Families and schools together (FAST): Integrating community development with clinical strategies

Lynn McDonald, Stephe Billingham, Tammy Conrad

ABSTRACT

Families and Schools Together (FAST) is an early-intervention/prevention, collaborative, school-based, multifamily family-support program for elementary school children who have been identified by their teachers as having behavior problems. The program integrates concepts and practices of community organizing with effective clinical techniques based on family therapy and play therapy. Parent-professional partnership is used to engage low-income and isolated families into the eight-week program. Process and outcome evaluation indicate that children show statistically significant improvements in conduct disorder, anxiety/ withdrawal, and attention span over time. In addition, two-year follow-up data suggest that child-functioning gains are maintained and that FAST parents become more involved at school, regularly see their FAST friends, begin employment after being on welfare, return for further education, and become involved in the community.

Efforts to engage low-income, stressed, and isolated families in traditional mental health services have frequently failed. Although family therapy approaches have been slightly more successful than other approaches have, they also struggle to reach the most needy clients. At the same time, the number of children with problems in schools and in the community is dramatically increasing. The difficulties of elementary-school-age children are correlated with adolescent problems of substance abuse, school failure, teenage pregnancy, violence, and delinquency. These problems often emerge in an environmental context of chronic underemployment, violence, neglected schools, and alienated communities. As mental health practitioners and community-organizing social workers, we must advocate for policies, funding, and interventions that address and overcome these social and personal problems (Febrarro, 1994; Smale, Tuson, Cooper, Wardle, & Crosbie, 1988). Everyone, including people with a range of political affiliations, cares about children. Thus children could be a primary focus in our search for solutions to social problems.

In contrast with traditional office-based, individual therapy and with community-wide initiatives to build neighborhoods, the family-support approach is described here (Gaudin, Polansky, Kilpatrick, & Shilton, 1993; Kagan, Powell, Weissbourd, & Zigler, 1987; Weiss, 1988; Weissbourd & Kagan, 1989; Wyman, Cowen, Work, & Parker, 1991). This article describes a multifamily, community-based approach whose goal is to produce changes at the levels of individual child functioning and the local social network. Historically, the two approaches-community organizing and clinical social work-have been distinct in their conceptualizations, professional literature, funding sources, and professional training and identification. The Families and Schools Together (FAST) program breaks down these boundaries in order to integrate effective change strategies from both fields, with the goal of fostering feelings of affiliation, mutual respect, and reciprocity among the various players in children's family, neighborhood, school, and community environments (McDonald, Coe-Braddish, Billingham, Dibble, & Rice, 1991). This approach can be viewed as a bridge between active community development and therapeutic interventions and used to connect both endeavors. In the following sections, this familysupport program is described, the community-organizing strategies it uses are outlined, the clinical techniques underlying the family activities offered at the program are summarized, and an evaluation of the program's impact on children and communities is summarized.

The FAST Program

The FAST program was developed in 1988 by Lynn Mc-' Donald, a former faculty member at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Social Work and a social worker and family therapist at Family Service, Madison, Wisconsin, in an effort to support families and to integrate community development with family and individual clinical approaches to reduce substance abuse, violence, delinquency, and school failure through early intervention with at-risk children in stressed, isolated, low-income families (McDonald, 1996a, 1996b). Problems during adolescence have been shown to be predictable in teacher assessments of five- to nine-year-old children. Werner and Smith (1982) conducted a 30-year longitudinal study correlating middle-childhood indicators with significant problems that emerge later in life. They also identified distinctions between children who later overcame their at-risk status and those who did not. They found two critical protective factors that were predictive of success: the relationship with a significant adult family member and a caring relationship with an adult in the community. These caring connections promoted resilience among vulnerable children throughout their lives.

The FAST program begins with teacher identification of at-risk elementary school children at a particular school. Then a parent-professional team does outreach to invite the families of 10 to 15 of those children to participate voluntarily in a multifamily eight-week FAST cycle. The FAST families initially are brought together to build positive, caring social connections. Over the course of the two-year program, they meet on their own initiative in local clusters to maintain their interdependency and to encourage them to provide support to one another as they help their children improve in school. The FAST program systematically integrates exemplary practices from both community organizing and clinical casework and uses positive engagement of families and community to help at-risk children succeed at school, at home, and in their community (McDonald, 1992).

The FAST program routinely administers comprehensive program and outcome evaluation (Billingham, 1993; McDonald, 1993, 1995; McDonald & Sayger, in press). The program is now being implemented in 26 states and Canada and in several hundred diverse communities-from rural Iowa and small towns in Pennsylvania to large cities such as Atlanta, Georgia, and Los Angeles, California, to the Menomonee Indian Reservation and to nearly 25% of the school districts in Wisconsin. A structure for program dissemination has been in place since 1990, together with training for persons who wish to be certified FAST trainers (McDonald, 1994). In three phases of training, FAST trainers have five team contacts to adapt the program to local needs and to ensure that the core process of the program is implemented with integrity. The trainers observe the local team and families on three occasions and complete standard site-visit forms to evaluate implementation of the program. Each new site also conducts a standard outcome evaluation. The final report presents statistical analyses and information comparing the local program outcomes with FAST programs throughout the United States.

Training and evaluation of the national family-support program are administered by Family Service America (McDonald, 1995). Ongoing quantitative program evaluation after eight weeks of FAST programming in 53 national replication sites suggests a consistently positive impact on child functioning, with statistically significant (p

Theoretical Basis

Family stress theory as formulated by Hill (1958) and further developed by McCubbin and Patterson (1983) forms the theoretical underpinning of the FAST program. Hill's theory is not related to individual or family therapy or to diagnosing dysfunction in children or families. As a family sociologist, he studied families who survived the Great Depression to identify family, social, and community factors that predicted family resilience among families under duress. Families experiencing stress, according to Hill, avoid family crises if they have two protective factors: (a) informal and formal social support networks, including within-family supportive relationships, and (b) the ability positively to reframe their perceptions of the stresses so that they no longer feel that they are the only ones struggling with these stresses and have increased hope and feelings of power in their ability to improve their life circumstances.

Hill's "roller coaster" ABCX theory of family stress (see Figure 1) depicts the (a) "ongoingness" of family functioning, ranging from high to low, and (b) the assault of multiple, acute stressors on the family (A), their universal and temporarily detrimental effect on family functioning (X), and the trajectory of recovery to a homeostatic level of family functioning. The buffer factors of family resources (B) and family perception (C) affect both angles of the figure, that is, the detrimental impact on family functioning as well as the trajectory of the recovery.

Usually, the social worker or family therapist becomes involved with such families after they experience a crisis. According to Hill, at that point, we can assume the following: (a) all family resources, that is, informal within-family and across-family social supports, have proven to be insufficient in helping the family cope with the acute stressors, and (b) the family believes that no other help is available. Therefore, as a last resort, families under extreme stress turn to formal social institutions for support.

Commitment to early intervention means that professional social workers and family therapists need to connect with stressed families before crises occur. Schools provide an excellent context for establishing that connection. As time passes, all families will experience acute stressors and changes in their daily routines. According to Hill and McCubbin, a family's responses to these challenges (A) will vary, depending on its ongoing level of family functioning, its resources (B), and its perception of its circumstances (C). In that many families of schoolage children face increasing pressures in the workplace, are geographically isolated from extended family, and are socially and psychologically isolated from neighbors, their resources (B) are depleted. Parents' perceptions of themselves as competent care providers of their children may be undermined in part by social isolation. Low-income families living in the context of underemployment, poor housing, unsafe neighborhoods, and so forth lack the informal social supports of family and friends to help them manage the acute stressors they face daily. Hill's family stress theory in the context of at-risk children characterizes these families as stressed and socially isolated and thus in need of mutual, reciprocal, natural social supports rather than as dysfunctional families in need of therapeutic interventions. In FAST we assume that multiple environmental stresses (A) contribute to the problems that teachers view as at-risk classroom behaviors (proximal X). These early problem behaviors can be reduced by building social support networks for families and strong connections within families (B) and by empowering parents (C), which in turn increases the child's likelihood to avoid substance abuse, violence, delinquency, and school dropout (long-term X). This conceptualization is compatible with both community-organizing and family-strengthening efforts.

Components of the FAST Program

In many ways, the FAST program is simple. It gives parents and their children an opportunity to spend quality time together, enjoy one another, and participate more fully and comfortably in their local community. The intention is to help children succeed and prevent them from getting in trouble. Though simple in focus, the program's structure embodies a unique and complex interplay of tested family therapy principles, delinquency and substance-abuse prevention strategies, psychiatric techniques, family systems theory, and group dynamics. The FAST curriculum is designed to allow everyone, regardless of age, to have fun while systematically enhancing parent-child interactions, empowering parents, and building parent-to-parent groups. The program proceeds as follows:

* Teachers identify children with problem behaviors who are at risk for serious future academic and social problems. The screening process may include other school professionals. Parents can also self-refer.

* Trained, sensitive recruiters-FAST parent graduates, in most cases-visit parents at home to tell them about teachers' concerns with their child's behavior and to invite them to participate in FAST.

* Families gather with 8 to 12 other families weekly for 8 sessions at the child's school. Meetings follow a uniform agenda that includes carefully planned opening and closing routines, structured family activities, parent mutual-support time, and parent-child play therapy with the at-risk child. Meetings are led by a trained team that includes a parent, a school professional (e.g., school social worker), a clinical social worker from a mental health agency, and a substance-abuse counselor. The activities are lively and fun and intended to build family unity. They include eating a meal together, creating a family flag, singing, and lively exercises in communication and feelings identification, among other activities.

* The parent-child play therapy, called "special play," is at the core of the FAST program. In 15 minutes of uninterrupted quality time, parents play oneon-one with their at-risk child in ways that build the child's self-esteem and enhance family communication. The parents are instructed to focus on childinitiated play and to avoid teaching, directing, or criticizing. Most children and parents enjoy this special time together. Parents are encouraged to continue special play between FAST sessions and during the next two years.

* The multifamily sessions include time for the children to play together while parents discuss their common interests and concerns, such as parenting issues and life stresses. During this time, parents build an informal support network for themselves to help one another discover solutions for parenting and family concerns.

* To promote attendance, FAST offers intangible incentives such as respect and social support as well as tangible ones such as transportation, a hot meal, and child care for infants and toddlers. Each family wins a gift package of needed items sometime during the eight-week program. The winning family prepares and hosts the hot meal for the following session and is given cash to purchase food.

* A graduation ceremony is held. Invitations are sent, certificates are presented by the school principal, and the successes of the individual families are celebrated. Families pride themselves on being "FAST graduates."

* Following graduation, families participate in FASTWORKS, a series of monthly family-support meetings designed to maintain the active social network. FASTWORKS is run by a parent advisory council of graduates, with gradually decreasing staff assistance.

* After several years of FAST cycles in one school, FASTWORKS becomes an ongoing monthly, multifamily meeting in which the agenda is set by participating parents. Active leaders, the Parent Advisory Council (PAC), get a budget for planning events in which up to 40 FAST families gather in the school, in a community setting, or on an outing of some kind. The eight-week FAST cycles are gradually perceived as a bridge for moving new families into the FASTWORKS program. The initial FAST experience builds interdependency among participants, thus increasing the likelihood that they will join the FASTWORKS program. It becomes a local association of parents with common experiences. Families that in the past were isolated and never attended school for any positive purpose become actively involved in school activities. The FAST social network serves as a support, and FASTWORKS functions as a safety net to encourage parents to take more risks. The FAST program applies exemplary clinical practices and social science research. The program brings together approaches that work simultaneously at multiple levels of the child's ecology (Bronfenbrenner, 1979; Garbarino, 1987) to address specific behavior problems manifested by children at school. These practices include positive engagement of individuals in the community through incentives; engaging natural leaders in communities; encouraging mutual support among community members; focusing on the most visible individuals with problems in the community; building on family strengths as a natural resource for the child; using family therapy approaches to strengthen family functioning; encouraging parents to use clinically proven therapeutic techniques with their children; encouraging cooperation among agencies; doing routine outcome evaluation; using measures of individual, family, and community functioning to obtain quantitative and qualitative data; and initiating quality-control activities.

Community Organizing And Positive Outreach

In considering FAST from a community-organizing perspective, what are the roles of the family and schools in community development?

First, schools are the primary place for families with school-age children to meet and interact.

Second, schools can offer opportunities to low-income families to become contributing members of the community. Because of their young age and potential energy, these adults are a prime group to take action and energize others in their community. Helping children succeed is a shared concern of families, schools, and society.

Third, a collaborative structure reflecting a community-wide commitment to helping children succeed is formed before the FAST program begins. In order to receive FAST team training to start the program, a collaborative team must be formed with a minimum of four partners: a parent from the local community, two community agency professional representatives (one from a mental health agency and one from a substance-abuse program), and one professional from the local elementary school. Before training begins, the team members must commit to attending the FAST training together and to implementing the two-year program. Thus, a combination team that includes public and private institutions and consumers and providers must collaborate and agree that FAST is a priority program for their children before FAST training is implemented.

Fourth, FAST uses three organizing principles that involve many people and are strongly felt, simple, and uniting. Selecting the best organizing principles is key to effective community organizing. The organizing principles are as follows:

* Parents love their children and are concerned about their well-being.

* Positive experiences that are both educational and spiritually nourishing will get people connected to the program and one another.

* A partnership between the families and the schools will best help children succeed. Families, communities, and schools can work together locally with families sometimes in the lead and the school sometimes in the lead.

The FAST family members are given the opportunity to become engaged more actively with other families in the program, with the school faculty, and with staff of community agencies. These opportunities are built into the program through the following practices.

* Parents must volunteer to participate in FAST. This prerequisite respects parents' ability to make their own choices and develops self-esteem and confidence. If a parent's self-esteem is quite low, an invitation to join the program demonstrates respect for the parent. The invitation offers a new beginning for the family and the school.

* Outreach is an integral step in the FAST program. After the family has agreed to participate and understands the outreach plan, staff and other families are available to one another throughout the program. Families know the staff person whose time is available to them between weekly sessions. Families in the program may offer their telephone numbers to one another. Staff may make home visits if parents wish them to. Parent liaisons who are staff members must be FAST graduates.

* Getting out of the house and participating in activities outside their own family is a big step for many people. They may be new to the community or they may have used up former friendships because of alcohol or drug abuse. Economic hardships may have forced them to stay at home in order to save money. Fear of violence may also keep people at home.

* Families graduating from a FAST program form small clusters or associations of interdependent parents with the potential for assuming a leadership role in their community. Each cluster is linked to the other FAST groups in their school through FASTWORKS and with other schools by virtue of the FAST program structure. However, each cluster is independent and focused on its own school and neighborhood.

* FAST empowers parents as effective change agents with their children. During the eightweek program, parents can see their child's behavior improve, which empowers parents when they realize that this change has occurred as a result of their voluntary participation in the program. Moreover, parents determine the content of the program and receive social support for themselves.

* FAST provides parents with an in-school, self-help parent group. This group is available during each evening session while children enjoy recreation with a staff leader. The discussion and support group is run by the parents.

* Representatives from various parent groups develop parent advisory councils (PACs) that plan activities in FASTWORKS. A PAC makes decisions about events and a budget for its own FASTWORKS program, allowing families to maintain ongoing contact with families from their own program as well as a chance to meet other FAST family graduates.

* The FAST program provides ongoing structure for community organizing. After completing the eight-week program, parents are responsible for determining the focus of their monthly FASTWORKS meetings. At this point, they have a connection to other FAST graduates, have backup support from the community and school professionals, and feel empowered in having achieved the shared goal of helping their child improve at school and at home. This success give parents the confidence to work toward new goals.

* Each FAST program hires a parent graduate to co-lead the next FAST group. By creating jobs for FAST parent graduates, FAST contributes to the development of the whole community. No only does it contribute to the economic base of individuals and community, it puts families into a relationship with coworkers who may better understand their situation than do others in the community. Madison, Wisconsin, FAST graduates have become lead program facilitators and national certified FAST trainers.

* Professionals who initially get the FAST program up and running pull back but make themselves available for consultation. This step takes time, depending on the leadership skills of the FAST parent graduates involved in the PAC. To hasten leadership development, Family Service, Madison, organized summer parent-leadership workshops and FAST family camps for potential leaders to receive training in grass-roots leadership skills.

Thus, FAST is not simply a children and families program that builds on protective factors, but is a community-building strategy as well. FAST complements counseling; supports collective action; builds on community, family, and individual assets; creates building blocks for community growth; is collaborative; and is resident led.

Clinical Approaches

In addition to the application of family-stress theory and community-organizing principles and strategies described above, the FAST program integrates and applies several clinical approaches during the structured eight-week multifamily sessions. Specifically, these approaches include family therapy (Alexander, 1973; Alexander & Parsons, 1982; Minuchin, 1979, 1986; Minuchin, Montalvo, Guerney, Rosman, & Schumer, 1967), parent-mediated play therapy (Barkeley, 1987; Gordon & Kogan, 1975; Guerney, 1977; Kogan, 1978, 1980; Kogan, Gordon, & Wimberger, 1972; Schedler & Block, 1990), and behavioral parenting strategies (Patterson, 1975; Wahler, 1983; Webster-Stratton, 1991). Eight to 12 families participate in a series of playful, interactive activities. The weekly activities systematically focus on separate subunits within the family system: parents, parent-child, and family unit.

a The parent subsystem is formed by parent dyads or by combining two single parents for 15 minutes of open communication, called "buddy time." This time builds informal social support. Also, the hierarchy of the family is highlighted and supported by setting aside time for adults to convene.

* The parent-child subsystem is given 15 minutes of open communication fostered through child-directed play in which the parent is coached to follow the child's lead and not to boss, teach, or criticize. This special play builds positive bonds between child and parent.

* The family unit (as defined by the family) has one hour of open communication through a shared family meal at a family table, during which time the child serves the parent dinner; through group singing; through being the "winning" family one evening, and the "host" family the next meeting; and through family games in which the parent is empowered to be effectively in charge of the family activities and the children's behavior, thus supporting the hierarchy of the family structure. In addition, the family practices communication skills such as turn taking and positive inquiry, both of which lay the foundation for family conflict resolution, and the family has fun together by listening to one another and sharing feelings and ideas. As a result of these activities, the family unit is strengthened in terms of structure, cohesion, expressed affect, and communication.

It is important to note that FAST activities are developed out of family therapy and play therapy research and theory that avoid labeling families as dysfunctional. Activities support family strengths and relationships to enable families to develop resources to counter life stresses.

Outcome Evaluation

The FAST program was developed out of published research from the mental health and social sciences fields. The criteria used for applying research results were (a) published in refereed journals, (b) similar findings reported by separate researchers, (c) funded by the federal government, and (d) relatively simple to design and implement. Table 1 connects program components with research and specifies the community-building impact of each component. The FAST program applies findings of some of the best research in the field into a multilevel package.

Ongoing evaluation of the program is performed by means of pre- and postoutcome evaluation from multiple sourcesthe consumer review questionnaire, process evaluation of implementation, follow-up evaluation, and qualitative in-depth interviews of FAST parents (Billingham, 1993; McDonald, 1993, 1995; McDonald & Sayger, in press).

Recently, a five-year grant supporting the FAST program at Family Service, Madison, ended. One goal of the grant was to evaluate the long-term (two- to four-year) impact of involvement in the FAST program. To do this, the names of all 500 children who had graduated from FAST between 1988 and 1994 were shared with the Madison Metropolitan School District. Forty percent of the children were no longer in the district. Schools that those who remained in the district were currently attending were identified, letters were sent to the families, and follow-up visits to the families were made. A total of 191 personal interviews were conducted, and 249 FAST parents completed standardized forms on their child and on their family's functioning. Of those who were interviewed, 28% of the families had never attended FASTWORKS.

The primary goal of the long-term evaluation was to determine how the child was now doing in school and at home. Because the children were identified as being at risk at the outset, the assumed trajectory in the absence of intervention was that over the course of time they increasingly would develop behavior problems at home and school. Although a control group was not used, the FAST children's follow-up data were compared with this assumed trajectory, with their own FAST norms over time, and with published norms for both clinically disturbed children and normal children established by the developers of the standardized instrument (Revised Behavior Problem Checklist; RBPC; Quay & Peterson, 1987) used to evaluate mental health functioning for youth from 6 to 12 years of age. The results are reported elsewhere (McDonald & Sayger, in press). However, in general, the 249 FAST children's behavior either was maintained or improved, as was reported on the RBPC by their parents two to four years after completing FAST. The family cohesion gains made after FAST were also maintained two to four years later, as reported on Olsen's standardized family assessment instrument (FACES III; Olson, 1986). On the evaluation of the FAST child's longterm functioning at home and at school, family cohesiveness, social isolation, and parent involvement in school showed positive change.

An unanticipated outcome was the effect of FAST on the parents of the children. In the follow-up interviews, we asked a series of questions about parents' perception of the child, perception of themselves in relationship to the child and to the school, and perception of themselves (Hill's C factor). We also asked how often parents did special play, attended FASTWORKS, made friends at FAST, saw friends from FAST, became involved with the school, and became involved with community agencies and formal support structures (Hill's B factor). These results, which show a postive impact, are summarized in Table 2.

FASTWORKS has developed a grass-roots structure in the Madison community that has given a voice to low-income mothers through their connection with an ongoing association of FAST parent graduates, as is illustrated by the following:

Director, community services, Madison, Wisconsin. The city established a program of neighborhood support. And we found that people who came to those focus groups were largely women who had been through the FAST program. Then, as things developed, it turned out that those were the same women who formed neighborhood associations and became basically the community leaders whom we could count on. What we believed happened was that through FAST they found their voices and became confident of their power to organize others. When they find that they have an effective voice in the school, they find that this group has been meaningful to them, they're ripe to try it out in their own neighborhoods where there are other problems. So with a little help, they have a set of skills, they have the faith, they have already experienced the power of using their own voices and having their own opinions validated.

FAST parent graduate.

Myself and a lot of the residents felt like we were the prisoners in the neighborhood because of the violence that was going on and the drug selling and we didn't want our kids to be involved in that. The Wisconsin State Journal came out and did an article. The mayor gave me a call and wanted to meet with myself and some of the other people in the association to talk about how we could work together to solve some of the problems in the neighborhood. We were like, we're here, we do care, you know. Anytime we have an event or something happen, I could just call on another family, who's usually from FAST, because they felt the strength that FAST gives the whole family that we are important, we can empower ourselves. We can do this. And they're there to helpany time. And since then, things have dramatically changed. We have a neighborhood center. A lot of the residents that was causing the problems, they've been evicted. So just the whole atmosphere of the whole neighborhood has changed.

FAST parent graduate.

I was a very isolated person and I felt very trapped. Even though I lived in this complex, I had no friends here. The first meeting that I went to I realized that the other moms had the same kind of feelings that I had. So I kind of grew as a mom. I also grew as a person. I mean, it was just wonderful, there was so much more to me than I ever knew there was. I have always been interested in owning a business, although I didn't ever think I would be capable of that. But I found out about the balloon business. I mean every time you say balloons, somebody smiles. It's just a happy thing. And I thought, this is great, I can do this! And it's just been wonderful. My family is involved, the kids are involved. They tell everybody about it; they're real excited about it. I think my balloon business is really going to make it. I plan on owning a store. I mean it's just really been a wonderful few years ... and I just see it getting better.

FAST parent graduate and FAST program facilitator. There is this feeling when you go to somebody and you say, "Hi, my name is , I'm a FAST parent," and they look at you because they are a FAST parent, too. There's this immediate bond, this immediate connection that's made. Today my very best friends are people that I met through the FAST program. Three, four years later, after parents have gone through, there's this connectedness that we feel. I see it happen all the time in the parent group. And that's what it's all about, it's building that community and relationships and friendships.

FAST parent graduate.

It's been about five years since we went through the FAST program and I still have friendships with some of the people I went through with. It was kind of a turning point for me. I was like, gee, these people believe that I have certain qualities, that I'm an O.K. person, and maybe I am. FAST helped that. It's like the more I felt confident about myself, that I could do things I didn't think I could. So I closed my eyes, gritted my teeth, jumped in, and went to school! And now I'm a year away from graduating with a BA in psychology and I plan to go on to graduate school.

FAST parent. My son's proud of me. He has an opportunity to go to the Indianapolis 500 this year, and I said, "Well, what it that falls on graduation weekend?" He said, well, I'll stay home because your graduation is important. That really, that really made me feel good. Interview

One parent from a highly transient, low-income area of Madison, said, "If you want to get to know people in the community, join FAST." The following in-depth interview with a FAST parent highlights the link between clinical impact and community development.

Parent: So that's how me and my son started growing apart. I was working and buying him stuff and thinking this was contact-but there was no mental connection there. It was like "Look what I bought you, I bought you this, I bought you that." And he would be, "That's fine, Mom, that's nice, just put it in my room." It was fine that I was buying him stuff, but what is there that money can't buy? My quality time. ... How wrong I was.... We weren't going places together, we weren't doing things together, maybe we would hug and kiss on the run. Then he was alone and then I was at work, and then when I was there, he was gone.... I wasn't aware and I imagine that there are so many parents, especially single parents, that don't realize what they are doing to the kids.

That's one of the things that FAST helped me to realize, because they had family nights where we all have dinner, we sit down with our sons and have dinner, we had the time together regardless and we learned that we missed each other.... I was brought up in an old-fashioned home, and we shared our day. But I don't have the husband no more and I'm barely making ends meet-and I'm trying so hard, but I'm trying too hard that I'm missing the whole point. A lot of parents are doing the same thing. They don't realize how they are hurting the kids, and FAST helped me realize that. That if I'm giving of myself to this child, if I'm not having a meeting of the minds and hearts with this child on a continuous basis, I'm missing the whole point. I promised to love when I brought him here-to give him the most common thing, to give quality of yourself.... When I started going to FAST and when we sat down every week to have dinner, I started having flashbacks of when I was growing up with my family. I wondered how did I let this get away. That's mainly what they opened my eyes to anc gave me a deeper insight into.

When they first came to my door my family was in an uproar. At that time, I had some of my older kids there. They were an influence on my son. I was so used to my older kids, always meeting more of their needs ... but in that I had lost a lot of my personal esteem because I had begun to feel like they were using me and I wasn't giving to the one who really deserved my time.... Being a single parent with no support and nowhere to turn, I was losing hope rapidly. So for these people to come into my home, my life, my family, and my heart, I found my self-esteem again. I found that I am somebody and I can and I will get the job done.... When I found that someone cared and that I had some support and there really was someone out there that would help me and take time with me to give me back focus in the right direction, I started to feel good ... like a mother. I was closer to my son. That made me feel better automatically.... I felt important again.

That's where it all started coming back to life.... I could continue growing. It started me growing again because I thought I was losing my son. ... I never had time for a social life, no friends, nobody to talk to. It was just work and then back home. FAST gave me back a social life.... The more I did, the more energy I got. Piece by piece, I started to become a whole person again. FAST laid the foundation and building blocks because FAST brought me back in touch with all these things that I had been out of touch with for so long. ... To go to the meetings and to the dinners, I had to get out and come in contact with other people. You see, I was hiding in the house hoping that life would hurry up and pass me by so I could be done. I never thought I would hear myself say that, but actually that was not only happening to me, but other women. Especially women with kids because they feel that nobody wants them. ... They had a bad experience with some guys they had kids by [who] made them feel so down and so low that nobody wants them or nobody wants to be bothered by them. And they feel these are nobody else's kids but theirs so they sort of become a protective circle and that's the home. They are afraid to venture beyond that because they are afraid of being rejected. We talked about it a lot at FAST. It's like "I don't never go anywhere, I don't even go to church no more, I don't do this, I don't do that." But now you feel great joy because ... somebody cares and you want to be part of that, part of the world, you want your kids to be part of it. ... Anybody comes to the house, it usually is when your kid is bad. That is usually the only contact you have outside is from your kids.... FAST got me out of the house. It got me involved with the community. As far as people caring, other parents call you when you're feeling down. You call other parents and get a good pep talk from them. Your kids, they keep them happy and motivated so when you're both together you are motivated. So I can't praise this program enough. They have brought a lot of us out.

Interviewer: So you are not surprised that FAST women are going back to school and church, going into PTA, becoming community leaders. These are dynamite women doing fabulous things. Parent: They always were but they had no one to tell them that. If it's there now, it must have always been. All it needed was developing.

Conclusion

These interviews, the spontaneous testimonials of FAST parents in various settings, and the comments of community leaders and FAST facilitators who know and remain in contact with FAST families indicate that something is happening here that goes beyond a child and family program to help children succeed in school and to avoid substance abuse and delinquency. A sense of community is being built; long-term friendships, supportive relationships, and local associations are being established; feelings of affiliation are overcoming feelings of isolation and alienation. As this occurs, families become better able to manage stress. Because their social-support resources are strengthened, families perceive stresses as less overwhelming, which in turn enhances children's resilience and frees parents to reach out and contribute to their community.

As social workers and mental health practitioners, we need to apply community development and therapeutic techniques together in early intervention family-support programs in low-income settings. Our role changes from inadvertently promoting dependency toward building positive interdependency among families, that is local associations that serve as supports for individuals and families.

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Lynn McDonald Is a researcher, Wisconsin Center for Educational Research, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Stephe Billingham is clinical psychologist Physicians Plus, Madison, Wisconsin; Tammy Conrad is a FAST facilitator and certified FAST trainer, Family Service, Madison; Arthur Morgan is a certified FAST trainer and FAST facilitator, Family Service, Madison; Nancy O is a certified FAST trainer and consultant Family Service, Madison; and Estella Payton is a certitled FAST trainer and director of FAST training supervision, Family Service America, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This article is based on work funded by grant 1H8655P03699, Center for Substance Abuse Prevention.

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