward family support. Indeed, despite research suggesting that outreach plays a critical role in prevention efforts, little is known about the nature and process of outreach workers’ activities. To address this gap, this article provides a sense of how Strong Communities employed an outreach strategy, who the outreach workers were, how they were prepared, and how they did their work. It also provides a more detailed look at how the initiative unfolded in two communities within the Strong Communities service area.
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