Elizabeth M. Tracy, James K. Whittaker, Francis Boylan,
Paul Neitman, and Edward Overstreet

Delivery of services to families in their own homes provides a unique oppor-
tunity to identify, assess, and enhance ways in which formal and informal
supportive services can complement each other. The home-based worker is
in a better position to understand and appreciate social support needs and
resources of the family and the family's usual ways of coping with the envi-
ronment. In addition to gaining greater access to all family members, home-
based interventions allow for more effective facilitation of natural helping
relationships within the neighborhood or community. It is through these
forms of social network interventions that the social environment can be
enlisted as a resource and aid in service to the family.

This chapter describes methods and techniques for network assessment
and intervention at various points in the continuum of work with families. It
is our conviction that social network interventions must be individualized to
fit each family's unique needs, based on an assessment of the family's social
network resources and perceptions of social support ( Tracy & Whittaker,
1990). We also believe that family support is an appropriate service strategy
at all points in the continuum, even when placement has occurred or when
reunification efforts have failed ( Maluccio & Whittaker, 1988).

The potential for supporting families is greatly enhanced, though, when
programs define the family in its broadest context, as consisting of a family
surrounded by a social network of friends, relatives, neighbors, and other
helping resources. Social network interventions attempt to facilitate or mo-
bilize positive changes in the social environment, the primary goal being

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