Project Description

The Family Support Network of North Carolina, in partnership with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, is implementing a project entitled Strengthening Families with Children Who Have Developmental Disabilities: OneStop for Family Support. This project will develop a system of family support activities to ensure the integration of resources, activities, and services to support unserved and underserved families with children who have or are at risk of having developmental disabilities.

The goals of the project are to strengthen linkages among state and local level organizations to benefit families with children with developmental disabilities; to establish a model of service coordination that involves parents as service coordinators for other families; to pilot an information and referral system to serve as a single point of entry for families; and to facilitate statewide replication of the model.

State and Local Collaboration Teams serve in an advisory capacity to project staff and provide a mechanism for the active engagement of community partners. They are involved in identifying unserved and underserved families, defining challenges and facilitators in supporting families; and identifying gaps and inconsistencies in policies, services and resources; and generating solutions to address these challenges. Team members ensure the sustainability of project activities and ensure that culturally appropriate strategies are identified to meeting the needs of unserved and underserved children with developmental disabilities and their families. The State Collaboration Team will be essential to laying the groundwork for future statewide replication of the model.

The model is being piloted in Forsyth and Davie counties through the Family Support Network of Greater Forsyth (FSN-GF) in central North Carolina. The Greater Forsyth area offers exciting opportunities for piloting the Strengthening Families OneStop model as the two counties provide a mix of urban and rural areas, and include two Level IV Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs). The local pilot involves parents in coordinating services for families with children who have developmental disabilities or are at risk and in helping families access local resources and services. Pilot activities take place at the local level through a partnership between the Family Support Network of Greater Forsyth and the Winston Salem Children's Developmental Services Agency. FSN-GF also leads a local collaboration team that includes local agencies and community organizations that serve families in Forsyth and Davie Counties.

A web site has been developed to facilitate searches for local information and resources. For additional information about regional and state resources in North Carolina, please contact the Central Directory of Resources of the Family Support Network of North Carolina.

For more information about this project contact: Irene Nathan Zipper, MSW, PhD

This project is funded by the Administration on Developmental Disabilities of the Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and operated by the Family Support Network of North Carolina at the School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partnership with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, Early Intervention Branch and in collaboration with North Carolina's Aging and Disability Resource Center.

For more information about the national project go to Family Support 360.