Building a stronger community … one family at a time.

The Cardinal McCloskey Services Family Outreach Program is designed to provide general preventive services to families at risk of having children removed and placed in foster care. Established in 1984 in the Hunts Point section of the Bronx, this program became the model for other community service providers to follow. We currently work with 165 families daily in our Bronx program and 60 families in our East Harlem program.

Strength Based Approach

The model for service delivery in General Preventive Services is to draw on the strengths of families to help them to find new ways of coping with the day-to-day pressures which often result in placing them at risk. Most of our families consist of single mothers living in poverty, often in substandard housing, who have few marketable skills, are struggling to make ends meet on a daily basis and have few supports. Most of these young parents, have had no positive parenting experiences themselves having had poor role models on which to model their parenting. Despite this, these young women often have an inner resilience and strength, love their children and have a real desire to give their children their best. It is this that we draw upon in our work with these parents. We work with them to help them to better use the talents they have to make their lives and the lives of their children better.

In-Home Services Provided

Our staff of dedicated social workers visit each family at their homes in order to assess their needs and develop a plan for helping them maximize their potential. Many families are helped through casework counseling which is designed to help families assess where they need help and how they can change their lives. This counseling often helps them to identify and understand both their own needs and their children's needs. This is the first step in beginning to meet their needs more effectively. Our social workers also focus on helping parents to identify services that can help them to feel better about themselves. Often we help parents to obtain GED certificates, enroll in job training and learn how to negotiate other community systems to obtain the health, mental health and educational services that they and their children need.

Parenting Skills and Group Work

In addition to the individual counseling offered by our social work staff, a hallmark of our program is our comprehensive Parent Training. Parent skills workshops are offered by a qualified group worker in our offices in the community. Many of our parents benefit from completing this 20 session program in which parents are taught about child development, effective parenting techniques, positive discipline and negotiating systems for the benefit of their children. In addition to the teaching component of these sessions, parents are also given the opportunity to discuss areas which are difficult for them in raising their children. They get feedback from their peers as well as from the staff and often come away from the program having developed an important support network that will help them long after they have completed training.

Our group worker provides other group services to our families as the needs of our client population dictate. Groups are offered to fathers, parenting teens, adolescents and other subgroups as indicated by a needs assessment conducted on a regular basis. These services are designed to provide mutual support and direction to those struggling with a particular issue and are generally focused and time limited, thereby providing the opportunity to offer a wide variety of group opportunities throughout the year.

Community Collaboration

Because our services are all community based, we have developed strong partnerships with other community services providers and collaborate effectively to better serve our families. These partnerships allow for maximum communication, service coordination and networking to provide comprehensive service delivery.

Networking meetings among providers are also effective in identifying unmet service needs within the community and offers a vehicle for collaborative advocacy to address these needs.

Special Services

Through the generosity of charitable donations from foundations and corporations, we have been able to enhance our services through projects especially designed to meet unfulfilled needs of our clients. In recent years we have provided a literacy program for parents, a parenting program for families of children diagnosed with ADHD and the Horizons Club which provides remedial assistance to high school students. It includes group counseling to improve academic success and promote a more positive attitude in school. Presently, the B.E.S.T. Program is providing quality mental health services to our families, inclusive of individual therapy, group work, early development screening and couples counseling.

Grateful thanks to the van Ameringen Foundation, the Frances L. & Edwin L. Cummings Memorial Fund and the Phillip Morris Employee Fund for making these special services possible. Their generosity has helped many children and families remain together while working toward a brighter family future.