Understanding the types of risk and resilience especially in families that reside in high-risk communities or environments is considered to be an essential key to the prevention of bad habits such as substance abuse or crimes among the children, especially in these high-risk communities. When no measures are taken to ensure that the vices of living in high-risk communities do not catch up with the children and other members of the family, many negative consequences always arise (Donald & Pope, 2004). For example, if no systems are put in place by the family or the community to protect children from the risks of being raised by parents who are substance abusers, the children may experience child neglect and failure-to-thrive syndrome, and other outcomes that not only affect the family but the community as a whole. Different organizations and communities have come up with systems that ensure that the families in these communities have protection and resilience. Some of these systems are community-based while others are family-based. I believe that the most important systems that increase protective factors and resilience in communities are the family-based systems because the family is the core of the community and a problem is best curbed from the core.
Family Belief System
This system influences the ways in which a family perceives and responds to challenges. The belief system involves the development of a positive outlook, finding meaning in times of adversity, fostering spirituality and transiency in families. Families that make use of this system are usually very affiliated and cohesive in everything that they do (Beavers & Hampson, 2003). This system creates a collective orientation instead of an individualistic one which is very important because they are concerned and very involved in each other’s life such that, they would easily notice when risks of living in a high-risk community were catching up with any of their family members. For example, in cases of substance abuse, families that use the belief system would acknowledge this challenge as a family, and see it as a shared challenge for them and their community, hence figure out ways of making this challenge disappear; or dealing with the problem all together (Beavers & Hampson, 2003). This system increases resiliency among families because they believe that they have the power to overcome any challenges that may come their way as a family.
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Using the Family Belief System as a way of increasing protective factors and resilience in high-risk communities comes with some challenges. For example, every family is different and has its own beliefs. Some beliefs may be wrong in a particular family, but acceptable in another. However, this challenge is easy to overcome because organizations that focus on coming up with ways of increasing protective factors in these environments can come up with ways of overcoming them (Beavers & Hampson, 2003). For example, through the organization of family fun days in the community can help in making the family members bond with one another, and other families, with the main theme of the fun day being “increasing resilience and protective factors in our community”. By doing so, family bonds, hence family belief systems will be strengthened, hence it will be a more effective family system of increasing resilience in the community.
The Family Organizational Pattern System
As discussed earlier, cohesion and adaptability are essential factors of a functioning family. The organizational pattern of families from a high-risk environment also matter when it comes to functionality. Such families must find a balance between the need to stay the same, and the need to appreciate change. A functioning organizational system ensures that the family is connected and has a specific structure and organization in the way that they deal with their family members in a changing high-risk environment. For example, in a community that is prone to crimes and substance abuse, many things can change all at once. When a family has a functioning organization pattern, resilience and protective factors increase because the family already has a system that prepares them for these problems or changes, and defined a system of dealing with the changes (Franke, 2001). This is unlike families that do not have an organizational system because, in times of crisis, such families are so caught up in the changes taking place in the high-risk community, such that they lack the ability to move forward or make the necessary changes required to survive in such an environment.
The main challenges of using this system can only be solved by the families themselves. The organizations that deal with ensuring that high-risk communities also have protective factors and resilience cannot do much when it comes to establishing this system. The best that these organizations can do is hold forums and seminars that talk about enforcing the organizational pattern system in families. They can also provide reading materials that can help such families figure out ways of ensuring that they have a functioning organizational pattern (Beavers & Hampson, 2003).
Conclusion
In summary, the family system supports that ensure an increase and protective resilience among families living in high-risk communities are still in a beginning stage; in that, they have not been fully developed or explored. Human service professional should, therefore, ensure that these systems focus on: reducing susceptibilities and strengthening the protective family processes, reducing the inevitable chain of reactions that increase the risks in such communities, and mastery of these problems and solutions for the affected families (Howard et al., 2009). This way, human service professionals will ensure that these systems indeed foster the increase of protective factors and resilience in high-risk environments.
References
Beavers, W. R., & Hampson R. B. (2003). Measuring family competence : The Beavers Systems Model. Normal Family Processes, New York: Guildford Press.
Donald, J., &Pope, S. K. (2004). Early indications of resilience in children and their relation to experiences in high-risk communities. Child Development , 65, 346-360.
Franke, T. (2001). The role of family protective factors in risky environments. Adolescents and Family Health, 1, 40-57.
Howard, S., Dryden, J., & Johnson, B. (2009). Family resilience: Review and critique of literature. Oxford Review of Education , 25(3), 307-323.
