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Trying to understand a family is like jumping on to a moving bus: You have the disadvantage of being a temporary passenger on other peoples’ journey through a stage in their life, with people leaving and joining along the way. Nevertheless, when one is involved in family work one needs an understanding of the framework of the dynamics in the family they work with, as this may have an impact on their intervention methods.

 

Through my role as a Family Support Worker at the Napier Family Centre, I work with children and families in the Community. Families are the basic social units in which people live and from which they derive their identity and support. Families were usually defined by kinship, marital bonds or parenting relationships. The family structure in the past focused on two-parent families with children, or one – parent families.

 

Family trends in the 1990s and the diversity of family life from a race and class viewpoint, make it impossible to define what is a ‘conventional family’. The modern family is being influenced by new flexibilities and new demands.

 

It is important not to limit our focus to simple family structure but instead to recognise the variety of forms which fulfil the social, psychological, economic and domestic needs of family members.

 

We need to be aware of the changes the family structure has gone through in recent years and realise that each of us may hold a different definition of what a family is. Few people may consider psychological definitions of family unity and membership as more important than blood ties.

 

Whatever the definition one holds, we have to admit the importance family has in our life. Beyond ethnicity, cultural background, race, age and religion we all need a sense of belonging, A place to call home. We need to realise the importance our family plays in our life. We need to nurture our families wherever they are. In case we don’t have family ties, or have a destructive relationship with our family, we need to create a new family structure, relationships then can replace that gap in order to increase our sense of belonging. In this way we can feel at home wherever we are.

 

The Napier Family Centre has a support service for families and young people within Napier which provides support to assist families to find ways to increase their sense of belonging by offering personal support and to build positive relationships with family and community.