Yellowstone County Family Drug Treatment Court- Family Services an Fatherhood Engagement Enhancement

The Family Drug Courts program builds the capacity of states, state and local courts, units of local government, and federally recognized tribal governments to either implement new drug courts or enhance pre-existing drug courts for individuals with substance abuse disorders or substance use and co-occurring mental health disorders, including histories of trauma, who are involved with the family dependency court as a result of child abuse, neglect, and other parenting issues. Category 2: Enhancement grants are available to jurisdictions with a fully operational (for at least 1 year) family drug court that propose to enhance the operation of the court.

The purpose of this proposal is to expand services available to participants that 1) address trauma issues in families and the subsequent re-building of healthy familial relationships 2) promote and encourage engagement of fathers and paternal role-models, and 3) increase parent/child bonding activities/visitation. The proposal also seeks to address some of the logistical barriers to services to maximize participation. Goals of the proposed activities are to initiate and sustain increased family participation in recovery, increase productive visitation for parents, and address traumatic and/or unhealthy relationships that put children in danger and can lead to relapse and decreased permanency for children. The specific goals are as follows: address prior trauma issues in families that allow them to acquire skills to identify and create healthier relationships, increase parent/child bonding activities and therapeutic visitation that creates increased parental confidence, satisfaction in visitation and results in reduced abuse/neglect incidents and increased permanency for children, increase opportunities for fathers (and paternal figures) to become actively engaged in their children's lives, improving child well-being and increasing permanency options for children, increase opportunities for extended family members/additional community supports to meaningfully engage with children and support family recovery. Progress will be measured through number of positive family connections made/maintained, increase in family participation, positive outcomes of parent/child visitation, and reduction in time in foster care for children (as a result of increased family involvement in safety planning).
CA/NCF