Whole Family Approach

The mission of our Whole Family Approach initiative is to put families at the center of developing their own goals and solutions, integrate their input into the service design, support the economic mobility of both parents and children, and ultimately break the cycle of generational poverty.

Families set their own goals, choose their own solutions, and co-design services that address community needs:

That’s the heart of Community Action’s Whole Family Approach. Program participants with children advise on how we can design services to reduce barriers and increase opportunities for success, and we listen and implement those changes. Parents chart the course for not only getting ahead, but also for their children to break the cycle of generational poverty. Community Action staff and programs provide the tools and resources for those parents to be heroes for their families.

Community Action’s Whole Family Approach:

• Provides tools for parents who want high-quality financial education, and family-supporting-wage jobs.
• Ensures parents know how to access high-quality early childhood and youth education and engagement.
• Supports parents who are building skills to get better at parenting, and helps them meet their goals for their children’s health and development, as well as their own.

Whole Family Approach is not a program; it’s an integrated approach across services to support and serve parents and children simultaneously to break the cycle of generational poverty.

Parents and children will set and achieve their goals with tools and customized support from Community Action, empowering them to meet their self-set milestones, achieve their family’s vision for their economic stability, and ​find a greater sense of connection to community.

Building on our current Whole Family Approach strengths, we are:

• Engaging 10-15 pilot project families with intensive wrap-around support that addresses a family’s goals in the areas of housing, financial security, employment, education, mental and physical health, and community engagement.
• Supporting families with barrier removal support, as well as with compensated time on a Parent Advisory Council, providing input into the design and implementation of our services.
• Training staff in Family Centered Coaching, encouraging families to identify their needs, set their own goals, and reflect on their progress.
• Scaling up for 2027!

There is no specific eligibility for Whole Family Approach engagement, because it is not a program. Eligibility is only that participants are enrolled in a Community Action program, such as Employment, Care Coordination, Financial Literacy and Renter’s Education, or WIC, and that participants are ready and willing to move toward their goals.