Children and Family Futures staff offers training and technical assistance to help systems work together to make a shift in focus from the individual to the entire family. Through various initiatives, we work with tribes, states, counties, courts, and community-based agencies to integrate and sustain evidence-based parenting and children’s interventions into their larger systems of care to provide a comprehensive, family-centered approach.

Many families involved with the child welfare and family court systems are are affected by parental substance use disorders. The needs of these families are complex as they deal with a host of significant challenges (i.e., poverty, trauma, mental illness, etc.). Research and practice experience have demonstrated that a multi-generational, comprehensive, family-centered treatment approach contributes to positive outcomes. Family-centered treatment should address the full range of clinical treatment and support needs of both parents and children – individually and as a family unit. Effective family-centered treatment requires cross-systems coordination, collaboration and service integration; a multidisciplinary team of qualified professionals; and, the leveraging of all available partner and community resources.