A Few of MSU's Resources for Families
Source: Statewide Resource Network, www.msustatewide.msu.edu
MSU's Department of Family and Child Ecology (FCE) operates the Child Development Laboratories (CDL) in East Lansing and Haslett. The centers are open to all families in the greater Lansing area. CDL programs aim to help children feel challenged, creative, confident, and capable. Each classroom has student teachers pursuing a major in child development or family community services, and a head teacher who is a faculty member in FCE. Parents are required to participate in the classroom three times per semester and to donate additional hours via work parties and fundraising events.
MSU's Family and Child Clinic is a major resource for the treatment of issues related to couple relationships, remarriage and step families, parent-child adjustment, children in school, and family life cycle transitions. The Clinic is staffed by clinical faculty, supervisors in training, predoctoral interns, and master's practicum students. It is located at Olin Health Center.
Rather than allow a child to be placed in foster care, a relative—a grandparent, an aunt or uncle, or even in some cases an older sibling—may seek guardianship rights. The Kinship Care Resource Center works with both policymakers and caregivers to determine the needs of relative caregivers and how they are being met.
Family Research Initiative
MSU's Family Research Initiative is a university-wide, cross-disciplinary effort to link and coordinate MSU faculty who work within family research. The initiative aims to improve family and community life through research, promote collaborative family research and education at MSU, and develop innovative theoretical and methodological approaches to family studies. FRI is organized along five areas of research focus: health, risk, work, education, and culture/arts.
Online Resources
MSU's School of Social Work, in partnership with Michigan Department of Human Services, maintains a Post Adoption Support Services Web site for families completing the adoption process. The site answers questions about adoption and offers a clickable database of resources in each Michigan county.
MSU's College of Nursing offers a Web site for caregivers who provide support for ill, disabled, or elderly family members. Resources on the site include comprehensive definitions of various physical ailments, abstracts of research studies to improve the quality of life, self assessment tools, and links to other sites of interest.
MSU's Office for Inclusion and Intercultural Initiatives created a directory of local businesses and organizations that serve the diverse members of the community. The database is searchable by topical keywords and diversity characteristics. It covers a broad range of categories, from children and families to transportation and travel.
