Martin Pollak Project’s philosophy is based on the premise that the biological family unit and extended kinship network functioning within and contributing to a productive, safe and supportive community, is the ideal result to which all MPP activities, programs and relationship with participating children, youngsters and families are directed.

While this ideal is not realistic for some children and their families, this vision of a competent family network functioning within an embracing community forms a value base which frames MPP programs and activities.

Within this context, MPP believes that the most responsive and effective intervention agent for children and families in crisis is another family system network trained and organized into a professional team of family and staff specialists. Training in Enriched Structural Family Therapy (ESFT) is the essence of the MPP approach.

The “Team”, composed of a trained therapeutic foster family and staff colleagues, is focused on the participating child and his/her family (if appropriate). While the immediate issues are related to protection, safety, stabilization and coping, the long term objectives deal with values, goals, interests and skills.

MPP has developed a comprehensive and dynamic scope of services and responses – a “continuum of care” for participating children and their families. This “continuum” means more than simply developing a larger array of programs. A family and child in harm’s way need a reliable and meaningful response that is timely and appropriate to their situation. Therefore, MPP’s ESFT model’s focus and response changes and adapts in scope and intensity as the need of the family or child changes.