Argues that home visiting and related services have been shaped and constrained by the tendency to use services as a substitute for adequate income and economic opportunity, by ambivalent attitudes toward poor people, and by a preoccupation with the effects of poverty on child rearing. Proposes basic principles of practice that should guide early…

This book examines the history of supportive social services to examine ways in which those services have been helpful, and sometimes unhelpful, to poor families; the factors that have constrained service provision and reform; and what would make the service enterprise viable in the coming years. Discussed are formative influences on the…

This document provides a historical framework for better understanding the emergence of community-based family support and education (CBFSE) programs, their place within the larger service delivery system, and their potential for meeting the needs of children and families living in poverty. The paper is organized into five sections. The first…