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Our Prevention Framework
We don’t wait for crisis—we prevent it.
Linked Family Services uses a protective-factor–driven, prevention-first approach to strengthen families and promote lasting stability. Our framework connects the dots between access to essentials, parental wellness, and system-level prevention.
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What Are ACEs?
ACEs, or Adverse Childhood Experiences, are potentially traumatic events in a child’s life—such as parental substance use, mental illness, violence, or neglect. Left unaddressed, ACEs can impact health, development, and stability far into adulthood.
From ACEs to Protective Factors
While Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) help us understand risk, we focus on what keeps families strong.
Protective factors such as nurturing relationships, social connections, resilience, and access to concrete supports are at the heart of our prevention model. By building these capacities, we help caregivers create safe, stable, nurturing environments for children.
Parenting Capacities as Prevention
We believe parents are the experts on their families.
Our engagement approach strengthens parenting capacities — confidence, emotional regulation, problem-solving, and goal-setting — so caregivers feel equipped to meet challenges before they escalate.
The Role of Social Determinants of Health (SDOH)
Many of the barriers families face — from housing instability to limited access to transportation or healthcare — directly affect child and family wellness.
Our prevention framework addresses these social determinants of health through intentional connection to community resources and essentials support via the Tiny Essentials Relief Hub.
Prevention Through Access:
The Tiny Essentials Relief Hub
The Tiny Essentials Relief Hub is how this framework comes to life.
By providing consistent access to diapers, hygiene items, and infant essentials — along with meaningful, brief engagement — we reduce immediate stressors, strengthen caregiver confidence, and connect families to longer-term support systems.
Our Long-Term Vision
Our long-term vision is to build a prevention ecosystem where every family has what they need before crisis begins. Linked Family Services aims to create a citywide network of partners, policies, and prevention hubs that make essentials, emotional support, and opportunity accessible to all. By centering protective factors, parenting capacities, and the social determinants of health, we are laying the groundwork for generational wellness — ensuring that families are not just surviving, but thriving in safe, connected, and stable communities.