Opinion: Our five priorities for serving New York City families

When it comes to helping New York City children and families, the NYC Administration for Children’s Services does not rest. We currently contract with over 130 programs throughout New York City that offer what have been colloquially known as “prevention services.” These are a suite of services tailored to the needs of individual families, which include substance misuse treatment, family counseling, homemaking services, help with accessing concrete supports, public benefits and more. Last year, approximately 14,000 families with 30,000 children participated in these programs. These services take a holistic approach to helping families because children are safer when families can address challenges at home and have what they need to relieve some of the daily stress they face and pursue their life goals. 

We are constantly evolving and improving our work to better meet the needs of children and families and ensure that New York City continues to be the best place to raise a family. As part of that work, we recently released new strategic priorities that will guide our progress in helping families.

As a first step, we’re renaming the ACS Division of “Prevention Services” that I lead to be the ACS Family Services Division. This new name puts families first, where they belong. It’s our way of telling families that their experience, their growth and their successes matter. We are no longer just focusing on the negative or preventing something from happening; we are focused on meeting the needs of families because that is what makes children safe and well.

Over the past several months, our Family Services Division engaged families, staff, providers, partners and advocates to get their feedback on the most important areas to focus on in the coming years. We identified five key priorities that will help guide our work:

1. We’ll elevate family lived experience and perspectives in our work and the work of our providers and partners. For instance, we’re hiring a parent advocate with lived experience in child welfare to be a member of our Family Services Division leadership.
2. We’ll support providers to be flexible in how they engage with families and help keep them organizationally strong. Our dedicated provider partners deserve ample support. They help us nurture strong connections with families and communities, so it is essential that we nurture their ability to do this work. 
3. We’ll foster new and creative ways of reaching communities with information and services. We’re listening to what families need and spreading the word about our work through the right channels and credible messengers 
4. We’ll build on our status as a hub for expertise and information about family services, for ACS and other agencies. We’re collaborating with the right partners to increase our recognition and better our reputation in communities. 
5. Finally, we’ll ensure the quality of family services with new research and analysis and share our insights and learnings with partners and peers across the city and around the world. We’re looking forward to continuing our nationally renowned research and innovation. 

All of this work is outlined in our new three-year strategic priorities report. 

Over the next three years, our comprehensive continuum of evidence-based programs will pursue this strategic direction to help New York City’s children, families and communities be happy, healthy and safe. Our Family Support Division is there for anyone navigating the challenges of raising a happy, healthy family in the city. 

We do not do this alone. We partner with and rely on a host of community-based organizations and city agency partners who provide services and resources to families. If you or someone you know is interested in accessing this support through ACS or one of our partners, visit nyc.gov/ForFamilies or call our helpline (212) 676-7667.