Checklist to Change
Overview
January 22, 2019
Families involved in the child welfare system and affected by parental substance use disorders face a difficult and arduous journey towards achieving their recovery and reunification goals within the time limits set forth by ASFA. Family Treatment Courts (FTCs) provide a pathway for achieving positive outcomes through interagency collaboration, coordinated and comprehensive service delivery, and enhanced accountability. The phasing system of the FTC model, in particular, provides participants and the team visible steps for measuring progress and success. Many FTCs have moved beyond the traditional pre-set phasing structure focused on compliance and completing a checklist of requirements to one that accounts for parents’ strengths, readiness, and desired behavioral change. While many FTCs have restructured their phasing system with some referring to it as Milestones, other FTC programs have integrated behavioral benchmarks into their current phasing structure.
This Café Conversation explores the innovative, yet meaningful approach FTCs have adopted to better assess and prepare families for successful recovery and reunification. Viewers are encouraged to have conversations with their team and partner agencies to define what “success” means for participant families, identify what families need to be successful, and how they will maintain strong relationships to ensure a flow of communication.
Panelists/Presenters:
- Tessa Richter, Senior Program Associate, Children and Family Futures
- Kelli Sutton, Court Coordinator, Jefferson County Family Integrated Treatment Court (CO)
- Julie Spielman, Administrator, Dunklin County Family Treatment Court (MO)
Learning Objectives:
1. Explore the need to rethink your current FTC phasing structure and definition of “success” for partner agencies and participant families
2. Highlight specific innovative strategies to align the FTC case with the child welfare case and dependency court docket
3. Learn from FTCs that have adopted a “Milestone Approach” and behavioral benchmarks to better assess families’ progress towards recovery and reunification
In this Podcast Interview we interview the Honorable Dana J. Kenworthy, who presides on the Family Treatment Court in Grant County, Indiana. This podcast hosted by CFF Senior Program Associate Tessa Richter explores Hon. Kenworthy and her team moved towards a move behavioral approach and thoughtful approaches regarding responding to participant behavior and decision-making involving reunification.
Live Cafe Conversations
Learning Opportunities
Grantee TTA Projects
OJJDP and CFF currently offer in-depth technical assistance to six Statewide System Improvement Program (SSIP) Awardees: Alabama, Colorado, Iowa, Ohio, New York, and Guam. Find out more about how these states are implementing systems reform to expand FDCs’ scale and scope—increasing FDCs reach into child welfare and substance use disorder treatment systems and ensuring the delivery of a full range of comprehensive services for families.
In 2016 the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention funded 12 FDCs. This funding opportunity aligns with the national FDC movement working to increase FDC’s capacity and scope of services to children and families. Of the 12 new OJJDP grantees, six sites were awarded implementation funding to create new FDC programs within their jurisdictions and six were awarded enhancement funding to expand the capacity and augment services among their existing FDC programs. Three tribal sites were awarded implementation funding to help bring Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts to tribal jurisdictions.
