Advocacy
Support Groups
Networker
Trainings
Education/Awareness

The Statewide Family Support Network(SFSN) program was established in 1993 to educate and empower parents and caregivers to successfully "navigate" the many different agencies and systems for their children and adolescents with emotional and behavioral disturbances. The SFSN program subscribes to the core values of the system of care philosophy. Among these values are parents/caregivers as full partners in the development of services for children and adolescents with emotional and behavioral disturbances. This partnership should be not only at the individual level for each child, but also at program and policy making levels.

In the past five years, the Statewide Family Support Network (SFSN), also known as Outreach, has grown tremendously. In 1998 there was a total of 1743 contacts with parents/caregivers for the whole year. In FY 2002-2003, there were 4463 contacts with parents/caregiver. Growth in the number of families requesting assistance has increased over 100% in the past three years with the number of outreach specialists across the state remaining unchanged during this time period.