Family Support

Family Support Program:

The Family Support Program is staffed by four Family Support Workers who provide services to clients at both the investigative and ongoing stages of Child Protection.  The Family Support Workers are essential members of the Child Protective Services team and work directly with families, children, and social workers to strengthen and support families while offering the following services:  parenting support with rule-setting, routines and/or sleep concerns, managing concerns at school, connecting families to resources and services available in the county, supervised visitation, communication skills, safety services, nutritional information, housing, money management, and personal hygiene. 

Family Support Workers often act as liaisons between the family and providers, assist parents in achieving necessary outcomes, and are instrumental in strengthening family bonds and connections. The Family Support program continued the preventive voluntary services in 2021 with referrals being submitted by the schools in Polk County. In addition, the Family Support Workers continue to use the Parents as Teachers (PAT) curriculum as well as Active Parent Curriculum. These curriculums are evidence-based and have shown effectiveness in increasing parent knowledge of early childhood development and improve parent practices, provide early detection of developmental delays and health issues, prevent child abuse and neglect, and increase children’s readiness and success.