Good practice with multiply vulnerable young families: Challenges and principles

What has served in the literature as the paradigm of highest risk family life-chronic financial and material hardship, vulnerable and overwhelmed parents, overburdened social support networks, and an unsupportive community context-is rapidly becoming the norm for young families in urban poverty. When present together, these risk factors create a variety of special challenges to those who would provide formal help and support around parenting and other dimensions of family life. In this article I examine the challenges of work with multiply vulnerable young families; discuss helping principles responsive to them; and suggest how these principles can be supported in frontline practice.