Families 1st 
Partner​ship

Community Response

Community Response is a system of supports and services for children and families to prevent the unnecessary entry into the child welfare system and/or other high end systems of care. Participating communities develop and coordinate an array of local resources to determine eligibility criteria, identify families, administer and share screening and assessments, and provide short term support to qualified families. 

This often requires adjustments in administrative policies and procedures for community organizations and staff. Typically, communities develop a Community Response Team with designated point persons that may be called Connectors or Navigators. Team members are trained in family centered practice, cultural responsiveness, Protective Factors and other core elements. Team resources target families with multiple crises (such as housing, basic life skills, parenting, ) that cannot be resolved by one or two specific services or organization alone and which, unresolved, would likely result in Child Protective Services involvement and out-of-home placements. The team helps families who are willing to work to resolve crises, set goals and access assistance to increase their safety and well being and remain intact. Community Response is relatively short term, lasting for approximately one to six months. 

Early outcomes indicate that Community Response is efficient and effective in keeping families from entering the child welfare system. Communities are tracking follow-up results to determine long term efficacy. 

Research

Orange County California’s Neighbor-to-Neighbor and other multiple-track Differential Response in Child Protective Services which include community response.  

Prevention matrix

Secondary 

Assessments

Communities funded by Nebraska Children and Families Foundation must document numbers served, intensity of intervention, client level measures, and other process and outcome measures 

Nebraska Children and Families Foundation asks participant communities to share successes and lessons learned with other community and state level partners to inform and improve the  Community Response model(s) across the state. 

State partners

Nebraska Children and Families Foundation 

 
Nebraska Children grantee communities 

  • Panhandle Partnership
  • Fremont Family Coalition
  • West Central Partnership for Child and Family Alliance (North Platte)
  • Lincoln

State Partners

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