As the state designee for the National Family Support Network (NFSN), the Trust provides NFSN's nationally-adopted Standards of Quality for Family Strengthening & Support. Participants who attend this training will become members of the Family Support Alliance of Maine, an effort to support these standards of quality across the state. The Standards of Quality is a tool for planning, providing, and assessing services and programming to ensure families are supported and strengthened through quality practice. The Standards of Quality can be used widely by all stakeholders - public departments, foundations, networks, community-based organizations, and families.

Here's how the Standards of Quality will help your practice:

• Community Strengthening: Developing a strong and healthy community by working collaboratively with various stakeholders and supporting families' civic engagement, leadership development, and ability to affect systems change.
• Parent Voice & Advances Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: Provides a family-centered approach that values families and recognizes them as integral to the program, as well as utilizing common language for working effectively with families that advances diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• Quality Practice: Focusing on community conditions that impact families’ healthy development through quality practice.
• Research-based, Evidence-Informed: Combines the Strengthening Families Framework and Approach which is research-based and evidence-informed with the 5 Protective Factors to support families to be strong, healthy, and safe, thereby promoting their success and optimal development.
• Self-Assessment: Provides a free self-assessment tool that is designed as a critical thinking exercise for Program teams to use in reflecting on their implementation of the Standards.
• Evaluation: Looking at areas of Program strength, as well as areas for further development, in order to guide continuous quality improvement and achieve positive results for families.

For more information, please email us at info@mechildrenstrust.org