The Family Treatment Court (FTC) Planning Guide published by he National Drug Court Institute and the Center for Children and Family Futures (2018) is designed to provide step-by-step instructions for a team planning to start and implement an FTC in their community. No matter what your role in the system is, and no matter where you are in the process of pursuing the institution of a FTC, this guide will be a valuable resource in accomplishing your goals. Key decision makers (e.g., family or juvenile court judges, court administrators, directors of child protective services) can use the information within this guide to recruit and motivate the multidisciplinary, collaborative planning team necessary to begin the planning process. Any professional involved with a court (e.g., child protective services worker, public defender, provider of substance-use treatment) can use this guide to gather the information needed to present the FTC concept to decision makers and educate them about the tasks involved in starting a program.
Planning team members will work through the FTC Planning Guide to complete the entire planning process, either in a series of meetings or in two or three multi-day retreats that will lead to the creation of a family treatment court in your jurisdiction.
This project was supported by Grant #2016-DC-BX-K003 awarded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication/program/exhibition are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of Justice.