Family literacy programs are developed on the premise that the important relationships between children and adults affect literacy achievement and activity. The programs bring parents and children together in a teaching and learning environment. The critical teacher in a child's life is the parent. Family programs support and strengthen family functioning; family strengths become the focus for curriculum design and implementation. The "Strengths Model" for learning builds upon the parents' existing knowledge; beliefs; and powers of body, mind, and spirit. The model is based on healthy traits of families, connecting those traits to the development of literacy. The model creates awareness of healthy family traits and develops competencies to enhance those traits. Programmers should develop a curriculum that focuses on students' strengths in order to help them become more successful family members. (This document includes the following: guidelines for a "strengths-minded teacher," grounding curriculum in the group culture, connecting family interest and practice to literacy development, reading and writing activities, and a list of 34 resources. Six appendices contain a genogram, gifts to give and receive, adult life-cycle stages, healthy family traits, using literacy as a basis for discussion of family strengths, and a parent/child interaction graph.) (NLA)