Key Service Features

Families and professionals have clearly identified Key Service Features of The Children's Link Society:

• "whatever it takes";

• a family-centered, individualized, flexible, "wraparound" service based on family competency and well-being not on child deficiencies and family failures;

• a service driven by family-identified needs and priorities;

• a broad range of options and information about treatments, supports and services provided in a unbiased, non-judgmental, culturally-sensitive, easily a comprehensive database and resource library of information (i.e. medical searches and definitions and plain-language descriptions of conditions, syndromes, developmental delays, etc.);

• latest qualitative and quantitative research;

• programs and other services and resources available and how to access them, funding sources, educational options, transition planning, application guidelines and appeal processes, rights and responsibilities, etc.;

• a community-based, coordinated outreach service defined by the families and communities themselves;

• a service to support families in their role as primary care-givers to their child so that family unity is maintained and out-of-home placements are avoided;

• a service to support family functioning by assisting in developing and strengthening families own informal support networks;

• effective collaborative partnerships between families and professionals and amongst service providers, funders and policy makers at all levels of service and jurisdictions that affect the lives of children with special needs and their families.