Winnebago County Family Drug Court

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 17th Judicial Circuit in Winnebago County, Illinois proposes a 'Family Drug Court' (FDC) program to facilitate coordinated services based on specific needs of parents with substance abuse who are involved in dependency court, and to provide wraparound services for children and significant others. TASC will deliver case management and Youth Services Network and Rosecrance will provide treatment and family services. The FDC will serve 75 court-involved adults and 180 family members over a 3-year period.

The purpose of FDC is to reduce child abuse and neglect cases in Winnebago County. Three goals guide FDC: 1) Facilitate positive family outcomes (Objectives: Decrease rates of children removed from home; Achieve multidisciplinary collaboration; Achieve successful program completion by 60% of participants); 2) Resolve safety issues resulting in court involvement for children (Objectives: Decrease rates of substance abuse among participants; Measure new drug-related offenses; Measure indicated DCFS reports); 3) Strengthen family unification by providing access to evidence-informed substance abuse and mental health treatment, Recovery Coach case management, and appropriate resources (Objective: Achieve successful reunification between parents/caregivers, children, and/or other family members). Progress toward these and OJJDP performance measures, will be measured through provider data, and will be evaluated by the Specialty Courts Administrator. CA/NCF