The old approach of big government picking up the pieces of broken families is giving way to the new idea of strengthening families before they break apart... In an era of deficit reduction and reduced budgets for social programs, the family support movement is proving that we can save families and money at the same time. We can no longer afford to neglect families at risk. Investing in families is an investment in our future.

Walter Cronkite,
“Our Families, Our Future.”
PBS, 1999

To support of vision of keeping children safe and families strong, the New Hampshire Children’s Trust Fund works with family support programs across New Hampshire to provide services to children and families.  Our definition for family support is based guidelines developed by Family Support America and includes:

A set of beliefs and an approach to strengthening and empowering families and communities so that they can foster the optimal development of children, youth, and adult family members.

A type of grassroots, community-based program designed to prevent family problems by strengthening parent-child relationships and providing whatever parents need in order to be good nurturers and providers. These programs have been proliferating across the country since the 1970s.

A shift in human services delivery that encourages public and private agencies to work together and to become more preventive, responsive, flexible, family-focused, strengths-based, and holistic-and thus more effective.

A movement for social change that urges all of us -- policymakers, program providers, parents, employers-to take responsibility for improving the lives of children and families. The family support movement strives to transform our society into caring communities of citizens that put children and families first and that ensure that all children and families get what they need to succeed.