Recognize what may be hidden
Learn how substance use and its impact on children, families, and communities, alongside mental health challenges can affect children, caregivers, and the family system.
A NACoA capacity-building institute
Faith Leaders Institute on Substance Use in Families
Faith. Hope. Healing. One child. One family. One community at a time.
When faith leaders are equipped, communities change. When communities change, families heal. And when families heal—children no longer have to suffer in silence.
A NACoA Institute equipping faith leaders, faith communities, and faith-based organizations to respond to substance use within families with clarity, compassion, and skill.
Why this work matters
Families may ask for help long before they reach formal services
“Children are frequently the quietest members of the system—adapting, coping, and carrying what should not be theirs to hold.”
Substance use within a family system extends beyond the individual. Children experience its emotional, relational, and developmental impact in ways that are often unseen and unspoken.
FLI exists to ensure that recognition does not depend on proximity to crisis, but on the readiness of faith leaders, faith communities, and faith-based organizations to see, understand, and respond.
1 in 4 children in the U.S. lives in a home impacted by substance use.
Respond with compassion and skill
Replace silence, blame, and stigma with informed language, appropriate support, and practical next steps.
Connect families with care
Understand the role of faith communities while building relationships with treatment, recovery, mental health, and family-support resources.
Grounded in national leadership
Built for the responsibility faith communities already carry
FLI builds on NACoA’s foundational partnership with SAMHSA, which produced one of the first nationally recognized faith-based substance use training resources in the country. Over 25 years NACoA has expanded and deepened that work into what is now a comprehensive national and international center.
This work sits at a critical intersection—where awareness becomes responsibility, and responsibility becomes informed action that can change the trajectory for children and families.
What faith communities can become
Faith communities can become places families trust
Places of healing and recovery
Communities where people and families can seek support without shame.
Welcoming safe spaces
Faith communities prepared to notice and support children and families.
Leaders in prevention
Partners in prevention and early intervention before concerns become crises.
Public-health partners
Communities helping address one of the most urgent public health crises of our time.
What FLI includes
Learning, tools, and support for implementation
FLI can support a single congregation, a network of faith communities, or a faith-based organization building a broader community response.
In-person and virtual learning
Training formats designed around the needs, capacity, and reach of participating faith partners.
Technical assistance
Practical help as leaders translate learning into policies, ministries, referrals, and community relationships.
Implementation support
Guidance for integrating informed responses into the ongoing life and work of a faith community.
Ongoing learning resources
Access to NACoA’s learning management system, tools, and resource development focused on substance use and families.
Peer connection and national community
Peer connection and a growing national community of faith leaders committed to supporting children and families affected by substance use.
What participants develop
Respond to substance use as a family and community issue
FLI strengthens the ability to recognize patterns of family substance use and respond with informed compassion, steadiness, and clarity.
It integrates evidence-informed education, trauma-responsive understanding, and practical ministry application grounded in real congregational life. The focus is shared responsibility: what faith communities can see, how they respond, and how they support families over time.
FLI equips faith leaders to:
- Understand the impact of substance use on the family system
- Recognize the ongoing effects on children
- Respond to substance use and mental health challenges
- Reduce stigma and encourage help-seeking
- Support whole-family healing
- Connect families with appropriate resources and care
- Strengthen prevention and early engagement
- Create safer, more welcoming faith communities
Faith communities do not need to wait for a visible crisis. Readiness helps leaders recognize concerns earlier and respond before a family becomes more isolated.
Who FLI supports
How each part of a faith community can help
Faith leaders
Clergy, chaplains, pastoral caregivers, and ministry leaders who listen, guide, teach, and make referrals.
Faith communities
Congregations and local communities seeking to become safer, more informed places for children and families.
Faith-based organizations
Organizations positioned to convene partners, expand training, and sustain a community-wide response.
NACoA resources available through FLI
Practical tools for children and whole families
Participants receive practical tools and access to NACoA resources, including curricula that can support direct community programming.
Children’s Program Kit
More than 100 developmentally appropriate K–12 lessons for educational support groups serving children affected by parental addiction.
Explore the Children’s Program KitCelebrating Families!
A 16-week, evidence-based, trauma-informed program that helps children and adults learn and practice recovery skills together.
Explore Celebrating Families!How to bring FLI to your community
Start with the needs you are already seeing
FLI is not a one-time training. It is an implementation process that helps faith partners move from understanding to integration—embedding knowledge into practice and ongoing response.
1
Start with a conversation
Tell NACoA about your faith community, organization, audience, and the needs you are seeing.
2
Choose the right support
Identify the training format, technical assistance, resources, and implementation guidance that fit your goals.
3
Put learning into practice
Equip leaders, strengthen referral relationships, and build a response your community can sustain.
Frequently asked questions
Faith Leaders Institute at a glance
What is the Faith Leaders Institute?
The Faith Leaders Institute on Substance Use in Families is NACoA’s central structure for faith-based training, technical assistance, learning, implementation support, and resource development related to substance use and its impact on children, families, and communities.
Who is FLI for?
FLI supports faith leaders, local faith communities, and faith-based organizations that want to respond to substance use within families with greater clarity, compassion, and skill.
Is FLI a single training?
No. FLI is an ongoing institute that can include in-person and virtual learning, technical assistance, implementation support, access to NACoA’s learning management system, and practical resources.
What topics does FLI address?
FLI addresses substance use as a family system issue, its impact on children, co-occurring mental health concerns, stigma, help-seeking, whole-family healing, prevention, early engagement, and connections to appropriate care.
Does FLI include NACoA program resources?
Participants receive practical tools and access to NACoA resources, including the Children’s Program Kit and Celebrating Families! curriculum.
How can my faith community or organization partner with NACoA?
Contact NACoA to set up a meeting and discuss your audience, goals, training opportunities, technical assistance, and community implementation needs.
Bring FLI to your faith community
Prepare your leaders to respond when families ask for help
Talk with NACoA about a Faith Leaders Institute partnership, training opportunity, or implementation plan for your community.
