Chapin Hall

Families thrive when their communities are strong and connected. Yet too often, families face barriers to resources that support well-being, like lack of affordable child care, safe housing, mental health supports, or job opportunities—barriers that can spiral into crises and even child welfare involvement. 

To address these challenges, Lutheran Services in America launched the Family Stabilization Initiative (FSI) in 2021. The initiative brings together a learning collaborative of communities across the country to reduce racial disproportionality in the child welfare system and improve outcomes for families. In its first four years, the FSI engaged nearly 1,000 families across six communities in four states, demonstrating how locally driven, wraparound supports can prevent crises before they occur. 

As part of this effort, Lutheran Services in America partnered with Chapin Hall to develop the Community Building and Mobilization Framework. The framework provides practical strategies rooted in five principles that shift the focus from short-term fixes to long-term, transformational relationships: 

• People-driven collaboration: Centering family and community voices in co-creating solutions. 

• Asset-based partnerships: Building on the strengths and networks that already exist. 

• Capacity building: Investing in people and systems for equity and sustainability. 

• Shared leadership: Supporting authentic partnerships and fair power-sharing. 

• Collaborative evaluation: Measuring progress together through both data and lived experience. 

Stabilizing and strengthening families requires sustained, cross-sector collaboration.  Ultimately, this depends on our ability to listen to communities and change systems in ways that reduce barriers and build trust. The framework offers concrete strategies for putting each principle into action, allowing communities to build deep, consistent networks of support to meet families’ needs. In turn, this lays the foundation for stronger futures where all families can thrive. 

This framework is the second resource resulting from this initiative. The first was a Toolkit for Centering Racial Equity in Sustaining Family Stability, which provides additional practical resources for policymakers and practitioners. 

Have questions about how to apply this Framework? Contact Jennifer Gaul-Stout.