Family Connections

Family Connections Baltimore has served families for more than 20 years. The program is able to work with 100 Baltimore City families each year to identify specific needs—whether housing, food, or support with their child’s educational progress—and work alongside families to help them advocate for getting their needs met. 100% of families involved with Family Connections have stayed out of the state’s formal child welfare system. 

Rather than an old-fashioned “medical model” social work program, Family Connections is a warm and joyful relationship-focused program that builds power. Staff enjoy learning about families, their histories, and what brings them joy. They like going into families’ homes and taking their cues from families to form relationships that are bidirectional and nurturing. 

You can find staff sitting in a family’s kitchen tasting a new recipe while they are conducting a screening process. Afrocentric practices run through the center, adapting traditional assessment tools to be more appropriate for Black families. Staff talk with families about how they can activate their power.

Power is the foundation of racism. It is also the foundation of solutions. Systemic racism has oppressed many people in Baltimore for generations, resulting in a host of practical challenges and bureaucracy. Family Connections believes that by listening to and partnering with families it can help them challenge the systems that are preventing them from getting their needs met. 

The Family Connections Caregiver Advisory Group arose when many grandmothers and other caregivers involved in the program wanted to spend more time with the staff and local families. Out of a natural wish to gather and connect, they came together on a monthly basis to support each other and talk about what was going on within their families and communities. They have helped with suggestions. They have advocated with legislators in Annapolis, Maryland’s state capitol, on a host of issues, including program funding. 

Together, everybody helps each other. A family enrolled in services may have a child that needs an individualized education plan (IEP). However, they may face challenges advocating with the school system. So, Family Connections partners with the family and the school board to make it happen. There is now an eviction prevention month, which sprang out of Family Connections’ work with families determined not to have their housing taken away. People said, “I’m going to fight them and win.” And they did.