Reaching families living in underprivileged circumstances

Reaching families living in underprivileged circumstances
Relationships built on trust

Horizon 0-5’s Constellation Approach

Intervention workers, managers and volunteers are constantly looking for new ways to engage with families that rarely or never use the services available to them, with a particular focus on those who live in underprivileged circumstances.

Having an understanding of families’ true needs and priorities makes it a lot easier to reach out to them. However, several factors can prevent us from focusing on families’ immediate needs, in particular when these needs are determined based on the perceptions or priorities of individuals outside the family unit.

In a professional context, it is very important to approach differences with an open mind and to be able to question one’s attitudes, beliefs and limitations, so that you can deconstruct preconceived ideas or simply admit to feeling uneasy about a clash of values. Another crucial ingredient for more effective collaborations with families is empathy. Extending a genuine welcome to parents, along with their experiences, values, and choices, provides a sound basis for a relationship built on trust.

Organizations need to be well aware of the fact that intervention work with the most vulnerable families requires a great deal of staff resources. Furthermore, collective reflections undertaken by the intervention team and with partners at the local, regional and provincial levels are crucial for finding common ground, in particular concerning the key factors for guiding the intervention work, service complementarity, and adaptation of strategies for engaging with families and building trust-based relationships.

Avenir d’enfants’ definition of “underprivileged circumstances”

There are various expressions, words and definitions for referring to the kinds of difficult living situations experienced by many families in Québec, such as low income, vulnerability, social exclusion, to name just a few. It is crucial to establish a shared understanding of the term so everyone involved can grasp its true meaning.

We must keep in mind that underprivileged circumstances are complex. Risk factors expose children, families and communities to environments that are less than favourable for healthy development. The concept of cumulation is crucial for gaining an understanding of the realities associated with underprivileged environments. The greater the number of risk factors present in a given environment, the more extensive the likely effects on children, families and communities will be. In some cases, the repercussions can continue for several generations.

Even though the existing definitions of underprivileged circumstances diverge somewhat, there is broad agreement concerning the following characteristics:

They are dependent on multiple factors;
They affect various aspects of human development (culture, economic situation, social status and civic responsibility, education and health);
They can last from childhood to adulthood and be passed on from one generation to the next (Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux, 1991).

Underprivileged environments are generally composed of one or several of the following characteristics, most of which constitute risk factors:

Economic poverty;
Difficulties integrating into the institutions and organizations that make up the community (community organizations, municipality, schools, daycare centres, integrated health and social services centres (CISSS), local employment centres, etc.), or else the non-existence of such institutions and organizations;
Family instability;
Low educational achievement;
Transmission of values, attitudes and behaviours that may be different from those generally conveyed by society (Terrisse et al., 2000).

Source : Guide de la démarche partenariale écosystémique, Avenir d’enfants, p. 7

Reaching families living in underprivileged circumstances

Avenir d’enfants’ definition of “underprivileged circumstances”

An approach to reaching out to isolated families

Complete topic in french

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