Family Support Worker

Education - Child and Youth Worker diploma or equivalent

The Family Support Program was created to reduce the need for the child to leave their home to come into the care of the Agency, or to improve the chance of a successful return home following a child's time in foster care, or to satisfy a court order or to assist with the parenting capacity assessment.

The Family Support Program has evolved and grown to be a much valued part of what the Agency can offer the parents in Elgin County that are in need. FACS-Elgin is taking a proactive approach and giving parents the opportunity to improve their parenting skills, ideally to build parents’ self-confidence and skills and improve how they manage family challenges down the road.

Family Support Workers work in the home with all the members of the family, to teach communication skills, problem solving, self-esteem building, positive reinforcement, role modeling, routine setting, coping with stress and anger, normal child development, appropriate discipline and boundaries.

A large percentage of the job is spent teaching and raising awareness. Parents are provided with information on appropriate expectations, roles and responsibilities, empathy, independence and alternatives to spanking, in an effort to stop the cycle of abuse.

Skills in crisis intervention, assertive communication, empowerment and advocacy are key tools. There is a need to be able to engage multi-problem, high conflict families.

Often, there is dealing with people who have a very sad past. It can be disappointing when the children involved are keen to participate in change, but the parents are either unable or unwilling to facilitate that change.