Community-based care serves as a "bridge" between orphanage and settlement house. Adolescents are placed in a family in their community. The guardians will provide individual care and nurture in the context of a family and community. This teaches adolescents more independence.
Community-based care programs may be described as having a strong ‘prevention’ component, in that they seek to strengthen community coping capacities in order to avoid the adolescent becoming dependent on adults.
Community-based care is an agency privatizing the Department of Children and Families function of providing care and services to children who have been abused, neglected or abandoned. The service this agency provides is supporting children and families in the child welfare system.