Children and Family Futures

Children and Family Futures Children and Family Futures operates a wholly owned small business entity, the Center for Children and Family Futures.

Children and Family Futures strives to prevent child abuse and neglect while improving safety, permanency, well-being, and recovery outcomes for all children, parents and families affected by trauma, substance use and mental health disorders. WHO WE ARE:

Children and Family Futures is a nonprofit organization celebrating 25 years with a national impact providing consultation, training and technical assistance, strategic planning, and evaluation services focused on improving practice and policy at the intersections of child welfare, substance use and mental disorder treatment, and court systems. Our decades of experience are focused on practice, policy, and evaluation that supports Tribes, states, regions, and communities to improve outcomes for children, their parents, extended families, and communities. Children and Family Futures delivers award-winning services for its funders and customers on behalf of the children and families whose lives we seek to improve. Responding to over 11,000 training and technical assistance requests in over 450 sites and conducting program evaluations and performance management with more than 100 sites has enabled us to develop planning and implementation methods that ensure the effectiveness of our services.

When a program loses funding, it's not just a program that loses, it’s the communities and families who depend on it. Su...
10/12/2026

When a program loses funding, it's not just a program that loses, it’s the communities and families who depend on it. Support gets interrupted. Progress gets interrupted. And it can happen not because the program wasn't working, but because its impact wasn’t always easy to see.

That's how Children and Family Futures Research & Evaluation Team help’s programs prove their impact and keep resources flowing to the families and communities that need them.

CFF Research & Evaluation works alongside programs to measure outcomes, tell their story with data, and make the case to the funders and policymakers who decide what gets sustained. 👈

Learn more and download our free checklist: https://www.cffutures.org/research-and-evaluation/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=field-education&utm_content=ret-provingimpactoct2026

💡 How do you navigate sensitive conversations about parental substance use with youth?Child welfare and family-serving p...
10/09/2026

💡 How do you navigate sensitive conversations about parental substance use with youth?

Child welfare and family-serving professionals often meet young people at critical, highly vulnerable moments. Yet, many lack practical, developmentally appropriate tools to guide conversations about substance use, recovery, and mental health.

Join the National Center on Substance Abuse and Child Welfare (NCSACW) for a free 30-minute webinar to introduce our newest resource: “Connecting With Youth: A Toolkit for Child Welfare Professionals Supporting Families Affected by Substance Use.”
In just half an hour, you’ll:
✅ Explore practical conversation strategies you can implement immediately in your daily practice.
✅ Learn to engage youth more effectively to strengthen service planning and inter-agency coordination.
✅ Walk away with at least one actionable step to build stronger rapport and trust right away.

📅 Date: Thursday, October 15, 2026
⏰ Time: 11:00 – 11:30 a.m. PT / 2:00 – 2:30 p.m. ET
📍 Format: 30-Minute Live Webinar

Who Should Attend?
Child welfare caseworkers, substance use treatment providers, mental health professionals, court personnel, and youth partners who work alongside families affected by substance use. Equip yourself with ready-to-use resources to make every conversation count.

👉 Secure your spot today: https://cffutures-net.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_GVQtWVraTw6xwRKWxHP0Og #/registration

In 2024, almost 46,000 infants in the U.S. were referred to child protective services with prenatal substance exposure,1...
10/08/2026

In 2024, almost 46,000 infants in the U.S. were referred to child protective services with prenatal substance exposure,1 and over a third of children who entered out-of-home care had parental alcohol or drug use as a circumstance reported at removal.2 Parental substance use and prenatal substance exposure are often cited as factors for children entering foster care. The new issue brief from Children and Family Futures in partnership with Casey Family Programs, “How can Plans of Safe Care help infants and families affected by substance abuse?” highlights requirements and terminology, Plans of Safe Care for Tribes, key implementation steps, and provides jurisdictional examples.

📖 Read the full brief now: https://www.casey.org/infant-plans-of-safe-care/

Family treatment courts don't fail because of a lack of commitment. They stall when roles and agency boundaries blur. A ...
10/08/2026

Family treatment courts don't fail because of a lack of commitment. They stall when roles and agency boundaries blur.

A functioning FTC runs on structured, cross-system collaboration: Judicial Leadership, Court Coordinators, Child Welfare Supervisors, SUD Treatment Clinicians, and Legal Counsel operating off the same information, not five separate processes.

Our FTC Foundations Training builds that structure directly. Teams leave having clarified roles, built information-sharing protocols, and mapped a workflow that holds up in practice.

If this is a gap your teams are hitting, fill out this form and we'll follow up: https://airtable.com/appt7JA9HCGhKfjPw/pag7cXcGYbaEFMPQh/form?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=micro-ta&utm_content=ftc-roleclarityoct2026

Staff are skilled, families are being served, and people inside the organization can feel the difference. But when funde...
10/07/2026

Staff are skilled, families are being served, and people inside the organization can feel the difference. But when funders ask for clear evidence of outcomes, the data doesn't quite tell the story.

There's a version of this conversation happening in a lot of organizations right now. Good programs deserve to be seen. Many programs were built with more attention to service delivery than to demonstrating what that service produces. That's not a failure of effort. It's a structural gap. Closing it starts with building evaluation into the program itself, so the story your staff already knows can be backed by evidence funders can see.

Follow along to learn more and learn about who we are: https://www.cffutures.org/research-and-evaluation/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=field-education&utm_content=ret-evidencegapoct2026

Why does help so often arrive after families are already in crisis?Across child welfare and substance use systems, delay...
10/06/2026

Why does help so often arrive after families are already in crisis?

Across child welfare and substance use systems, delayed support is still the norm, and it often makes outcomes worse, not safer.

The National START (Sobriety Treatment and Recovery Teams) Model was designed to interrupt that pattern with early, coordinated, family-centered engagement.

But what does that actually look like in practice—and why does timing matter so much?

👉 Read the article to explore how START works, what families experience, and what systems are learning when support comes first. https://airtable.com/appt7JA9HCGhKfjPw/pag7cXcGYbaEFMPQh/form?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=field-education&utm_content=start-helparrivelateoct2026

90% of state treatment court conference agendas go to adult criminal dockets, legal procedures, and individual complianc...
10/05/2026

90% of state treatment court conference agendas go to adult criminal dockets, legal procedures, and individual compliance.

Family treatment courts get whatever time remains on the agenda.

FTCs operate under a fundamentally different model, civil, family-centered, and multidisciplinary, built around child safety and parental recovery, not individual compliance. When general conference programming doesn't reflect that, FTC teams walk away without the specialized, cross-system strategies they actually need.

A statewide FTC training approach closes that gap directly, built for how FTC teams operate. Want to see what a statewide FTC training approach could look like for your state? Fill out this form and we'll follow up: https://airtable.com/appt7JA9HCGhKfjPw/pag7cXcGYbaEFMPQh/form?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=field-education&utm_content=ftc-conferencegap5oct2026

Parental substance use disorders (SUD) remain a critical—and frequently overlooked—national challenge, particularly with...
09/30/2026

Parental substance use disorders (SUD) remain a critical—and frequently overlooked—national challenge, particularly within the child welfare system. Research highlights that children in these environments face increased risks of trauma, anxiety, educational disruption, and future substance use issues (Seay, 2015; AAP, 2016).

Yet, connection remains our strongest tool for intervention. All young people grow through their relationships. Equipped with the right resources, families and supportive adults provide the crucial foundation a young person needs to thrive.

Featured Resource: To support youth navigating these complex dynamics, check out "Stronger Than You Know: Tools for Navigating Life’s Challenges." Designed for adolescents and young adults affected by substance use, mental health concerns, and child welfare involvement, this guide breaks down:

-Brain Development: How the adaptable, developing teen brain responds to healing.
Resilience: Building stable futures through healthy relationships and concrete coping skills.
-Accessibility: Normalizing conversations around mental health to make seeking help seamless.
-Safety: Strengthening protective factors like trusted adults, safe environments, and positive experiences.

Together, we can bridge the gap between challenge and recovery for the next generation.

🔗 Explore the resource here:https://ncsacw.acf.gov/files/youth-resource-guide.pdf

Parental substance use disorders (SUD) remain a critical—and frequently overlooked—national challenge, particularly with...
09/28/2026

Parental substance use disorders (SUD) remain a critical—and frequently overlooked—national challenge, particularly within the child welfare system. Research highlights that children in these environments face increased risks of trauma, anxiety, educational disruption, and future substance use issues (Seay, 2015; AAP, 2016).
Yet, connection remains our strongest tool for intervention. All young people grow through their relationships. Equipped with the right resources, families and supportive adults provide the crucial foundation a young person needs to thrive.

Featured Resource: To support youth navigating these complex dynamics, check out "Stronger Than You Know: Tools for Navigating Life’s Challenges." Designed for adolescents and young adults affected by substance use, mental health concerns, and child welfare involvement, this guide breaks down:

•Brain Development: How the adaptable, developing teen brain responds to healing.
•Resilience: Building stable futures through healthy relationships and concrete coping skills.
•Accessibility: Normalizing conversations around mental health to make seeking help seamless.
•Safety: Strengthening protective factors like trusted adults, safe environments, and positive experiences.

Together, we can bridge the gap between challenge and recovery for the next generation.

🔗 Explore the resource here:https://ncsacw.acf.gov/files/youth-resource-guide.pdf

Address

3200 El Camino Real, Unit 170
Irvine, CA
92602

Telephone

+17145053525

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