Organizations American Association of Family and Consumer

¶ … Organizations

American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences (AAFCS)

Purpose/Function

Benefits

Provision of resources

National Council of Family Relations (NCFR)

Functions

Benefits

Resources

Early Childhood Intervention (ECI)

Functions

Benefits

Resources

Child Life Council (CLC)

Functions

Benefits

Resources

American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences (AAFCS)

Ellen Richards is the person that developed the idea of 'home economics' as a discipline. This discipline in turn became the founding stone for American Home Economics Association (AHEA) that was founded by Richards in 1909. Later AHEA got evolved into what is now known as the American Association of Family & Consumer Sciences. The agency deals with several issues related to households and economic functioning of families, these may include obesity, unemployment, weather change, and credit crisis (AAFCS, n.d.). Thus, AAFCS is composed of interdisciplinary experts.

Purpose/Function

AAFCS is situated in Washington, D.C., area and has the main purpose of "providing leadership and support to FCS students and professionals from both multiple practice settings and content areas. More than 6,000 AAFCS members assist individuals, families, and communities in making informed decisions about their well-being, relationships, and resources to achieve optimal quality of life" (AAFCS, n.d; P. 2).

The main functions performed by AAFCS are influencing public policy, conducting research over household economic issues, and delivering educational programs. Educational programs provide research intense knowledge regarding key household issues such as food, nutrition, apparel, and consumer issues. The tagline of AAFCS is "Connecting Professionals, touching lives."

Benefits

The benefits of AAFCS as an organization are manifold. It is helpful for professionals attached to the organization as well as consumers. Main advantage of AAFCS is the production and dissemination of research-based knowledge based on issues related to households and consumers. Unlike other organizations that only have professionals of their respective field only, AAFCS brings together professionals from different backgrounds and lets their knowledge be shared and applied across various segments of everyday life. Thus, the organization helps common man to make informed decisions regarding purchases he/she makes, nutrition, and dieting, professional development, clothing, and consumer rights.

Provision of resources

For members: For members of AAFCS, the organization offers research opportunities, webinars, publications, conferences, online & offline libraries, professional journals such Journal of Family & Consumer Sciences (JFCS); Family & Consumer Sciences Research Journal (FCSRJ), and some development programs for affiliates. Thus, resulting in multidisciplinary professional development of experts attached with AAFCS.

For public: For general public, AAFCS offers variety of free educational programs to let them make informed decisions about their lives. The organization also sells some articles such as sticky notepads, polo shirts, mobile holders, etc.

2- National Council of Family Relations (NCFR)

Purpose

A one liner purpose of NCFR can be stated as 'understanding and strengthening families through multidisciplinary research'. The sole purpose of this non-partisan and non-profit professional organization is to conduct research, policy advice, and investigating practice of family life.

Functions

Publishing scholarly journals on family life: The organization publishes three international scholarly journals aimed at providing support to family professionals.

Sponsoring annual conference of NCFR: This is the focal activity performed by NCFR as the annual conference includes leading research papers, practice investigations, and practitioner experiences, all regarding family.

Imparting family life education: This function is performed through 'Certified Family Life Educator (CFLE)' program and curriculum development regarding family life.

Public policy education: Leading researchers and professionals attached with NCFR advice the legislators regarding family policies (NCFR. n.d.).

Benefits

For members & affiliates: NCFR presents various benefits for its members and affiliates. The organization provides members and affiliates with a chance to present their research papers in the annual conference. It also provides the members with access to journal archives. NCFR provides career center resume- and job-posting service. Videos, teaching materials, syllabi, and resource rich websites are also some of the resources provided to members of NCFR. For public: NCFR provides free 'featured journal articles' to the general public accessible through the website of this organization. The organization provides the public with expert advice regarding family life and other issues related to families.

Resources

For members, NFCR provides access to plethora of research and practice knowledge. It also provides tutorials, courses, and information catalogs to its members.

3- Early Childhood Intervention (ECI)

Purpose

"ECI is a statewide program for families with children, birth to three, with disabilities and developmental delays. ECI supports families to help their children reach their potential through developmental services" (ECI, n.d.). ECI provides these services by partnering with various agencies and service providers at the local level.

Functions

The main functions performed by ECI are:

Promoting development and learning in children aged 0-36 months by providing support to families.

Coordinating the services of providers for children with developmental issues

Decreasing need for costly programs through active engagement with parents and service providers

Benefits

The organization is of great help to parents not affording expensive intervention programs for their children having developmental issues. It also provides them with several education resources such as developmental checklist to verify if the parents are overly worried about is otherwise normal development of their child.

For the benefit of communities where ECI operates, it is also observed that parents may no longer feel isolated and without help to bring-up their children with compromised development.

Resources

For members: ECI provides online training modules for all the ECI staff. It also provides Case Management Modules for service coordinators. Lastly, the organization provides web-based training sessions to its participant members. In addition, ECI provides medical diagnosis list to service providers attached to the organization along with recent publications by students.

For public: For general public, ECI provides developmental milestones sheet to the parents. It also provides ECI parent handbook as well as answers their commonly asked questions through online inquires.

4- Child Life Council (CLC)

The webpage of CLC describes the organization as "established as a nonprofit organization in 1982, the Child Life Council represents a group of trained professionals with expertise in helping children and their families overcome life's most challenging events" (CLC, 2013).

Purpose

The core purpose of CLC is to provide training and educational resources to 'Child Life Professionals' and facilitate the exchange of information, knowledge, and research within the domain. This helps inform the professionals regarding industry best practice and current trends.

Functions

CLC has developed a strategic action plan for the period 2012-2014 that outlines the main functions that the organization will perform in order to meet pre-defined set of four goals, each goal having sub-categorized objectives. Main functions to be performed by CLC are: