Family Support: Direction from Diversity

The contributors to this topical volume explore the role of family support in promoting the welfare of children and their families. They show how children can be supported in the development of their full potential despite adverse experiences. Family support enables children to access the variety of resources available to them in the multiplicity of contexts in which they live.

Family Support: Direction from Diversity integrates concepts and experiences from an international perspective, different levels of analysis (society, community and family) and different loci of intervention (education, social services and local government). Specific areas covered include:

* principles of family and social support

* social networks and social change in the family and the community

* reciprocal support between families, schools and the community

* restoring the balance of control between parents and children

* supporting young people who misuse drugs.

Family Support presents current knowledge about family support and sets out directions for future developments in thinking and service provision.

It shows how an understanding of the complexity and potential of family support can inform and enrich the work of educators, professionals, service providers, policy makers and academics.

Pat Dolan holds a UNESCO Chair in Children, Youth and Civic Engagement at the National University of Ireland, Galway. He leads the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre and directs the MA in Family Support Studies, which for over 15 years has had the development of family support as a major goal. At different times in his career he has been a successful practitioner and senior manager in the area of family support. Apart from his extensive research experience in the field, he has provided policy advice on family support to national statutory and voluntary agencies and to international organisations. Pat is widely published on Family Support.

John Canavan is Associate Director of the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre, a research and policy centre for which Family Support is a major area of interest. He has over 20 years' experience in undertaking project evaluations and providing policy advice to statutory and voluntary agencies, and to government. Over the last seven years he has led a series of major evaluations on a programme of investment in children's services in Ireland. He teaches on the post qualifying Diploma/MA in Family Support Studies at the National University of Ireland, Galway and co-directs the Structured Ph.D. in Child and Youth Research at the university. His academic writing covers Family Support and related topics, and Evidence Informed Practice.

Robbie Gilligan is Professor of Social Work and Social Policy at Trinity College Dublin and associate director of the Children's Research Centre. He has written extensively on child care and foster care.

John Pinkerton is an established academic known for his research and writing in the area of family support. His work is heavily influenced by an international perspective. For the last 15 years he has been an international advisor to the Children's Institute, University of Cape Town. In preparation for legislative change in the 1990s he led a research team from Queen's University Belfast in producing a base line study of family support in Northern Ireland. He has advised government on family support in both the North and South of Ireland. His teaching covers both qualifying and post qualifying training in social work. He is Co-Editor of the British Journal of Social Work, leading on its family and child care content.