Family Support

To locate a Family Support Program Provider in your community, click here to search the Pathfinder database. On the database search page, select your county and "Family Support Program" then click on "Search."

You may also be interested in these Pathfinder service categories: Advocacy Services, Support Groups, In-Home Assistance. Click here to look up service definitions.

Tennessee Family Support Program

General Family Support Information (National)

For specific disabilities, see Pathfinder's collection of specific disability resources.

Beach Center on Families and Disability
BCFD is a research and training center on improving the functioning of families who have members with disabilities. Because families know their own preferences and needs better than anyone else, the Beach Center actively involves families in planning, conducting, and reviewing its research.

Family Village
A global community that integrates information, resources, and communication opportunities on the Internet for persons with mental retardation and other disabilities, their families, and those that provide them services and supports. At the Family Village Coffee Shop, you can learn how to make connections with other families; and the site includes information about several avenues parents can explore to find other families on the Internet or through traditional parent to parent matching programs. If you are a parent of a child with a disability and would like to talk to someone else, who has "been there" use the Family Village Post Office.

Family Voices
Family and friends speaking on behalf of children with special health care needs.

National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI)
Statewide support groups made up of individuals and families coping with severe mental illnesses. They offer emotional support and information about mental illness, coping strategies, and local services that might be able to help with a specific problem.

National Center for Family Support (NCFS)
NCFS was designed to provide training and technical assistance on family support to 42 project sites.This Web site has been developed to keep you informed about project progress and NCFS sponsored events such as institutes, conferences, and symposiums. In addition, resources and publications are made available to provide you with information about best practice and policy regarding family support.

National Information Center for Children and Youth with Disabilities
NICHCY is a national information and referral center that provides information on disabilities and disability-related issues for families . Special focus is on children and youth (birth to age 22).

National Parent Information Network
The purpose of NPIN is to provide information to parents and those who work with parents and those who work with parents to foster the exchange of parenting materials.

National Resource Center for Parents with Disabilities
A nationally recognized center that has pioneered research, training, and services for families in which a child, parent or grandparent has a disability or medical issue.

PACER (Parent Advocacy Coalition for Education Rights)
Strives to improve and expand opportunities that enhance the quality of life for children and adults with disabilities and their families. Also offers a website to help prevent bulling, a project of PACER's National Center for Bullying Prevention.

Parents Helping Parents (PHP)
A parent-directed family resource center for children with special needs. PHP provides information, support, and training for families of children of any age with any kind of special need (mental, physical, emotional, or learning disability) resulting from accident, illness, or birth defect.

Sibling Support Project
A national program dedicated to the interests of brothers and sisters of people with special health and developmental needs. The Project's primary goal is to increase the availability of peer support and education opportunities for brothers and sisters of people with special health and developmental needs.

Sibshops
Sibshops are opportunities for siblings of children with disablities to obtain peer support and education within a recreational context. They are lively events which acknowledge that brothers and sisters have much to offer one another.

SibNet
The Sibling Support Project of The Arc of the United States is pleased to announce SibNet. SibNet is the first and only listserv for and about brothers and sisters of people with special health, developmental, and emotional needs.