Within the field of child welfare a style of practice has evolved among social workers in small communities and rural areas that captures some of the essential elements of case management, prevention, and early intervention. The practice style represents an adaption to contextual factors in rural areas which include: (1) greater geographic distances to travel to clients; (2) social structures and power bases differing from urban areas; (3) scarcity of formal resources; (4) greater accessibility of local community resources; (5) a sense of powerlessness over policies made in urban centers; (6) high visibility of social workers; (7) extended role demands covering a wide range of problem-solving activity; and (8) separation from professional support systems and traditional agency supports. Practice in rural child welfare settings can promote family empowerment by utilizing parenting adults as primary decision makers, focus on social and ecological factors, link nonprofessional helping systems to families, perform multiple roles, achieve effectiveness indirectly, understand and link with available resources, utilize team work and orchestrate multiple-helping systems, and address educational needs of professional peers and the community. (JW)