What We Do
Children and Family Futures (CFF), through direct contracts, federally- and foundation-funded projects, provides virtual and in-person multidisciplinary training for professionals in child welfare services, substance use disorder (SUD) treatment agencies, and courts. Our training and technical assistance (TA) services are intended for all professionals including direct service providers, administrators, as well as state, Tribal, and federal leaders.
We are recognized as a national leader in training. Our expertise and materials are effective to support professional knowledge development to improve service delivery to children, parents, and families affected by trauma, child abuse and neglect, and substance use and mental health disorders. We have a variety of training methods using advanced technology and adult learning theory to provide state-of-the-art learning opportunities. Our goal is to provide diverse stakeholders with essential knowledge, skills, and resources for systems and practice improvements. CFF is committed to delivering training that is culturally competent and accessible to all populations.
To date CFF has presented in over 2,000 in-person and virtual training events reaching over 182,000 attendees. We have nearly 10,000 subscribers to our listserv and have disseminated over 6,300 materials since 2017.
About Our Services
We provide web-based and in-person training to increase professionals’ knowledge and capacity to serve children, parents, and families affected by trauma, child abuse and neglect, and substance use and mental health disorders. See our Focus Areas for a sampling of our training topics.
For over 20 years, we have earned a national reputation through our federally-, foundation-, and locally-funded projects for the quality of our conference presentations, online training, and webinars. We are seen as a national leader in providing training to child welfare, substance use disorder treatment, and court professionals.
Our training recipients include child welfare, substance use disorder treatment, and court professionals across the administrator, supervisor, and direct practice levels.
Online Learning
Our online learning opportunities use progressive and innovative techniques promoting self-directed learning for all professionals that include tutorials, toolkits, pre-recorded webinars with discussion guides, animated videos, and more. All online resources are delivered using a variety of learning methods featuring experienced CFF staff and consultants, engaging presentations and materials centered on relevant topics, and user-friendly platforms.
Our online learning approach is geared toward professionals seeking flexible, on-demand, and effective means to advance current skills, stay up to date on best practices, and learn from nationally recognized experts. CFF’s online learning offers:
- Enhanced web-based tutorials designed to increase knowledge acquisition, advance collaborative policy, and build practice skills
- Clearly defined learning objectives with practical real-life application
- Easy to use and self-paced tutorials for communities to use to build capacity and support workforce development
- Videos and webinars that can be viewed for individual or group learning and training
- Free continuing education units
- Hundreds of easily accessible materials and resources
Virtual and In-Person Trainings
Our trainings via conference presentations, site visits, and meeting facilitation serve to improve policy and practice on behalf of children and families. Presenters and facilitators are national experts providing decades of practice based, implementation, and collaborative strategies. With the assistance of our cutting-edge IT department, CFF provides our same dynamic in-person presentations and trainings virtually! CFF offers a continuum of training opportunities:
- Keynote, plenary, and workshop presentations on hot topics tailored for diverse audiences at federal, Tribal, state, and local conferences
- Exhibit hosting with relevant resources, contacts, and technical assistance support to virtual and in-person conference attendees
- National experts facilitating live 1-2 hour discussions on hot topics followed by Q&A and action plans for organized next steps
- Access to archived videos and webinars including slides and handouts
- Web-based state and local training events to enhance, expand, and sustain programs providing teams with resources to transform learning into strong policy and practice application
- Ask the Expert webinar series providing access to the nation’s top leaders with question-and-answer sessions
- Learning and Practice Academies that offer support for professionals by using a multi-media approach. Learning experience includes pre-event videos, Team Discussion tools, virtual Live Conversations, Take Action tools, animated vignettes, and more
- Multi-day Policy Academies that strengthen the knowledge and skill of SUD treatment agencies, child welfare services, the courts, maternal and child health providers, and others—providing planning, implementation, and evaluation of policies to support the complex needs of families through collaborative practices
- Peer-to-peer discussions centered on the most relevant topics facilitated by site experts
- Idea Exchange and Networking Webinars providing a virtual space for our technical assistance sites to collaborate and share advanced practices
- Custom grantee meetings—in-person or virtually—for sites including identifying content areas, speakers, conducting marketing and outreach, coordinating logistics, and evaluating meeting success
- Ongoing access to the nation’s top technical assistance providers
- Virtual and in-person multi-day site visits and cross-system meetings
- Long-term training in capacity building by helping organizations improve current methods while furthering their ability to implement new processes and programs
- High-Touch methods of relationship building and individual coaching with grantees to support strong implementation of program strategies and interventions, strengthen partnerships, sustain successful collaborative projects and innovations, and achieve measurable outcomes.
