About|Programs|Values

Central to the values of BCF is the belief that every child deserves to grow up in a healthy family, connected to community. All children need and deserve successful, diverse, consistent and nurturing relationships as a foundation for becoming strong, engaged adults.

BCF's practice focuses on families across generations. This long term view and our agency's stability help us to respond to the changing needs of children and families in Western Massachusetts with an eye toward the future, monitoring emerging social trends and the changing demographics of the communities we serve.

BCF cares for families and children through a lens of strength, working with each family's skills and abilities, respecting what they value and believe. We focus on each family's strengths while connecting them with resources to help them meet the challenges of everyday life.

Each plan created by and with families represents a "personal fit," and reflects an understanding of child and family development and the recognition that everyone is at a different stage of their journey, places where we find opportunities for growth and change. Each plan uses the right measure of support at the right time.

Relationships are the foundation of BCF's practice. We recognize that relationships between families and children, friends, colleagues and others create the foundation to engage in life-enriching and trusting connections. We view relationships as a way to "stand with" families so they are seen and heard, as well as ways to model and teach social skills that children and families can use to be successful. The relationships we create are appropriate and non-judgmental, with the ability to be balanced when discussing choices and consequences.

BCF fosters partnership and collaboration at all levels of work inside and outside of the agency, among BCF colleagues and programs, with other systems and service providers, and through entrepreneurship and advocacy on behalf of the children and families we serve.

BCF's practice is reflective and creative. It is part of a culture of shared learning, of questions and discussions, of continuous professional development and ongoing improvement in the ways we serve our communities.