Seventeen chapters describe innovative approaches including programs that: employ the community families of inner-city youth; involve families in their own evaluation and planning; advocate changing school counselors to school-based family therapists; and have foster parents collaborate with biological parents. Each program includes a complete description, a discussion of the value of the approach, and at least one example to illustrate how it works. There is a particular focus on work with severely fractured families, and most of the programs attempt to keep children connected with their own families, even when circumstances prevent them from living together. The essays in this volume are presented in six categories: (1) Changing the Ways We Think About Engaging Families; (2) Family Preservation; (3) Families of Children Placed in Institutions; (4) Foster Care Options; (5) Reunification; and (6) Connecting Programs. Figures, references, tables, index