Celebrating Families! (CF!) is an evidence-based, trauma-informed, skill-building program focused on children’s future physical and behavioral health, including substance use disorders and mental health challenges. The program was developed originally for families in Treatment Courts dealing with or at high risk for multiple problems: substance use disorders; multi-generational trauma; physical and mental health challenges; cognitive deficits due to trauma, genetics, or in-utero exposure; and child abuse/neglect and family violence. All are significant Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). The program has now been used in a multitude of settings from churches, to schools, and with community-based agencies serving families at risk for child abuse/neglect and family violence. Celebrating Families! addresses these needs through building healthy living skills and educating families.
Celebrating Families! is distinctive:
- Utilizes an intergenerational, dual-family approach, demonstrably improves rates of family
- Uses strength-based, trauma-informed strategies to increase healthy living skills
- Adapts teaching to be appropriate for families dealing with or at risk for substance use, learning differences, and mental health challenges
- Focuses on breaking the cycles of addiction and abuse/violence in families by addressing substance use and mental health challenges in every session, helping parents/caregivers comprehend the critical importance for them of basic healthy behaviors, such as nutrition and sleep for the whole family
- Gives parents dealing with addiction needed skills to stay sober, to begin to heal, and to build healthy, non-violent relationships with their children
Celebrating Families! is effective because it recognizes that addiction is both developmental (beginning in adolescence or childhood, when the brain is undergoing change) and multi-generational (the parent with a substance use disorder (SUD) often being the child or grandchild of an addict.)
Children whose parents are dealing with SUDs are four times more likely to develop addiction.
50-80% of child welfare cases nationwide involve parental SUDs.
Children in the child welfare system whose parents are dealing with SUD are more likely to experience lengthier stays in out-of-home placement, recurrent involvement with child welfare services, and lower rates of family reunification. (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [USDHHS], 2009.
