Families Moving Beyond Abuse

The purpose of the Family Drug Courts Program is to build the capacity of states, state and local courts, units of local government, and federally recognized Indian tribal governments to develop and establish drug courts for substance-abusing adults involved with the family dependency court as a result of child abuse and neglect issues. The program must provide services to the children of the parents in the program as well as to the parents. The program provides seed money, not long-term support. OJJDP expects successful applicants to develop and implement a sustainability plan during the grant period to continue operation of the family drug court when the grant ends. The program is authorized under 42 U.S.C. 3797u, et seq.

The Administrative Office of the Courts will utilize grant funds for Families Moving Beyond Abuse, a new Family Drug Court in Kentucky. The program will target parents with substance abuse problems who interface with the Family Court system and face custody issues with their children. This project will use court supervision with intensive treatment and case management to address substance use problems and parenting issues. Families Moving Beyond Abuse has four main goals: (1) to develop an effective, sustainable system of care to help parents with substance abuse problems to become fully functioning parents, employees, and citizens; (2) to develop diversion systems and services to help participants avoid being sent to prison or losing permanent custody of their children; (3) to increase the abstinence and social responsibilities of parents as a way of enhancing employability, parenting potential, and service to others; and (4) to facilitate 'recovery' for parents and their children who have been impacted by alcohol or drug use by increasing resiliency factors and decreasing risk factors. Families Moving Beyond Abuse will collect data regarding the number of participants, the number of successful completions and progress in the areas of employability, parenting potential and overall stability. CA/NCF